Hot Software Tips How-Tos
How To: Install OpenSceneGraph from the binary package on OS X
This video tutorial demonstrates how to install OpenSceneGraph, the high-performance graphics toolkit, in Mac OS X from the binary package. While this how-to is particularly geared towards non-expert users of Mac OS X, it is certain to benefit anyone interested in stalling the OpenSceneGraph toolkit.
How To: Use the rotate tool in Google SketchUp
Take a look at this instructional video and learn how to use the rotate tool in Google SketchUp. When you pick the rotate tool, the icon orients itself to any surface you hover over. Click once to set the rotation and move away to set a rotation base. This is the controlling arm you will use to rotate your object. This tutorial covers how the rotate tool works, examples of the rotate tool in action, and how to lock or define the orientation of the tool.
How To: Draw rectangles in Google SketchUp
Take a look at this instructional video and learn how to use the rectangle tool in Google SketchUp. Drawing rectangles takes two clicks of the mouse. Click once to start, pull away, and click again to finish. Remember not to draw rectangles that cross over edges, but you can draw rectangles over the top of other edges. This tutorial covers how to draw rectangles on any surface, how to draw a perfect square or golden rectangle. and tips on being accurate.
How To: Use the push pull tool in Google SketchUp
Take a look at this tutorial and learn how to use the push pull tool in Google SketchUp. This tool is the core of SketchUp. It allows you to pull any flat shape into 3D. This instructional video covers how to pull any flat shape into 3D, tips for accuracy and efficiency, how to cut away geometry and infer to other geometry.
How To: Use the line tool in Google SketchUp
Take a look at this instructional video and learn how to use the line tool in Google SketchUp. There are two ways to draw edges with the line tool. The first method is to simply click your mouse at various points around the screen to draw connected edges in succession. The second way is by clicking and dragging the mouse button to draw an edge, and release the mouse button to create the edge. This tutorial covers the best practices for drawing lines or edges, how to draw accurately, and divid...
How To: Use the eraser tool in Google SketchUp
Take a look at this instructional video and learn how to use the eraser tool in Google SketchUp. Keep in mind that the eraser tool only works for edges in SketchUp, and you won't be able to erase surfaces with the eraser tool. This tutorial covers how to erase single or multiple edges easily and how to soften or hide edges with the eraser.
How To: Use the freehand tool in Google SketchUp
Take a look at this instructional video and learn how to use the freehand tool in Google SketchUp. This tutorial covers how to use freehand to draw free form edges. To do this, simply click and hold the mouse button to draw with the freehand tool. Like other drawing tools, be careful not to cross over edges while drawing, and draw to and from existing edges to properly break surfaces.
How To: Use the "follow me" tool in Google SketchUp
Take a look at this instructional video and learn how to use the "follow me" tool in Google SketchUp. Merging different shapes with different paths renders powerful combinations. This tutorial covers an introduction to follow-me capabilities, tips on how the shape and path work together, how to create instant follow-me results, and creating lathed objects.
How To: Use the dimension tool in Google SketchUp
Take a look at this instructional video and learn how to use the dimension tool in Google SketchUp. This tutorial covers how to add dimensions directly to your model and how to adjust dimension settings. To dimension a distance between two points, simply select the dimension tool and click between the two points your want to measure. Pull away and click to finish.
How To: Use the circle and polygon tool in Google SketchUp
Take a look at this instructional video and learn how to use the circle and polygon tools in Google SketchUp. This tutorial covers drawing a circle or polygon, changing the number of sides of a circle or polygon, and viewing additional information through the entity info dialog box.
How To: Use the arc tool in Google SketchUp
Take a look at this instructional video and learn how to use the arc tool in Google SketchUp. Using the arc tool is a three step process based on defining the two endpoints of the arc first and then pulling out the radius of the arc. This tutorial covers how to draw arcs, drawing tangent arcs, continuous smooth arcs, and defining the number of arc segments.
