Released On: 7/19/2011

Best Practices for Flash-based Banner Ads explains how to build eye-catching banner ads in Flash Professional that achieve design goals and satisfy the requirements of search engines and the sites where the ads will display. Author Anastasia McCune explores the current standards of banner ad design, offers a series of best practices for technical development, including incorporating video, and details the necessary information to gather from clients and publishers in order to build an ad. Then Anastasia constructs a number of banner ad examples—simple, expandable, and multi-panel—from start to finish, showing how to optimize assets and add interactivity. Exercise files accompany the course.

Released On: 7/19/2011

Up and Running with Illustrator is a streamlined introduction to Adobe's popular vector drawing application. Expert Deke McClelland shows how to create professional-quality illustrations for print and electronic output, in the shortest time possible. The course covers the basics of setting up artboards, formatting type, drawing and combing path outlines, and applying dynamic effects. Exercise files accompany the course.

Released On: 7/15/2011

In the Douglas Kirkland on Photography series, well-known photographer Douglas Kirkland explores a variety of real-world photographic scenarios, sharing technique insights and critiquing the results.

This installment follows Douglas as creates a portrait for Kodak's "On Film" series, which features portraits of directors, cinematographers, and other major players in the film industry. Douglas has shot nearly 250 portraits for this series over the past 20 years.

The course begins with a discussion of the unique qualities of film—its clarity, definition, and tonal range—and of film’s enduring importance in today’s digital world. Next, Douglas tours the Mamiya RZ67 medium-format camera, demonstrating its components and comparing its format to 35mm film. He then demonstrates a variety of lighting, posing, and styling techniques while photographing Owen Roizman, an award-winning cinematographer, in the Kirkland studio in Los Angeles, California.

The course concludes with a critique of the resulting photographs. Douglas also shows how he resized and cropped the image to fit a print advertisement.

Released On: 7/15/2011

Android App Development with Java Essential Training is a comprehensive look at the Android architecture that teaches how to build and deploy applications for Android phones and tablets using the Java programming language. Starting with the installation of the required developer tools, including Eclipse and the Android SDK, the course covers how to build the user interface, work with local data, integrate data from the accelerometer and other sensors, and deploy finished applications to the Android Market. Exercise files are included with the course.

Released On: 7/14/2011

Building Android and iOS Applications with Flex shows developers how to design and deploy mobile applications for the Android and iOS smartphone platforms. Leveraging the capabilities of Flash Builder and the Flex framework, author James Talbot sheds light on architecting applications, incorporating mobile components, and building ActionScript skins. The course also covers mobile-specific APIs; optimizing memory and data connectivity; and submitting apps to the Android Market, the iOS App Store, and the Amazon Marketplace. Exercise files accompany the course.

Released On: 7/14/2011

In this course, Laura Franz shows web designers how to choose fonts for a web site and create beautiful, legible type. Typography for Web Designers shows how to create designs that maximize readability (and keep visitors on the page) by attending to size, line-height, line length, alignment, color, chunking text with vertical space, and creating hierarchy. Lessons are also included on the incorporation of web fonts, styling type with CSS, and creating font harmony by using two fonts that work well together. Examples of how professionals apply these typographic rules on their sites are also shown. Exercise files are included with the course.

Released On: 7/13/2011

Migrating from Final Cut Pro 7 to Avid Media Composer 5.5 is a thorough comparison of the interfaces, concepts, tools, and workflow behind each of these two programs, covering the key differences video editors need to know to master Media Composer and make the switch. The course covers the basics of editing in Avid 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. Exercise files are included with the course.

Released On: 7/12/2011

In Creating Particle and Fire Effects with Maya, author Aaron F. Ross employs Maya particles and fluids to generate stunning special effects simulations, including exploding fireworks, tumbling snowflakes, and burning flames. Following a project-based approach, the course shows how to emit and render particles, write expressions to control and fine-tune effects, and animate and shade dynamic fluids. Tutorials on batch rendering and compositing in After Effects are also included. Exercise files accompany the course.

Released On: 7/11/2011

Migrating from Final Cut Pro 7 to Final Cut Pro X gives video editors a comprehensive tour of the new tools and the interface makeover for Apple's premier video editing software. It showcases the differences from Final Cut Pro 7 and paves the way for a painless upgrade experience. Author Abba Shapiro covers the new interface and workflows in Final Cut X, the magnetic timeline, connected clips, and the deep integration of color correction and sound editing.

This course helps experienced Final Cut Pro editors understand new ways of performing traditional editing techniques. New terminology and new tools for performing editing functions are also clarified. Exercise files are included with the course.

Released On: 7/7/2011

Up and Running with InDesign is a streamlined introduction to Adobe's popular publishing application. Expert Deke McClelland shows how to design polished multi-page documents for print and electronic output, in the shortest time possible. The course covers the basics of formatting type, flowing text, placing images, and combining type and graphics. Exercise files accompany the course.

Released On: 7/6/2011

In iMovie for iPad Essential Training, Garrick Chow shows how to create a polished, professional movie with easy-to-use video editing software specifically tailored for use on iOS devices. The course covers capturing video, either through the built-in camera on the iPad 2 and iPhone 4 or from external sources, and demonstrates all the steps for creating, assembling, editing, and sharing the completed video. The course also details the differences between the iPhone and iPad versions of the iMovie interface, and how to transfer videos between devices with iTunes.