Archive for July, 2011

Deke’s Techniques: Creating custom starbursts in Illustrator

Published by | Tuesday, July 26th, 2011

You don’t have to settle for the ordinary, even when it comes to creating a starburst in Illustrator. In fact, this week Deke shows you two techniques for giving your stellar compositions a customized effect in this single movie. In the first example, you’ll start with a simple star shape path, then use such unintuitively named features as Roughen and Pucker, in order to create a celestial body to contend with. And even better, these are dynamic effects you can assess and adjust to your own taste:

In the second example, Deke shows a less adjustable—but no less effective—means of customizing the star shape he used in last week’s technique. By using a much more intuitively named feature, the Crystallize tool, you can make iterations of your original path, adjust the opacity, and end up with this effect:

Either way, you’ll end up with a couple of techniques in your bag of star-based tricks that allow you to take your celestial creations to new heights.

Every week, there’s a new free technique from Deke. And lynda.com members can see the entire collection of Deke’s Techniques (along with some exclusive members-only videos) here. Meanwhile, Deke will be back next week with a new Photoshop technique that’s out of this world in a completely different way.

Related links:
Deke’s Techniques
courses on Illustrator in the Online Training Library®
courses by Deke McClelland in the Online Training Library®

 

Poll: What language do you prefer for MS platforms?

Published by | Friday, July 22nd, 2011

Microsoft’s developer community has worked for many years with the .NET framework, a set of runtimes, compilers, libraries, and programming languages that lets developers build many different types of applications. From web applications built with ASP.NET and Silverlight, to Windows client applications, to Silverlight and XNA for Windows Phone, developers can code in multiple programming languages such as C# and VB.NET and use similar coding styles in many environments.

As we expand our training resources for developers who work with Microsoft technologies, we’d like to know what languages, platforms, and runtimes you most want to learn about. Let us know by taking these two polls. If you choose Other, please let us know what you’d like by leaving a comment on this post.

Which of the following programming languages do you prefer to use when programming for Microsoft platforms? Choose as many as you want:

View results

Loading ... Loading ...

Which of the following platforms or frameworks do you want to develop applications for? Choose as many as you want:

View results

Loading ... Loading ...

Photography at lynda.com profiled at The Online Photographer

Published by | Thursday, July 21st, 2011

Mike Johnson talks about his personal experience with lynda.com, and his feelings on our growing collection of photography courses that focus on techniques rather than software. Read the full story at The Online Photographer.

From the unemployment line to self-employed

Published by | Thursday, July 21st, 2011

Andy Brown posts an inspirational story of self-reinvention after being laid off from his job as an IT manager. We first saw this story via Twitter, where Andy wrote “From the unemployment line to self employed thanks to hard work and @lyndadotcom.” So naturally, we had to check it out. And while we’re pleased to get the mention, it truly is an inspiring story of reinvention. Get the whole story from Andy’s post, ‘Reinventing Yourself.’

Free screening of Stefan G. Bucher Creative Inspirations documentary

Published by | Thursday, July 21st, 2011

On Thursday, July 28, join lynda.com and Art Center College of Design as we present a screening of the new film from the lynda.com Creative Inspirations series, Stefan G. Bucher, Designer, Illustrator, and Writer. Follow Stefan from his first illustrations, through Art Center College of Design, Portland agency Wieden+Kennedy, Madonna’s Maverick Records, and finally his own company, 344 Design. If you’re in the Pasadena, CA area, it’s a great opportunity to check out our latest documentary on the big screen, meet other lynda.com members, and attend a Q&A with Stefan Bucher.

Admission is free, as space permits.

Event details:

Stefan G. Bucher, Designer, Illustrator, and Writer
Art Center College of Design, Hillside Campus, Pasadena
Ahmanson Auditorium

Thursday, July 28

7:00 – 8:00 p.m. Screening
8:00 – 8:30 p.m. Q&A with Stefan

RSVP to alumni@artcenter.edu by July 25.

We hope to see you there!

