Bristol Creatives Gold Members now have exclusive access to Bristol East Side Traders (BEST) Digital Resource Centre at The Old Schoolhouse, Salisbury Street Studios in Barton Hill.

We have three lovely new iMacs tooled up to the max with a range of creative software that can help members create artwork, prepare images, edit audio and video and generally create new work and promote themselves more professionally. The three iMacs are available to Gold Members on a Pay-As-You-Go basis. Bristol Creatives are also coordinating a range of access courses aimed at artists, makers and performers to enable them to get the most out of these facilities.

Digital Training Courses

These short access courses are packaged to give useful, bite-sized instruction specifically aimed at artists, makers and performers.

Furthermore, Bristol Creatives Gold Members benefit from substantial discounts off course fees, so be sure to mention if you're a paid-up Gold Member when booking.

Digital Training Courses: March-April 2010:

- Basic Website Design & Maintenance Using Wordpress
- Photoshop For Beginners
- Photoshop - Tricks of the Trade
- Design For Print
- Adobe Illustrator For Beginners
- Final Cut Video Editing For Beginners

Basic Website Design & Maintenance Using Wordpress

Do you need a website you can edit? Then read on: this course is specifically aimed at artists, makers and performers who either don't have a website or who are fed up with not being to edit and manage the website they have. Also suited to people who want to set-up and personalise a blog.

Artist Ruth Piper says:

"For quite a while I had a website that although looked good was frustratingly very complicated to maintain. My aim was to go for a new design that I could update myself. But I was not up to speed with the software, and had a limited budget. Eventually I found Bristol Creatives short course, ‘Basic Website Design & Maintenance Using Wordpress’ and I would like to express my complete satisfaction with the results.

"Thanks to the the excelent tuition of Keith Reay who was a pleasure to work with, I now have within my budget, a good looking professional website that I can update myself and also use as a blog if I wish. It answers all my needs as an online brochure and showcase for my work and above all, I am in control! Amazing."

You will be taught how to set up and style a simple website or blog using Wordpress - www.wordpress.org/. WordPress is a state-of-the-art publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability. WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time. The following websites have been personalised/ styled using the Wordpress platform:

www.eastonartstrail.co.uk
www.ruthpiper.co.uk/
www.jackypuzey.com

You will also be shown how to manage and update your website once it has been set up. This is a two part course: part 1 will cover setting up and managing the website, whilst part 2 will concentrate on design and styling. This will allow participants to produce essential materials between part 1 and part 2.

Dates: Part 1 - Wednesday 31 March 2010, 10am - 5pm and Part 2 - Wednesday 7 April 2010, 10am - 5pm.

Cost: Gold Members £325 inc VAT (Non Members £445 inc VAT) for two days training (Part 1 & Part 2) and includes the cost of purchasing or renewing your chosen domain name (website address) and website hosting for one year.

Photoshop For Beginners: Image Preparation For Print And The Internet

Don't know the difference between and jpeg and a tiff? Do you want to email a portfolio of images of your work to people but end up sending huge file sized images that take an age to send/ receive? Are you concerned about posting up high quality images of your work online that people can download and keep for free?

This course covers all the basic essentials regarding preparing your digital images for printing and for use on the internet. You will learn how to get the best out of your images, including cropping, resizing, resolution and file sizes using Photoshop. Sometimes your best photo needs some tweaking, so the course will also include getting the best out of your image, using level and colour adjustments and some of the tools available in this package. The course is aimed at novices and intermediate ability artists who need to prepare artwork or show off their images online and in the printed format. Attendees are advised to bring along problematic images or those they wish to use for a project.

You will be using Adobe Photoshop CS4 and will be provided with a hand out at the end of the course to help remind you what you have learned. Don't worry if you don't have a copy of Photoshop CS4 at home/work, you can always hire one of our iMacs on a pay-as-you-go basis from as little as £20 for three hours, so in future you can come in with a batch of images to adjust and prepare them for print/internet using our facilities and then either save them to disc or email them to yourself ready for you to send out and use as required.

Dates: Tuesday 6 April 2010, 6.30 - 9.30pm
Cost: Gold Members £60 inc VAT, Non Members £85 inc VAT.

Photoshop Photo Editing - Tricks of the Trade

This one day workshop is suitable for beginners and for people with a basic knowledge of using Photoshop who want to learn more about how to use this software to get the most out their photographs. The course will cover:

Photoshop Fundamentals:
The Interface
Rulers, Grids, Guides and snap to behaviour
Image Resolution and Interpolation
Working with Layers
Use of Image History
File Formats
Backing up and Archiving

Configuring Photoshop:
Calibrate the monitors in the workshop, and getting the printer working in
sync with our colour profile
Display Calibration and profiling, getting your colour right
Photoshop Preferences

Image Processing:
The histogram
Colour and tone correction, Levels, Curves and other adjustments
Sharpening Images
Batch Processing
Retouching Basics, retouching a portrait
Black and white and other toning options and colour effects and darkroom effects
Layers Selections and Masking
Photoshop Filters

This course will be run by professional photographer Liz Eve. Liz shoots and retouches large format digital images of architecture and people for corporate, architectural, public sector and music industry clients. You can see some of her work by visiting www.fotohaus.co.uk

Dates: Dates To Be Confirmed, please email sally@bristolcreatives.co.uk for dates and times.

Cost: Gold Members £117.50 inc VAT or Non-Members £165 inc VAT.

Design For Print

This basic course will teach you how to design smart, easy to read business cards, leaflets and postcards and will show you how to prepare your artwork for professional printing.

