There might be a flood....

[Nek'rahm]

I'd like a set of tutorial videos for Blender -_-

Seriously, I don't even know:

1) How to move my camera so it goes where I want

2) How to apply textures to any of my objects

3) How to sculpt and alter stuff (ex. islands from blocks)

4) How to turn it into an Age

5) How to use ULM to run it -_-

Seriously, I'm a mess.

At least if I get the Ahra Pahts shell I want, I can work on building something I'll love ^_^

[Tobyas]

For the record, I am part of that flood of people.

[Chacal]

Break up each task in small workable pieces and learn each one only when you actually need it.

I started learning Blender by doing all the tutorials in order. A painful process, learning how to build a huge character that I had no use for. A few days later I had forgotten everything.

Then it hit me that the best time to learn something is when you actually need it.

Here's what I did:

1- Find something SIMPLE I want to do, e.g. look at how Relto is built.
2- I find I need to import Relto into Blender. The wiki tells me how to install what I need, and how to import the prp.
3- I get a bubble on the screen. How do I move around? Find Blender tutorial and learn basic controls.
4- I can move around but how do I see inside the bubble? Do some research on the Blender site and learn how to move objects to a different layer. Finally I can see Relto up close.

1- Now I want to start messing with Relto.
2- I can select objects but how can I copy/move/delete them? Find a Blender tutorial for that. Find the relevant part in Google docs.
2- I want to modify the shape of objects. Find a tutorial about the Edit mode, mess around until confortable.

Surprisingly, although I have poor memory and I can only play with Blender a few minutes a week at most, I never forgot what I learned that way and it's actually becoming second nature.

For my "opening the cavern" challenge, I could create and manipulate very complex objects without thinking about it. So I guess even Blender can become easy to use.

I'm not sure a video is the best teaching medium for these tasks. I understand some people are more comfortable hearing things than reading them, but videos have a big problem: you can't see a damn thing. I've listened to a lot of Photoshop videos, and although you can hear the teacher well (sadly it's often useless because not everyone can teach), you vaguely see things move around on a stamp-sized, poor-quality image. You don't actually see what the presenter is doing.

With the complexity of the Blender interface, it's better to have a well-written, well-illustrated tutorial, with pictures zoomed in on the things you actually need to see.

[Miral]

I've recently come across these video tutorials, which I've found quite good. They can be a bit repetitive sometimes, but usually not to the point of frustration.

(And I'm one of the flood too. Writing an Age has always been something I've wanted to do, but sadly I don't really have the time. Or the mad art skillz.)

[Atheni33]

Thanks for sharing these video tutorials Miral! I am part of the flood also and started learning blender a week ago. I just bought the book Essential Blender which is excellent but I pick up things faster visually.

[Moiety Jean]

I'm another of the flood, but I put off even registering at these forums until I had gotten myself up to a level of knowledge in Blender that wasn't totally embarrassing. I've spent entire days over the past week just reading manuals, wikis, and following tutorials. So, I'm hoping that the questions I'll be asking won't be completely obvious, but I beseech your collective patience and hope you'll give me the benefit of the doubt that I've looked everywhere I can think to look for the answer to a question before I ask it.

[andylegate]

Welcome aboard!

Please! Ask your questions away. We do ask that you at least look at the Wiki on here, and try to use the search function first, to see if your question has been asked before, or may have been covered by the Wiki.

Still, even if you find it, but you still don't understand, don't let that keep you from asking! Not everyone here is a Blender Expert, so there is NO reason to be embarrased.
One way to look at it is this: The Plugin (the tool that actually lets us make Ages) is constantly being updated as we learn new things and how to make more things possible. The last major upgrade to the Plugin threw even the most seasoned Writer for a loop! It's a constant learning experience for everyone here.

So in one sense, we're all Noobs here as far as this way of Age Creation goes. There is just those that are less noobish than others is all!

So again, if you still don't know, or don't understand, don't ever be afraid to ask.