How To: Model a tractor in Google SketchUp 6
Google SketchUp is a powerful 3 dimensional modeling tool that boasts comprehensiveness and versatility for the average, everyday user. Unlike some of its contemporaries, this program is very user friendly. Check out this tutorial and learn how to go about modeling a Tractor from start to finish in Google SketchUp 6. It is sped up so it takes only 8 minutes to watch, though the original model took about 65 minutes to complete! Feel free to pause at any juncture during the tutorial in case you...
How To: Change and choose your styles on Google SketchUp 6
Take a look at this instructional video and learn how to choose, change, or update different styles to your sketch up models in Google SketchUp 6. This tutorial covers the new Styles dialog box that is a part of Google SketchUp 6. This replaced the previous dialog box called "Display Styles", and is much more powerful and combines many options for your convenience.
How To: Edit & convert video from the command line with ffmpeg
Non-linear video editing tools are great, but they're not always the best tool for the job. This is where a powerful tool like ffmpeg becomes useful. This tutorial covers the basics of transcoding video, as well as more advanced tricks like creating animations, screen captures, and slow motion effects.
How To: Make a cool pitch bend effect in Ableton Live
This tutorial shows you how to create a pitch bend effect in Ableton Live. There is a problem in doing the pitch bend effect as shown in the video: All gets out of midi sync. This is EASY to fix. Follow these steps:
How To: Use chroma key in Wax 2.0
This software tutorial shows you how to use chroma key, the method of using green or blue screen footage, in Wax 2.0. Use the free video editing software Wax 2.0 to chroma key and create cool effects for your video footage.
How To: Clone in Wax 2.0
This software tutorial shows you how to use the video editing software Wax 2.0 to clone someone in a video. Learn to make multiple versions of yourself interact in one video in this Wax 2.0 cloning tutorial.
How To: Rip mp3's from music videos with MediaCoder
This software tutorial will show you how you can rip MP3's from music videos or any other type of video. If you have heard songs in videos that you just have to have, this tutorial will shows you how to extract the song from the video as an mp3.
How To: Embed subtitles into videos with VirtualDub
This video will show you how to embed subtitles into video files using the free softwares VirtualDub and dvXLand. Embedding subtitles with VirtualDub and dvxland allows you to add subtitles to your videos without having to keep two separate files.
How To: Edit Photoshop files for free with Paint.net
This video will show you how to create and edit Photoshop files without having to buy Photoshop. This also works if you have a .psd file from someone else that you need to work on and you don't have Photoshop. Learn to use Paint.net for Windows to edit Photoshop files.
How To: Restore music from an iPod with iDump
This video tutorial will show you how to restore and rebuild your music library from what's on you iPod using free software, iDump. Find all your lost iPod music with this tutorial and iDump.
How To: Track a stolen laptop with Adeona
This software tutorial will show you how to track a laptop if it gets stolen using free tracking software Adeona. Of course, it's a good idea to figure out how to keep your laptop from getting stolen, but if you lose it, you can use Adeona to find the location of your laptop.
How To: Create a radio station with Winamp and SHOUTcast
This tutorial shows you how to create your own radio station with streaming music using Winamp, SHOUTcast plugin, and SHOUTcast server. Learn how to choose your music in Winamp and upload it to your own radio station on the SHOUTcast server.
How To: Edit video in QuickTime Pro
While not an ideal video editor, QuickTime Pro can, in a pinch, be a flexible, powerful (and not to mention cheap) expedient. In this how-to, Gary Rosenzweig takes a look at the simple but powerful tool QuickTime Pro and how it can be used to edit and compile video.
How To: Create a wireframe render in Houdini
This Houdini 9 tutorial takes a quick look at one method that can be used to create a wireframe render of any type of surface which may then be composited over the lighting passes. Learn how to render and composite a lighting and wire pass in Houdini 9.
How To: Create particle spray on waves in Houdini
This 2 part Houdini 9 tutorial focuses on creating wind spray generated on the crest of a wave. Water is one of the most basic effects 3D softwares are used for, especially oceans and waves. So watch and learn how to add particle spray to the crests of waves and make your 3D water look more realistic in Houdini 9.
