Very nice of you Jeff. I certainly understand that missing files lower the fun to learn anything. I have to admit that I haven’t checked that point at all, as that is not really my part to do. Anyway, it’s not nice.
Have you checked the tutorials in the help content, did you encounter problems there as well? (Image)
I have had suggested to do a complete new “Starter Series” a couple of weeks ago, certainly with your December post in mind. There is not “Go” for this so far, and it might take too long to wait for you on that either.
Since 2004 I have though C4D in some areas, not only here. My concerns in providing material are based on the fact that it is not a collection of cool tricks and tips that makes good training. I learn constantly around everything along the Feature Film pipeline. Given that frame, I must say, that 60-80% of the material that I have watched (free or subscription wise) have flaws in their research or method. Yes, I’m picky with it, and it drives me nuts when I see material that has not a well though out base underneath, which is true for most of the stuff I have seen in the past decades all over the place. In the last years I have watched a little bit over 5,000 tutorials and mostly I’m not happy with the content. I watch it to find mistakes in the curriculum construction, and how they build up knowledge. I have certainly made mistakes there either, and the first couple of hundred tutorials were never used here for example, stuff from 2004 etc. ;o)
Having said all of that, since roughly a decade I think about on-line learning and how to design it. It is difficult if it should be in the “one size fits all” category, but my research tells me, there is a lot to improve. I do my “homework” and so I know that I do not just sit down and record some “starter training”. It would be simple to do, without focusing on educational methods, just doing the read-out-lout manual tutorials and some cool tricks. This is not what I like to do. I base this on my very own material that I use for “starter hands on training” and where I got direct feedback from people about. I hope I have created some interest in this series I have mentioned above.
Starter Training… Currently I work on a “Photography for 3D Artists” series. It will be over 200 tutorials. Having photographed professionally since several decades, I know that most “textures” for example are just one part of the equation why 3D looks like Computer Graphic, will say not good. It is not done with just taking some images or buying even this kind of stuff. I have really no idea how to split this up in Starter, Intermedium and Pro section, as there is no “starter quality” that I would like to share, and leave the people perhaps in the believe that is all there is to know about this subject. Quality starts everywhere, see alone Patrick’s modeling course. I guess many people have seen it, but who really went one time practically along? If the model isn’t “first class”, nothing will fix that later on.
In a nut shell, each part in 3D needs attention, it is a job, well—many professional jobs if you do all alone, and if you like to get good in it, it is not done in a short time. Cineversity has over 2,000 tutorials and we have not reached a saturation of that field. Will we ever able to do that? No, because pretty much anything on this planet can be visualized, simulated and animated in 3D/4D. Everything could be discussed, but we would end up in millions of tutorials. It’s not simple to find a common ground here, which makes everyone happy.
Hence the Starter material, which I tried to do with the PXC and my very own Daily Tool-time. But to go through several hundred tutorials tool by tool is a question of patience. To my knowledge each of these were download during the initial run up to 700 times a day. I had the impression that a core of 300 followed along over a span of three years. Many of these people are in leading position in the industry now. But it takes time. I try to compress that as much as possible and as much it is responsible—but there is exactly the problem.
The best solution that I know of, is a mix out of tutorials and forum. Just tutorials is not a good idea at all to start with. A reason why I spend time answering. So, when ever you hit the wall, please ask. Think of 3D as [1]modeling, [2]texturing, [3]lighting, [4]camera, [5]animation and [6]render (well post production as well preproduction). However these six main areas need to be covered, and I would start to go along in the way I have listed them [1-6]. I hope that is the shortest way I can support any orientation.
All the best
Sassi
