Jason van Gumster

2391 points

Atlanta, GA

Jason van Gumster mostly makes stuff up. He writes, animates, and occasionally teaches, all using open source tools. He's run a small, independent animation studio, wrote Blender For Dummies and GIMP Bible, and continues to blurt out his experiences during a [sometimes] weekly podcast, the Open Source Creative Podcast. Adventures (and lies) at @monsterjavaguns.

Open Source Champion Author Comment Gardener Columnist

Authored Content

Track your creative projects with mind-map software

Mind maps are more than just brainstorming tools—they have everything you need to carry projects from a loose set of ideas through to completion.

A graduate degree could springboard you into an open source job

Hugo vs. Jekyll: Comparing the leading static website generators

If you're building a new website, a static site generator may be the right platform for you.

Top 5: Learn to code, innovative uses for C#, machine learning, and more

In this week's Top 5, we have a whole heaping bucket of programmery goodness. We're controlling clouds, helping machines learn, using C#, discovering the best route to…

Haters gonna hate: 7 ways to deal with criticism

Learn how to handle the haters in a way that fits your personal needs, the community norms, and the specifics of the situation.

Python tricks for artists: How to add interactivity to any Python script

Read Part 4 in our Python tricks for artists series.

Using Python to find corrupted images

Catch up on this series: Part 1: Automating repetitive tasks for digital artists with Python Part 2: Python file-management tricks for digital artists If you're working with…

Authored Comments

Jason van Gumster

21 May 2018

Choosing the right open source tool for movie project management

Great article. Is TACTIC still being actively developed? I saw on their website that the last point release was in 2016. I've looked into it a couple times, but never found a chance to throw a suitably large project at it and give it a real test.

I've used Redmine pretty heavily over the years, for managing animation projects as well as other types of projects (creative and technical). Maintaining it can sometimes be a bit of a headache, but from the user side, it works quite well.

Jason van Gumster

15 May 2018

Termux turns Android into a Linux development environment

Great article! I'm a huge fan of Termux. I actually use it (with a bluetooth keyboard) to do distraction-free writing on my phone. Plus, since it has Python and PIP, I can actually install Mercurial and do version control on all my writing as well. :)