LibGuides: * Digital Media Studies: Media Creation Tools & Labs

Labs & Equipment

A snowball microphone is available for loan in the Art and Music Library. There are quiet rooms in the Art/Music Library that you can book (http://libcal.lib.rochester.edu/booking/artmusicrooms). These rooms are not soundproof, but can work in a pinch.

Media Creation Tools

Piktochart
Create and share infographics. See also Piktochart tips and design best practices.
Canva
Create and share infographics. Canva also offers some great instruction on infographics design.
infogr.am
Web-based tool for creating digital infographics that can be embeded on a website and/or published and linked to the infogra.am site. Create charts using real data with 31 chart options.
PPT Templates for Posters
Free powerpoint templates for your presentations.

Writing and Citing
Guide from the University of Rochester libraries featuring writing tips and citation style guides.
Writing, Speaking and Argument Center
Resources, tips and consultations are available to help you at any stage of the writing process
Evernote
Freemium note taking app.
Google Docs
Create docs, spreadsheets, slideshow presentations and more.
Microsoft report templates

Audacity
Free recording and editing tool.
AudioNote
Apple app that is a combination of a voice recorder and notepad, it captures both audio and notes for student collaboration.
Garage Band
Apple App for recording and editing sound.
GitHub’s Mac OS Audio Applications List
A curated list of windows applications for audio processing. Also lists apps for graphics design, file syncing and compression, screen casting, video game recording, and more.
GitHub’s Windows Audio Applications List
A curated list of windows applications for audio processing. Also lists apps for graphics design, file syncing and compression, screen casting, video game recording, and more.
OBS Studio
Free and open source software for video recording and live streaming; may also be used for podcasting.
Soundcloud
A recording and podcast publishing tool.
Vocaroo
Creates audio recordings without the need for software. Embed the recording into slideshows, presentations, or websites.
Voicemeeter
A virtual audio mixer used to ensue maximum voice quality.

Google Slides
Create, present, and collaborate on online presentations in real-time and from any device.
h5p
H5P empowers everyone to create, share and reuse interactive content - all you need is a web browser and a web site that supports H5P.
List of Wiki Software
A comparison of general and technical information for a number of wiki software packages.
Prezi
Interactive presentation software.
Slideshare
Hosts professional content including presentations, infographics, documents, and videos.
Wordpress
Website and blogging platform.
Getting Started with Wordpress
If you are new to WordPress, here is a step-by-step plan for getting started.

Animoto
Create video pieces from your photos, video clips and music.
iMovie
Easy to use Apple software app for phone and software for Mac.
Nimbus
A Google Chrome extension for screenshots and screencasts.
OpenShot
A free, open source program for editing video content. Also see this How-To Tutorial.
Powtoon
Video creation tool. Videos of less than 100mb and 5 minutes in length or shorter are free.
QuickTime
An Apple tool for audio or video recording, with the added ability to create screen recordings.
Screencastify
A Google Chrome extension that provides screen recording.
VoiceThread
An audio, video, and discussion tool.
Voki
Voki is an educational tool for teachers and students that can be used to enhance instruction, engagement, and lesson comprehension.

Discovery

See even more image discovery tools on the Finding Media tab!

Google Advanced Image Search
Search images and filter by usage rights to those free to use and share.
Morgue File
Search morgueFile for free high resolution digital stock photographs and reference images for either corporate or public use. The purpose of this site is to provide free image reference material for illustrators, comic book artist, designers, teachers and all creative pursuits.
Pixabay
A repository for royalty-free and public domain images.

Editing

Adobe Photoshop
Photoshop software is available via the library's public computers.
diagrams.net
diagrams.net/draw.io is an open source technology stack for building diagramming applications, and the world’s most widely used browser-based end-user diagramming software.
GitHub’s Mac OS Graphic Design & Image Editing Applications List
A curated list of mac applications for graphics and image processing. Also lists apps for audio processing, file syncing and compression, screen casting, video game recording, and more.
GitHub’s Windows Graphic Design & Image Editing Applications List
A curated list of windows applications for graphics and image processing. Also lists apps for audio processing, file syncing and compression, screen casting, video game recording, and more.
PicMonkey
Free photo editing software.
pixlr
An online photo editor.

Crowdsignal
Create online polls, quizzes, and questions. Students can use smartphones, tablets, and computers to provide their answers, and information can be culled for reports.
Google Forms
Create quizzes or surveys with Google Forms.
PollEverywhere
Seamlessly engage audiences across hybrid workspaces through live online polling, surveys, Q&As, quizzes, word clouds, and more. Freemium model, free for 25 responses or fewer.
TED-Ed
Ted-Ed permits you to build a lesson around any TED-Ed Original, TED Talk or YouTube video. There is also a library of lessons, many of which represent collaborations between educators and animators.
Hot Potatoes
The Hot Potatoes suite includes six applications, enabling you to create online interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises.
Mentimeter
Mentimeter is an Audience Engagement Platform that transforms any presentation into an interactive and engaging experience with quizzes, word clouds, polls, and other options.

TagCrowd
TagCrowd is a web application for visualizing word frequencies in any text by creating what is popularly known as a word cloud, text cloud or tag cloud.
WordArt
WordArt.com is an online word cloud art generator that enables you to create amazing and unique word cloud art with ease.
WordItOut
Another word cloud tool with many custom settings.

Exposure
A narrative-driven photo sharing site (includes free version for up to 3 posts and pay version with more functionality and posts).
flickr
Create a curated flickr album or photostream. Flickr makes it easy to publish photo essays under a creative commons license.
Google Slides
Create a Google Slide deck and publish it to the web to obtain a shareable link or the ability to embed it elsewhere.
Wordpress
Wordpress pages are a great platform for combining text and images. You can also install slider/slideshow plugins with more functionality or features, see https://wordpress.org/plugins/search/slider/

Adobe Illustrator
Illustrator software is available via the library's public computers.
Adobe InDesign
InDesign software is available via the library's public computers.
Comic Life
Digital comic creation software available via an institutional license. Access it via the UR Desktop or Blackboard.

Coggle
A freemium mind-mapping tool.
Mindmup
Create unlimited mind maps for free.
Padlet
Provides a blank canvas to create and design collaborative projects.

Diigo
Diigo is a web annotation and organization tool. Free version comes with ads.
Hypothes.is
This is an open-source web annotation program: a conversation layer over the entire web that works everywhere, without needing implementation by any underlying site.

Tiki-Toki
Create beautiful interactive timelines that you can share on the web.

OBS Studio
Free and open source software for video recording and live streaming; may also be used for podcasting.
Nerd or Die
Design and set up streaming overlays.

ArcGIS StoryMaps
Combine text and images with maps that pan and zoom to locations to tell stories
Google MyMaps
Create custom maps to share and publish online. You can add multiple layers of locations, annotation, photos, videos, and images. Data can also be imported, mapped and color-coded.
MapHub
A tool for creating custom maps with markers, lines, and polygons, much like Google MyMaps but using the open source OpenStreetMaps. A wide variety of basemaps are available, data can also be imported.
StoryMapsJS
Create slides including text, images and accompanying map locations, then generate an attractive display of the sequential narrative