Hello. I posted this in a thread at www.blender.org but I wanted to start one of my own here. Ok…I have quite a few ideas for Blender training. First off, training should be taken very seriously. We need a designated section on the Blender3d site to host various Blender master class videos. Now, I know that there is a spot for tutorials, however, most of my ideas for training are a little different from traditional tutorials and material that most of us are used to. The emphasis on the beginner material would be to help individuals “find thier way” and I even thought of using the “North, South, East , and West” symbol for an icon to represent the master class. This material contained inside of this video series is based off of an idea I have had recently. I have not had a chance to run this be Ton yet but here it is:
blender master class
PROBLEM / SOLUTIONS
I came up with this while writing my latest tut. I have been focusing on explaining to the reader that 3D is problem solving. I wrote the tut on the basis that I would discuss various solutions to each problem ( an example of a “problem” would be having to texture a particular mesh to look like a specific object such as an apple 
) and then ultimately choose the best (most efficient and logical) answer and finally, run with it. Though this is a good idea it helped me stumble upon an even GREATER idea. There could be a list of various problems. The user could select a “problem” which would then bring them to a section where the user could select from one of many possible solutions. This would allow for beginners and experienced users alike to see how different people aproach similar obstacles. I think that it is imperative to uderstand how others work…this is very different from the traditional method (tutorials) of showing (or TELLING rather) an individual how to do a specific task. This way people could discover different methods through other peoples working habits. Now, I recorded myself completing my tut for 3D World mag which will be provided on thier cover cd. I recommend this for the “PROBLEM-SOLUTIONS” idea as well…this way you could literally see everyone solving one problem differently in realtime. I also thought that ultimately these could be offered in the Blender estore as a series of DVD training videos:
Cool but how?
Ton and a team of people designated to work on this would select a list of problems. Members from the community would then choose a possible solution that they would like to represent by signing up for it in the forum somewhere or through email…nevertheless, everyone would know who is working on what. When all solutions are submited (all beofre the deadline ofcourse ), Ton and the team would vote on the best to be selected for the DVD. ALL of the contributers “solutions” would be offered on the site…you would just have an option to select from a number of the same solution depending on how many people approached it in the same manner. For example, for the creation of an apple, if 4 people (theeth, Ztonzy, S68, Malefico) took the Spin approach versus 2 people (B@rt and I) taking polygon extrusion , then it might look something like this on the site:
PROBLEM:
[!] We need to model an apple.
SOLUTIONS:
[>] SPIN FUNCTION
<i> -theeth
-Ztonzy
-S68
-Malefico </i>
[>] POLYGON EXTRUSION
<i> -Landis
-B@rt</i>
NOTE: I know that there are more than 2 solutions to this problem but this is just an example ;).
This way if the user prefers to look at theeth’s spin tutorial over ztonzy’s spin tutorial (no offense buddy ), they can do so. Again, this would only be for the web version, the DVD would only have one username for each possible solution. Each DVD would have three problems: Modeling, lighting, and texturing. A wuick render would be included, however, YAFRAY and other intesive stuff would be another video all together (perhaps volume II). Let me know what you think.
Cheers,
Landis
