From the course: Digital Media Foundations

What you should know before you begin

From the course: Digital Media Foundations

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What you should know before you begin

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- [Instructor] There's very little you need to know at the start of this course. You'll need to have some basic computer skills, things like how to click a mouse. I would say if you know enough to be able to copy a file from one folder to another, you probably have enough computer skills to follow this course. You need to know that video is a thing; that timecode is a thing; that computers use data to capture color, and light, and sound; that human perception is different to camera capture; and I suppose it's important to begin by considering that some of the ideas you have about these fundamentals might be imprecise. I've presented these topics to students all around the world, ranging from complete beginners to multiple heads of technology at major broadcast and film companies. I think I can honestly say, without exception, everyone learned something new. Part of the challenge of working with media, graphic, and compositional technologies is that much of the technology's obscured by excellent software design. This means you can often get by if you click auto somewhere. This means there's relatively little incentive to learn and develop a deeper understanding of the tools available to us. However, it's only through this deeper understanding that we truly master our art. Hundreds of years ago, painters would learn about colors by creating their own, grinding semi-precious stones and researching pigments in nature. They'd explore the workings of the human body to better paint muscle, skin and hair. Our ink today is as ephemeral as color values on a virtual pixel, but the principles of the perception of light haven't changed. Just as we have changed very little since the era of the artistic enlightenment, the ancient Greek studies on form, or the very earliest engravings, formed hundreds of thousands of years ago. To be human is to perceive, and we have some of the most fluid and adaptable plastic arts available today. It's a wonderful time to be a creator.

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