INFORMATION NOW

All of these Tuesdays are just flying by, and Im excited to offer another Technology Tuesday post... How to Take a Video of Your Computer Screen! 


This has been in the poll for a while and Im very excited to finally blog about it!


Now, if youre doing this on a Mac or a PC, youre going to need two different programs... so I wrote up a walk through for each program!  Im posting the PC tutorial first, but if youre looking for the Mac tutorial, keep scrolling down!

The PC tutorial requires the free program CamStudio, which you can download here.







For the next poll, Im going to add the option to make your icons into pictures.  I use the icons for my folders for the different content areas just to make it a little cuter and easier to find!  If youd like me to blog about this, be sure to vote for it in the poll!

In Maya 2011 Essential Training from lynda.com, 3D animation expert George Maestri will take you on an in-depth tour of Maya - one of the best 3D animation, visual effects and compositing software out in the market today. If youre interested in learning Maya, take a look at some of these video tutorials from the training course. Lynda.com is a great learning resource that has tons of tech-related tutorials ranging from beginner to advanced levels. Visitors of this site can get a 7-day FREE trial to lynda.com if you wish to find out more about their online training library of over 900 courses.

Maya 2011 Essential Training - Welcome

Overview of the Maya interface: Maya 2011 Essential Training

Navigating viewports: Maya 2011 Essential Training

Configuring safe frames and grids: Maya 2011 Essential Training

Using the Hotbox: Maya 2011 Essential Training

Creating polygonal objects: Maya 2011 Essential Training

Working with Soft Select: Maya 2011 Essential Training

Working with edge loops: Maya 2011 Essential Training

Working with polygon booleans: Maya 2011 Essential Training

Introducing NURBS modeling: Maya 2011 Essential Training

Creating Bézier curves: Maya 2011 Essential Training

Using NURBS Extrude: Maya 2011 Essential Training

Trimming NURBS surfaces: Maya 2011 Essential Training

Converting NURBS to polygons: Maya 2011 Essential Training

Working with the Outliner: Maya 2011 Essential Training

Duplicating objects: Maya 2011 Essential Training

Working with selection masks: Maya 2011 Essential Training

Overview of renderers: Maya 2011 Essential Training

Using bitmaps as texture: Maya 2011 Essential Training

Using displacement and bump mapping: Maya 2011 Essential Training

Where can I view the rest of the videos?
If you enjoyed these videos and want to access the entire Maya 2011 Essential Training course, you can sign up for a lynda.com membership. Your membership will allow you to access not only this course, but the entire lynda.com online training library for as low as $25 for 1-month. Thats over 900 courses with 50,000+ video tutorials. No long-term commitment required. You can cancel your membership at any time.

Not yet convinced? Try a FREE 7-day trial.
As a special promotion, visitors of this site can get a FREE 7-day trial to lynda.com. This free trial gives you access to their entire training library of over 900 courses.


Here is a more detailed description of the course:

Training provider: lynda.com training
Title: Maya 2011 Essential Training
Author: George Maestri
Duration: 9hrs 8mins
Date of release: 1 June 2010

1. Getting Started in Maya 2011
Overview of the Maya interface
Working with files and Maya projects
Navigating viewports
Reviewing the Viewport menus
Configuring safe frames and grids
Selecting objects
Using the Move tool
Rotating and scaling
Manipulating pivots
Understanding the Channel Box
Working with the Attribute Editor
Using the Hotbox
Working with marking menus
Customizing the interface

2. Polygonal Modeling Techniques
Creating polygonal objects
Working with polygonal components
Selecting polygonal components
Working with Soft Select
Using the Extrude tool
Keeping faces together
Extruding along curves
Using the Polygon Bevel tool
Smooth and subdivision surfaces
Blocking out a character body

3. Refining Polygonal Models
Working with edge loops
Inserting and offsetting edge loops
Symmetrical modeling techniques
Combining objects
Using the Polygon Bridge tool
Connecting components and splitting polygons
Poking and wedging faces
Working with polygon booleans
Modeling with nonlinear deformers
Modeling with lattices

4. NURBS Modeling Techniques
Introducing NURBS modeling
NURBS primitives
Using the NURBS curve tools
Creating Bézier curves
Creating text
Manipulating NURBS curves
Refining NURBS curves
Offsetting NURBS curves
Editing NURBS surfaces
Refining NURBS surfaces
Using NURBS Revolve
Using NURBS Loft
Using NURBS Extrude
Using NURBS Planar
Stitching NURBS surfaces

5. Refining NURBS Models
Extracting NURBS curves from surfaces
Creating curves on a surface
Projecting curves on surfaces
Trimming NURBS surfaces
Using the NURBS Fillet tool
Sculpting NURBS and polygonal surfaces
Converting NURBS to polygons

6. Organizing Maya Scenes
Working with the Outliner
Grouping objects
Creating hierarchies
Duplicating objects
Understanding the Hypergraph
Working with Hypergraph connections
Hiding and showing objects
Creating layers
Working with selection masks

7. Creating Materials
Overview of renderers
Understand the basics of materials
Creating and applying maps
Using bitmaps as texture
Working with the Hypershade window
Working with mental ray materials
Using displacement and bump mapping
Using the Ramp Shader
Using the 3D Paint tool

8. Applying Textures
Texture-mapping NURBS surfaces
Projecting textures onto surfaces
Texture-mapping polygonal surfaces
Applying UV mapping
Using the UVW Editor

9. Basic Deformations and Rigging
Creating joints
Deforming a mesh using the Skin tool
Creating IK handles
Creating blend shapes
Rigging nonlinear deformers
Finalizing the character
Rigging the character to the scooter

10. Animating in Maya
Working with the Timeline
Creating and adjusting keys (keyframes)
Editing keys
Modifying keys in the Graph Editor
Modifying keys in the Dope Sheet
Creating breakdown keys
Animating objects along paths
Animation playback using Playblast
Animating with constraints
Creating animation cycles
Using set-driven keys
Adding sound to animations
Finishing the animation

11. Rendering in Maya
Lights and lighting types in Maya
Adding depth-map shadows
Using Raytrace shadows
Understanding the basics of cameras
Adding depth of field
Adding Bokeh using mental ray
Using motion blur in Maya Software Renderer
Using motion blur in mental ray
Raytracing reflections and refractions
Interactive rendering with IPR
Lighting a scene
Batch rendering