I've read a few postings about video training for rookies & thought it was worth a new thread. Here are my rambling thoughts:
- 3ds max training is sorely needed. As most of you know, it's much harder to find a 3D animation mentor than an engineering mentor. Most students just "wing it".
- max has a very steep learning curve. Sure - it has excellent tutorials & help files, but who has the patience to slog through those resources?
- Many teams start an AVA entry but get overwhelmed & miss the deadline. That's heartbreaking.
It would be easy to point a camcorder at a monitor & create a video-based tutorial, but the file size would be massive & the screen quality would be poor.
A better solution is computer-based training (a.k.a. e-learning or interactive courseware). You can get much higher screen quality & much smaller file sizes. There are a number of products available for creating e-learning courses (Captivate, STT Trainer, Firefly, etc.). Most are pretty simple to learn (especially compared to max!). The down side is they aren't free, but most have academic pricing and/or 30 day free trials. Can you create a course in 30 days? Can we sweet-talk one of these e-learning companies into donating a few copies of their software?
To create a quality 3ds max training package would be a big task for a single individual or team. What if we each took one or two topics and created the "chapters"? Then they can be reviewed, approved and posted on a single site, available to all FIRST teams.
Comments?