How To: Use Houdini voxel fluids
Created by Houdini Product Specialist Stephen Tucker, this crash course series focuses on the concept of fluid dynamics and how they work within Houdini. These videos on Voxel Fluids should help any artist get up in running with the foundation tools available for creating fluid effects in Houdini 9.5. Topics range from how to create a container to how to gain access to fluid attributes for shading, and even passing data from volumes to particles.
How To: Use SPH fluids in Houdini 9.5
Created by Houdini Product Specialist Stephen Tucker, this crash course series focuses on the concept of Smooth Particle Hydronamics and how they work within Houdini. The following videos on Particle Fluids continue working with fluid dynamics in Houdini 9.5 and assume that the viewer is relatively familiar with how dynamic simulations work, or have been following along through the series. The basics are still covered including creating water from an object but also include more conceptual si...
How To: Ray normals in Houdini 9.5
Learn how to manipulate normals without using expressions in this 2 part Houdini 9.5 software tutorial. Watch how to ray normals in Houdini 9.5.
How To: Model from the shelf in Houdini
This Houdini 9 tutorial teaches you how to work with the shelf tools. There are shelves for all the areas of Houdini from modeling to dynamics, to animating and particles. This particular tutorial shows you how to use the viewport and shelf tools to model within Houdini 9 and work with surface operations (SOPS).
How To: Sweep in Houdini 9
In this Houdini 9 modeling tutorial you will learn how to create objects using the sweep sop (surface operator). You can create or animate objects by sweeping them along curves or other objects. Watch and learn how to use the sweep sop in Houdini 9.
How To: Use rails when modeling in Houdini 9
In this Houdini 9 software tutorial you will learn how to use the rail sop which is a surface operator used mostly for modeling but occasionally for animation as well. Watch and see how to use the rail sop in Houdini 9.
How To: Carve in Houdini 9
In this Houdini 9 modeling tutorial you will learn how to use the surface operator the carve sop. Carving objects is a fast way to model and manipulate them using curves and lines or other shapes. Watch and learn how to use the carve sop in Houdini 9.
How To: Use the Creep SOP in Houdini 9
In this Houdini 9 software tutorial you will learn how to use the creep sop. The creep sop is a surface operator used for creating surfaces and modeling as well as animating. As the name suggests, you learn to use the creep sop to creep objects or surfaces along another object or curve. Watch and learn how to use the creep sop in Houdini 9.
How To: Use the align sop in Houdini 9
The align sop in Houdini is a useful surface operation and modeling tool. In this Houdini 9 tutorial you will learn how to use the align sop when modeling in SOPS.
How To: Orient objects to a curve (sweep) in Houdini 9
This Houdini 9 tutorial teaches how to sweep an object along a curve while orienting the object to the curve's direction. Learn how to apply a sweep sop to orient objects on curves in Houdini.
How To: Implement spectral colors in Mantra in Houdini 9
Watch shader writer, Mario Marengo, explain spectral wavelength and how to utilize it within Houdini. This presentation was recorded at a Toronto Technical Evening hosted by Side Effects Software.
How To: Create a gas solver in Houdini 9
This 5 part series covers how to create a simple gas solver in dynamics from scratch in Houdini 9. You will start by creating a visualization tool to understand how volumetric gas and smoke works, then each lesson will build on that until you are creating gas solvers (a type of fluid) in Houdini 9.
How To: Create a procedural pre-vis avalanche in Houdini
In this video series, learn how to create a simple dynamic simulation by creating a procedural pre-vis avalanche in Houdini 9. Rigid body dynamics (RBD's) are a powerful and important part of creating visual effects in 3D. This tutorial shows you how to use them in Houdini 9 to create a procedural pre-vis avalanche.
How To: Transfer color with dynamics in Houdini
This 7 part Houdini 9 tutorial series is about how to transfer color using dynamics is a great place to start to understand Houdini's dynamics in a significant way. Part one covers painting setup, two establishing a paint source, three creating paint, four defining paint colors with a solver, five painting with dynamics, six reviews how it works, seven setting up for render output. Learn to paint and transfer color with dynamics in Houdini 9 and get more control over your work in this tutorial.