announcing openArtist linux distribution.

cellstorm

ok, here is an update. I am quite lazy in writing, sorry for that. I promise for better documentation of the progress of my project.

I am working now for getting everything ready for a new release.
this release will be based on karmic, as the homepage states.
I will be in Amsterdam to blender conference on 22th, and want to give some dvds away there.
SO, I try at least to get at least all the functionality back from the state I decided to drop hardy. Seems easier as I thought, I am quite good in time.
Another story are the apps which wait to be included. I have collected many of them since July, and will begin to add them continuously, as my menu system allows that for now.

My focus will now be firstly at the 3D Category, and I will package everything which isn't packaged right now.
So, be prepared for a new Incarantion...

hello,

I wanna get your attention to my, project, openArtist.
Its basically an OS for artists.

it is a try to put all things that are relevant in terms of multimedia into one package

- based on ubuntu hardy, but heavily patched to jaunty
- custom made menus, with all the tools sorted logically.
- can be used as livecd or installed.
- ready configured and documented (mindmap with link to relevant weblinks, local documentation symlinked into one directory, much more info on tooltips, special help built into menue structure or program launchers, where needed)

and it has a big 3D category:

3D:

massive blender focus.

- 5 versions of blender (2.49, 2.5 with automatic download script of graphicall daily build, 2.41, 2.45, publisher 2.2.5 for compatibility reasons and fun :-)

- integration into nautilus: own blender mimetype, open with 2.41, 2.45, control movies with blender:anim on rightclick), hidden blender folder in home directory for fast access to scripts folders of all versions and to sequence and texture plugins (which are compiled, too)

- collaborative blender scripts folder (symlinked into dropbox, drop a script there and all others will get it, too). many scripts installed (focus mainly on renderers integration until now, all render-related scripts appear in render menu now). Special scripts installed include the gimp import plugin.

- renderers preinstalled for use with blender: yafray, yafaray, kerkythea, indigo (these two via download script, as they cannot be redistributed), aqsis, pixie, nvidia gelato, luxrender (beta and stable), sunflow, pantograph.
also, freestyle standalone and helios distributed renderer are available. which brings me to the next point:

- distributed rendering category: helios (distributed rendering with sunflow), drqueue (packed in custom scripts and with help to be user friendly), yadra, networkrender, farmerjoe.
Also all online-tools which allow renderfarming with blender are there, with test accounts: Pgrade Grid portal, HGblender ranch, burp, open rendering environment, BOINC, then the commercial ones: greenButton, respower, pouwa client, deadline renderfarm.

- blender video sequence editor and composite editor launcher in VID cateory, with test project and little intro texts.

other interesting things:
- 3D programs: ayam, moonlight, wings3d, k-3d, topmod modeller, equinox, gsculpt, kpovmodeller. Makehuman is there, once with the old version, and MHPhoenix, and a script to automatically download and compile the latest version.

there is also Sharpconstruct (standalone scuplter) and structuresynth (where you can code 3D objects)

- texture tools: Mapzone (via wine and a script for download), semicuro, cellule (for procedural textures)

- shaderman tools: sler, shaderman (via wine) and cutter

- plant generators: arbaro, Ivy, ngplant, and apparently, tree form curves.

- g3dviewer: previews all major 3d formats (and is linked to do so by mimetypes)

- bvhplay: player for bvh motioncapture files.

- the blendernewbies toolbar is integrated into firefox, and a search engine addon for Blender materials is set.

- The Blender mindmap, an extensive resource about blender is included. . It features e.g unified tutorials/Wikibooks by categories (VSE, Nodes, modelling...), a resources page which links to textures, modelling, mocap data, blueprints, sounds, cc video and music,
(you can also reach it via beam.to/blendermindmap)

- local documentation (which came with the programs) symlinked into /home/tux/Documentation/

- Documentation about the renderman interface on board (from Blender to Renderman Artist Tools v 0.5; thx for that btw.)

- voodoo camera tracker is on board, too

useful things beyond 3D:

2D: gimp is heavily pimped with all major plugins and scripts

actually, there are 3 versions of gimp. one is special-pimped for use with graphics tablets: Gimp paint studio.

- more graphics tablets apps: mypaint, gogh, drawpile, alchemy, qaquarelle, and pencil.

- djv imaging for image sequce playing and processing

- cinepaint is there. with full color management builtin.

- colour mangement: all relevant tools for linux are there (lcms argyl, lprof, oryanos, dispcal), but you will also find tools like a print plugin in gimp, which accepts coulor profiles of printers, or the CMYK plugin for gimp.

- special kernels: there is a highram kernel available, which could be neat for renderings with more than 3GB ram. Yes you can use more the 3GB ram with a 32bit system. this kernel has to be installed seperatly, but there is an install script on the desktop

----------------------------------------------------------------
Main categories are 2D, 3D, Audio, Video, VJ, HardwareInterfacing, Programming and Collaboration.

the Programming tools are python- and web-orientated, but there are also tools to produce art out of code.

hardware interfacing allows you to interact with software via wii controller, reactable, osc, openmoko, graphics tablets.

the video category features not only video editors, but also 2D animation apps, streaming tools, dvd tools, converters etc. (and custom launchers for blender VSE and compositor)

Collaboration is featured as whole category, loosly coupled tools which enable to colaborate, as freemind, dropbox, celtx, filezilla but also desktop video recorder apps, screenshot tools and such.

audio is beyond scope here, but I want to say that I took great effort to simplyfie the access to linux audio.

openArtist features also a streamlined interface (gnomebased), with integrated mousegestures (deactivated in blender), custom menus, reorganized and extended system configuration tools, terminal-on-desktop integration (guake, ctrl+esc), dropbox for collaboration between artists, extended tooltips for the program lauchers, documentation for (nealry) every program, ordered by appearance in the menu structure (just look at the homepage, it IS the documentation, too)

about me:
my (nick)name is cellstorm, I am a student of software development at tu graz, Austria.
I started this project about one year ago, in a rage of seeing so much good free software available, but no one integrates it as is should be: configured, documented, with a menu structure that makes sense.

