You are now free to park in the dvGarage, a QuickTime only site dedicated to “building the next generation of visual media artists.”
Alex Lindsay, chief vision officer for dvGarage, told MacCentral that the site is designed teach individuals who are excited about visual media the “tricks of the trade” and offer a place to trade ideas with others around the world. The “mechanics” in the dvGarage have worked in various areas of digital production.
For instance, Lindsay himself was a member of the secret “Rebel Mac Unit” of George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic, which officially uses nothing but high-end SGI systems. Lindsay has worked on such films as “Star Trek: Generations” and “Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace.”
“As a result of my work in the Mac unit, I have a fairly deep understanding of what can be done in film with Apple products,” Lindsay said. “However, dvGarage is platform and application agnostic. We don’t care what you’re using as we’re committed to training people’s eyes not their fingers.”
The dvGarage tutorials are intended to teach visual media artists to focus on details. The lessons will be frequent (there’ll be a daily and weekly series) and short (as in “under a minute”). And it’s all free; you just need to register. Eventually, dvGarage plans to offer a paid membership plan for those who want to receive CDs of material and more in-depth instructions. dvGarage will also be offering a product called Surface Toolkit, which will allow print and 3D professionals “age” graphics easily, Lindsay said.
He said that the goal of dvGarage is “to bring the opportunity of expression through digital media to the farthest reaches of the world and to anyone willing to engage in the process.” Farfetched? Maybe. But Lindsay said such a goal is made more feasible with the advent of such products as Apple’s own iMovie, “which opens the door to empowering people all over the world.”
The folks at the Garage have already completed a project in Zimbabwe. Over a period of two weeks, they shot over 800 photos, 10 short movies, and 20 QuickTime VR (virtual reality) scenes. This work was completed with the help of students from the Zimbabwe Institute of Visual Arts.
“We’re building an infrastructure to let us do multimedia worldwide,” he said. “It’s already happening as can be seen in the work of tour companies and non-profit organizations. The future of a lot of digital graphics and related products won’t be just in the US. At dvGarage, we want to provide an on-ramp for people all over the world that have, up to now, been left out of this area.”
You’ll need QuickTime 4.1.2 or better to access the dvGarage. You can get Apple’s multimedia software at the QT download site.