Many of you have had the privilege of meeting DMA’s Beth Corwin, either through taking her iLife course at Stanford or through her numerous hands-on sessions over the years at CUE Palm Springs. Beth has been a DMA instructor for over 8 years (since the beginning) and is also a member of DMA’s Board.

Earlier this month, I had the privilege of spending three days with Beth in Palm Springs at the CUE Conference. In addition to providing me with a personal introduction to the exciting world of iPhone applications, she told me more about her former days as a cameraperson for ABC. The more I heard and reflected on her challenges in this role, the more I realized that Beth is a model and an example to girls and women who are trying to succeed in male-dominated fields. I recently asked Beth to tell me more about her experiences, and just like I suspected, she overcame some very tough experiences to be the success that she is today.

Although we see many more women in the media today, it was not the case more than 30 years ago when Beth first began her career in broadcast engineering. After surprising her college instructors (and all the men in her classes) by passing every technical exam she took, she went on to seek a job with two major networks, NBC and ABC. At NBC, she was told that they don’t hire women for engineering jobs. At ABC, she used her initials as her first name (BT) and was granted an interview, but upon meeting her, her interviewer started asking her questions about her typing ability. She finally landed a job in Washington, DC as a staff assistant to the Congressman on the Appropriations Subcommittee, which funded the FCC. After working there for two years, she got a “temporary vacation relief job” with the Baltimore ABC affiliate. Things in television were changing. Because of numerous nationwide discrimination lawsuits, suddenly every TV station wanted to have a “token woman.”

Over Beth’s decades of experience with ABC, she worked as a videotape editor, soundman, live truck operator and cameraman. Her business card for many years said “cameraman,” never “camerawoman” or “cameraperson.” When asked if she felt she was treated differently in these roles for being a woman, she recounts stories of men who refused to work with her because they did not want to take orders from a woman. She recalls a sign that someone gave her early on in her career, “a woman has to be twice as good as a man just to be thought half as good.” Despite the challenges, Beth’s talent and perseverance won out.

Fortunately for many girls today, the challenges are not as overwhelming as the ones Beth faced, largely because women like Beth have led the way. There are fewer jobs now that are still considered exclusively male jobs. After all, as Beth explains, “women have proved themselves in combat – flying helicopters, fighting in war and playing in professional sports, so people know there are women who can stand toe to toe with men.” When asked what she might say to girls today still facing a challenge, she says, “Go ahead and do it, if it’s something you want to do. Find a mentor. Keep your eyes open, as it’s still tough. Be prepared. Be better. Be smarter.”

For these and many reasons, the Digital Media Academy has been fortunate to have Beth as an instructor and friend to many. Phil Gibson, President of Digital Media Academy, has this to add about Beth: “Without Beth, DMA would not be what it is today. She has given her time in numerous ways over the years and has played a major role in the growth of the company. She is also one of our favorite people, and we are privileged to have her on the DMA team.”

By Baynard Bailey: Editor, Trainer, and Instructional Technologist

My first year as the Media Cloisters Manager at Vassar College, I sort of dreaded the Final Cut Pro questions that came my way. I knew the bare minimum but I always felt inadequate when helping people. Last summer I was able to take the DMA FCP workshop. I came away with the skills needed to edit video in Final Cut Pro. I now love answering FCP questions. I used my new skills to edit a video for New Student Orientation that everyone was pretty pleased with:

2008 Vassar Library New Student Orientation from Baynard on Vimeo.

I also used my Final Cut Pro knowledge to put together a series of training videos for the students that worked at the Cloisters. I would never have been able to accomplish this without the outstanding training I received at the DMA.

Melissa Hughes is an elementary school educator and web developer in the San Diego area. She recently attended the Computer Using Educators (CUE) conference in Palm Springs. Hear her comparison of on-line learning vs. the hands-on experience of DMA:

I have been an elementary educator for over ten years. This past year, I went on child-rearing leave from the classroom. I am concurrently using this sabbatical to earn an online masters degree in Educational Technology from San Diego State University. When it occurred to me that I was in the position to attend the annual CUE conference in Palm Springs, I jumped at the opportunity.

