I have been reading alot of the game engine threads looking for some decent BGE video tutorials and frankly I am amazed that there are none at all! I know you have a wealth of talent and skill amongst the members here but they seem to share a lack of willingness to promote the BGE by producing video tutorials that could greatly help newbies and speed up the learning curve which would , in turn, help recruit many to blender. I read this alot in the forum, -“That’s the way I did it” (back in the day by cracky!). There is a real feeling of contempt in that statement. Perhaps some of the newer, younger, more sympathetic BGE experts could consider this request as it appears to have fallen on the deaf ears of the “Older” gents on the forum who cant “rise” to the ocassion. Whats the problem with PDF tutorials? Nothing if they are done right. Problem is that 99.9999… percent of the time, the author leaves out crucial info that he deems not necessary (but really is). This always leaves me so mad I could just…
http://www.blender.org/tutorials-help/video-tutorials/
http://showmedo.com/videos/series?name=blenderMoyesSeries001
some on this link;http://www.blendernation.com/category/tutorials/videotutorials/
some on this link;http://www.3dmaxer.dk/tutorial.asp?ak=666&type=blend
And alot on this one; http://ocw.tufts.edu/Content/28/supplementarymaterial/366743
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And how exactly would “video tutorials” avoid this common flaw? It’s not about the media type, it’s about the content.
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Places like showmedo are nice, but I don’t think video tutorials are the best way to “do” tutorials.
I mean I don’t want to listen to your girly voice while you attempt to explain the finer points of an API or some framework. It’s annoying.
Furthermore, it’s much faster to read through something than it is to listen through it (at least for me), and not to mention how much easier it is to find a specific reference to a segment when searching text, as opposed to “scanning” through that streaming video.
Also there is something to be said about the average amount of effort and care that goes into a piece of writing, when compared to the amount that goes into you talking about something for about 10 minutes. Usually, there is an obvious difference.
Nothing beats a well thought-out piece of instructional text.
unless they leave out one little part, and concerning what itirix said, I dont really consider 3dgurus tuts to be relevant. Does anyone?
Concerning this statement by ititrix, I think it’s obvious that she did not finish reading my post. It’s obviously focused on the game engine. she is the lazy one, and if she had looked before writing she would have known that I just posted it this morning.
To Teach-Me GE, I thank you for your response, you obviously went through some trouble to help me out, but again my post was obviously focused on the Blender game engine. Out of all of those videos on those different sites, I believe only one video was relevant to the game engine and that is the one by D M Lara titled Real Time Illumination with Nodes.
What’s your point? Video tutorials don’t automatically fill in content left out by the publisher.
Also, see what I did above - It’s called a quote, learn how to use it, because the “Title” box is there for the title - not to quote others.
And you can use one post to give multiple answers - by quoting multiple users, and then answering accordingly.
Get it?
Or maybe you need someone to make a video tutorial on how to use the forum functions?
I dont really consider 3dgurus tuts to be relevant. Does anyone?
I don’t, but I respect the fact that he actually made something instead of just crying about what he needs, and what’s not there.
You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink.
Social, your wordy response prompts me to address certain things you wrote. I had to read it through a couple of times because I kept drifting off. First, as a twenty year plus public school teacher, I should tell you that alot of research has gone into the issue of learning styles. Some people learn best through doing with repetition, some, like you, learn through reading, while others learn from watching. The best way I believe, and I think most universities would agree since this is basically the way they teach, is a combination. Consider this. You go sit in an auditorium and listen to the professor, and you also take notes. You go home, you read your notes. You go to study lab and you discuss the lecture. Then, you have a test. All of that goes into teaching content. The Gnomone workshop offers a combination as well. Most of their video tutorials also come with a PDF overview of the video content. Concerning my girly little voice,- Who told you?
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Rough day?
Actually, I have had a great day, im on vacation. Thanks for your concern.
Yes it does, but it also makes students overly dependent on redundant resources, and then they have trouble doing something as simple as following the already available documentation. (needless to say; we don’t really cater to “special” learning needs)
However, that’s not my main point here, it’s just my personal opinion (and even though I’v explained my reasoning behind it, I admit it’s debatable).
My main point is: Video tutorials don’t resolve the “left out info” issue. They don’t have an AI algorithm working as a background process, determining what “important issues” the author/publisher forgot to mention and then proceeding to subsequently add those issues in.
If “99.9999… percent of the time, the author leaves out crucial info that he deems not necessary (but really is)” when it comes to written tutorials, then the same is true when it comes to video tutorials. Again; It’s not about the media type, it’s about the content.
The idea of necessary/pertinent is subjective. Using a different media type does not alter that fact.
Concerning my girly little voice,- Who told you?
I was just making a guess/joke. Thanks for the confirmation though.
That statement is relative to each GE user depending on their level and skill. For beginners I think his tutorials are a good place to start. For those slightly more experienced and have decent knowledge on how to use logic bricks it might not be relevant anymore.
It is true there is a lack of video tutorials, especially for more advanced topics, but the GE is slightly more complicated. I have written some tutorials in the past, currently only 2 are still up, and all have been in writing. Personally video tutorials are just too much work to do. Usually it is in addition to writing the tutorial and reading it out loud, while doing the steps slowly enough so as not to go too fast for the people following the tutorial. It already takes a chunk of time writing tutorials, video tutorials would take up even more time for doing something which we are not paid to do. I might consider doing it in the future if I had enough spare time… but it would be very unlikely if it was something complicated in the GE.
