“How can I make this UFO shoot laser-beams and then explode?”

The question may sound a bit strange, but for Devon Conradson of Los Almos, NM it’s a question that’s pretty common for people in the career he’s exploring – Creating Hollywood Visual Effects. Everyone needs to start somewhere, Devon started with a passion for science fiction movies and with a little inspiration from his family. And Devon’s seen first hand the real possibility of working in the movie business – you see, he also has a cousin who worked on the recent box office hit, Toy Story 3.

Devon’s just spent the past week learning how to create visual effects for the movies like the big timers in Hollywood. And now Devon’s creative ideas are now turning into real life graphics like those in Hollywood blockbusters.

But right now he’s trying to figure out how to make a UFO blow up.

“We get all the hands on time in class, so you can take something you’ve learned and apply it right away.”

Currently, most Hollywood movies rely on the use of green screens to manipulate backgrounds and replace the “green screen” with other pieces of video and effects to create entirely new environments. This is exactly what Devon did. Using a program called Adobe After Effects, one of the industry’s leading visual effects programs Devon took images from various resources and created a layout of objects, backgrounds and text. This “composite” was used with other “assets” to create an entirely new film. Check it out:

At the Mini-Film Festival at the end of the week, Devon shows off his destructive side, the rest of the class watches as a UFO is destroyed. It’s met with laughs and applause by fellow classmates, parents, and instructors. After a 5-day class learning the inside of Hollywood Visual Effects at Digital Media Academy, Devon’s learned how to blow up a UFO. “I had a lot of fun. The week flew by so fast – I don’t want to go home. But that’s ok, I plan on coming back next year and continue to pursue a career in visual effects.”

Digital Media Academy’s 2010 summer courses run from July 21st to August 6th. Learn more about DMA’s courses a here.

If you’re a kid and have always wanted to make video games, now’s your chance to become a video game designer – and win awesome prizes to boot!

Design a level for Little Big Planet and you could with big!

For the third year in a row, the HASTAC Organization in conjunction with the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation have organized the Digital Media and Learning Competition. The annual 2 million dollar event challenges designers, entrepreneurs, researchers, and young people to put their ideas and learning to work to invent the 21st century.

This year HASTAC has partnered with Sony and Electronic Arts for GAMECHANGERS. This competition is open to kids who love video games and creating. There are two great competitions you can be a part of:

Little Big Planet
Prove you’re the best Little Big Planet level designer! Create a Little Big Planet level using the level creation tools in game on PS3. You can create a level by yourself or with a team of friends and you could win a Sony PSP and PSP game! Enter the Little Big Planet competition here.

Spore Galactic Adventures
Prove you’re the best Spore Galaxy creator! Create a Spore Galaxy adventure by yourself or with a team of friends for a chance to win a visit to Electronic Arts, the home of Spore! Winners get a fully paid visit to EA, plus a chance to meet a real EA game designer! Enter the Spore Galaxy competition here.

Winners must be under 18, and will be selected based on creativity and playability. But hurry, the competitions end August 31, 2010. What are you waiting for – enter now and good luck!

Want to learn more about video game design? Check out Digital Media Academy’s Video Game Design Courses.

Ian Petrarca sits in a producers chair on the campus of Stanford, a thumping hip hop beat is coming through his headphones. As the music plays he follows along with the audio track on a massive Apple computer screen.

For the past week Ian, who came all the way from New York to pursue his dream of becoming a professional audio producer and composer, has been learning the techniques producers like Pharrell and will.i.am use to create number one hits for artist like Kanye West.

“I came into this class expecting to learn a lot about the advanced recording techniques and multi-track capabilities of Logic Pro. I definitely did learn all that. But I also got to explore what I was really interested in – I learned how to sample and how to use samples to make a song.”

A music fan since an early age, Ian always wondered how the big music producers did it, so he enrolled in a Digital Audio & Music Production class at Digital Media Academy’s Stanford Campus. “We give students all the skills to make themselves a music or video producer.” Tyler Winick is an instructor for Digital Media Academy, “Ian took these techniques and made an incredibly good song.”

“(DMA) taught me how to properly mix the track down. I’m definitely glad I took the course. Everything I learned I can now take home to work on making more music.” Ian was a quick learner, within the second day of the week long course he was already creating his first sampled beats and well on the way to making a hit song.

Ian clicks the screen and continues work on Get That. Now taking pieces from one of his favorite tracks, The Isley Brothers “Voyage to Atlantis” he creates a backing track. “Tyler suggested I bring up the boom of the kick drum.” Ian says as he continues piecing together the song. He adds an acapella version of Jay-Z’s “Dirt Off Your Shoulder” for vocals and finally, Ian builds the song’s chorus using “mashup DJ sounds” that he created – and he’s done all of it with Logic 9’s software.

Ian in the studio working on “Get That.”

At the end of the week, Ian’s dream are more in reach than every before. His song debuts to the rest of the class and it’s met with with strong applause, both fellow classmates and his instructor are very impressed. “Get That” is a hit. As the class wraps up for the week, Ian shares his future plans with his instructor, “I plan to become a professional producer and I’ll definitely benefit from what I learned this week.”

Logic 9 is the industry standard in music production. Digital Media Academy’s 2010 summer courses at Stanford run from July 21st to August 6th. Learn more about DMA’s courses a here. Listen to Get That.

Let’s take a look at the iPhone 4, from the inside. No, really we mean from the inside of the actual iPhone. This stop-motion video was produced (in a dust free room no less) by our friends at TechRestore and it shows the iPhone 4 being disassembled, piece by  piece, screw by microscopic screw. And just because the guys at TechRestore can, they reassemble it back into a perfect working state:

Ok, so while watching that, we realize how cool the iPhone 4 and stop-motion animation are. And while you probably don’t want to take apart your iPhone 4, you might want to shoot your own stop-motion video. Stop-motion is a old school film animation technique that is still as amazing as was years ago. Check out this awesome stop-motion video shot by Annie Lynch at Digital Media Academy summer film camp in Chicago, she made her film by using high quality photos and piecing the .jpgs together in Final Cut Pro:

Another famous stop-motion filmmaker? Ray Harryhausen. Long before George Lucas was using stop-motion in movies like Star Wars, Ray was using stop-motion to create amazing science fiction scenes like this skeleton battle in Jason and the Argonauts:

Interested in learning more about stop-motion animation? Check out DMA’s Adventures in Filmmaking.

You’ve got a great idea for a website and a domain name, now it’s time to share your vision with the world! But hold on, before you start building a website it’s a good idea to make sure you have the basics covered. Don’t worry, DMA Central is here to help.

Meet Sandy Novak a DMA Central contributor and Digital Media Academy instructor who will be teaching Advanced Web Design Techniques Courses this summer for DMA, Sandy’s got 10 Pro Tips For Making A Great Website:

1. Make a Wireframe First. Before you start pushing pixels around in Photoshop it’s a good idea to make a wireframe. A wireframe is the skeleton, or basic design of your website. Draw one on a piece of paper or with a simple design program using plain boxes and use placement text to determine where things will be placed on your web page.

This site, created by a former DMA student, uses parchment background and simple design to promote a Civil War Encyclopedia. Also note the navigation tabs at the bottom of the page.

2. Color is Important. The color of your web site sends a strong message.  Want to be bold? Use Red. But before settling on a color combination, search the web and see what works well and what doesn’t. Some colors are more suitable than others. For example, you might use a light blue or green for a site about camping, or use black or silver for a site about cars.

3. Saving Your Images. When saving images as .jpgs in Photoshop always use the “Save for Web & Devices” option. This will create the smallest, cleanest web-ready art for your site.

4. Avoid Legal Issues, Grab Some Stock Photos. Need a few images to decorate your site? Unless you take a picture yourself or have rights to use an photo or image by the owner you should invest a few dollars in high-quality stock photography. These photos can be as low as $5 each and by using them you can avoid violating any copyright laws.

5. Create Some Style. Before you begin building your home page,  Remember the wireframe? Digitally build it now and create a styleguide page in a program like Dreamweaver. Work out all the CSS details of the design using dummy text and images. Save all your styleguides for future web projects.

6. Keep It Simple. Don’t get seduced by complicated design options. Master two or three solid layouts and add excitement to the page with high quality Photoshop work.

7. Use Page Navigation. Place consistent navigation (buttons and cues users can get back to previous pages or to other places on your site) on every page and always include a home page button.

8. Next Gen is In! Flashy effects and chunky beveled buttons are so 1990’s. Clean and simple is in.

9. With or Without Flash? Unless your site really demands it, use Flash sparingly. Why? Flash won’t work on the iPhone and can cause other troublesome technical hurdles, especially for beginners. Instead, I suggest building your site in HTML and if you must use Flash, insert smaller SWF files to add motion and interest.

10. Testing! Testing! Test your site in several browsers, Google Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer AND on both the Windows and Mac platforms. Your site won’t look the same in every browser, but if the pages hold together nicely and appear readable you can consider yourself successful.

Are you interested in learning more about making a great website? Adult learners, Digital Media Academy offers a four course Web Design and Certification Program.  These courses can be taken one at a time over a several year period, or consecutively in one summer and will give you all the skills you need to be a certified web slinger.