The internet is more than just endless cat videos and fake news (honestly!) It is also and more importantly a valuable learning and communication resource.
Many companies exist offering courses on every subject you can think of- from criminology to cake decoration, from coding to cribbage- and lots of courses not beginning with a ‘C’ too.
Many of these companies- for example Coursera and the excellent FutureLearn- feature courses presented by academics, and mirror the kind of learning one may expect at university.
Udemy is different because instead of employing this multi-learner platform based on traditional college work, it offers peer-to-peer learning as users can create and sell their own courses.
Udemy is aimed at professional adults, and has a number of free or heavily discounted courses available which users can complete in their own time. Over the next few blog posts I’ll be looking at some of the courses currently being offered for free or on special offer on Udemy*. I thought I’d start by looking at some of the courses being aimed at hopeful designers and creatives and those of us with an inquiring mind for design.
1. 3D Animation Film-Making with Plotagon: Ultra-Speed 2019
Plotagon is animation software that allows you to make 3D animations. If you’d like a tutorial and some ideas for how to use the software to best effect, this may be the course for you. It features how-to videos as well as assignments to practice your techniques. And best of all, it’s currently free!*
2. Simple and Advanced Topics of Animating 2D Characters
Are you a budding games designer? If you have Unity3D- a beautiful piece of software that allows game design (and has a basic version which can be downloaded for free!) this course will talk you through steps for creating 2d characters to eventually create your own platform game. This course is rated at 4.1/5 stars and with the price currently slashed to ZERO it’s got to be worth a look:
3.The Open Source Multimedia Masterclass
This course is a one-stop shop for creating logos, promo videos and graphics using free-to-use tools Canva, Gimp and Stencil. It aims to ‘teach ordinary people to do extraordinary things’ and with its high rating on Udemy it seems like a no-brainer to give this course a look and find help with any design bits and pieces you may be struggling with:
4. Create lightning fast videos with InVideo: AI Video Making
If you can login to the InVideo platform and have interest in creating videos using AI (Artificial Intelligence) to help promote yourself or your brand on social media platforms, this course could be your place to start. It’s a very basic course but every great designer has to start somewhere:
5. Event Photographer: Start a Photography Business Fast Guide
If you have an eye for photography but don’t know where to take your passion, or if have all the gear but no idea, this course might give you a few ideas. From marketing yourself as an event photographer to editing your photos to best effect, this course aims to give you a head start:
6. Motion Graphic Workshop : Full Project
This course requires Adobe Illustrator, but aims to give you the tools required to create a project from start to finish. Currently rated as 4.4/5 and on a 94% discount, if you’re looking for new ways to use your illustrator software this might be the course for you:
*Please note, many of these courses are offered for free or discounted for a short time only so you’d better be quick if anything catches your eye!
DATE GOOD FOR 31/07/2019
