student, dummies section

[Guest alkion]

Well as being a student i still got long way to go. Im self taught in 3d and i've been using 3d stoftware for 3 years now-apart from the course in the university.Although i do buy magazines and books and visit internet sites , what i find very difficult is to find a section for architecture students. I would really like to see in your site a section were students could exchange their opinions and be guided at the same time by people like Mr Jeff Mottle. Rendering methods is another issue i'd like to mention as i think little do people now about rendering in layers. Ive heared about combustion and other compositing softwares but it seems no one is available to give any tutorials on how it could be used in an architectural rendering...

And i think you will agree with me in project deadlines the faster you finish your flyaround or walkthrugh the better

 

Thank you i ope my litle voice will be heared

[Lanni]

I think this is an excellent idea. I would suggest that either a new section of the forum is created for beginners where we dump a bunch of beginner stuff into it; or break up the Tips & Techniques section into beginner and advanced. I often have thought about something like this cause I am bad with taking notes on how to do the little things I learned when first doing 3D and now I often forget them and get frustrated. Maybe my idea isn't the best way to go about it but hopefully we can all brainstorm and come up with a good solution.

[kid]

beginner/advanced sub-sections to the tips/techniques sounds like a good idea.

 

alkion, as far as compositing goes; you will find most information on this if you look for film/broadcast CG resources as opposed to architectural resources, and until you have a thorough understanding of the principles of compositing its best not to delve into combustion or the like. Photoshop will be the most valuable tool in getting a grasp on compositioning, and for still image rendering it will be all you need.

[Guest alkion]

Thanks kid

you are right but unfortunately i've only come up with one photoshop tutorial that concerns this procedure. All the others concern combustion Any help?

 

alkion

[kid]

What are you trying to composite exactly? as there are whole books concerned just with compositing itself: like these

 

Also look for After Effects tutorials as this is Adobe's video compositing software, and a lot of the layers/effects work just like photoshop.

 

PS Gaudi was pretty much ripping off William Hogarth's ideas in his 'Analysis of Beauty' written piece of 1753, when he said the straight line belongs to man, the curved line belongs to god. He just changed Hogarths words a bit, but the idea is still the same really

 

[ September 27, 2002, 11:45 AM: Message edited by: kid ]

[nisus]

Hi all,

 

Why would one need to seperate *T&T into advanced and beginner? I feel no need for this, as any tip can be of use to anyone. With a broad collection of tips, you just have to pick what you like.

I don't like the idea to have to search in two seperate areas to find tips, besides where would you trace the line between the two? I feel that a per topic seperation - the current topics in T&T - is much easier to find what you need.

If people think cga lacks 'beginner'-tips I suggest/urge they post questions or share their recent findings!

 

rgds

 

nisus

 

*T&T: Tips & Techniques

[matt_vinoir]

Hi All,

 

IAWN*

 

Thanks,

 

matt

 

( * IAWN = I agree with nisus)

[Guest alkion]

NIsus you are probably right but don't forget that people analyze information in a different way. So if you are in a very advanced level im sure you will understand the need for the rest of the visitors to have a link with less advanced tutorials. Besides this is the internet , I don't think that one more click on your mouse will make your life complicated.

[kid]

my reasoning behind supporting beginner/advanced sub-sections lies in the fact that if you target a tutorial or general tip at a more advanced audience it is possible to leave out all the basic information, and get straight to the point. The beginner will usually need much more information and if the beginner does not know the advice is targetted at advanced users they may get even more confused.

 

Matt, I thought you would have had some understanding of my viewpoint - how did you find www.vray.info when looking for VRay tips and tutorials?

[vizwhiz]

hi There

 

Kid,

 

can we have it both ways? somehow

 

almost any technical conversation here goes over the Top of My pointed Little Head, but This is the level that the people having the conversation are actually at,

 

it probably makes a lot of sense to Them. (i learn by listening to EveryThing that i dont know)

 

so if i or someone else doesnt understand a cg something we could always ask for someone to fill in the missing information. how did They get to This Point. that would mean someone who does know how to do some Technique would have to write some Information.

 

This might be a little bit of extra Effort at 1st, but This could sort of turn into something like a FAQ, kind of.

 

in some ways having a separate area does make a LOT of sense. peope who (me) consider themselves at the "almost" Intermediate level could ask questions and the Others, The Experts could give some good Feedback and Answers for the people who are basically trying to get going.

