So my friend John Foster called me on some of my comments here and I should have been more clear in a few places. First of all, I probably shouldn't have made such blanket statements that video training is always better then step-by-step tutorials, they aren't and there are cases when step-by-step stuff rocks. My point was that when working with highly complex CG tools you really need to see some things in action and you won't get that from a screen shot. I also was aiming for people who may be new to 3D here and it's difficult to even begin to think in 3D without really diving in or seeing it action.
The other thing I could have been more clear on is that I don't want to rip on all the training on YouTube vs whatever without clear reasons. What The Gorilla CG Project does really well is pick videos that are high quality in both the way they instruct you and how visually helpful they are. A properly encoded HD video on YouTube is great, a terribly over-compressed video that you can't see anything on isn't much more help then a screen shot.
Great writeup, Chris. I'm very happy to see this series come into the light.
I agree with what you're saying about horrible quality tutorials. Sometimes, they're so bad, I've turned them off and left myself to charge at it on my own. Digital Tutors are great and seem to have a solid standardization for teaching 3D (thought they're not free, sadly). I got a Digital Tutors disk at SIGGRAPH07 that teaches the entireity of a workflow in XSI - setting up UI and controls, modelling, rigging, animating, rendering, post, simulation... it's all there. I've gone through all of it, and am a proficient XSI user as a result.
I've crusied around Gorilla CG a few times in the past. It's certainly the best example of the three. When I found it, it was still early in it's inception, and didn't have a ton of content yet. Still, it was impressive for what it did have, and it's the one I'll be keeping my eyes on.
chrisWhite
Littleton, CO
Comments
The other thing I could have been more clear on is that I don't want to rip on all the training on YouTube vs whatever without clear reasons. What The Gorilla CG Project does really well is pick videos that are high quality in both the way they instruct you and how visually helpful they are. A properly encoded HD video on YouTube is great, a terribly over-compressed video that you can't see anything on isn't much more help then a screen shot.
Hope that clears things up a bit.
Great writeup, Chris. I'm very happy to see this series come into the light.
I agree with what you're saying about horrible quality tutorials. Sometimes, they're so bad, I've turned them off and left myself to charge at it on my own. Digital Tutors are great and seem to have a solid standardization for teaching 3D (thought they're not free, sadly). I got a Digital Tutors disk at SIGGRAPH07 that teaches the entireity of a workflow in XSI - setting up UI and controls, modelling, rigging, animating, rendering, post, simulation... it's all there. I've gone through all of it, and am a proficient XSI user as a result.
I've crusied around Gorilla CG a few times in the past. It's certainly the best example of the three. When I found it, it was still early in it's inception, and didn't have a ton of content yet. Still, it was impressive for what it did have, and it's the one I'll be keeping my eyes on.