I’m curious how many would purchase the cmiVFX videos if you could actually download them.:yes: If we can illustrate that a good amount of people would buy them if they were downloadable, perhaps they’ll work out an option. I know that cmiVFX has offered videos for download from other sites, so it’s possible.
I’m talking about the following videos:
Modeling an Elephant.
Unwrapping and Baking, Texturing an Elephant.
Shading and Fur an Elephant.
No, and for numerous reasons:
Price. It’s $110 for the whole series, which I think is very steep for something you can’t actually download.
Lack of information on the site. Admittedly, I haven’t spent a long time looking, but there appears to be no information on how long these videos are, which is an important consideration when evaluating if a video is worth the price.
No previews (as far as I can see). This is another important step when evaluating a video tutorials worth.
I’ve heard people say that they have had problems getting the content to load. I wouldn’t risk the purchase without a proper preview to establish that the content actually works for me.
There is already a huge amount of free blender tutorials covering almost every aspect of the program. Now granted, this one will be a lot more focused and (presumably) informative, but I doubt there is much that I couldn’t find elsewhere.
Blender is about to change in a major way, which will render a lot of the content useless.
If I were to buy video tutorials, it would be from the foundation. I’d much prefer my money to go directly into the development of blender.
Oops! I just realised that you said ‘if you could actually download them’, which kinda kills my first point.
My bad, should have been more careful with my reading.
I totally agree with these (excluding #1 as, like the OP stated, is if we could dl them).
And as for #7, this is why I have Creature Factory & Venom’s Lab 
Oh and I paid for the Durian DVD as well, it’s supposed to contain some tutorials, so I guess it counts too?
I don’t think this poll has any value if you don’t include an option
“I would also purchase them if they are just streaming”.
Also I don’t quite understand why everyone gets quite negative as soon as you have to pay for tutorials. I do agree that it would be nice to have a preview option and information about the videos length, but I don’t understand why it should be a huge disadvantage if the videos are only streaming…
MD
Because the point is regarding them providing a download option. And focused on that. Whether people would buy streaming is irrelevant.
Well, wouldn’t it be more valuable for cmiVFX to know the percentage of people who want a download, rather than just the absolute number?
Because if it ends up being 80 percent just want to buy it if it’s downloadable then they know, they should probably offer it for download. But if it’s only fiver percent or so, then it might not be worth it.
Also “No” could mean: “No, I wouldn’t purchase them anyway” or “No, I would also purchase them if they are just streaming”.
MD
This is why the poll options are completely useless. I have bought these already as streaming tutorials. Would I have purchased them as a download ? Yes, so selecting yes in the poll would be misleading for the info you are asking. The real question is would they buy them as a download but not as a stream. Otherwise how could cmiVFX know what the advantage would be by switching to a download option. In the end as usual in any research like this, people say they would buy something but in reality when they have to put down their money many never do.
If you want to change the way cmiVFX supply videos, badger them, not in some third party site. In the end I do not see any reason why they should change based on such a flawed poll. They used to do downloads, when I purchased the fluid tutorials, but their business model was switched to streaming.
By the way, these tutorials are excellent and certainly still suitable for when blender 2.5 comes out.
Richard
Um. The question is IF they were downloadable would you buy them. Because right now they aren’t. Which is exactly the same as you said: “The real question is would they buy them as a download but not as a stream.” Perhaps one is more implied than the other. But I assume people would read my post and realize the point is that they aren’t available as a download and that we are trying to see who would buy it if they were available in that way, but won’t now because they are streaming only.
The point of doing it on BA is because this is a Blender community and directing a single email to cmiVFX with a link to this thread which shows support for a download option is a good way to show interest. It’s better than expecting a large amount of people to send individual emails.
I think you are missing Richard’s point. If I say “Yes, I would buy them IF they were downloadable. (But I would also buy them if they are just streamed”, then my answer to your options consequently has to be “Yes” (option 1 or 2, that is).
But then the poll doesn’t have any value, because you couldn’t go with this data to cmiVFX and say “Hey, these people would buy your tutorials IF they were downloadable.”, because that would imply people would only buy the tutorials then, which is not necessarily the case.
This is why I suggest you include another option in the poll, else your “Yes” answers don’t have much value at all.
MD
nice but way too expensive, that’s a shame though, cuz it looks really interesting 
Ahhh. I get what he meant now. I’ll add another option if I can…
Seems I can’t. Oh well. Anyway I was just trying to make a point that a download option would be a good idea. Mostly it seems the response has been negative.