Teaching n00bs

[kcy88]

That time of year again...
So, I was just wondering how other teams are training new members who are interested in doing animation. Since I oversee my team's animation group this year, I'm planning on assigning homework once every week from now until kickoff. Right now, we don't have easy access to 3ds max at school, and from what i hear, it's a complicated process to even install 3dsm on the good school pcs...

I just finished typing up the first homework assignment. It's basically downloading the updated 3DS Max 6.chm file from the discreet website, and defining some basic terms and knowing the layout of the application. I think that's a good start.

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seems to me everyone is quiet in these forums now.... where is everyone?????

[Rafi A]

TUTORIALS if you can, are the best way.

Also, this year, we got a pretty sweet deal with a community college, and got them to teach 3DS and Inventor classes twice a week

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by kcy88

seems to me everyone is quiet in these forums now.... where is everyone?????

Ha Ha.. That's pretty funny.

[Cory]

#1 suggestion: DON'T call them n00bs

[Testament-Doom]

Originally Posted by Cory

#1 suggestion: DON'T call them n00bs

Yo n00bs, sup?

.........*gets beaten up repeatedly*

.....ow. Well alyways, I'm also starting to learn 3DS max but unfortinatley I don't obtain a copy myself. We do have one in the school though but we haven't gotten it installed yet. Hopefully we will

[Denman]

n00bs will piss people off, and it probably makes them think your a "1337" person (i e sad people...)

Its best to learn on the job as it were , so it might be better if you set them a mini task to complete.... eg we are building a wooden robot to test different wheel configurations over 6 weeks to help us building (probably....)

[phrontist]

Our main mentor is the Technical Drawing/Computer Graphics teacher and he assigns modeling of the robot to his classes. There is a lot of overlap between technical drawing and robotics so this works out nicely. Last year we didn't have a submission due to paperwork snafus but this year we plan to crush all other submissions with incredibly detailed models.

[Joshua May]

Have them work through many of the different tutorials that come with 3DSMax. I self-taught myself during the build period our rookie year, and produced a not-to-shabby animation after just having completed the tutorials and fooling around with the software for a while. Once their done with some of the tutorials, I'd start giving them parts and have them model them. Start off with the simple things, then as they are more successful move on the the more intricate and difficult parts. Then have them move one to animating them.

[kcy88]

hehehe, i didn't mean to offend any1 by refering new memebrs as n00bs.


yea, the tutorials shipped with 3ds max are really useful. But I don't like most of the tutorials on the web. Many of the tutorials require some knowledge of 3ds max, or the steps aren't clear enough.

aren't we all n00bs still??
hehe

[Bcahn836]

we just call them rookies,

[M. Hicken]

a cattle prod and a taser are usually the easiest way to teach/ controll freshman. Some of the fresh in my engineering class will not be touching the robot unless they mature a little before the kickoff
i fear my teams legacy (or lack there of) will die when the seniors leave this year

[Bcahn836]

We just had our second meeting, we were getting ready to do a demonstration with the robot, and a set screw was loose and the motor was spinning but the wheel wasn't. So we turned off the power and unplugged the battery and showed the rookies how to diagnose the problem and fix it. After we fixed it while we were about to close the the top on the Electronics board we turned back on the power, at that same instance a rookie hit the controls sitting on the table, which we left on. No one was hurt but it gave us all a scare.Curiosity of the freshmen almost killed the veteran. I hope it doesn't take someone getting hurt the teach a rookie to DO NOT TOUCH.

[Steve W]

Originally Posted by Bcahn836

I hope it doesn't take someone getting hurt the teach a rookie to DO NOT TOUCH.

Rookies? I can't even stop our veterans from not touching.

[Bcahn836]

I would hope that a veteran would know better than touch the controls while someone is working on the robot!!

[Andy Baker]

Veterans should also know to turn off the power to the robot and OI when it is being worked on. Don't tell the rookies to "not touch the robot", show them how to work safely.

Andy B.