Keith Reay has a degree in Graphic Design and has been designing for print for over twenty years.

Dates: Tuesday 13 April 2010, 6.30 - 9.30pm
Cost: Gold Members £60 inc VAT, Non Members £85 inc VAT.

Adobe Illustrator For Beginners

This three hour course is designed for artists, designer makers and print makers who want to be able to prepare camera ready artwork for photo etching, silk screen printing, etc.

Learn how to import and trace scanned images, how to use the pen tool to draw detailed and accurate curves and lines, scaling and resizing artwork, type and editing fonts, drawing basic geometric shapes, how to use smart guides to create accurate artwork, using layers and grouping objects and colour in outlines and fills. You will also be provided with a hand out at the end of the lesson covering everything that was taught with image reference to assist you.

Dates: Wednesday 14 April 2010, 6.30 - 9.30 pm, please email sally@bristolcreatives.co.uk to book your place.

Cost: Gold Members £60 inc VAT, Non Members £85 inc VAT.

Final Cut Video Editing For Beginners

This workshop has been designed to provide artists with an introduction to using Final Cut to edit and produce video. The two day workshop will cover:

Day 1: Beginners FCP (Part1)

This workshop is for artists with little or no previous experience of Final Cut Pro or artists who have worked with other editing programmes and need to familiarise themselves with FCP.

It will consist of:

Setting up FCP, logging and capturing video footage

Moving footage onto the timeline

Working with the timeline and the timeline tools (for sound and video)

Titles, transitions and effects

Layering clips on the timeline, re-sizing and split screen

Planning an edit [shape of film]

Decision making process (planning future shots)

Saving film (formats available)

Day 2: Beginners & Intermediate (Part 2)

This workshop is for artists with some previous experience of FCP and have a basic understanding of the program, or need to re-familiarise themselves with FCP. This session can also be a tool to explore specialized editing processes i.e. dance film, animation, etc.

This workshop will consist of:

Decision making process - the shape of the film

How choices influence the rhythm and dynamic of the film

Layering footage - experimenting with editing and layering clips

Manipulating footage: speed, reversal and levels of opacity

Working with re-sizing and split screen

Effects and coloring

Importing music/sound, sound manipulation and layering

Saving film (different formats) and Capture Scratch

DVD burning

Specialised Areas of Editing: (discuss with workshop leader prior to session)

- Dance film: editor as choreographer, dynamic and rhythm as structure, relationship between frame, dance and music

- Linear filmmaking: working with narrative, voice over, flow of the story, adding music and sound effects

- Music videos: syncing sound and video footage, layering timeline, effects

- Artist films: creative choices, atmosphere, use of frame size effects & coloring

- Documentary: voice over, text/titles, credits, adding still jpegs to timeline

- Documenting a live event/performance, shot choices, voice over and sound syncing

- Animation: editing animation, adding music, voice over, sound/music

This workshop is run by professional visual artist Mel Shearsmith. Visit www.sevensecretwondersofbristol.co.uk to see examples of Mel's work.

Dates: To be confirmed. Please email sally@bristolcreatives.co.uk if you are interested in booking a place on this course.

Cost: Gold Members £117.50 inc VAT for one day or £176.50 for both days, Non Members £164.50 for one day or £235 inc VAT for both days. Please state whether you want to book Part 1 or Part 2 or both when you book.

Please note: These courses are designed specifically for artists, makers and performers and are NOT suitable for more experienced Web or Graphic Designers or Animators.

If you have individual training requirements for any of the Adobe Professional Creative Suite 4 software family, which also includes Flash, Dreamweaver, Soundbooth, InDesign and After Effects, as well as Photoshop and Illustrator please email sally@bristolcreatives.co.uk as she should be able to organise a course specific to your needs.

Booking Details

To book a place on any of these courses email sally@bristolcreatives.co.uk with your name, telephone number and the course name and date/time you want to book, together with your unique Gold Membership number if you want to claim your discount.

You will be invoiced by email which will allow you to pay for your course by credit or debit card securely online. Alternatively you can request to pay by cheque, but we won't be able to guarantee your place until you have paid in full. For more information about these courses or to discuss your specific requirements email sally@bristolcreatives.co.uk.

Pay-As-You-Go

Bristol Creatives who have subscribed to our new paid Gold Membership Package can hire the iMacs on a Pay-As-You-Go basis by the half day, day or week (one-to-one technical assistance can be arranged too).

Rates & Booking Information

Pay-as-you-go: Individual iMac workstations (three available)

Half day (3.5 hours) - £20
Full day (7 hours) - £35
Five Days (35 hours) - £150

Technician - £30 per hour (must be booked in advance)

Pay-as-you-go: The whole suite (all three iMac workstations, ideal if you want to run your own courses or workshops)

Half day (3.5 hours) - £60
Full day (7 hours) - £100
Five Days (35 hours) - £400

Hardware Available:

3 x 24" 2.8 ghz iMac intel core 2 duo 4gb memory 500gb hard drive with additional graphics cards.

A4/A3 B&W and colour photocopier/printer

Software Available:

Adobe Creative Suite 4, including:
Photoshop
Illustrator
Dreamweaver
Flash
Soundbooth
After Affects
Premier
Encore
InDesign

and Final Cut Pro (currently only on one iMac)

To check availability and to make a booking simply email info@bristolcreatives.co.uk
or call Sue or Christine on 0117 941 5800.

Please Note: Only Bristol Creatives who have subscribed to our new paid Gold Membership Package will be able to hire individual iMacs on a Pay-As-You-Go basis.