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news and details about our curriculum

Special Offer: Cinema 4D Bootcamp April term membership for $199

It was fantastic news for artists when Adobe and MAXON announced that the next version of After Effects will include tight integration with MAXON’s flagship 3D software as well as a standalone special Cinema 4D Lite version. While C4D is arguably the 3D app of choice for AE artists, there are many who haven’t had a reason or need learn the app until now. And now  is the best time to get up to speed on Cinema 4D, so that when the next version of After Effects ships, you can hit the ground running.

After working through Tim Clapham’s Cinema 4D classes, I had the confidence & expertise needed to hit the ground running at Imaginary Forces. fxphd’s Cinema 4D classes not only taught me creative ways to use Mograph’s wide array of tools, they also showed me how to work fast.

  Ryan Summers
fxphd member, Los Angeles

To help you in your quest for learning, we’re offering a special limited time fxphd membership package that includes our two introductory courses in Cinema 4D for only $199USD. That’s $100 off the price of our normal two course membership. Taught by Tim Clapham, they are some of our most popular and highest rated courses at fxphd.

When you join at this special rate, you’ll be a full member of the April 13 term and automatically signed up for C4D103 and C4D104: Parts 1 & 2 of our Introduction to Cinema 4D R14 series. That’s over 15 hours of training material between the two courses.

Click through for more details about the course, as well as a free preview of the entire first two classes from C4D103….

read more »

April 2013 term orientation week video

Taking a look at our new courses, and touching on our repeats, the orientation week video is now available for your viewing pleasure. Check it out and hear first-hand from the profs what they have planned for their courses.

You can also download the video for offline viewing.

We have an outstanding lineup of new courses, with a great slate of profs teaching them. Some of the new courses this term are:

    • HRO201: HIERO in Commercials
    • GRD202: The Craft of Color Grading II
    • KAT201: Intermediate KATANA
    • EDT203: The Freelance Editors Toolkit
    • HOU207: Houdini 12.5 Bootcamp
    • MYA215: Production Quality Rendering in Maya with MentalRay
    • DOP217: Pimp My Lenses
    • RMS201: Physically Plausible Shading in RenderMan Studio
    • SYN204: SynthEyes Tracking Challenges
    • MTH201: Real Mathematics for Visual Effects and 3D

Plus we are proud to have a late announcement of a brilliant new Nuke course !

NUK222: Guerrilla Guide from the NUKE Trenches

In this brand new 200 Nuke course, we’re going back to our roots with a course covering techniques that solve problems compositors run into every day on the job. This course is in that spirt of sharing production-proven tips from the trenches that can help make your life as an artist easier.

(not included in the Oweek video due to schedules but very much at the centre of this term’s courses!)

April 2013 Term

Welcome to the new term at fxphd.

We have an outstanding lineup of new courses, with a great slate of profs teaching them. Returning to spread the knowledge this term at fxphd are Victor Wolansky, Christos Obretenov, Jonathan Gilbert, Tahl Niran and Matt Leonard. We also welcome new professors Mike Matusek, Hugo Guerra, Matt Duclos, Art Guglielmo, and Jon Tojek to the fxphd crew.

  • GRD202: Craft of Grading II  with Mike Matusek. This is a creative focus on impactful looks and styles. Grading is as much art as it is science and this course focuses on that artistic look side.
  • SYN204: SynthEyes with Victor Wolansky. Camera & object tracking is vital to any visual effects and yet going beyond simple tracks requires a strategy. This 200 Sytheyes course gives you that approach.
  • HRO201: Heiro with Hugo Guerra. This 200 level course covers one of the Foundry’s most significant  recent products and focuses for conforming, editing and versioning.
  • EDT203: The Freelance Editors Toolkit  with Art Guglielmo. As a freelance editor, you should be as software agnostic as possible, Art touches on all the major NLEs – their strengths & weaknesses.
  • DOP 217: Pimp My Lenses with Mike Seymour and Matt Duclos. This course aims to explain lenses, relate them to 3D and Post and show you more than a few very cool lens tricks.
  • KAT201: Intermediate Katana with Matt Leonard. Building on last terms 101 course this expands on this key professional high end lighting tool that is being adopted by studios around the world.
  • RMS201: Physically Plausible Shading in RenderMan Studio with Christos Obretenov. This up to date Renderman course shows how to achieve realism and high end rendering in RMS.
  • MYA215: Production Quality Rendering in Maya with MentalRay with Jon Tojek. Mental Ray is one of the key renderers & Jon will help you to focus on professional level rendering.
  • HOU207: Intermediate Houdini 12.5 with Jonathan Gilbert. Houdini is the backbone of so many effects pipelines. In this 200 level course we show you how to use it for major production value.
  • NUK222: Guerrilla Guide from the NUKE Trenches with Eric Deinzer. This term, we’re going back to our roots with a course covering techniques that solve problems compositors run into every day on the job. This course is in that spirt of sharing production-proven tips from the trenches that can help make your life as an artist easier..

