So don’t have money for Photoshop or Fruity Loops studio and don’t want to pirate them ether but suffering from urge to create something?
Well another wave of free fully functional in browser applications is rising with some features desktop apps do not even have
And those are built in Web 2.0 communities built around Creative Commons which means that you can create/share/remix/browse/favorite/discuss/collaborate 
So here is list of best example I know of.
Hobnox
Well this is tool built by Andre Michell(at least partially) that allows to create music of many types and has pretty cool interface and range of virtual tools.
Even if you are not music creator or not familiar with such way of making music you can still be interested as it includes community and support Creative Commons license which means that you can listen stuff for free, share and use it under some conditions for free and sometimes even remix other people works all thanks. Tough you need to register.
Aviary
Well this is whole collection of visual design tools. Not all tools are out and those that are are already pretty amazing.
It includes:
Phoenix – raster image editor alike to Photoshop
Peacock – visual laboratory. This one is harder to describe as it is mmm as I call it procedural/generative effect/image creation tool. You can use different filters/effects/transforms/generators available and combine them together to get cool effects/abstract art/fractals. If it still sounds confusing check video here.
Raven – and this is vector graphics editor. Not much to say here except that it is pretty decent editor.
And it comes packed with very well made community features. You can instantly upload stuff, use other creation licensed under CreativeCommons and it automatically show up sources from which work was made (be it effects or stock pictures or anything), shows derivative works that used this one as source and provides all other more common community features.
Sumo Paint
Well there is not much to say
This one is clear PhotoShop but in browser, for free, with community included Again create/save/load/share/favorite/remix etc etc. Supports creative commons license which means that authors can easily specify on what conditions people can use it for free.Wonderfl
Well this site is little bit strange and geeky. It allows coding Flash stuff in browser and publishing it under CC or MIT licenses which hallow free usage and remixing options so works are published as opensource code that compiles in browser. So you can edit/rewrite it and see results without need of Flex/Flash studios or any other complex products for Flash creation.
Aside from "in browser compiling" another cool feature is that it tracks who used what, which allows seeing how creations evolve. One guy created experiment, another took and used it differently, then third merged it with his own and we end up with some incredible stuff. Here for example such tree of evolution of code with cool results.
SourceBinder
This tool some how relates to Aviary Peacock and Hobnox Audiotool in terms of interface. Basically it is online tool for procedural animations/effects/visualizations.
Unfortunately I have no idea what license they use but they have features like sharing works sources and tracking of source/derivative relations among the works.
Onyx-vj
Well this thing probably is less usable but still worth mentioning. It is orientated on using video/animation remixing/merging to get something different. So you have number of “layers” where you can drop video files or flash effects/animations and manipulate those layers in same way you manipulate layers in Photoshop to get different result.
P.S
Probably that’s it for now. I will be updating this over time as I am shore there will be lot more to come
Do you have something to add?
posted Apr 26 2009, 02:48 PM:
