Maxon's Cineversity Hits 1,000 Tutorial Milestone
By amoody
Created 04/11/2008 - 00:00
MAXON Computer, a leading developer of professional 3D modeling, painting, animation and rendering solutions, announced that there are now more than 1,000 tutorials available on its online education and training resource, Cineversity.
This major milestone underscores MAXON's commitment to helping artists maximize their creative potential by providing instruction on some of the world's most advanced visual effects techniques and methods.
In related news, the company also revealed that many of the industry's most respected educational facilities that offer specialized training in graphics, animation and design -- including the Savannah College of Art and Design, Gnomon School of Visual Effects, Vancouver Film School, Ex'pression College for Digital Arts, Rhode Island School of Design, and Art Center College of Design -- rely on MAXON CINEMA 4D and BodyPaint 3D as core elements of their visual arts programs.
Cineversity's "Online Training" section is comprised of video-based tutorials showing the execution of a project within the applications' interface, complete with voice-over by a professional instructor who leads students through the lesson step-by-step to completion of the project. The "Hands-On Training" section provides a comprehensive list of educational institutions who offer direct MAXON training.
This area of the site offers flexible search parameters, including searches for schools offering training in a preferred geographic location, type of curriculum offered, if a degree is available and much more. The site also includes a private trainer area, a dedicated teachers' only forum, student/teacher forums and information on upcoming events.
In addition to MAXON-specific product training, Cineversity also houses a multitude of vendor-provided video tutorials and showcases notable customer projects that have been created using MAXON solutions.
Highlights of Cineversity include:
--Hundreds of reference tutorials and quick tips for fast answers to specific feature questions
--Project-based tutorials that take a user from beginning to end and step-by-step through basic and complex projects
--Integration tutorials showing how easily CINEMA 4D plugs in to any pipeline and its seamless integration with all popular compositing and other 3D packages
--Scripting resources for advanced users who want to dig a little deeper and custom tools to improve workflow like the Grip tools for managing cameras and lights, CONscripts for constraint creation and the Natural Selection utility scripts
--Basic courseware and curriculum for CINEMA 4D instructors.
Recent additions to the Cineversity knowledge bank include:
--A new 3D interpretation of the 2D classic, "Principles of Animation," by Donovan Keith, a gifted animation expert who has been using CINEMA 4D professionally since the age of 13.
--An ingenious tree generator built entirely on Xpresso, CINEMA 4D's visual node-based expressions editor, which artists can use to intuitively create relationships between almost any object, material or effect parameter. Eleven detailed tutorials outline 100-plus controls to create virtually any type of tree. The author, Chris Schmidt, is a professional animator and CINEMA 4D instructor.
--A five-part series on how to create an animated, growing expansion bridge (based on the Golden Gate), using the MoGraph module, by Tim Clapham, principle for Hypa, an animation and motion graphics studio in the United Kingdom.
--A series of in-depth tutorials on texture painting techniques taught by industry veteran, Ben Mathis, who has contributed artwork to over 10 published video games for numerous studios and game publishers.
--A step-by-step demonstration of motion graphics essentials developed by seasoned broadcast designers exclusively for the recent Adobe-MAXON Power Integration Tour road show.
In addition to its online presence, MAXON is making an equally strong impact on traditional brick-and-mortar universities and design schools. Curriculum featuring CINEMA 4D and BodyPaint 3D runs the design gamut from texture painting and motion graphics to medical illustration and architectural visualization. Educators using MAXON solutions point to the software's ease of integration, intuitive interface, breadth of capabilities and extensive use in the industry as the main drivers for adopting it as a core tool.
Broadcast design veteran and Art Center College of Design instructor, Rob Garrott, considers CINEMA 4D an indispensable part of his professional toolkit and is excited about introducing the software to the next generation of visual artists, noting, "CINEMA 4D enables artists, students and professionals to express themselves in a way that just isn't possible using 2D animation tools alone. Whether creating a graphics package for a network, or an animated story, CINEMA 4D makes the process of 3D animation both accessible and manageable."
