Interested in Digital Filmmaking?

If you're interested in low-budget filmmaking and a roll-your-sleeves-up approach to special and visual effects, but don't know where to look for help, tutorials and like-minded people, here are a few links to get you started. It's not an exhaustive list, but a handy jumping off point to some of our favourite sites.

FXGuide
VFX Industry news, interviews and tutorials, and home to some of the best video and audio podcasts around, such as FXGuideTV, FXPodcast and Red Centre. FXPhd is a membership-based series of courses on all aspects of digital post-production, such as high-end compositing, and using industry standard software such as Nuke, Flame, Maya, Houdini, After Effects, Final Cut, Color, and more.

Video Co-pilot
If you want to learn After Effects, there's really only one place to go: Andrew Kramer's awesome Video Co-pilot site. He covers the basics, but also features advanced techniques that teach even long-time AE users new tricks in a funny and engaging way.

Creative Cow
Creative Cow is a less polished and more variable community, but still features a lot of handy tutorials on a wide range of creative software from After Effects to Apple Color.

DV Rebel
First of all, if you haven't bought the book, The DV Rebel's Guide: An All-Digital Approach to Making Killer Action Movies on the Cheap, you should stop what you're doing right now and buy it. We pretty much treat it as our bible at Wyld Stallyons. Then head on over the the Rebel Café and dive into the forums which are full of useful information.

Film Riot
Filmmaking on the cheap: Ryan Connolly, together with Tim Allen and Joshua Connolly, show you how. This is basic stuff, but presented with such infectious energy and humour, it makes you want to grab a video camera and start shooting some exploding heads.

ProVideo Coalition
News and tutorials from people who really know what they're doing. Always an interesting read.

The VFX Show
A joint production between FXGuide and The PixelCorps, a team of panellists, including Mike Seymour, John Flowers, Jason Wingrove, Matt Graham and David Stripinis dissect new releases and classic movies, discussing the visual effects in wonderfully geeky depth.

DVXUser
This is where the filmmaking community hang out: a massive, useful and friendly forum. If you have a question about any aspect of digital filmmaking, chances are someone here has asked it already and the answer is a few mouse clicks away.

Have we forgotten anything? Email us and let us know!