Research Resource Discovery

Learn the foundation of player movement in 2d platformer games. This course offers a breakdown of common player behaviors as well as some advanced techniques to bring your 2D platformer to life. Jesse Freeman shows how to detect input from the keyboard and controller, make the player walk and run, and add in more advanced movement behaviors, such as ducks, double and long jumps, and sliding down walls. Plus, learn how to make your character pick up items and fire projectiles like fireballs.

Unity is the number one game engine, the favorite of game developers working on iOS apps and console games alike. This course picks up the programming side of Unity, continuing where our other Unity courses leave off. Michael House concentrates on scripting, custom GUI controls, prefab customization, multiplayer networking features like chat, and optimizations that will make your game play better on mobile devices and desktops alike. Take a deep dive into Unity's controls and learn how to build more interactive, high-performance 3D games.

NOTE: This course requires Unity 4.5.5. The newer versions of Unity have done away with the GUI system used in this course, so the interfaces included for many of the scenes will not work with 4.6 and higher. You can download Unity 4.5.5 at http://unity3d.com/get-unity/download/archive.

Build beautiful and effective visualizations driven by external data with Microsoft Visio 2016. Visio MVP Scott Helmers offers advanced techniques for working with data in Visio diagrams.

First, learn how to apply data and display fields to shapes and run the many prebuilt reports offered in Visio 2016, as well as customize your own. Then find out how to visualize data with callouts, data bars, and icon sets; change the color of shapes as data values change; link diagrams to external data from Excel and Access; align data with flow charts, timelines, organization charts, and other Visio diagrams; and share your new data-driven diagrams with others—even if they don't have Visio. This course will help you accomplish more than you ever thought was possible with Visio, and communicate more effectively than you ever could with static data alone.

Lynda.com is a PMI Registered Education Provider. This course qualifies for professional development units (PDUs). To view the activity and PDU details for this course, click here.

The PMI Registered Education Provider logo is a registered mark of the Project Management Institute, Inc.

Hooks are key components of WordPress plugin development. There are two types: filters modify data and actions perform tasks. Gain a fundamental understanding of how these features work, and learn how to use the built-in action and filter hooks in WordPress to build your own plugins. In the first half of the course, instructor Carrie Dils reviews the plugin API and demonstrates the basics of actions and filters. Already familiar with these core concepts? Skip to chapter three, where she covers what you need to make your own hooks. Learn about load order and writing callback functions, and using third-party hooks. Last but not least, Carrie builds a demo plugin that shows practical real-world uses for actions and filters.

Learn the fundamentals of effective advertising and marketing communications. Former NYC ad executive Jane Barratt provides an overview of the current media landscape, and the building blocks and relative costs of a basic advertising plan. She outlines the basic process of getting your message to market and provides tools to help you refine your market focus, define your customer profiles, and establish your overall media strategy. Whether you want to do it yourself, partner with ad agencies, or work in a corporate marketing department, this course will help you understand what the ad footprint of any company, regardless of size, needs to succeed.

Lynda.com is a PMI Registered Education Provider. This course qualifies for professional development units (PDUs). To view the activity and PDU details for this course, click here.

The PMI Registered Education Provider logo is a registered mark of the Project Management Institute, Inc.

In this course, marketing expert Anson Alexander explains how advertising works on Instagram and how Facebook Ads Manager works. Anson goes over the types of content you can use to advertise on Instagram and then shows how to create, upload, and format ads. He demonstrates how to target specific audiences, implement a budget, and run scheduled campaigns. He also covers analytics so you can discover how to adjust your advertising efforts based on performance information you find in analytics reports.

Set up your business to reach your ideal customers by advertising on LinkedIn, the world's largest professional network. The marketing capabilities of LinkedIn include features for posting original content, managing your company's brand presence, performing content marketing, creating ads, and more—all while targeting specific audiences that are the most valuable to your business. This course provides both an introduction to advertising on LinkedIn and a step-by-step walkthrough of how to implement strategies using the tools provided. Budgeting, measurement, and analytics along with targeting tactics are also covered.

