It’s time for summer, and with the end of your beloved computer course comes the great possibility that all that hard-learned software knowledge will go out the window. It takes practice and more practice to retain the acumen of using programs like Photoshop or Maya. And if you don’t have your own personal copy, how are you going to keep that acuity?
There are a couple of ways to keep your knowledge from deteriorating even if you do not have direct access to the software. Two of the best ways are watching tutorials and devising your own projects. I recommend you start by watching some tutorials fist and then dreaming up your own project based on those tutorials, so you can come up with a step-by-step plan of execution for your software of choice. This method will reinforce your knowledge, preserve and build upon what you learned.
Why start with tutorials? Tutorials help you develop techniques you would never have thought of while using tools you are familiar with. As you gain new insights you’ll be constantly reminded of how the program you used in school works. Where do you go to find tutorials? Tutorials are easy to find. Using your search engine of choice, you’ll find thousands of pages of tutorials. Find a few that relate to a similar theme, watch them, and hopefully be inspired to your next step.
Once you are inspired from your new insights, come up with your own projects. These projects will be more imaginative and complex than you’d have been able to dream up before watching those tutorials. And again, write out what you plan to do. You can then save these plans so that when summer is over and you return to school, you can bring your creative and intellectual energy an make the most of the new school year.