Have you ever wanted to convert a clip from a video file into a GIF image?, say for use as an animated Avatar image or for publishing on a website, etc. This post will present a relatively quick and easy method to convert any video file to GIF at the press of a button, without having to export your video into individual image frames first and without a lot of mucking around. If you just want to convert a segment (or segments) or a larger video file, this article will begin by describing how to do that as well. Lastly, we will use all freeware software installed locally, without using any web apps. Continue reading ..
How to convert any video file to an animated GIF
Create animated Avatar GIFs from webcam images with PsykoGif
If your computer has a webcam and you would like to make creepy 6-frame animated GIF images quickly and easily, then read on. PsykoGif is a small, free web app that will take successive snaps via your webcam and combine them together within an animated GIF (that can be useable as your avatar image for example).
Your animated creations can be saved locally on your hard drive or shared online on the generally embarrassing ‘wall of fame’. Continue reading ..
Create 3D games without coding with Kodu Game Labs
Kodu Game Labs from Microsoft is a powerful, free game creation engine for children and adults alike. Originally designed for the easy creation of 3D games on the Xbox using only a game controller, games can be constructed by combining visual elements together to construct the game environment and logic. Kodu does this by provding a large repertoire of object and logic to begin with that the user can customize, combine, tweak, and work with in a wide variety of different ways.
Kodu is surprisingly powerful and versatile; I have seen it produce remarkable results within an hour or two of my eight year old using it. Aside from being a game creation engine, it is also fun to work with and a terrific educational tool. Continue reading ..
Find and listen to music online with Freemake Music Box
Freemake Music Box is a free program that will let you find and listen to almost any song online and create playlists. It is a bit like Spotify, minus the geographic restrictions and the ads, but also minus the support for handheld devices and playlist sharing between users. Note that downloading music tracks locally is NOT supported in the version we tested.
But be that as it may, Freemake Music Box is a wonderful way to find and listen to music which finds across multiple places on the internet. It also supports displaying music videos, which it pulls from YouTube. Continue reading ..
Mindbloom makes a game of mind and life mapping
Mindbloom is a free, online program and website designed around the concept of “life-mapping” or “mind-mapping”. It offers a fun and easy way to set goals and take action, and offers eye candy rewards for completed actions and/or goals. Mindbloom sets itself apart from other programs or websites of its type in that it presents the concept as an interactive game experience as well as being a social networking tool. Continue reading ..
The ten best Freewaregenius articles of 2011
It’s the time of year for ‘best of’ lists and looking back at the year we are leaving behind us. And what better way to do so than reading some of the best articles published on Freewaregenius in 2011? There were some very good ones as well; this post will list my top 10 favorite posts, and though the selections are purely subjective I will in each case state why I chose them.
What I noticed is that many of these were posts that I really liked and enjoyed writing, but didn’t necessarily get the readership they deserve. On the other hand some were quite popular and will be very familiar to readers. Continue reading ..
The ten best free programs of 2011
Many sites have “best of year” program lists that are really “best of all time”; so is this one of them? Well, yes and no. This is a list of the best free software that has either been launched in 2011, or has been significantly improved upon and come into it’s own in 2011 (for a best freeware ever list, check out our Freeware Top 30).
How I chose these: I install a lot of programs, as you might imagine. I do this on my main machine and every several weeks I restore a clean image, so I take note of those programs that make their way back into my system as being a cut above the rest. This is a list of those, or at least 10 that are quite noteworthy. I also made an attempt NOT to rehash the same old list of titles which everyone already knows. Continue reading ..