It's already home to a sought-after and active target audience. But with the introduction of promoted pins, Pinterest is becoming a digital advertising platform to reckon with. Promoted pins look almost identical to regular pins—and because they are perpetual, they continue to engage long after your campaign has ended. In this course, Anson Alexander provides tips and tricks for creating effective, engaging pins and winning campaigns on Pinterest. Learn, he shows how to create a business account on Pinterest and post your first promoted pin. Then Anson demonstrates how to create campaigns, set goals, and specify your target, schedule, and budget. Using the tools in Pinterest, you can target by interest, demographics, or keywords. Finally Anson reviews the analytics tools in Pinterest for tracking your metrics and conversions—and optimizing future performance.

In this course, marketing expert Anson Alexander shows you how advertising works on YouTube. Anson demonstrates how to upload videos, create campaigns, set a budget, and target the right audience using Google AdWords. He explains how to create ad groups and target users by demographics. He also shows you how to measure the performance of your video content and then make adjustments based on the analytics.

Intel Advisor

People who have visited your website have already demonstrated an interest in your product or service—even if they haven't made a purchase. By retargeting these visitors with carefully positioned ads, you can exponentially increase your conversion rates. Google refers to this process as remarketing. In this course, marketing consultant Adriaan Brits shows you how to set up an effective remarketing campaign with Google AdWords and Analytics. Discover how to build remarketing lists, link accounts, use remarketing tags, and target custom audiences. Plus, learn about more advanced solutions such as dynamic remarketing and remarketing lists for search ads (RLSA). Along the way, Adriaan introduces you to best practices and tips for optimizing your efforts, increasing ROI, and creating more efficient campaigns.

People who have used your app or website have already demonstrated an interest in your product or service. How are you staying connected with this valuable audience? Learn how to retarget visitors and increase conversions via remarketing with Google's one-two punch of solutions, AdWords and Analytics. Marketing consultant Adriaan Brits shows you how to set up an effective remarketing campaign in Google AdWords, and then track your campaign in Google Analytics. Discover how to build remarketing lists, link accounts, and use remarketing tags and custom audiences. Plus, learn about more advanced solutions such as dynamic remarketing and remarketing lists for search ads (RLSA). Along the way, Adriaan introduces you to best practices and tips for optimizing your efforts, increasing ROI, and creating more efficient campaigns.

This course is part of a Learning Path approved by the American Marketing Association.

Gain the skills you need to become an AMA Professional Certified Marketer (PCM) in Digital Marketing by using the industry-leading courses and resources in the Learning Path. Take the AMA certification exam to show that you have what it takes to lead the digital transformation.

Beautiful places are beautiful from the air, too. At many great landscape photography destinations, you can take helicopter tours or rent air time in a small plane. In this course, photographer Justin Reznick takes to the skies above New Zealand. Watch and learn with Justin as he plans and packs his gear, meets with the pilot, establishes a route, and take his shots. In the wrap-up portion of the course, he reviews the final selects from the shoot.

Grow your business with affiliate marketing. Affiliate programs have a lot of perks for your marketing and branding efforts. They use a network of professional marketers to promote your products, who only get paid when those products get sold. Learn how to start your own affiliate program with these tips from affiliate marketing expert Geno Prussakov. Geno looks at different program structures, compensation models, terms and policies, and more. Then he shows you how to launch your program and recruit and manage affiliates.

Affiliate marketing is a complicated, multidisciplinary practice that is often misunderstood. At its heart, it is a performance-based marketing technique in which affiliates are financially rewarded for sending customers to another website to purchase goods or services. If you have a website, blog, or other online property, you too can earn money through affiliate marketing. Expert Geno Prussakov explores basic principles, from payment models to typical affiliate agreements; winning tactics and techniques, as well as roadblocks to future earnings; and the day-to-day practices that result in a successful affiliate marketing strategy.

Looking for a compelling alternative to Adobe Illustrator or CorelDRAW? Affinity Designer is a powerful and affordable vector-design application mixed with pixel-based texture and retouching tools—all in one easy-to-use interface. It was created with the professional-level features that any artist, designer, or illustrator needs to execute high-quality results.

