This is why I don't buy tutorials...
ShelLuser
Posts: 749
Hi gang,
Sorry for maybe being a little critical or negative, but yeah. Had to get this off my chest. Especially because as someone who makes tutorials himself this hit a sore spot with me ;)
So I came across tons of freebies in the Daz store and amongst which was the Shader Mixer tutorial. Normal price $29,95 but now it's available free of charge. Because shaders have always intruiged me I decided to pick this one up. Well... With all due respect to the author but if I had bought this thing then I would probably have tried to cancel the purchase and get my money back. This tutorial is a classic example why I don't buy any.
It claims that you'll learn the basics of the Shader mixer. But if you read on then the catch becomes more clear: "This tutorial covers how to create a basic shader that allows synchronized tiling of diffuse, specular, opacity, bump, and displacement channels. You will also learn how to save shader presets.". Guess what? That's literally only what this tutorial is all about: covering how to create something yet without explaining anything. All it does is tell you to perform certain steps and use several specific options but without explaining anything about what those options are or what they should do and more important: why you'd want to use them.
To add insult to injury: this shader mixer tutorial doesn't even bother to explain what a shader actually is. Wouldn't that be the first logical step? Making sure that people understand what a shader is so that they'll understand (and appreciate) the setup of the shader mixer?
Now... it's not totally worthless because the "tutorial" (more like a step by step instruction manual) does provide some interesting shaders of its own. In all fairness I have to say that some of the provided shader presets are pretty cool. No arguments there. But it's most certainly not worth $29,95.
Just so we're clear: I'm quite familiar with the whole concept. I actually read the Daz documentation, followed plenty of online guides and tutorials (years ago) and have created quite a few of my own shaders as well. But that doesn't mean I'm not sometimes interested in other approaches. But yeah: this was a major letdown for me.
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Comments
You have to remember that this tutorial was released 6 years ago so leaving a critque now is not helpful, especially as it is now released as a freebie.
I watched a webinar series by Esha that I felt was wonderful and I believe that these are now videos that you can buy here at Daz 3D. She explains how your choices affect the actions in DS and why you would want to do something. The ones that I saw were not step by step, though those have their place and sometimes I wish the person explaining would just explain step by step. It all depends on what you are learning. I also own most of DarkEdgeDesign's tutorials and think that he's a pretty good tutor but the ones I have are all for Poser and/or ZBrush. I just bought the new Substance Painter/DS one but have not watched it. Can't give any feedback on it.
Just saying not all tutorials are the same and the person who created it makes a big difference.
Yes the quality of the store offered tutorials varies from creator to creator. Phil W's Learning Carrara series for example is hands down the best technical video training I've gone through.
Who, what, when, where, how, and why.
Now days I see a lot of tutorials that seem to have a good handle on the "how" and sometimes the "who". But back in ancient times when people actually knew how to write manuals there were quite often sections that explained the "what", "when", "where" and "why" too. In manuals that I wrote I would try to include a section that I called the "Philosophy of Operation" to specifically cover the "what", "when", "where" and "why". It would describe the mental model of the product, a map of its purpose and the reasons for the details that would follow in the "how" section. Yes, it's a lot of work and it means that you actually have to understand it to that level of detail yourself.
This worked OK when a product had a 5 year life expectancy but with products that are obsolete in 3 months I can understand why shortcuts are taken. Still, some people are looking for more than cookbook solutions.
Said it's free to me ???
Hmm, I disagree. It will save people time who might decide not to bother with it / view it based on what has been shared. To me, saving someone else time is helpful.
...definitely prefer manuals and PDFs over videos for those very reasons. I've seen some really poor videos that either lull one to sleep (especially so for some of us older folks) because they become too long winded and/or don't stay focused on the point, while others skip steps assuming you know already what's going on.
Also I don't have to keep "rewinding" or replaying a PDF or "dead tree" manual over and over. I just leave it "open" to the section that details the process I am trying to learn.
Good, concise, yet detailed technical writing is an artform that sadly is becoming a lost one in these days of video learning. It seems we are heading to a Fahrenheit 451 society where "watching" not reading, is becoming the new "fundamental" (and we do have wall screens as well as even interactive television now).
My day job is creating graphics for a small company that makes instructional material for aircrew (folks that fly and operate airplanes). I work directly for two instructional content developers, both of whom have Masters degrees in adult education and content development. Over the last few years I've learned a LOT about what makes for good instructional material and can only laugh at the poor packages that many people offer as tutorials. What Daz (and most other software companies) desperately need to do is hire a real, honest to goodness training developer to make their tutorials for them. Depending on amateurs with no training to make your tutorials just doesn't work and reflects poorly on your company, especially when you ask for money.
