Okay so I’m about 2 weeks into my first term at fxphd.com. I’ve added an extra 2 courses to the usual 4 (3+ Background fundamentals) thanks to your referrals. They include: After Effects Grab Bag, Guerilla Filmmaking with After Effects, Cinema 4D and Design, Secrets of Paint and Roto and Introduction to SynthEyes. All of these strands are useful and not necessarily because I’m learning new techniques. What makes the After Effects strands most valuable to me is seeing how the instructors (all industry professionals) handled various design and vfx challenges while working on the projects they are presenting. One thing is for sure, no matter how much you think you know there is usually a better way to approach tasks in After Effects.
The Cinema 4D and Design strand presented by Tim Clapham is very useful. Tim’s workflow is highly streamlined and I feel that my workflow is benefiting from incorporating his tips and tricks. I have to say, that certain parts of the tutorials I’ve watched so far could have been a little more clearly explained. Having said that, Tim is extremely helpful with questions on the fxphd forum.
SynthEyes is a whole new world to me, an exciting world to be sure. Foxtel just purchased two licenses of this 3D Tracker days ago and I’m having a ball learning how to use it.
Presentation styles across the the various strands differ as you’d expect but one thing all presenters could benefit from is being a little more clear about each step they are taking. Explaining what you are going to do, doing it, then explaining why you did it that way is important. This is not consistently demonstrated in what I’ve watched so far.
Something else I’m noticing is the quality of the screen captures and audio isn’t consistent across the various strands and the screen capture resolution is a little high making it harder on the eye when you are sitting watching these 30-40 minute lessons. I’ve made some suggestions on the forum about cursor highlighting as well; you’ll notice in my tutorials and others online that highlighting the cursor makes tutorials easier to follow as does displaying keyboard shortcuts.
I know a number of you are also enjoying this term as am I and I’ll post again with more thoughts as the course progresses.
12 Responses to this post
January 23, 2009 at 2:47 am |
Hi guys,
im in the term too and have:
- After Effects Motion Graphics Grab Bag
- A Guerrilla Filmmakers Guide to After Effects
- Cinema 4D and Design
- Secrets of Paint and Roto
Im not the best in Cinema and After effects and use it only as my hobby.
But i learn really many of these guys.
And i am really amazed about Guerrilla Filmmaker and secrets of Paint and roto.
But i hope that they have a bit more files for the user to work with it. And so follw along the Class.
The first class of AFX wasn´t interesting for me and i hope that comes some projetcs to work and explain.
January 23, 2009 at 6:06 am |
” Explaining what you are going to do, doing it, then explaining why you did it that way is important.” – To me thats the most important thing, to besides the creativity on a tutorial. In my eyes JD is one of the best in explaining while not boring people, I had the best learning curve in the Milg parts presented by JD.
January 23, 2009 at 9:37 am |
Man, I really wish that I could take some classes, I think Guerrilla Filmmaking with AE, Secrets of Paint and Roto would be on top of my list, and then maybe a compositing course like Fusion or Nuke… I really need to learn how to work in a node based system.
All I gotta get is that initial $330 and then I can try to rack in the referrals… hahaha
glad you are diggin it though dude!
January 23, 2009 at 10:07 pm |
Nice read John. I’m enjoying my semester so far. I’ve got Guerilla filmaking in AE, Secretes of Paint and Roto, Intermediate SynthEyes and the background class.
I just added a class too. I thought it would be good to learn a node base compositor. So I signed up for Fusion101 although I can’t seem to get the VPN software to work on Fusion. Guess I will have to use the PLE.
My screen name there is triplej96 if anyone cares
.
January 24, 2009 at 8:21 am |
Hi
Im taking Nuke in Production and Pftrack in production ,,, Im having a great fun with , Now its time to see the preview classes .. Im not take already al my last decision ..But will be a good term..
Please If you want to refer me
joshem
January 25, 2009 at 3:21 pm |
You are spot on about telling people what you are going to show them, show them and tell them what you have shown them. That said, it is a little like looking over the shoulder of someone who does this for a living and you get to keep it forever. They may not be the best communicators but they are good at what they do.
January 25, 2009 at 3:38 pm |
Jose, I referred you!
I just signed up and think i’ll be taking both AE courses and the C4D course…
Would have loved to have taken the roto course too though…
If someone would like to refer me my username is MikeThomas.
January 26, 2009 at 4:15 am |
I’m seriously thinking to join fxphd in the holiday.
January 26, 2009 at 5:23 pm |
Those are some good suggestions, and ones that i agree with. They could learn alot about video presentation from the MILG series, as far as i am concerned this sets the benchmark as to how tutorials should appear.
Good training though, previously I had no idea how the tracker tool worked with roto-scoping (lame i know). So it is filling a lot of the gaps in my training (mostly on the web). Also it really helps to know the program quite well, I find it all fairly straight forward to follow now, as opposed to taking some courses in After FX at uni, which just seemed a little confusing at the time – due to not having a high enough understanding.
My pc at home has had a little hickup (broken pump). I hope I can resolve this soon as i want to get back on track with training. This was a great thing to come back from vacation too
January 27, 2009 at 10:15 pm |
will wash cars for a referral
( Loay > looking at you ) lolz
January 28, 2009 at 3:57 pm |
I just wanted to pipe in and say that I am in my fourth term as a postgrad with fxphd, and I have had a fantastic experience. The classes vary from good to great, especially with being able to preview every single class. But most importantly, any question I had I posted on the forums, and I gained so much more from the forums than from just the classes alone. I even asked a professor from a previous term a question, and she responded publicly and privately. Don’t forget about the VPN software as well. I have nothing bad to say except that I don’t have time to take more classes! I’m actually going to do a longer writeup on my blog about fxphd, but for now I saw the post and wanted to put a few words in.
April 28, 2009 at 3:39 am |
Interesting point about the cursor and resolution – what screen capture software do you recommend John?
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