Here Ronnie McBride introduces the workflows and tools required to get up to speed with this fast, powerful, and professional application. He shows how to work with workspaces in Affinity Designer, called personas; use the drawing tools; and create custom brushes. This course is designed to help artists feel more confident and become more proficient using Affinity Designer in their own work.

Looking for a compelling alternative to Adobe Illustrator or CorelDRAW? Affinity Designer is a powerful and affordable vector-design application mixed with pixel-based texture and retouching tools—all in one easy-to-use interface. It was created with the professional-level features that any artist, designer, or illustrator needs to execute high-quality results.

Here Ronnie McBride introduces new students to the workflows and tools required to get them up to speed with this fast, powerful, and professional application. He shows how to work with Affinity Designer's workspaces, called personas; use the drawing tools; and create custom brushes. After completing this course, students will feel more confident and proficient at using Affinity Designer in their own work.

Affinity Designer offers a cross-platform vector design tool that's simple, streamlined, and easy to use for UX, UI, and responsive web design. You can use it to create branding materials, websites, app interfaces, logos, and so much more. Learn how to incorporate Affinity Designer's features into your own design process. Here Ronnie McBride shows how to set up your preferences, use artboards, create custom color themes in the Swatches panel, apply styles and gradients, and create wireframes, mockups, UI assets, and hero graphics—all with Affinity Designer's versatile toolset. Once you find out what you can do with Affinity Designer, you may never go back to expensive design software again.

Serif's Affinity Designer offers a lightweight vector design tool for Mac that's simple, streamlined, and easy to use for UX design. Learn how to incorporate Affinity Designer's features into your own design process. Here Ronnie McBride shows how to set up your preferences, use artboards, create custom color themes in the Swatches panel, apply styles and gradients, and create wireframes, mockups, UI assets, and hero graphics—all with Affinity Designer's versatile toolset. Once you find out what you can do with Affinity Designer, you may never go back to expensive design software again.

Affinity Photo is a powerful but approachable image enhancement program that is being embraced by a growing number of photographers. In this course, Steve Caplin shows how to use Affinity Photo's image editing features to do basic portrait retouching, from fixing blemishes and wrinkles to smoothing hair and enhancing eyes. Learn how to split images into high and low frequencies, paint in enhancements, use Curves and lighting adjustments to focus attention on your subject, and more.

Affinity Photo is a powerful photo post-processing program for the Mac platform, combining raw conversion, photo retouching and enhancement, and compositing. In this course, Steve Caplin explores all of Affinity Photo's essential features. Each tutorial helps unlock another of Affinity Photo's capabilities, from its raw conversion and editing controls to its advanced selection tools, image enhancement features, filters and special effects, and compositing features. Whether you want to change the look of a photograph, scale and crop images, or create complex photomontages, each adjustment is completely nondestructive, allowing you to retain quality and incorporate additional effects as you go. To help Photoshop users who may be considering Affinity Photo, Steve also compares and contrasts the two applications.

Affinity Photo is a powerful but approachable image enhancement program that is being embraced by a growing number of photographers. Affinity Photo for the iPad brings the award-winning features of the desktop version to the iPad, and is fully optimized for iOS hardware and touch capabilities. In this course, instructor Steve Caplin shows how to use the image-enhancements features of Affinity Photo for the iPad to do professional-level photo editing on the go. He discusses the interface and works through four real-world projects, such as creating a poster by removing and replacing the background of a portrait. He also shares how to work with raw images, retouch blemishes, and combine exposures, and reviews the advanced features in Affinity Pro, such as tone mapping, distortion correction, and HDR effects.

This course was created and produced by Steve Caplin. We are honored to host this training in our library.

There are many options for creating 3D text in After Effects, including After Effects' own ray-traced 3D feature, third-party plugins, scripts, and now CINEMA 4D Lite. But which one is best for you?

In this course, motion graphics veteran Eran Stern discusses the options and their pros and cons. He'll also compare 2D and 3D typography, and discuss techniques to ensure your work looks great and your message is clear. Plus, learn about tools that behave like subsoftware inside After Effects, allowing you to create stunning 3D text faster than ever before. From built-in tools to advanced third-party plugins, such as Element 3D, BCC Units, and Invigorator Pro, this is your chance to find out which one suits your needs and budget.