fxphd info

news and details about our curriculum

02 Jan 2012

January Term Now Open

We’ve just announced our new January term at fxphd — check out the listing of our courses for full descriptions and a projected outline of the classes. Our orientation week video covering our new offerings will be released on Friday, January 6th.

New for the January term, members can choose one vault course as one of the three elective courses that come with the normal fxphd membership. This opens up an additional 33 courses for fxphd members!

As always, we’ve taken our member’s requests into account in building our curriculum and we have some great new courses (and profs).

05 Jan 2012

January12 Term Overview Video

Here’s the January12 Term orientation week video which provides an overview of the courses which are running this term at fxphd. It includes recordings by the profs about what they’ll be covering during term at fxphd.

You can download the video for offline viewing from our Vimeo page or download it via BitTorrent.

Please share this page with others and help spread the word!

02 Aug 2011

fxphd fastforward: Resolve Fundamentals

Our first “fast forward” offering is intended to quickly get you up and running on Resolve 8. Unlike our standard fxphd membership, once you buy the course you can immediately download all class instruction as well as supporting files.

Taught by colorist Warren Eagles, this all-new course contains over five hours of training covering the fundamentals you need to know to get the job done in real world situations. This will include getting footage into Resolve from Avid and Final Cut, working with a multitude of footage formats that are common in today’s post, tips and techniques for best creative practices in the software, and getting the graded imagery out of the software.

02 Aug 2011

What is the “fastforward” program?

We understand there are times that an artist can’t wait for the start of a term to learn a piece of software…..or wait ten weeks for all the classes to come out. They have a job to do and they need to quickly get up to speed. That’s where our new “fastforward” program comes into play: you pay for the course and get immediate access to download all materials without waiting.

Since starting fxphd six years ago, the community we’ve built has exceeded our expectations. It’s become the top online destination for vfx, motion graphics, and production professionals around the world to take their knowledge to the next level. This isn’t going to change — our standard membership is the heart of what we do here at fxphd.
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production blog

behind the scenes and more

Bring on the new Thunderbolt devices

By John Montgomery

Feb 01, 2012

I’ve been excited about the possibilities of Thunderbolt on the MacBook Pro since it was announced almost a year ago. The problem was the wait. In a recent rc podcast, Jason and Mike commented about the delays in seeing products actually shipping. Due to various factors, including a lack of controller chips, Thunderbolt devices have taken a while to materialize. But we’re starting to see some cool products come to market that are especially suited to production and post production.

A few of our favorites include the Echo ExpressCard/34 Thunderbolt Adapter and the LaCie Little Big Disk. These fit in nicely with our needs of nimble production travel for fxguide and fxphd, where we shoot with the RED EPIC, SCARLET, and the 5D.

Why do they fit in nicely? Basically it’s the size/weight and the vast increase in speed.

Professor Profile: Charles Poynton

By Mike Seymour

Jan 24, 2012

In this, our first Professor Profile, we speak to Charles Poynton who is teaching the DCT301 – Camera Tech and Colour Science course this term. Every month or so we will be profiling a professor from fxphd so you can learn a little more about where they started, how they learned their craft and what motivates them. We are proud that Charles agreed to go first, and we hope you enjoy the series.

Squeezing the most out of a 5D Mk II or ALEXA signal

By Mike Seymour

Jan 22, 2012

“So if you are a really keen young Camera operator and you see EXTENDED range – you’re going to pick it – I mean who wouldn’t? Normal and Extended – you’re 26 – you’re going to pick Extended,” joked Charles Poynton as part of his lecture at fxphd last week.

What Charles was talking about was the Extended range on the ARRI Alexa, but the same discussion could be had about the Marvels Cine Profile for the 5D vs say the Technicolor Cine profile.

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.

FACTS
Information you need to know
COURSE LISTING
View the courses we offer
JOIN
Register, pay, and join fxphd

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.

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