Photoshop, Microsoft Word, Maya, ProTools. These are some of the top popular and industry standard computer tools used by professionals and creatives. Most of them are so expensive that the novice can't really justify buying the entire software package.
But! Good news, there are an impressive array of resources that are available for free to everyone. Some can be used in your computer browser, some need to be installed, and some may need an account. However, below we will present each resource, what other computer program it is most like, and a brief summary of its use.
Open Office: Apache's Open Office is an alternative for Microsoft's Office Suite: Word, Excel, Powerpoint, all the favorites. This will require a download and install to your computer. For an online version, try
Google Docs. You will need a Gmail account to use this, but you can access your documents from any computer!
Blender: Ever see a Pixar movie and want to try your hand at 3D Modeling? Maya and 3DS Max are great standards, but Blender is a great program to try out. If you are more interested in more architectural 3D modeling,
Sketchup is also a great tool.
Pixlr: Think of this as Adobe Photoshop light. It has all of the great abilities to edit photos: crop, adjust color levels, resize, etc. and can be used right in your internet browser!
Inkscape: A great vector graphics program, similar to Adobe Illustrator. If you want to create detailed images, Inkscape is a great, free tool that only requires a download/install.
Audacity: For quick and precise audio editing. Most computers don't come equipped with any type of audio editing tools. So instead of picking up an expensive license for ProTools to edit a voice over or podcast, download Audacity and see how you like it.
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