Following the same idea as Editshare, Blackmagic Design and The Foundry, we now receive yet another professional tool legally downloadable for non-commercial work. This time it's a rendering tool called Renderman from one of the largest CGI studio in the world, none other than Disney/Pixar. It was thanks to this tool that we could admire the detailed graphics of Oscar movies like Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Wall-E, Up! or Brave.

Are you searching for a suitable postproduction software which would contain powerful tools in the field of color grading, matte painting, compositing, 3D and VFX, is reliable, user friendly and also affordable? Blackmagic Fusion 7 is the right choice, now completely free.

Should we want to tread the path of open source technologies while processing audiovisual media, we have to start with the operating system which should honor this idea, since the goal is to have zero expenses in the software department. The chosen OS should feature a wide support for modern technologies and naturally there have to exist necessary software tools, or else what good is the powerful GPU when we can't utilize it due to the bad or missing drivers. Why have an OS which doesn't offer the required software tools to work with multimedia?

The processing of an audiovisual work today is carried out using exclusively computer technology. This brings the medium closer to the public to such a degree that anyone can create audiovisual works. Services such as Youtube, Vimeo and so on are a proof that, since they are connected to social networks and became a standard for sharing of home made videos as well as semi and fully professional works.

There are many ways to process such works thanks to the ongoing technological evolution, starting with simple programs to robust professional solutions supported by specialized hardware. If we think on the level of semi-professionals and professionals, we won't do with just one tool. Every step of the process has its own electronic, software support, whether it's a simple prop list to the final cut and distribution. It's necessary to say that the frquency of introduction of new tools on the market is shortening and so it is financially nearly impossible to keep up and invest into new versions and upgrades. If we would like to invest into the separate professional tools for each production steps, we would be in the range of tens, sometimes hundreds of thousands, which, in case of an independent movies, is the kind of money needed elsewhere.

The time has passed when the software market only offered minority suppliers' overpriced products. Open source software is starting to become quite prominent by now, not just in the field of office software. There is now a possiblity of saving the money normally spent for software and using open source software, freely accesible at no cost. Are there, however, any tools that can substitute the commerical tools without the user having to compromise? That is an interesting question which will become the main topic of this section.

Our pilot project Unitefilm already addressed this problem and our short movie Osud z komiksu was realized with this idea in mind. Here we used exclusively tools available for download for free, all the way from preproduction to the final mastering in the DCP format intended for the digital cinema distribution.

Right here we have to differentiate between the two main terms, freeware and open-source. We are mainly focused on the open-source technology since it offers a freely distributed source code which ensures possible modification and individuality (and therefore a possiblity of its development). On the other side, freeware only offers a free license, not the source code. In this case it means that any updates and development is entirely in the hands of the developer. But as we have found out during the pilot project's production, we can't do without these tools.

Look at a new trailer of Unitedvision by Unitedfilm, which screened on the independent film festival Cinema Open in Hradec Králové, Czech republic, by the Godfathers Jan Hřebejk a Petr Jarchovský (Academy Award Nominated):