 

which would help a LOT, to help someone get going. and after a while maybe we could "capture" the conversations and create a FAQ and still have a AI (almost Intermediate) interactive Forum.

 

i vote for This, because i might be asking a LOT of questions myself.

 

just an Idea.

 

Thanks

 

Randy

 

(0TT0 MPLT = over the Top of my Pointed Little Head)

 

(oTTo MPLT = off the Top of my Pointed Little Head)

[Guest alkion]

Vizwhiz i think the interactive idea is great. I ve read in a forum that they were thinking of putting up a irc channel but...

[nisus]

Hi all,

 

Here are a few of my thoughts:

I don't think we should really accompany beginners and really hold their hands while learning. They should learn the attitude to search for things all by themselves or to solve things, to ask things or whatever. If they lack this or don't want to put an effort to it, learning 3d is just another hype and a waste of their - and my - time.

 

Personally, I try to answer every question whether it covers beginner or advanced level, but not so many got asked. I'm really not going to make a bunch of tutorials and hope to cover most requests for beginners as they know better WHAT they want to learn than I do (even if I might know better HOW to do things)!

Other people have made such background texts and tutorials before f.e. in the newriders books - www.newriders.com - but beginners tend to be very impatient to learn and skip to read those.

I recommended those books to over 300 starters already, NONE of them ever read one! I can tell you from a few I know personally that after using 3d-software for more than 2 years now, they still don't know anything about it as they "haven't find good tutorials on the net yet".

Although I think this is embarassing for them, I don't care for they lack the attitude.

 

So what am I saying: We don't need a seperate beginner-section as in my experience, they don't even listen to most of the tips that pro's give to them. On the other side, if they ask the questions themselves, I'll be glad to answer them as I always did before.

 

rgds

 

nisus

 

ps: hum yeah, I a bit pissed today, but does that matter?

[quizzy]

nisus,

 

again we totally agree....

[Guest alkion]

NO no Nisus and quizzy i absolutly agree with you. Although im not a pro, most of the things i've learned was not in a course but by reading books, magazines and net tutorials. Im just trying to make the most of cga for people who are below your rank and have the patience to listen all of your tips. I mean if they didn't have the patience they wouldn't visit this site.Unfortunately due to my architecture studies i don't have the time to follow a 3d course which i'd love to. I'm sorry if i've upset anyone but when i saw the subject i just thought that it would be nice to propose this. It seems though that i'll have to do more reading as most of the people who've replied are against the idea. Thanks for your comments

 

[ September 30, 2002, 11:54 AM: Message edited by: alkion ]

[nisus]

Hi alkion,

 

I think it is great that you posted your question/proposition anyway, because it is important to share thoughts and to keep the forum alive.

I understand your concern about time and I think this is an issue for many among us. I would love to see/hear how people manage this each for themselves.

 

rgds

 

nisus

[TAKA]

seems i'm a bit late for this....... :???:

 

anyway, i do think nisus is right.

But, what we could do is place in front of each topic a rank (Basic, Intermediate, Advanced) without dividing the section so that when clicking on a thread the visitor will know what he's getting himself into.(in short rename a thread into something like: "Advanced: grass techniques" or "Basic: creating a teapot".

Also in the more advanced threads, we could reference for the less advanced by linking to this or that other topic (internal or external link) so that everything is kept understandable by everybody.....No need to rewrite it....just link.

 

hope this is somehow useful

 

rgds

 

TAKA

[Guest alkion]

Taka i really like this idea. I think this would work...

[nisus]

Looks like a good idea to me, but how would you work out tips that range from beginner to advanced in one topic?

Should one start three topics adv: grass / beg: grass / int: grass?

Or does one need a more structured forum? The latter could be reasonably done as our concerns as architectural visualizer are about well-defined topics (grass/sky/...) but on the other hand wouldn't this armor be too tight to fit everything in?

Anyway, although everyone understands the importance of a well-defined topic, I still urge to choose the title very carefully, as this a major reference for the content of a post.

 

rgds

 

nisus

[sp0on]

i really like the idea of making a beginning/students section. im only an 18 year old freshmen in college, majoring in architecture.

 

even though im even taking any design classes yet, i am in a very very basic graphics for architects class. this class isnt meant to teach programs in depth, but it involves photoshop, autocad2k2, 3d studio viz3i, and more.

 

a section that understands that i am, very simply, completely unfamiliar with many processes involved in this community would make it much easier to actually learn from these forums.