On The Road With Lynda

Lynda.com has many courses about using your new skills in the real world. These are all taught by professionals in field - like professional photographer and author Ben Long. One of Lynda's newest courses is Travel Photography: Geologging and Journaling on the Road. Ben Long gives you tips on journaling while you are traveling - including shooting to document your trip, importing GPS data, workflow and tagging. Lynda.com has some other great courses in this series, all produced out in the real world. Travel Photography: Desert Road Trip, Travel Photography: Seaside Road Trip, and Shooting on the Road from Gear to Workflow.

As a current AU student, faculty or staff, you have access to all of Lynda.com's tutorials and resources. First, go to www.american.edu/lynda and log in with your AU credentials. Enjoy.

Today's Tom Sawyer Is Learning Online

This is one of the more unusual selections from Lynda.com. Learn sound engineering through a backstage look at the most recent Rush tour. Live Sound Engineering Techniques: On Tour with Rush with Brent Carpenter. I have to believe that there are few audio tasks more challenging than putting on a concert tour with the monsters of prog rock. Lynda.com has dozens of training courses like this, taught by professionals in the field.

As a current AU student, faculty or staff, you have access to all of Lynda.com's tutorials and resources. First, go to www.american.edu/lynda and log in with your AU credentials. Enjoy.

Film Studies for Free

There are a lot of people, from Werner Herzog to Denis Leary, who would tell you to forgo film school and learn film making on the street. Well, if you're not quite ready for that, how about this-

Free, open access film studies resources. What more could you need?
http://filmstudiesforfree.blogspot.com/

3D Text in After Effects

LiveTut3DText3dStroke from Nick Campbell on Vimeo.

Here's a tutorial on how to create 3D text in After Effects. This is very useful for creating great movie credits and titles. It also enables you to give more depth to the usual After Effects animation options.

Discovered at ae tuts+ and GreyScaleGorilla.

Top Ten Lynda Courses for October 2011

Lynda.com is available for use by AU students, faculty and staff. This extensive online training library contains over 3,000 video tutorials on all types of software. Tutorials walk users through programs like Access, After Effects, Excel, FinalCut, iMovie, Photoshop, Pro Tools, and many more. This library can be accessed via the MyAU Portal from any Internet-connected computer.

These are the Lynda training courses with the most views during the month of October. The number is the total number of hours viewed.

Log in and check out some of these popular tutorials today at Lynda.com.
For more information on Lynda.com check out the New Media Center homepage or the Multimedia Resources page.

Top Courses – October 2011

1 Final Cut Pro 7 Essential Training 26.76 hrs viewed
2 SharePoint 2010 Essential Training 11.55 hrs viewed
3 JavaScript Essential Training (2011) 10.60 hrs viewed
4 Dreamweaver CS3 Essential Training 9.48 hrs viewed
5 Access 2007 Essential Training 9.46 hrs viewed
6 ActionScript 3.0 Projects: Game Development 9.12 hrs viewed
7 Foundations of Programming: Fundamentals 9.03 hrs viewed
8 Creating a First Web Site with Dreamweaver CS4 8.07 hrs viewed
9 Photoshop CS5 Essential Training 7.28 hrs viewed
10 Access 2010 Essential Training 6.31 hrs viewed

Common iMovie HD Questions

Common Final Cut Pro Questions

iDVD Guide

Todd's Tips - See Audio Waveforms in the Final Cut Pro Timeline

Often times when editing you want to see the audio waveforms in the audio tracks (as pictured to the right). This can allow an editor to more easily edit to audio and is particularly useful when creating music videos.

Final Cut Pro's default setup is NOT to show these waveforms on the audio tracks. However, setting it so that it does is a very simple process, though finding the proper place to change the setting can be a bit hairy. But, if you follow these simple steps, you'll have no problem in making this change:

**Please note that these changes will only take effect in NEW sequences of the timeline. Therefore, after you make the changes, you will need to create a new sequence from the File menu. As such, this procedure is best done BEFORE you begin editing.**

1) Once Final Cut Pro is open, go to and click on the "Final Cut Pro" menu; it's the one to the right of the apple and to the left of the "File" menu.

2) Select the "User Preferences" menu item.

3) Select the "Timeline Options" tab.

4) On the left-hand side of the panel there is an area designated "Track Display."

5) In the track display area, find the check-box for "Show Audio Waveforms" and check it.

6) Click the "Ok" button on the bottom right-hand side of the panel.

7) Create a new sequence from the "File" menu and when you add media that has audio you will see the waveforms displayed on the green audio tracks.

AU Library Video Tutorials Available on Youtube

The library has a youtube channel with a variety of useful videos. These brief videos give an overview of tools, databases, and software applications that will be useful in your research. They are all public, so subscribe here or just check them out!

You can also find these tutorials on the How to... page on our website.

How to Use World Development Indicators Online to Find Data on Countries

American University Librarian, Melissa Becher demonstrates how to use World Development Indicators Online (WDI) to find data on countries.

Finding a Subject Specific Database to Cover Your Topic

American University Librarian, Melissa Becher demonstrates how to use a general database to decide what discipline your subject is in, and then how to find a subject specific database that covers your topic.

How to Research an Interdisciplinary Topic

American University Librarian, Melissa Becher demonstrates how to research an interdisciplinary topic when you are unsure which discipline will have the most relevant information for your project.

Find Data on a City Using Lexis Nexis Statistical

American University Librarian, Melissa Becher demonstrates how to find data on a city using the Lexis Nexis Statistical database.