Training
Review: Total Training for CS3 Production Premium Workflow, Pg. 2
This is a very comprehensive training set for the Production Premium suite and the overall training fits very neatly into the final project you create. Unfortunately, it loses a few points because there were some incredibly cool sequences omitted from the final project. The cool animations used in training, with the puppet tool, and the fly-by of the 3D clinic, were never utilized in the actual, final project. Therefore, Bob was clearly stating that these were creative techniques and choices, but I would like to see the professional application he envisioned for it. That way, in conclusion, the user would have a final project that exampled every aspect of the training they learned.
One of the lessons in this set shows you how to create a professional looking AE introduction to a news or travel-style documentary.
Interest Level
Bob has an engaging personality, in person and on DVD, which significantly adds to holding one’s interest in the training. In addition, his workflow moves across so many software packages, in a comparatively short time, that the most distracted, ADD person does not have time to get bored. He manages to get you excited about everything CS3 is capable of, doesn’t bog you down with so much information that you lose comprehension, with so much to absorb.
Bob even shows you how to set up your camera using OnLocation and the focus aids that come with it.
Reusability
This series is extremely reusable and packed with so many great pieces of information that you will definitely want to return to it for more. Fortunately, the training is so engaging that you will be less likely to need to return to it, as much of it lodges in your brain during the initial run through.
Be aware that, because this is training on the Adobe CS3 workflow, you will have a number of sections where you have three or four programs open, in addition to the Total Training window. We didn’t run into many slow-down issues with our test machine, which is configured with a fairly basic 1.86 GHz Core2 Duo with Windows XP Pro x64, 3 Gigs of RAM, and the NVIDIA Quadro FX 1500 card (which was kindly provided by the folks at NVIDIA). However, folks with single processor machines and less than 2 gigs of RAM may run into some overall issues.
As with previous Total Training reviews, we need an additional section to address the ease of use of the product.
This training series has a lot to install and uses a shell program to interact with the training, so it makes sense for us to cover the ease of use.
On the plus side of the Ease of Use equation, the new versions of Total Training have an improved playback option for slower computers, and because it is somewhat lower in quality, it takes up less bandwidth.
