In this collection of lessons we will learn how an artist can get started painting digitally inside of Photoshop

In this course we will get started with Houdini Digital Assets and learn how to use them. Along with building a complex light rig, the following lessons will show the advantages to using digital assets and the knowledge you gain will be critical in other Houdini projects especially in the realm of character rigging. By making your nodes reusable with digital asset, you can save a lot of time and really take advantage of the procedural nature of Houdini.

In this collection of lessons we will learn how an artist can get started painting digitally inside of Photoshop.

In this series of lessons we'll learn the basics of using RealFlow 5. Using RealFlow, we can create realistic fluid and physics simulations that we can then bring into another application to light and render. This series of lessons will introduce us to the powerful software of RealFlow so we can begin experimenting and using it for our own projects. By understanding now how emitters, daemons and objects interact, we can create and control complex simulations.

In this course we're going to explore at the basics of UVs in 3DS Max.
UVs and UV layouts are vital elements in creating textures for our 3d models. They allow us to tell the program how to apply the 2d images we create. Having good UVs can really make a difference in speeding up texture creation and optimizing your results.

In this course we will cover the basics of working in BodyPaint 3D. Creating believable texture maps is a huge part of creating great characters, props, and environments. BodyPaint 3D is fantastic tool for painting textures interactively on our models, while keeping a lot of the functionality that comes from working in a 2d image editing application. BodyPaint 3D is widely used in the industry and knowing how to use this powerful program will really help you work faster and smarter. In this course we will get a good jump start on working in BodyPaint 3D.

In this series of lessons we'll learn how to get started using The Foundry's compositing software Nuke. Using Nuke we can composite and create visual effects using a node-based pipeline which allows us to keep our composition flexible and editable at any point.

We'll begin this project by learning the basics of reading-in external images and learning the various parts of the Nuke user interface. Then we'll do some basic compositing, masking, transforming and color correction. We'll finish with a project to composite a 3D render and create an animated transition and finally render it into an image sequence. This series of lessons will cover the basic, everyday tools and techniques we use in Nuke to composite. With this basic overview of Nuke's workflows and tools, you will be able to begin using this powerful compositing software in your own production pipeline

In this series of lessons we'll learn how to use Autodesk's Render Manager Backburner to control a server farm and help us organize the order and timing of scenes we want to render.

In this series of lessons we'll learn how to get started using The Foundry's compositing software Nuke. Using Nuke we can composite and create visual effects using a node-based pipeline which allows us to keep our composition flexible and editable at any point.

In this series of lessons we will learn how to use the mocha for After Effects application to track objects and use that tracking data inside After Effects. mocha for After Effects is bundled with After Effects versions CS4 and later, so you might already have access to this powerful planer tracker.

We'll begin this project by creating a new project and learning the basics of the mocha planar tracker. We'll then learn how to bring that tracking data into after effects to do a sign replacement. We'll then learn how to change the output of mocha for an easier integration into After Effects. Once that is done, we'll learn about tracking with multiple layers in mocha and how to stabilize footage. We'll finish by working through a few difficult to track clips and learn the variety of tools we have to tweak and edit tracks in mocha.

In this series of lessons we'll learn how to begin Maya's powerful Ocean features. Using Maya Oceans, we'll be able to achieve quality results within a matter of minutes.

We'll begin this project by learning the basics of creating a Maya Ocean and what it is actually made of. We'll then learn about attributes we need to set early in the project. Then we'll learn how to control the noisiness of waves and their length. After that, we'll create line graphs to change each wave's height, turbulence and peak. We'll finish by adding foam and editing the color information of the shader.

In this TopoGun tutorial we're going to learn the basics of using TopoGun to build custom topology for our models. These days it's common practice to create extremely high resolution and highly detailed models in sculpting applications like ZBrush or Mudbox. These models can give us a great idea of what a character, set, or prop will look like but they're usually not optimized for rigging, animation, or use in a real-time game engine. Or the underlying topology we are using to sculpt may not be optimal for the detail we're creating. TopoGun remedies these issues by allowing us to very intuitively draw new geometry right on top of our existing models. This new topology can be used as a new base mesh when sculpting, or we can use it in game engine along with all of the texture and normal maps that TopoGun also creates. We'll start out the course by talking about the importance of good topology and why TopoGun can be such a a useful tool. We'll go over the interface and the basics of getting around the application. We'll talk about the tools you'll be using in TopoGun to create and modify topology. We'll cover the generation of different types of texture maps and cover a symmetrical workflow. Once we're done with the tutorial, you'll be able to start using TopoGun to really speed up your workflow and create more optimal topology for your projects. We will also be jumping around a little to different applications, to see how well TopoGun integrates, so it will be helpful if you have some experience with Maya, ZBrush, or Mudbox

In this series of lessons we will focus on getting you up and running quickly with InDesign. We'll get started by learning how to setup a new document for our layout in InDesign. As part of the process of preparing our document we'll learn about things like master pages as well as columns, margins and guides. Next we'll break down how InDesign creates and works with objects that are both text and image based. We'll not only learn how to bring in text from files generated in Microsoft word but we'll also learn how to streamline the formatting of this text using a paragraph style. To wrap things up we'll learn how to package and exporting our files.

Creating believable texture maps is a huge part of creating great characters, props, and environments. BodyPaint 3D is fantastic tool for painting textures interactively on our models, while keeping a lot of the functionality that comes from working in a 2d image editing application. BodyPaint 3D is widely used in the industry and knowing how to use this powerful program will really help you work faster and smarter. In this course we will get a good jump start on working in BodyPaint 3D. We will go over the interface and talk about where everything's located. We will go through the process of setting up textures for our models, complete with multiple channels and layers. We'll cover painting concepts and tools including working with brushes and color. We'll also look at useful concepts like Projection Painting and using the Raybrush Render View to get a better idea of what your texture will look like as you paint. We'll also go over some of the ways you can integrate BodyPaint 3D with other applications like Photoshop, Maya, or 3DS Max. Once you are done, you will be able to jump in and start texturing your own models in BodyPaint 3D.

In this series of lessons we'll learn how to get started using Autodesk Composite, which was previously called Autodesk Toxik. Using Composite we can quickly color correct, mask, composite and animate still images and image sequences.

In this series of lessons we'll learn how to get started using the compositing software Toxik. Using Toxik we can quickly color correct, mask, composite or animate still images and image sequences. We'll begin this project by learning the basic composition creation process, learning how to move around the Toxik user interface, begin compositing images together and render out our finished material. We'll then move into the common uses of Toxik such as Color Correction, Garbage Masks, blending Modes, and Animation. Toxik 2010 introduces some workflow changes that make it easier and quicker to use. We'll also learn about the Tool Options panel and how to use Presets inside of Toxik.

In this course we will get started with using Auto Rigs in Houdini to quickly rig characters

In this series of lessons, we will learn how to use the auto-rigging tools in Houdini. By using the auto-rig feature, we can build advanced custom rigs in a matter of minutes rather than hours so we can animate our characters quickly, consistently, and easily.