One of the very first details I noticed from the CUE schedule was the amount of training sessions hosted by Digital Media Academy. I had never heard of them, but was impressed by the session descriptions. One was an introduction to Dreamweaver. How timely since one of my recent masters courses was in web design. I recalled how much I enjoyed getting my first taste of Dreamweaver, yet frustrated that the online delivery method of that course had left me with more questions than answers. I had ended the semester having created my first website. However, it was all done by a written tutorial, so I didn’t feel like I had a firm understanding of what I had actually done! What if I wanted to revise my site? Customize it? The class never addressed updates or latest features in the program. Perhaps DMA would be able to clarify in three days what I had been struggling with understanding in three months.

Wow! What an understatement. Even though online learning may be the hot thing nowadays, there is something to be said about learning in a physical classroom. The teachers at DMA used their classrooms for just that: personal learning. They didn’t come across like tech geeks in teacher’s clothing. They didn’t talk down to you if you didn’t understand. Most of all, they were patient. The Dreamweaver session was not a lecture, but a hands-on workshop. The hour-long session wasn’t filled with presenter adlibs, but actual practice with the application. How often does one get to work with state-of-the-art equipment at a conference, for free?! Even the mini 20-minute sessions in the CUE exhibit hall were packed full of information. I walked away from their trainings feeling like I learned more there than I ever did in that college semester.

If or when I decide to go back into the classroom, I know I will be going back energized by what I learned at CUE 2009. It certainly will not be my last CUE conference. For me, it is only the beginning with Digital Media Academy. I am anxious to take their summer course on web design in San Diego. Through it, I hope to help my husband’s small graphics business expand his services. Down the road, I one day plan to open an after-school technology center for elementary school students. Either way, DMA has laid yet another foundation for my ongoing study of technology in the 21st century.

Melissa Hughes
Elementary School Teacher
San Diego, CA

Written by Jeff Sobel of the John Lennon Bus

In my last post I talked about the saturation and vibrancy adjustments in Aperture 2.  I mentioned that these powerful tools are great when you want to adjust the color in the entire image but not a good solution for selectively adjusting color in only parts of the image.  Aperture provides an often overlooked tool which is fantastic for making these types of selective adjustments.  It’s the Dodge and Burn plugin and it can be found in the Images>Edit With> menu as seen in the screen grab below:

Though Dodge and Burn is included with Aperture 2 it is actually a plugin so when you select it in the menu your image opens up in a new window.  It’s much like sending the image to an external editor except that it’s more tightly integrated with Aperture.  The name Dodge and Burn comes from the darkroom technique of using a card to dodge (lighten) or burn (darken) select areas of a photo print while it is in the chemical bath to manipulate the exposure of the photograph.  The Dodge and Burn plugin in Aperture 2 allows you to do the same thing with your mouse, no noxious chemicals required.  The great thing about the D&B plugin is that it not only allows you to adjust light/dark but a half-dozen other effects as well, including saturation (see screen grab below).

By playing with this tool you’ll quickly learn how to manipulate the color saturation in certain areas of your image while leaving other areas in their natural state (or manipulating those areas in a different way).  Here are some examples (all images can be clicked to embiggen).

I took some photos at a friend’s wedding last year.  They were married in Golden Gate Park and the grass and trees were a vibrant green.  I found that even though I had a fairly shallow depth of field that threw the background out of focus the vibrant color of the plants was distracting the eye from the important parts of the image (the bride and groom!).  

I wanted to reduce the saturation of the plants and people behind my subjects to separate the bride and groom from the background.  However, I couldn’t simply reduce the saturation in the whole image because I certainly didn’t want to take away from the bride’s amazing gown.  So I turned to the Dodge and Burn plugin.  Using the Desaturate setting I ‘painted’ desaturation onto the background.  It took a little time but I loved the results:

By applying the same effect to all the photos a consistent look can be achieved which can really tie an album together (much like a good rug ties the room together).  Here are a few more examples of using the Dodge and Burn plugin to desaturate the background while leaving the subjects vibrant:

Before: 

After:
 

Now here’s one final example that has a similar look but was produced using a slightly different method.  Instead of using the D&B plugin to desaturate the background in this photograph I first reduced the color by adjusting the saturation and vibrancy sliders in Aperture:

Then I sent the image to the Dodge and Burn plugin and using the Saturate setting I added color back into the photograph by carefully painting the bride’s dress and the flower lei each is wearing.

