Training Discovery

VFX Techniques introduces common yet critical visual effects techniques that are used in film and television shows on a regular basis. This installment shows how to simulate a large crowd by combining live-action footage of a small group of people, 3D renders, and Adobe Photoshop artwork—transforming an otherwise empty building into a rapt audience. Author Lee Lanier uses After Effects to set up image sequences, apply motion tracking to match the motion of the original camera, and key green-screen footage. Finally, you'll learn how to make all the elements cohesive with color correction and lighting techniques.

Learn how to digitally extend a set with After Effects. Lee Lanier shows how to remove a tricky green screen with the KEYLIGHT plugin and a custom luma matte, motion track a new background with appropriate parallax, digitally dress a set with static artwork, fabricate shadows, and relight the footage to create a realistic result.

Veteran After Effects user Chris Meyer shares real-world production and workflow advice as he demonstrates the newest features in Adobe After Effects CC. Chris reviews the streamlined connection to MAXON CINEMA 4D and the Refine Edge tool for creating mattes around hair and other partially transparent areas, and reveals how to get more accurate tracks and stabilizations with Reverse Stabilization and ground planes. He also reviews the upgraded Warp Stabilizer and 3D Camera Tracker and important new usability features such as layer snapping.

The September 2013 update brought the new Rigid Mask Tracker, as well as additional ways to scale up footage cleanly, while the highlight of the December 2013 update was the ability to convert parametric shape layers to Bézier paths, and Bézier paths into shape layers. The NAB 2014 update shows off important new integration with Adobe Premiere Pro and Typekit, as well major updates to effects. Smaller yet still important new and enhanced features in each release are also touched on throughout. As always, Chris doesn't just show you where these new features are, but how to apply them to your own projects, along with preferred working practices and potential gotchas.

Note: This course was created and produced by Chris and Trish Meyer. We are honored to host this content in our library.

Determine the ROI for learning. Discover how to evaluate whether learning objectives are being met in your organization. In this course, Jeff Toister explores several popular models for determining the effectiveness of a class or training course, and provides a framework for applying these models. This includes creating an evaluation strategy, collecting assessment data, and making recommendations for improvements. The Kirkpatrick Model, the Phillips ROI Methodology, and Brinkerhoff's Success Case Method are discussed in depth, as well as alternative approaches such as predictive analytics. These tools will give you the data to validate your current training strategy or recommend data-driven improvements that are tailored to the way your participants are actually learning.

Check the exercise files for sample evaluation plans, reports, checklists, and worksheets that you can use to evaluate your own employee development program.

Lynda.com is a PMI Registered Education Provider. This course qualifies for professional development units (PDUs). To view the activity and PDU details for this course, click here.

The PMI Registered Education Provider logo is a registered mark of the Project Management Institute, Inc.

Create and share interactive reports and presentations on the fly with Sway, the new Microsoft Office app. Oliver Schinkten provides your first look at Sway. Learn what it is, where to access it, and how to start building your own Sways—presentations, tutorials, newsletters, stories, and more—from content you have stored locally or online. Plus, explore how to use Sway's unique interactive format to collaborate on projects and share them with others.

In this course, author Bill Weinman shows how to architect PostgreSQL databases and integrate them into web applications using PHP. The course covers the basics of creating tables, storing data with data types, and working with expressions, operators, and strings. The course also explores the differences between the PDO and pgsql interfaces and demonstrates managing a database in PHP.

Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) is a globally recognized certification that validates your ability to audit, control, and monitor information systems. In this course, Michael Lester provides a high-level overview of the CISA certification exam. This course kicks off the CISA Cert Prep series, which covers each exam domain in greater detail. Here, Michael introduces you to the exam, provides exam tips and practice questions, and shares what to do after you've taken the test.