Until now, I did 3 releases, constantly updating the programs to newest state and finding new exiting stuff.
As I am doing all this stuff alone right now, It's kinda hard.
I have been featured by mkl, medienkunstlabor graz, a media artist laboratory in my hometown, where I am kinda resident artist now. This means I do not only produce this distro, I also use it as my production environment. But with so many tools installed it would be nice to get some more feedback.

I hope I've got your appetite wetted. As you can Imagine there are many things to explore.

you can donwload openArtist for free.
it has grown to about 3.5gig until now.

the URL of the homepage is http://www.openartisthq.org

more screenshots

greets, cellstorm

delic

Nice !

I would install immediately such an os if x64 with x64 tools, even if there are less.

jplur

Wow amazing project! I did not know about 80% of these free softwares, now I will check them out, and try your live CD too.

Thanks!

Conz3D

sounds good, nice project.

You know "Animux"? It's a distro for animators, too. Just for your inspiration.
http://www.animux.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
http://www.animux.org/wiki/index.php?title=Features

Maybe "MeshLab" could fit into your list. (GPL)
http://meshlab.sourceforge.net/

mikahl

That's really cool! Its good to know you actually rely on for your own stuff too.

You should give Krita a try too - I don't see it on the list.

onemanblend

Endlich mal was vernuenftiges aus der Steiermark!

Also,
Mike (mikahl), get back to work! LOL

freen

are you unhappy with ubuntu studio?
studio64?

I mean, it's a fine idea, but what's your point of difference?

animate78

Hey Cellstorm!

Your welcome for the BRAT cd, that is why I made it.

The reason I am replying is to let you know that if you need some help with setting up the Blender to Renderman portions or configuring the various software just let me know. Currently I am helping out the Animux devs with this, so far they have done a very good job. Over the past couple days I have been logging in and trying to setup DrQueue on the renderfarm, something easier said than done.

So again if you need some help I am willing to offer it

cellstorm

@delic: the clue is that you CAN use more than 3G ram with openArtist, with the highram kernel which is provided. If thats your concern.

@Conz3D: thanks for that, I did know about animux, but have to definitely try it out. didn't know the second one.

@freen: well. yes - I was unhappy. The difference. I did my own menus. I installed many apps not available in ubuntu/debian packet system. I did my own packages. I included wine apps, webapps (e.g virualdub, fontsctruct). I solved many useability problems using scripts. I "installed" many programs which cannot be redistributed with linux, via scripts (the script sits in the menu and will download an application for you, if you click on the program Icon the first time.)
I do not have this 6month release cycle, so I am more up-to-date. I have my own debian repository. I redid the UI a bit cause I think its more flowing to work like that (mousegsetures, terminal on desktop, but I also start most of the 3D apps and audio apps with terminal window (which is then automatically minimized intro the tray via a the nifty alltray app), programs are sorted by function, also in the control center (thats the one for system administration), not by name.
Then there are the docs. A big mindmap about the apps. and more. Also about backgroud technologies, commandline-apps, resources.. you see It seems normally if one wants to start with a program, he always has to ask google. not here. you get all the info in one place. and this place is EDITABLE. Anyone can contribute.
And last but not least, don't underestimate the work in configuring. I configured all to work ( easy), and that cost a LOT of time. See pantograph renderer, or, helios, drqueue, writing custom mimetyps, relinking all mimetypes to the right applications, pimping gimp, nautilus, firefox, blender... these are not just plain applications, thrown in with the packet mechanism.
I think it's best you try it out. It runs as live cd or even in virtualbox.

@animate78: thanks for wonderful BRAT! Your docs and shaders are part of the local documentation now. Yes I could need help, for shure. I made some custom launchers for the rib-renderers, as you can see in the screeenshots. Normally all the things I've set up should work, at least I get some test renders with aqsis and pixie via mosaic. But the mosaic version is beta-0.2. I think there is a newer one somewhere, though I didn't find it. I also tried the commanline tools of pixie and aqsis, they are hanged into PATH. I've installed also Blender Gelato, Pixie export GUI. These seem to work, too. But I only tested all this rudimentary. So, some testing would be nice. @ gelato, there are the rslparse, multishader.pl and the ribelato rib.generator.so in place. binary gets called form mosaic, no tests further, as no nvidia card avialable for now. Shaderman (via wine, not shaderman.next, I did not get that to run), sler and cutter seem to work as expected. I recently discovered shrimp (shrimp.sourceforge.net), which his not included by now, but seems to be a nice addition.

freen

Cool. Thanks for the explanation. I'll definitely give it a try.

Alvaro

Nice distro. Qtpfsgui would be a interesting addition though. And some adhoc wall papers. A vectorial app. such as Inkscape would be nice too.

cellstorm

@alvaro: it's all there.

Alvaro

Ah thanks!

By wall paper I mean some renders produced by Blender and external engines, with author's permission and proper credit.

cellstorm

yeah that would be great.

delic

Is it possible to use blender directly on the live cd, without installing ?

Also, couldn't find the download link ...

cellstorm

@delic: shure. You can use most of the apps form live cd. Voodoo and freestyle do not work with vesa driver, and some apps require an internet connection (as they cannot be redistributed with linux).

download openArtist