Lynda.com learning resource

Since March of 2007, I have been watching a lot of internet videos on Lynda.com. If you don’t know much about Lynda.com, it is a video training database for learning applications, programs, and programming languages.

It has helped me immensely from everything from Ajax to ZBrush. (I didn’t learn Zbrush, but that was the only app that stood out that started with a “z”.  I have watched over 900 videos during work and at home. Each video probably averages only 3:30 minutes, so you can go through videos pretty fast.

It is great when you are waiting at work for a job and have a few minutes of downtime. I would much rather watch one of these videos than spend time on youtube or just browsing the internet.

Subscriptions

An annual subscription costs $250 and it is well worth it in my opinion. They have monthly subscriptions, but if you are on the computer as much as me, you can easily watch 30 videos a week. I think any creative studio or agency would easily fork out some dough to have online training for their employees. Any decent employer knows that quality of continuous learning (especially in the web field).

Knowledge is Power!

I have gained so much knowledge from taking these courses. I really like to read textbooks as well learning new things, but learning via videos has an extra benefit. I have learned a huge amount about more advanced CSS and actionscript programming using flash. I am much more proficient and fast when I have to do my job. I would probably estimate that I can do my job 20% faster because of it - anything from channel masking people out in photoshop, to coding AS3 slideshows in flash projects.

Updates

They have a pretty steady stream of updates and new training every week. I think they must have some contract with Adobe, because they seem to have a large amount of content on Adobe products and seem to have more content related to that than anything else (they just put one out on Kooler a few days ago). You can access the library of videos from the past, so there is  a good chance that you can find what you are looking for. Some programming languages like PHP, Ajax, or Javascript haven’t really been updated in a while, but they seem to be pretty much the same today. Software that is 4 or 5 years old is obsolete IMO, so I don’t see much value in keeping much of that on. There isn’t enough to make it a distraction.

Interviews with top talent

One thing I really like is they sometimes interview top artists, illustrators, and musicians about what they do. They explain their workspace, what inspires them to create and produce great work, and their basic workflow when creating something. They go into a lot of depth of their design philosophies and what makes them tick.

I feel like I have a personal mentor to help mold my skills and guide me along the path to excellence. Yes!! Fantastic! They have so many different types of professions, it is so interesting to see top professionals in different fields. To also hear them explain why they are so passionate about what they do really gets your creative juices flowing. I really have a lot more respect for different fields such as matte painters usch as Ron Crabb and DJ Jason Bentley that I was completely ignorant about before. Learning from top design agencies like Big Spaceship or Troika really help see what skills are needed to be the best in the industry.These are the type of companies that regularly appear in trade magazines like Creativity or Web Designer Magazine.