Australian Creative Resources Online Toolkit

Many of the following tools and their descriptions were first put on the web by Michael Harvey who has kindly agreed to let ACRO use his swag. Attribution by Michael Harvey: "Thanks to everyone who attended the Digital Swag for the Classroom session at USITT. I hope you found it helpful and informative. Below are the links to the software we previewed. If you have any suggestions or questions, feel free to e-mail me."

We are constantly updating tools as we find them for you. Also, if you have any tools you would like to let people use, please let us know.

Warning! ACRO makes no claims or guarantees about the software tools linked to this page. We do not and cannot support any of the tools listed below. However, we do try to make our media files compatible with the greatest number of editing programs and do our best to ensure the software linked to our pages is of high quality. We urge you to check each site for details about known bugs, system requirements, legal agreements, and so forth. After that, you are on your own. 

ACRO staff can provide you and your organisation with training on many popular packages. Contact us for a quote.

Video and multimedia production tools

AvidFreeDV: (latest release is version 1.8). Avid's slimmed down version of its oscar winning software AvidDV on their website plus a very robust tutorial. 

Hyperengine-AV: Non linear editing for Mac OS9 and OSX.

Windows Movie Maker: Microsoft's movie editor. Simple to use and good for explaining fundamentals of editing. 

ABC Video Edit: (latest version 2.5 Build 70). Advanced Technology Partners is offering a Freeware Video Editing application that has a very robust tutorial which is very helpful for the novice editor. The zipfile is 2.4KB. No one seems to be managing this software anymore (ie: no support or place to register) but it still is available at lots of sites including this one: http://www.winsite.com/bin/Info?500000027579

Zweistein ZS4: Video and audio editing and compositing software. Friendly for those with some knowledge of Linux. WSIWYG to some extent but non-intuitive for people used to more linear editing layouts.   

Storyboard Pro Software: Atomic Learning freeware for Windows and Mac (OSX 9 and 10). 

Directors Board: Storyboard software for MAC OSX and Windows. Very nice freeware with options to purchase extra functionality.

Blaze Media Pro: A multimedia application that does just about everything but wash your car! The demo version is available for free for a 15 day trial and the full version is only $50.00. That's cheap if it can do all it says it can.

Ian Pengler's Storyboard Tools: a simple but effective storyboarding application which is offered as Freeware. It installs with a visualizer and a viewer. Very user-friendly for such a simple piece of software. The lastest version is 1.2 and is offered in a zip file 1.1KB. Download it at: www.freefilmsoftware.co.uk. There are neat Freeware scriptmaking tools at http://www.ianpegler.com/ScriptMaker1.14.ZIP and http://www.ianpegler.com/SLang2.2.ZIP. Tthe storyboard zip file can be downloaded here http://www.ianpegler.com/StoryboardTools1.7.ZIP

Audio editing tools

Audacity (multi-track editor) http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

ACID XPress 5.0: Freeware version of Sony's ACID program. 

Q-Manager: A very useful freeware sound cueing and management application that is offers many options (including MIDI). It’s very intuitive and extremely useful. You can download the upgrade versions for a modest sum but the freeware version is very handy for most sound cueing applications. Latest version is 2.15 and is 6.2KB to download. Download it at http://www.hammerandtong.com/

TMPEnc: is a great utility application for converting AVI files to MPG-1. It Freeware with an easy to use drag and drop feature. Latest version is 2.41 and is KB to download. Download it at: http://www.tmpegenc.com/

dbPowerAMP: is a very robust CD ripper and conversion utility offered as Freeware. It’s small in size but very useful. Latest version is Release 9a, and is 1.5KB. Download it at: http://www.mp3-converter.com/dbpoweramp.htm

Still image and photo editing

Gimp http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/

PhotoPlus 5.5 http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/serif/ph/ph5/index.asp

Pixa http://park18.wakwak.com/~pixia/index.html

IrfanView: is a freeware image viewer and management software that can standalone (not necessary to be installed on your computer). The latest release is 3.91. A great resource that is easy to use and very intuitive. Download it at:http://www.irfanview.com/main_download_engl.htm

Scott's Box Shot Maker: a freeware packaging making thing. 

General software tools

Open Office (suite of office programs including word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation) http://www.openoffice.org/

Sourceforge (a resource for open source software) http://www.sourceforge.net

Palm Desktop (organizational software) http://www.palmone.com/us/support/

PDF995 (An adware supported PFD printer driver) http://www.pdf995.com

3D software

Design Workshop LT: is a robust 3D application that comes with a nifty tutorial but it is very useful. The latest version is 1.8. Download it at http://www.artifice.com/free/dw_lite.html

POV-Ray - 3d graphics rendering engine http://www.povray.org/

Moray - a wire frame modeler for POV-Ray http://www.stmuc.com/moray/

Maya Personal Learning Edition: Free for non-commercial use version of 3D modelling and computer animation software used by Disney. 

Art of Illusion (3d modeling and rendering program) http://sourceforge.net/projects/aoi/

Lightgrid: is a simple demoware version of a program that offers the student the ability to pre-visualize lighting colors on a simple object. It’s not freeware and you are more limited than Virtual Light Lab but it’s an alternative. Download it at: http://www.stageresearch.com/

SketchUp (a 3-D modeling program for windows and Mac OS X) Free to instructors and they can distribute copies legally to their students. http://www.sketchup.com/

CADlite: is a great little CADD program offered as Freeware. It is simple to use and will output a dxf file. Latest version is 3.5.9 and is 1.5KB to download. Download it at: http://www.cadstd.com/ 

Web Tools

Mozilla, Firefox and Thunderbird (e-mail program) http://www.mozilla.org

Internet Explorer http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.mspx 

Netscape: http://www.netscape.com

Opera: http://www.opera.com/

Microsoft Anti-Spyware (A good spyware detection and removal tool from microsoft) http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx