Cineversity

Hi Mark,

It is not that I have all the answers when I get a question. Besides that, in 1994 I bought Pixar’s Render Man, and the code line interface overwhelmed me (I worked with Archicad and was office- and design- lead of an architectural firm with 18-20 people, I was frustrated with code line renderer). My second call to the local support was answered not really quote-able.
Since then I never wanted to be like this support guy. Never ever.

I learn since then roughly every month (on an average) a new application or a major update. This keeps the feeling I have while having a “hitting the wall experience” fresh in my mind. I have the most respect to anyone challenging him/herself to learn constantly more. I try to support artist to the best of my ability, and yes, I wish I could bottle up what I was able to get from all my great teachers in the past decades. I did 1,200+ tutorials, and close to 500 one minute clips so far, besides several of tens of thousands of replies and nearly as much c4d scene files shared. But YES: I have to learn every day. So, we are all in the same boat to a certain degree, or at least on the same river.

Nothing can make me more happy inside of Cineversity than to share (yes: I overshare) and that something makes set ups work for the artist who asks. Every question leads to some kind of solution, so there is no waste in time to go through it until it’s done. Many people take advantage later on of it, and that is great as well. So, thanks for your question, and going through with it. Feels good, right?

Have a great time!

I deeply appreciate your wonderful attitude, Doc.  Thanks for your kindness and willingness to share what you know. 

As a teacher of Photoshop for nearly 20 years, I know how important it is for me to always keep in mind that those I am teaching are all at a different place in their learning journey.  Therefore, even when I teach more advanced users, I never assume that they know the basics and always share with them in a clear, step-by-step fashion.  Granted, with more advanced users, I move much faster through the process. 

Now that I’m on the learning end, I’m grateful for people like you who are so willing to help.  For whatever reason, I’m finding learning Cinema 4D much more difficult than learning Photoshop.  Perhaps this is because I’m older now, perhaps it’s because Cinema 4D is so much deeper, and perhaps it’s because Cinema feels much less intuitive to my mind.  This said, I have stories to tell, so I struggle and fumble my way through in order to find new ways to express myself.  Also, I love the act of learning (at least most of the time). 

Thanks, Doc!

Sounds great, Mark!

I always assume that things are not really intuitive. When I take your Photoshop example, what do we really know already that leads to this Intuition. While intuition means to know things immediately. Given a long history, that is not immediately. I learned to use Ps 2.5, no layers, 25 years ago. I really don’t think it was intuitive, even it had nearly no functionality, compared with today.
What I try to do here is to make a point, that being comfortable in one application sets often a contrast to the application we learn - now. It feels claustrophobic perhaps.

Yes, Cinema’s manual (at least the last printed edition back in the days…), was ten times the pages of the Photoshop manual, given the same time. So, yes, one has to make a judgement call what to focus on, after the basics are done, to not get lost. I try to answer to all parts of C4D, and the pipeline, so my learning requires more passion than my focus or area in my art would force me otherwise. But what I get in return is something that I call the magic of combinations. Endless with C4D. Hence why I really know, that no one knows all combinations ever, and so I can freely say, sometimes I have to learn on the fly.

In a nutshell, your are on a good path, but never underestimate the little gaps left from the basics, they are black holes and eat into your create. I hope I was able to fill some of them in this thread. So, imagine yourself growing in a healthy way. Never say “Perhaps this is because I’m older now”, that pushes you in the wrong direction, the brain is only getting old if not used. Like the saying is, train only the muscles that you like to keep. I would say, train only the parts of your brain that you like to keep. So, keep going, pushing the envelope and ask to accelerate your growth.

ENJOY!