Free Tools: Converting Images to ICO format

Recently I have been designing a website for a client and needed to create a a favicon image. A favicon is the graphic you see in the address bar before the URL or in the browser tab before the name of the page. The size of favicons are 16x16 or 32x32. The most supported file format for this image is ico which is not something you can just Save As in Photoshop. In the past, I have used a separate application that I had to install on my computer. I have a new computer now, so this would mean I would have to spend time to research what application would work best for my machine and this just seemed like a pain plus I was in a hurry since there was lots of testing to do for the said website.

Luckily, the good people at Punk Labs created a web application that will take many existing graphics and convert them to ico format. This is a very useful tool for web designers to have in their arsenal.

Check it out: http://converticon.com/

More about favion: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Favicon

Software Review: Google Sketchup

Google has come out with a pretty impressive free 3D CAD program called Sketchup. I gave it a try and really like what I see. Most of the tools are intuitive and with a little practice, this could be a very useful tool for 3D models and animation in presentations, digital art and more. It is able to import existing CAD designs as well as having an extensive model library, called 3D Warehouse, to place objects and buildings into to your design.The Layers feature does work differently than most programs. Be sure to watch the useful tutorial on that HERE. Most of the other tools have modifier keys like CONTROL and SHIFT so play around to get the feel for it or watch other useful tutorial videos HERE.There is also a growing community for Google Sketchup with an online forum, contests and a gallery. Check it out!

Software Review: Kdenlive

The open source community has released a  free video editing program called Kdenlive. This great program can do all the basic multi-track video editing you would expect plus comes with some preset effects and title animations. It is available for download on the Mac, a wide variety of open source operating systems (i.e. Ubuntu) and can be run on a live DVD or live USB stick for Windows users (boots into Linux). I recommend taking a look at NixelPixie's tutorial which gives a great walk through of the software and can be seen HERE.