Back when that was written it was in the very early days of DS3.0, most of us that wanted to use the SM were groping around in the dark, and that includes the person that wrote that tutorial.
Nowadays when anybody mentions that tutorial I cringe, as there is a lot of bad information in it.
Not sure but I think it's always been free, I have it from way back and I know I would never have paid for it.
Thanks for all the feedback guys, appreciate it!
I'm well aware of it's age but that still doesn't change some of my mentioned facts. Also: age shouldn't be a criterium here. I mean: there are other manuals out there which also seem dated yet still sell for the full amount. And in all fairness: it's Daz themselves who showed me that this used to sell for $29,95.
Couldn't have said it better myself, and I think it's a sad development. Especially because I can't help wonder how much some "video tutorial authors" actually know themselves. There's a huge difference between knowing that you should click that specific button and knowing why you need to click that one specific button ;) There are some very good video tutorials out there, but a written one can often also serve as a valuable reference which gets harder with videos :)
I will not knock Ziggraphix for trying, it is the only one I ever saw and I use her resources if using 3Delight as all I really have.
but on the general topic
yes I bought tutorials on modeling etc from Rendo as a n00b that were less than helpfull before finding my Carrara forum mentors like Cripeman and 3Dage, this was actually back in 2009 when I was an iClone user using Google Sketchup to model before I found DAZ3D and Carrara.
I look back on those tutes and still think are uttter crap!
the free advice on the forum ran rings around it.
That said I do have some awesome tutes by Mike Bremmer and know Phil Wilkes does good ones but I rarely look at tutes to tell the truth I go by the seat of my pants most of the time.
Actually it was never charged for - attached is a screenshot from the old store (the store looked quite different back in 2010 to today's Magento version) - it was planned to be a freebie for the foreseeable future. I "bought" it on the day it was released in the hope of making some sense out of how to use the Shader Mixer window in DS.
ETA: I still sometimes use the texture files included in the product. I never did figure out Shader Mixer enough to do much with it, hence my huge collection of bought-in shaders and shader presets!
(Edit again to correct some typos.)
Thank you very much for your insights, I took the liberty of emphasizing the section which matters most to me here. That knowledge changes quite a bit for me, because (as seen in my first post) the steep price was the main drive for my criticism. The "if this normally sells for $30,- then what about some other stuff?" idea. But the intended freebie approach changes a lot for me. Because it most definitely is an appreciated attempt of getting us users to dive into the Shader Mixer a bit more. Because let's be honest: there's nothing like getting some hands-on experience to help you get started with experimentation a bit.
@fossil With the fast and short ADD of kids these days, the company might want to print the crash course on that subject.
...for myself I have a very poor retention with videos that try to teach a process. Part of it is many are just "click. here click there, move this parameter slider to this setting" etc without describing what is actually happening behind the scenes. In some ways I look at video tutorials as little more than "monkey see monkey do" affairs. On the other hand, a written manual or tutorial with good illustrative examples gives one more of the what and why behind performing a task. I feel this helps one to better understand more of the what the basis of a given process is so he or she can come away with good working foundation that can be built upon.
Exactly. I only had been thinking in how-why, but I 'm happy to see somebody explained this very better and including what, when and where.
30$ (even mor free) is a god price for how. What and why are very complicated, and you need at least four books on renderman to touch the surface of this stuff, these are around 170$ (or a good library). When and where some times are a torture without DAZ scripting.
With regards to the zigraphx tutorial I think that it is a good begining. Its "how" taught me to search the "why", although I decided to work in shader builder instead shader mixer.
I love tutorials both written and video. Having said that, I almost never pay for them as I just don't know if its going to be any good. I bought a tutorial on modelling clothes. (video) The advert clearly stated it was for beginners and that it was step by step. so I am following along, everything is going well and then all of a sudden, it just skipped a part. Not a part I could figure out myself but a rather important part. So, its was totally useless. I know how to start a piece of clothing and can make something up to a certain point and then, well, I don't know what to do next. I can't get from point a to point c because point b is missing. I spent two hours working on that and was never able to finish it. I was a very unhappy camper. I might have been less unhappy if it was free. But I paid for it and it was not worth the money. By any stretch of the imagination.
I'm imagining a flight manual that says "Whatever you do, DO NOT pull the red lever!" without explaining why.
Lever pulled in 3...2...1...
Ask about the missing step here in the forums! You'll get some good answers.
I bought a load too prob the same ones PDF for $3 the lot in PC sale not looked at them yet