The only problem is most users that’s grown comfortable with the GE (I call them old blenderheads), is that they’re either very busy with work/school or they’d just rather make games then writing tutorials. It is your personal preference to follow through videos and that’s ok, it’s just that there’s a lack of them. Lol, I came at a time where there some tutorials, but now there’s even more tutorials than before. You just have to make do with what you can get, until more tutorials are done either written or video. More will probably come in time.
Jason Lin
WELL…
As you can all see, minds are already made up. The real reasons the experts do things, or rather Wont do things is probably actually a secret. Perhaps I am not the only one with a girly voice??? Maybe composing an actual verbal sentence might reveal some “special” talent? Apparantly we will never know.
You know, I dont know if anyone on these Blender sites actually is aware of what’s going on around them in the 3D community. Perhaps some of you have heard Digital-tutors.com, or Buzz3D (or is it 3DBuzz), the Gnomon workshop.com, VTC.com, or Lynda.com, or visited Unity game development website and watched their video tutorials, or the wonderful video tutorials by Keith Lango from his site, but these sites all have a very large user base and are doing very well financially. I’m sure they would all support a properly made video tutorial as being a superior learning source that can shave weeks or months off the learning curve.
So, I guess I’m just talking to the newer users, the ones who havent dried up on the branch yet. There’s money to be made from your expertise boys. You dont have to be an expert to share the wealth of knowledge, just be willing to share what you know. A cd with 10 or 20 BGE video tutorials on it? $20, $30, $40 or more? Hmmmm, lets see, 3DWorld Mag, which, by the way, does monthly reviews on 3d video tutorials as they are released, reported that last year more people downloaded Blender than bought all the other 3d programs combined. Hopefully some lights just went on, but mine are going off. Night all.
I have been thinking of doing a blender video DVD for few years now.
I have not done it because of ethics.
I have the Gnomon workshop.com DVD’s for Zbrush 2 and Zbrush 3.
Total #%$^ing rubbish as far as learning is concerned.
I should have done a Zbrush DVD years ago, I would be rich right now.
It was neat to see and hear Meats Meyer model and bullshit about theory, but the official pixologic tutorial PDF had much, much more as far as actually learning something about the application.
For beginners, having a quick video overview might not hurt, as long as the students are pointed into the right direction for the text documents. Following a Video tutorial, while you are using another application is a MAJOR pain in the @$$.
I dunno, I could really use the money right now, nicking a noobie for 50$ dose not seem too bad as long as I give useful information.
You know, I dont know if anyone on these Blender sites actually is aware of what’s going on around them in the 3D community. Perhaps some of you have heard Digital-tutors.com, or Buzz3D (or is it 3DBuzz), the Gnomon workshop.com, VTC.com, or Lynda.com, or visited Unity game development website and watched their video tutorials, or the wonderful video tutorials by Keith Lango from his site, but these sites all have a very large user base and are doing very well financially. I’m sure they would all support a properly made video tutorial as being a superior learning source that can shave weeks or months off the learning curve.
heh,
well, after seeing all those videos , why are you not just making games right now?
After that impressive list, I would imagine you are some kind of 3d god by now.
Why not just go pro? (or did they not work for you?)
shave weeks or months off the learning curve.
Where do you get your time estimates? Did you work with Down Syndrome patients or something?
Hopefully some lights just went on, but mine are going off.
I still see a faint dim glow. 
Hmmm, I will ask p00f in the morning, he has been complaining about money too.
A full wallet might bend my ethics a bit.
Bye the way, Most video tutorial CD’s you buy are a scam, I highly recomend reading the fruitful manual (RTFM) before whipping out cash…
well unless you are buying my DVD, then it is worth every cent!
(… Muuuuuahahahahahahaaaa HAaaaaa!)
Heh, “dried up”. :rolleyes:
Don’t you get it? We’re not the problem here. You’re the one with a learning disability.
See everyone, this is what happens when you subscribe to the whole “permanent training wheels” methodology. You end up with bumpkins who can’t take a **** without a full fledged video.
It’s just sad.
You dont have to be an expert to share the wealth of knowledge, just be willing to share what you know.
Ha, ha, ha…Yea, thank you for that amazing insight. I mean it’s not like we have a tutorial sticky, or something like that.
Ohhh, but wait, we do:
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=11430
I personally think video tuts are a good idea… BUT with the GE being constantly broken in new ways with every new release… making a usefull video tut is a waste of time because you’d have to tie it in with very specific versions of the BGE. So your viewers will get pretty frustrated. So if the GE development becomes stable enough then I’m sure we’d see a whole crop of vids popping up.
–>a starting point would be to make video versions of some the good exisiting text tutorials if anyone can be bothered. Someone could make a vid of the wiki tuts.
I Also think some people are being a bit melodramatic in this post. Some people like vids ,some like reading text files… whatever! If I ever get round to making some vid tuts… I’ll try to make sure my voice is not too winy… lol 
Two things about this thread
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Open Source, and especially an active project like Blender, makes for quick redundancy in docs. The effort and bandwidth that goes into videos is often not warranted for such short cycles as has been mentioned.
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the attitude, or tone of the original post; if you paid for the app your tone may be justified but since you’re appealing to a volunteer userbase, taking account of point 1, it comes off as presumptuous.
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