Remote Desktop Services (RDS) is the platform of choice for Windows virtualization. RDS provides secure access to corporate data and applications as well as desktop access from the cloud. It's ideal for remote teams as well as companies that don't need computers on site. This course includes guidance for manually deploying RDS in Azure, the Microsoft cloud computing solution. Instructor Sharon Bennett reviews the deployment options—including session-based and virtual desktop deployments—and then reviews the basics of an RDS template deployment. She shows how to configure an environment complete with servers, users, and security. Finally, discover how to test your solution by creating client session collections to run remote apps or desktops.

Planning projects, assigning tasks, tracking progress, and releasing results can all be managed in Jira, the popular and collaborative software for development teams. In this course, Robert Anthony shares his expertise as he guides you through the fundamentals of using Jira. Robert shows you how to create tickets, locate issues assigned to you and others, use advanced search, customize dashboards, run reports, and set up workflow boards to organize work. In addition, he facilitates several challenges and solutions so you can practice what you learn as you follow along.

Millennials—individuals between the ages of 18–35—are the largest buying segment in the economy. In this course, learn what this generation actually values, and how to leverage proven marketing strategies to effectively target this powerful audience. Millennial marketing expert Chelsea Krost kicks off the course by explaining who millennials are and debunking common millennial stereotypes. Chelsea offers specific tactics that you can use to optimize your organization's digital and social presence, and shares strategies for upping your content marketing efforts to inspire and engage consumers. To wrap up, she covers influencer marketing—including how to find the right influencer for your business—and goes over fundamental social media marketing concepts.

No matter your role, seniority level, or industry, work can sometimes get awkward. In this course, Elizabeth and Lisa McLeod help you navigate those tricky situations. Learn the principles and behaviors to employ in a variety of awkward situations, from coworkers who take credit for your work to office breakups. Throughout this practical course, Elizabeth and Lisa share scenarios of common situations and demonstrate how to handle them with grace and authenticity.

Storytelling isn't just for fiction; it's vital to your business, too. Storytelling can help you communicate with customers and clients, market your ideas, and solve problems. It's also a great way to take projects from concept to launch. In this course, author and story consultant C.C. Chapman walks you through his storytelling strategies, including identifying your audience, brainstorming, nailing down details, and turning your story into a reality.

In this course, the first in a series dedicated to creative portrait adjustments, Chris Orwig shows how to swap out the background of a portrait with something new. This technique is similar to photo illustration and can result in some really striking and visually interesting photographs. Chris begins in Camera Raw, where he creates multiple exposures of the original raw file and combines them in a PSD file, and then moves to Photoshop to mask the subject and copy the mask into the new background. In the second half of the course, he'll show you how to make the subject look at home in her new environment using Edge Glow; brightness, color, and tone adjustments; and lens flares.

Demonstrate your networking knowledge and expertise by earning a Cisco CCNA Routing and Switching certification. In this course, Russell Long prepares you for the switching portion of the Interconnecting Cisco Networking Devices Part 2 (ICND2) exam. Russell takes you through the installation, management, and troubleshooting of a medium-sized network. Throughout the course, he provides configuration and troubleshooting demonstrations that can help you better understand exam concepts and real-world implementations.

Earning a CompTIA A+ certification validates you've obtained the foundational knowledge and skills needed for a career in IT. This six-course series is designed to both equip you as a technician for your role in IT support, and prepare you for taking the 220-901 exam.

The CompTIA A+ 220-901 exam is comprised of six key parts. The fourth, peripherals, is covered by this course. Instructor Mike Meyers explains how to manage monitors and display technologies, including how to work with connectors and ports like VGA and DVI. He also shows you how to maintain printers and multifunction devices, both as independent devices and as devices connected and configured to a computer.

Note: The six courses designed for the CompTIA A+ (220-901) exam preparation include core processing, core hardware, peripherals and building a PC, displays and printers, networking, and laptops and mobile devices.

We are now a CompTIA Content Publishing Partner. As such, we are able to offer CompTIA exam vouchers at a 10% discount. For more information on how to obtain this discount, please download these PDF instructions.

Earning the CompTIA Server+ certification signals to potential employers that you have a robust understanding of server management. In this course, Ed Liberman prepares you for the storage portion of the CompTIA Server+ (SK0-004) exam. Here, Ed dives into the topic of server storage. He covers primary storage technologies, RAID, and storage capacity planning.

