Industry Bias?

[Rork]

@Gman: That's the way I was thinking, production examples that will -or not- use multiple apps to get the job done.

@Redmotion: 1. agree. 2. Not sure what you're trying to say here...

rob

[Bellsey]

Face robot only addresses a small amount of people because of two reasons:
1. Video facial capture ISN'T built into it, when it should be.

actually this isn't the reason at all, though I can see its use, it's not a deal breaker. Face Robot and indeed facial animation will only apply to certain people and doing certain work. And there are many factors to consider.

On the training side of things, well I think there's actually a good amount of material out there for Softimage, but could there be more. Well yes, of course, frankly for many people I don't think there will ever be enough training for any package really.
There's a far bit of material around now for Softimage with alot on the AREA. All the videos that were uploaded to the previous Softimage community site, just got transferred over. Also subscription users should have access to some training materials relating to their respective product. Yes, training is something to consider when perhaps wanting switch packages, but its also something can be mitigated against now.


Also, are you expecting Autodesk to provide these 'tutorials' that keep being mentioned?. Because for me, I believe there's a difference between 'tutorials' and then feature 'demos'. Though I would like to try and get more materials produced for when we provide a new release, particulary when it comes to Softimage. The problem often comes down to though, time and resource. It does take time to put materials together.

[Hirazi Blue]

Well, I just looked at the tutorial section @ the Area for the first time in a long time and it's true there is quite a lot already there (of the "older" stuff, mostly, but that's besides the point here), but the way the Area handles its tutorials (or downloads for that matter) makes browsing them (if you don't know a title or some other search term) ridiculously cumbersome.

Totally off topic, obviously, but: when will "mr. & mrs. Autodesk" give the Area its much needed overhaul?

[kshep92]

Thanks for the replies guys.

It seems though that I might have poorly stated something in my initial post i.e. there isn't enough training for Softimage. I should have really said there isn't enough up to date training as someone correctly said. As for the i3d, noesis, digital tutors etc., I have perused most of those resources already only to find that there is hardly training that teaches the use of the newer features.

Redi-Vivus' training is a God-send, truly it is, but again they really only stop after XSI 7.x. If the only training around is just the kind of training to "get your head around it" then who am I to turn my nose up at it? I've already started with some of the DT stuff and looking to begin Redi-vivus' training once the semester ends.

I just really wish a good training series would come along that deals with more recent additions such as the new Lagoa multi-physics engine, for example.

I dunno, I guess I really just love this program and it almost hurts to see just how much it is "shunned" for other (in my opinion) less thought out ones.

edit: @Rork yes training like that showing interoperability between Softimage and another app would be nice. Truth be told, you hardly ever use just one application to do it all.

[Rork]

Hi,

I kinda agree on the notes on 'outdated' training. DigitalTutors does have some training that is related to 2011 (ICE), and is one of them that is bringing out new training on a regular basis. A lot of others cover most of Softimage basics just fine, and as workflow or existing features don't change much over versions, even older training (e.g. on Redi-Vivus) still 'works'. But training on a new version or features takes a while to surface. The whole issue here is, like Graham mentioned as well, time.

It takes time to create a set of training. You have to decide what to cover (that's what my original thread was for..), write some kind of script, prepare all the scene material and set everything up to start. Then record, maybe re-record, edit, maybe dub and finally convert into a set of down-loadable files.
Then put it online for people to buy it, go the rounds on the forums to announce the training, wait for customers to come in and hope it will sell. In a nutshell.

So even the simplest set of videos can take some time to finish, and again, that's why I started the thread. It's necessary to see where the need for training lies, in addition to existing -or not yet covered- training. If a topic is already covered properly (e.g. Matchmoving on Gnomon) it makes no sense to do it again, and probably will not sell. But interop between apps has come up a few times now, so there's a start for looking into matters.

Also, "production based" training is, again imho, more interesting and gives a good idea what to expect (problems, workflow, workarounds etc.) when given a job.
I still like to see this idea to continue, so everybody please keep postings comments on the thread here:
viewtopic.php?f=36&t=983

have a good weekend all,

rob