 

Deke’s Techniques: Creating a shooting star in Illustrator

Published by | Tuesday, July 19th, 2011

We’re reaching for the stars this week with Deke. Well, we’re actually making one beautiful glowing star that spreads its luminance across a dark sky. In this week’s free movie, you’ll see how simple paths and the deft application of blending in Illustrator can create an absolutely stellar effect. And you don’t need the latest and greatest Illustrator to play with this feature in your own projects. Although Deke is using Illustrator CS5 in the video, the tools involved have been a part of the application since 1988!

Deke starts with some simple paths, isolates them systematically, then applies blending and some careful pen tool machinations to make them dance to your will. You’ll even see how Illustrator blends from completely opaque to completely transparent, and along the way, you’ll find out how Deke creates this striking star trail:

Want to see more Illustrator illusion? Members of the lynda.com Online Training Library® can catch this week’s exclusive video here, in which Deke shows you how to automatically create the repeating effects of his gargoyle’s wings, the sarcophagus it protects, and the fence around the cryptic tomb.

Frankly, sometimes I find Illustrator a little mysterious, but Deke’s Techniques will give you stellar powers in under eight minutes. And if you want to explore Adobe’s vector-drawing powerhouse, you can check out the first course in Deke’s Illustrator One-on-One series. Meanwhile, seasoned Illustrator explorers shouldn’t miss our deep-dive series—Illustrator Insider Training—with Illustrator commander extraordinaire, Mordy Golding. (Start with Illustrator Insider Training: Rethinking the Essentials, for a look at what you might have missed if you started with Illustrator before warp speed was introduced.)

And next week, Deke continues the galactic travels in Illustrator with a custom starburst. Every week, a free technique from Captain Deke!

Related links:
Deke’s Techniques
courses on Illustrator in the Online Training Library®
courses by Deke McClelland in the Online Training Library®

 

Helping Final Cut Pro 7 users migrate to Media Composer 5

Published by | Thursday, July 14th, 2011

Migrating from Final Cut Pro 7 to Media Composer 5.5 is the second Final Cut Pro course that we’ve released this week. The course is a deep comparison of the interfaces, concepts, tools, and workflow behind each of these two programs. Author Steve Holyhead covers the key differences Final Cut editors need to know to master Media Composer.

Avid’s Media Composer is used heavily in many areas of production, particularly in high-end television and feature films. Originally, this course was designed for people who learned video editing on Final Cut Pro and wanted to broaden their professional skills so they could work in more types of production environments.

With the release of Final Cut Pro X, this course suddenly has a second purpose. While the controversy has settled down a bit, some Final Cut Pro users are indicating that they may want to switch platforms. This course can be used not only to facilitate that switch, but also can be used as a comparison between the two platforms for those who are simply considering the possibilities.

This course covers the basics of editing in Media Composer, including sequence creation, project organization and navigation, importing and linking media, timeline editing techniques, and how to work with audio and add transitions and effects. This should be everything Final Cut users need to know in order to understand Media Composer. We also have Avid Media Composer 5 Essential Training for those who want dive even deeper.

Of course, we have more Final Cut Pro X titles in the works, so stay tuned.

Adding stereoscopic 3D text and shapes

Published by | Tuesday, July 12th, 2011

If you tuned in to Deke’s Techniques last week, you probably still have your red/cyan cardboard sunglasses at hand. Good thing, because this week, Deke shows you how to take your stereoscopic image and move solid objects (in this case text) behind and in front of the perceived screen plane. Words and pictures coming at you courtesy of Deke and lynda.com! And despite its intricate effect, this technique primarily consists of systemtatically turning channels on and off and moving layers right and left. In fact, Deke gives you a cool, non-3D (take those silly glasses off for a second) graphic that shows you how to move your anaglyphic objects to and fro for the desired effect:

By the end of this free video, you’ll have your text dancing in and out of the screen. And in this week’s lynda.com member-exclusive video, Deke shows you how to apply a tilt effect to that text for an amazingly sophisticated effect that you’ll be hard pressed to find documented anywhere else. Put your silly glasses back on for this one, kids.

And we’ll see you back next week for another Deke’s Technique (Illustrator-style!)

Related links:
Deke’s Techniques
courses on Photoshop in the Online Training Library®
courses by Deke McClelland in the Online Training Library®