Make install, but not to default directories?

I want to run 'make install' so I have everything I need, but I'd like it to install the things in their own folder as opposed to the system's /usr/bin etc. is that possible? even if it references tools in the /usr/bin etc.?

It depends on the package. If the Makefile is generated by GNU autotools (./configure) you can usually set the target location like so:

./configure --prefix=/somewhere/else/than/usr/local

If the Makefile is not generated by autotools, but distributed along with the software, simply open it up in an editor and change it. The install target directory is probably defined in a variable somewhere.

Since don't know which version of automake you can use DESTDIR environment variable.
See Makefile to be sure.

For example:

 export DESTDIR="$HOME/Software/LocalInstall" && make -j4 install