Plus as part of your membership at fxphd you get a free weekly Background Fundamentals magazine style ‘course’ that covers a range of topics, from fun new looks to some serious episodes this term on the business of being in business. This is an exclusive free and weekly extra. Another extra is access to nearly $45,000 of free VPN software to help you do the course, build your reel and develop new techniques – all to allow you to take your career to the next level.

Plus some of our most popular courses are back…

  • NUK104    Introduction to Nuke with Tahl Niran
  • DOP215    Practical and Digital Effects – Blowing Cr*p Up with Mike and Scott Squires
  • PFT303     Advanced PFTrack: Tracking Masochism With Victor Wolansky
  • KAT101    Introduction to Katana (for those looking at the new KAT201) again with Matt Leonard

and with our most popular Cinema 4D courses

  • C4D103    Introduction to Cinema 4D R14, Part 1
  • C4D104    Introduction to Cinema 4D R14, Part 2
  • MOG211  Cinema4D and After Effects Production Techniques

Houdini, in addition to the new HOU 207 above

  • HOU102    Introduction to Houdini 12, Part 1
  • HOU103    Introduction to Houdini 12, Part 2
  • HOU205    Destruction in Houdini 12

And a complete introduction to Modo with Pat Crandley 

  • MDO101    Introduction to Modo, Part 1
  • MDO102    Introduction to Modo, Part 2

 

fast forward: Nuendo 6 Fundamentals

Nuendo 6 Fundamentals will quickly get you up to speed on how to use the new version of Nuendo from Steinberg. Taught by Ryan Pribyl, this all-new course contains over five hours of training covering the fundamentals you need to know to get most out of this new release. It also contains a sample project used in the classes so you can follow along with the instruction.

This course is intended for users who are new to Nuendo, perhaps switching from another digital audio workstation (DAW) or even someone new to working with a DAW altogether. We start from the basics and work up to some of the more advanced features in Nuendo, taking the time to explore them and show how they can be useful in your workflow.

Some of the key features we look into are:

  • The Editor interface
  • Media management with the Pool and Media Bay
  • The new MixConsole including AnyMix Pro and the new metering system
  • The new ADR Taker System
  • Advanced workflows including child busses, direct routing, Edit mode, bus recording and the new Remote Control Editor
  • Automation System

Once you purchase the Nuendo 6 Fundamentals course, you can immediately download all class instruction videos. Samples and clips used during the course are available to download.

The fast forward program is standalone instruction with immediate download and does not include access to our discussion forums or VPN software.

For a full listing of the individual classes, click the “Read More” link…
read more »

What is fxphd? Glad you asked.

fxphd is an online vfx, production, post-production training program led by professionals. We offer both application and craft-based courses, online forums for feedback, and vpn software. Curriculum includes courses in applications such as Nuke, Flame, Maya, Houdini, After Effects, Final Cut, Color, and more. As owners of RED #22, we have been involved with the ground breaking camera since the very first shipments -- and built a solid foundation of on-set and post courses dealing with shooting RED.

Members of fxphd -- called postgrads -- have access to the high quality footage from fxphd shoots as well as other effects material, such as traditional 2D animation and advanced multi-pass 3D render. This allows them to create their own composites and build shots for their reels under the instruction of fxphd Professors. Footage ranges from NTSC and PAL all the way up to 4:4:4 1920x1080 imagery.

In order to help learn, members have access to a wide variety of software over the fxphd VPN. Members can download software and by logging into our servers, obtain licensing to run packages such as Nuke, Maya, Smoke on Mac (with no 30-day trial limitation), Mocha, and more. These are the full versions of the software, with no operational restrictions -- it's for non-commercial use and can be used for educational purposes and to build shots for their demo reel.

Our postgrads range in jobs from managing directors and CEOs of VFX companies to 3D artists and flame artists. But it doesn't stop there -- we were pleased to count as members freelance editors, PXC producers, web designers, traditional animators, and telecine assistants. fxphd even made inroads on-set with photographers, DOPs, and the odd live action Director who just wanted to be more informed and technically savvy.

Over the history of fxphd, we've grown to become the leading online subscription site for high-end post-production training. Over 90% of our members rate fxphd a "brilliant" or "great" value for their money -- with the same percentage rating their course professors "great" or "exceptional". We'll answer your questions as soon as we are able and if we don't get to it, it's likely one of our members will. You'll find our forums to be incredibly high level - with very little noise. And don't forget to listen to our weekly fxphDOD podcast -- you can listen to this week's episode and all past ones by visiting our fxphd podcast page.