The shutdown of live events related to the COVID-19 pandemic are unprecedented. In this time many extremely intelligent and talented people find themselves with no work to do. This page is meant to aggregate some resources for these individuals.
On this page, you will find free stage lighting related training and free training for other fields that those with an event production background may be well suited for.
This list will be continually updated until this crisis is over.
Free Stage Lighting Training and other resources
- The X-Laser Website - We've offered educational content for years, please take a moment to check some of it out
- https://courses.etcconnect.com/ - ETC's excellent training program for their products is temporarily free to the community
- https://www.learnstagelighting.com/ - Our friend David Henry has a site dedicated to teaching stage lighting. Some paid content but a ton of free content as well.
- https://youtu.be/ZoyhaQ196Nk - Christian Jackson's video on programming a show on GrandMA2 from scratch is the single best free resource for learning the MA2 console I've seen. You can follow along and experiment with what you've learned using the MAonPC software for free, but know that you cannot get output from MAonPC without MA hardware connected
- https://support.obsidiancontrol.com/Content/Support/Downloads.htm - Obsidian's Onyx control system is robust and free to use for up to 4 universes of ArtNet or sACN. They are offering free training for this system as well: https://obsidiancontrol.com/events/Obsidian_online_classes
- https://chamsyslighting.com/pages/magicq-downloads - Chamsys is another great lighting control system with free use for up to 16 universes of artnet or sACN. They have an excellent video training series at https://chamsyslighting.com/pages/training
- Gear it First - Our friend Arnoldo Offerman makes great tutorial videos geared for the mobile entertainer, completely free
Other Free Training
- https://www.codecademy.com/ - Code Academy is a site offering not just courses in many different types of code, but also full paths to prepare you for a particular career or programming niche. They offer a ton of free content but their paid program is also very reasonably priced at $20 per month.
- https://www.khanacademy.org/ - Khan Academy is a robust, broadband learning tool. They cover everything from Preschool to College level. In particular we'd recommend looking into their offerings for entrepreneurship, personal finance and computer science.
- Learn Fusion 360 - Autodesk's Fusion 360 is an incredibly powerful tool for 3D modeling, design and manufacturing. We use this tool every day and it's available for educational and hobby use completely free. These tutorial videos by Lars Christensen are a great way to get started
- Learn DaVinci Resolve - Resolve by Black Magic Design is quickly becoming one of the most used platforms for video editing and color correction. It's also completely free to use and they offer excellent free training on how to use it.
- Become a certified Haas CNC operator - Haas is the largest manufacturer of CNC mills and lathes in the world and they offer a comprehensive free operator certification program. The program is designed for someone with no machining experience to allow them to get work as an operator at a machine shop. The test involves having to go to a Haas factory outlet and get hands on with one of the machines, but it's completely free to do.