YouTube is a great resource and source of entertainment. LifeHacker takes a look at the best ways to get better video, download clips, and just find the video you’re looking for at YouTube.

LifeHacker’s Top 10 YouTube Hacks.

Jason Busby (President/CEO of 3D Buzz) did release some days ago the latest  3D Buzz Houdini training DVD “Houdini FastTrack” If you starting to learn Houdini we highly recommend to take a look into this training.

Included with FastTrack are seven separate training products :

• Houdini Technical Director Series: Volume I
• Houdini Technical Director Series: Volume II
• Houdini Fundamentals (High-Rez)
• The Bridge Asset (High-Rez)
• The Elevator Asset (High-Rez)
• Complete first release of Houdini “How Do I” Series – Available in hard copy format for the first time!

The content was recorded using Houdini 9. You can obtain the completely free Houdini Apprentice from Side Effects Software.

Earlier articles on Houdini:

• Side Effects Software presents Houdini 9.5 Fluids
• 3dbuzz releases 12 hours Houdini 9 Video Tutorial
• Houdini 9.5 public beta available
• Houdini 9 Public Beta and demo reel & workflow videos

Andrew Kramer and the Video Copilot Team did relaunch on August, 1st the new Video Copilot web site. To celebrate the web site relaunch you can benefit from a sale which is valid on all products and bundles. The 15% Coupon valid through Tuesday August 5th, 2008 Use Coupon Code: “VC4″

Amongst many of the new features that the web site offers we really like the new look and feel. The new website is very clean and beatifull.

Florian Wild did post six great Maya and Mental Ray Tutorials. Florian’s tutorial series is intended to be used with mental ray for Autodesk Maya 8.5. Every single of his Tutorial is very helpful. A highlight is really how Florian approaches the series “six-part tutorial series, discussing possibly the most challenging kind of 3D environment: interiors. mental ray (for Maya) users typically get cold feet and sweating fingers when it comes to this “closed combat”; the royal league of environment lighting. It’s for no reason though, as all you need for the battle is a simple field manual (this tutorial), and just a little bit of patience…”

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Donnie takes you in his latest PhotoShop Video Tutorial through “Displacements”

Bradley Gabe published a new XSI 7 video tutorial XSI ICE: An Artist Tour part 2

Bradley Gabe breaks down the steps of a production scenario into discreet problems, explaining how each can be solved, and how to find the right nodes for solving.

1) Filter emission using weight map
2) Difference between Random and Turbulize
3) Using a Turbolized Color map to trigger simulation
4) Setting up a simple state machine
5) Using timers to change states

ICE: An Artist Tour #2 — Production Primer from Bradley Gabe on Vimeo.

Bradley Gabe shows some fundamentals of using factory ICE nodes for creating particle effects:

1) Simple emission
2) Add Gravity
3) Randomize particle attributes
4) Add interaction with other scene geometry

ICE: An Artist Tour #1 from Bradley Gabe on Vimeo.