Topic awaiting preservation: 3ds max 4 for GN (Page 1 of 1)

Yes, j-man, myself, and one other -- i'm sorry i forgot your name -- are working on 3dsmax tutorials, at least I am.

What I have done so far: I have been reviewing the content of max, and trying to really re-familiarize myself with it, since it is so complex.

What I need to do: I would like to make a long list of things to be covered.

what I would like you to do: Help me make that list.

WHY am I essentially trying to rewrite the manual? because I, personally, hate the manual. I think the manual sucks. I think it is far too thick, and lengthy, regardless of it's value, and it is far too intimidating for beginers. And everything I learned about max, never came from a manual, but from someone else, or through my tinkering anyway. And for people like our good friend Mahjqa, who is too afraid to jump into 3D, when we all know he would do marvelously if he knew how to get started.

The list, as well as I can remember (since GN deleted my last one), is as follows (going in order of difficulty IMO. (I'll post the list up after i write it. It's on my to-do list, and will be up no more than 1.5 hours from now -- promise.)

Shine and shine.

I believe the other person is me. Box-modeling or something. I recently got side-tracked with geodesic modeling. Good stuff.

I'll think about how in-depth I want to get and post some ideas later.

"I think the manual sucks. I think it is far too thick, and lengthy, regardless of it's value, and it is far too intimidating for beginers."

The 'manual' doesn't seem so thick, or intimidating if you don't leave all three books stacked on top of each other... and they do a very good job of explaining all the functions 3d studio max has. Manuals are meant to explain how to use the tool, and how it functions, not how to *create* with it, (thats what the fourth book (Tutorial book) is for).
I think its a terrible idea to tell people that reading the manual is a waste of time. Thats when you end up with hundreds of questions asking how to perform actions in the program, instead of how to achieve the effect desired.

On the topic of tutorials, one of these days when I have more free time, I think I might do a little project in the 3d forum over at gurusnetwork (probably a step-by-step to polygon model a head - not program specific) hoping to generate some more activity. But I figure I'll need at least 6 or 7 hours to do it live (so people who do have the time arn't kept waiting in suspense for days, for the next steps), hopefully in the next week or two I'll do it.

I don't have a list of what I'd like to see in a re-written manual, but I'll make sure to help you improve your tutorial after you submit it.

(while we're on the topic...) I compare writing a tutorial like showing someone how and why i like solving rubik's cubes. For me, it's easy, but for other people, it's so challenging that most times they would rather not bother. I'm not sure I should be showing how easy it can be, or ways to make it easy on themselves. Either way, it takes time to get, and it takes determination, and that burning fire of a rookie and someone to look up to -- like the Doc. The Doc is someone we all look up to, even though it looks like he hasn't done much lately. Why? I hink it's because of not really his age, which can't be determined right off the bat, but his aged style. The more I think about how my style works, the more I wonder how much better I can explain things when I'm not trying so hard. Anyways.. I could go on for a page or two about the marvels of "marketing," and it's fundamentals. on to the list!

Shine and shine.

I'm not saying that the manuals don't provide lots of gooood information. They do! They're awesome! But come on, it isn't light reading material AT ALL. I've gone through the 3ds max 3 tutorial book a few times, and I have found a number of things of value that I liked, but I wanted to start writing max tutorials that were better taylored to us in the asylum, the folks who use GN, the photoshop junkys who would like to convert, and all of us who are a bit more excited about Brazil R/S than learning about boring basics.
Also, as a side note, the tutorial book is no longer in my posession. So perhaps, subconsciously, I want to archive my knowledge since it isn't written down anywhere anymore.

Shine and shine.