Spend some time with the Dodge and Burn plugin and I think you’ll find it can do some interesting things to your photographs.  These are the same techniques you will learn in this summer’s Digital Photography and Photoshop courses at Digital Media Academy.

Or, you can learn Photoshop with DMA on a Final Cut Pro and Photoshop Cruise this summer! Learn more about DMA on the Sea!

By Geoff Beatty, Lead Maya Instructor – DMA @ UPENN

One of the most rewarding parts of teaching is opening doors for my students.  At the beginning of each class, I literally unlock the door to the computer lab, turn the lights on, and lead my students in.  But in a more meaningful sense, I enjoy being the one (or one of many) who introduces them to a new medium, a new set of tools for creating imagery and telling stories.  The part of that experience that is especially gratifying is seeing my students making connections between their respective backgrounds (e.g. illustration, music, graphic design) and this newfound world of 3D modeling and animation.

Last year, during DMA’s Maya sessions at the University of Pennsylvania campus, I had the wonderful opportunity to teach an amazingly diverse group.  Among that group, there was the middle-aged illustrator from the midwest, learning a new skill.  There was the recent art school graduate with a graphic design degree.  There was the home-schooled high-schooler with an interest in visualization.  And there was the teenage musician and composer with a talent for digital imagery.

Each person brought a unique sensability and focus to their study of Maya.  And I can truly say that by the end, there were just as many unique 3D creations.  The characters, environments, and animations they made each reflected a personal vision.  And this is what I consider the strength of both the software, Maya, and the type of course I was teaching at DMA.  My duty as an instructor was two-fold.  First, I introduced students to the basics of the software.  This included both the explicit features and the implicit workflow, which is the proper process and sequence for using those features.  Secondly, I attempted to build on that foundational and common knowledge by guiding each student to a point where they could begin to use that tool to fulfill a personal interest or vision.

This ends up being the point at which I grow too as a 3D artist and instructor.  DMA courses bring together such a variety of students that it ends up being an antidote to the homogeneity common to most 3D classrooms.  I learn new things every time I interact with my students.  My experience last summer was so gratifying in that respect that I couldn’t turn up the chance to teach again.  I look forward to opening doors, turning on lights, and having my students do the same for me.

Written by Brian Rothschild of the John Lennon Bus 

Written by Doug Larsen of the John Lennon Bus 

Hi! This is Ben Jaffe, one of the instructors for DMA’s Adventures Program. We are very excited to offer several new classes this summer. I’d like to talk a bit about our new Cartoon Creation class.

In the class, we’ll be using Toon Boom Studio to teach animation techniques. This software is very flexible and fun to use. I’ll tell you a bit about the features of this software package, and how your child can learn about animation with DMA.

At the core of all animation are “keyframes”. We find them in other animation applications, video apps, compositing apps, and even audio editing applications. Keyframes are what allow us to move our characters, animate them, change the lighting, move the camera, and make their lips move. Without keyframes, there would be no movement or change. In other words, we’d just be working with still images without keyframes, and that’s not nearly as much fun!

Keyframes simplify animation by allowing us to modify our drawing over time, instead of manually drawing every single frame individually. Animating with keyframes is kind of like cutting out your character from paper and pushing him around the table. He moves smoothly, and you can reuse objects you have already drawn. The alternative is frame-by-frame animation; this is like making a flip-book, and redrawing the character on every page.

We also cover frame-by-frame animation. This is how they made the classic Disney cartoons. Toon Boom Studio has an onion-skinning feature built in to help with this kind of animation. It outlines the drawing from the previous frame, which gives you a good reference for the position of the next frame’s drawing. Unfortunately, animators didn’t have it this easy back in the ’70s!