Retail success starts and ends with your sales team. A consistent and positive sales approach keeps the business steady and customers happy. This course is all about building the foundations for success. Instructor Noah Fleming looks at how to deliver and maintain a powerful customer experience, mitigate the factors that impact retail sales, and adopt selling strategies used by the best companies in the world. Find out to increase the average order size with bundling and options, and dive deep into customer loyalty: understanding the true value of a customer. Noah also helps you understand when and when not to discount—and how to avoid the number one retail sales mistake.

Great songs often come to us in bits and pieces. A perfect verse pops into our head like a gift, but we struggle to come up with a chorus or second verse that feels right. In this course, learn practical songwriting techniques that can help you look at your tune through a different lens—and, in turn, take your song to unexpected new places. Professional musician Julian Velard shows how to play with melody, form, and chords to gain a fresh perspective when a tune has you stuck. Along the way, Julian demonstrates each technique by playing musical examples.

Part of virtual reality is generating real-time 3D graphics. This can be done with JavaFX. This course discusses the benefits of JavaFX and then gets you started using it to create graphics. First, learn how to create charts and UI elements. Then, discover how 3D shapes can be defined and generated. Once you have your 3D graphics, you're ready for controlling the camera and lighting. Last, find out how to apply shape materials and then interact with 3D scenes.

Learn how to animate infographics with Adobe After Effects! Many infographic elements begin life in applications like Illustrator, Photoshop, or PowerPoint. But these assets can be flat and boring; animation is what brings them to life. In this course, After Effects guru Ian Robinson covers animating charts and graphs with shape layers, layer masks, and stroke and text animators. He also shows how to use expressions to link animation between different graphic elements, build dynamic camera moves, and create some animated 3D infographics with CINEMA 4D Lite. To finish things off, he'll look at some third-party tools such as Cinema Spice Charts & Graphs for After Effects and aescripts, which help speed up some of the techniques you learned earlier in the course.

In this course, search engine optimization (SEO) expert Peter Kent walks step-by-step through the process of reviewing the content and markup of an existing web site to improve its ranking in search engine results. This course offers a consultant's take on how to analyze each component—from keywords to content to code—and determine what improvements are necessary to become more visible to search engines like Yahoo!, Bing, and Google.

This course was updated on 10/12/2012.

Android developers who need to manage and present data have many tools available to them in the application framework of Android. This course covers a variety of data persistence techniques, including storing data in shared preferences—key-value pairs—in JSON-formatted text files, and in relational databases with SQLite. Join David Gassner as he demonstrates these data management techniques. He also explains how to use relevant design patterns to model data with Java classes, and how to present data to the user with the Android SDK's ListView and RecyclerView components.

GraphQL—a query language for APIs that was originally built by Facebook—helps developers build queryable APIs that drive data-driven apps. In this course, Glenn Block demonstrates how to use the GraphQL.NET framework to build a fully functional GraphQL endpoint. Glenn takes you through the entire process, explaining how to create a new GraphQL project, enable querying, configure the schema, allow updates through mutations, create subscriptions, and more. After completing this course, you'll have a better understanding of how to leverage your existing .NET skills—and the GraphQL.NET framework—to build efficient, modern apps.

Mastering the Box2D physics engine included with GameMaker: Studio can open up a wide range of game design possibilities. By leveraging this powerful tool, you can create rules that govern how objects behave within your game world. In this course, learn how to create a simple, runner-style game using the Box2D physics engine built into GameMaker. Steven Moser explains how to set up the physics world for your game, move a player object using only physics functions, and create obstacles such as saws, spikes, and swinging blades. He also provides an introduction to liquid physics in Box2D—explaining how to create particles that behave like water and viscous poison—and shares how to decorate your level by building chains and rope bridges.

What do great companies have in common? Great customer service. Discover how to chart your team on a course that focuses on the customer, with three no-nonsense tips. Jeff Toister discusses how to set a direction, create mile markers, and course correct when things get off track.