Toon Boom Studio has many powerful drawing tools built in. Even things like shading are easy to manage. In the picture below, the darker shading on the left side of her face was created with the shading tool. Adding shadows for characters is as easy as dragging and dropping a shadow in. The shadows even automatically update. Once we put the shadows in, we don’t have to worry about them anymore. We can even draw with gradients, instead of plain colors. Check out the star in her hair. It’s a smooth ramp from orange to yellow, and gives the character a subtle touch of realism.

Toon Boom Studio has a lip-syncing engine built in. This lets us record an audio track and sync the lips of our characters to fit our recorded dialog. Toon Boom Studio takes the monotony out of lip-syncing. We get to make the character speak with our voice, and the software does the tedious part of the process for us! That’s pretty exciting!

One of the most exciting things about Toon Boom Studio is its compatibility with file formats that animators already use. We can import Adobe Illustrator vector files, Flash .swf’s, all kinds of raster image formats, video formats, and sound formats. This means that we can use almost any source material that we can find to animate. Do you know any artists who use Adobe Illustrator? You can bring their work right into Toon Boom Studio, with no loss in quality, and no conversions!

And even more exciting is the export formats. Believe it or not, the projects you create in our course can be exported to Adobe Flash files! Flash is the industry standard for animations on the internet, so this is extremely exciting. This means that everyone with the Flash player installed can view your animation. (98% of computers with internet have Flash installed, so that’s a big deal!) You can put your animations online for the world to see, or to share with friends and family! You can also export your animations to video, for use in a DVD, or a video project.

I’m very excited to see this Cartoon Creation class offered this summer. We get to create dynamic and rich animations that we can share with anyone and everyone, and our animations will play on almost any computer. It’ll be such a blast!

I hope to see you in the summer!

-Ben

Make a creative music video that will make you famous!

Come take film courses this summer at DMA! Be sure you are learning from the best! DMA has also teamed up with The John Lennon Educational Tour Bus to offer a Music Video Production course! You will learn the skills you need to make the perfect music video. As I always say… the only limit is your creativity! Here are a few famous music videos to get your creativity flowing….

….Ever heard of Ok Go?

How can anyone forget this famous music video from the band Ok Go – “Here We Go Again”? This music video went viral and took the internet by storm. The band didn’t include the normal drums, guitar and bass you’d expect. Instead, the rock band turned in their instruments for treadmills. With over 45,321,935 views on YouTube, you know this music video made this band famous.  httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pv5zWaTEVkI

….The White Stripes get creative in their music videos!

The White Stripes always seem to stretch the creative boundaries in their music videos. This is such a creative example of combining technical filming and editing skills with a truly original idea. The video becomes more complex and interesting with each beat! httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLESpHrtvxs
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Here is another amazing White Stripes music video made with Legos! This is crazy creative. How much time do you think this could possibly take? Find out this summer!  httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRDi67G0Siw

http://www.digitalmediaacademy.org

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Are you ready to give your job career a boost?

Come to DMA this summer and get certified. You can earn a certification in Video Production, Web Design and Production, Maya, Digital Filmmaking(Teen Only), or 3d Video Game Design(Teen Only)! You can jump start your current career with a DMA Certification. Or, you can switch to a new career path and become a Maya Modeler, Maya Animator, Special Effects Coordinator, Film maker, Video Producer, Video Editor, Web Designer, Graphic Designer, 3d Video Game Designer, and more! The choice is yours!

You can choose to take the hands-on computer training courses at any of Digital Media Academy’s beautiful locations including: Stanford University in Palo Alto, UC San Diego, University of Texas at Austin, University of Chicago in Illinois, University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Johns Hopkins, George Washington University in Washington D.C., Harvard University in Boston, St. Johns in New York, University of California, Los Angeles, Case Western in Ohio, and more. Register for training courses today.

Digital Media Academy = Apple Authorized Training Center

http://www.digitalmediaacademy.org