DVD's

[Billabong]

Hi, First I would like to say that I'm not starting this to try and start any kind of flame war, this is simple observation and I just thought that I would mention it. Ok here goes.

It seems that that your training dvd's have been geared toward people who already know how to model,texture, light,etc.. There have been a few comments posted around about how some of them really don't show you how to do things, one in paticular is the character modeling dvd for 3ds Max. Here is a link to that disscussion.

http://3d-palace.com/index.php?option=com_forum&Itemid=1&page=viewtopic&p=97910#97910

Now I'm not saying that all your DVD's are like this, on the contrary some of them are very helpful. but Why make a training tutorial geared for someone who already knows how to model. I just don't see the point. There are hundreds of people out there looking for good solid training DVD's that will give you a walkthrough on how to do certain things and not just a here's how I did the head and then doesnt explain the rest of the body.

Like I said, I'm not trying to offend anyone, It's just I think some of these DVD's may be misleading to a few people and if they are geared for more highly adavanced users, It would be nice to kow that before the purchase, but If you guys did decide to do some walkthrough training on modeling, lighting, and texturing, I can promise you, it would not be wasted time or effort and I know for a fact this would be a very profitbale market. Thank you very u much taking the time to read this

[DreamsIn3D]

I am inclined to agree with the above poster as he is spot on with everything he is saying.

With this field of interest growing by the numbers every year, you see alot more 3D sites opening up to better serve people with tutorials and other such information.. sadly, some sites (to leave un-named and trust me from experience), take advantage of the people seeking to learn by making a pretty cover and topic for a tutorial promising to teach something, then let them down by already having a pre-made model and going from there.

I understand the pre-made model thing, as it is sometimes a daunting task to recreate the model in a tutorial for people. But if an argument is to insue from that remark, the argument would be that people are paying to learn the material they think they are getting, therefore, the tutorial should be executed without negligence or omissions. If a ''Character Modeling'' tutorial is produced for people, then that tutorial should be covered from beginning to end. Maybe my point of view, but as it is, it's my opinion and I stick to it.

3D-Palace.com, 3D-Buzz.com, CGSociety, Game-Artist.net and many more out there, develop tutorials to help the community, not to take advantage of it. As Gnomon isn't a little name in the industry, I would take it as the company itself with all its respect in the field, keep producing such wonderful tutorials it has done in the past. However, the newer ones seem to be lacking on information. If the material is for more advanced people, let that be known in the beginning so that no one will seem like they are wasting their money.

Gnomon still has many wonderful tutorials and you can't please all the people, all of the time. Just let it be known that your name is only as good as your material and what people think of it.

[ADRIAN]

I disagree
I thought it was quite informative,
I am still learning how to model and texture and found the DVD great.
Not only dose it show you a ??7 1\2?? hour tutorial it gives you the insight on how
a model is made within a companies production pipeline,
there are many specific modeling tutorials that gnomon has like polygon modeling 101,,
where you can get an informed walk through on how too make things ,,,
but,,for beginners and advanced people, being able to see how people in the industry go about it is so valuable if you are looking to be employed in the future.
If all tutorials out there started off talking about how to navigate and make simple geometry it would get so repetitive and know one would get any better.
I think there should be more production pipeline tutorials like this so the beginners have a better understanding on how a detailed result is created and what to expect when we go and look for employment.

I think if gnomon made any more DVDs on ?? how to model this object?? it would be a huge step back,,,,,,

[Gaialau]

I have to say im a begginer myself and also bought the character modeling and texture dvds. Even know they are very advanced for me ,I have to say they were the best dvds i ever bought or got my hand into . Im really glad someone took the time to produce something like this .
Ian Thank you so MUCH !!!

[Travis Bourbeau]

It is great to get feedback so thank you for taking the time to post your thoughts on this subject.

I can say that in the past 6 months we have been working hard to redesign elements of the site for easier use and navigation. We have also tried to provide more information on each title by uploading small clips from the DVD's. It is hard for us to post Beginner Intermediate or Professional so to speak as a measure of level for the DVD's mostly because what is intermediate to one person may seem advance or to amateur to another so we have tried to avoid that system all together.

We work heavily to encourage sites and individuals to post honest reviews so you can get an unbiased opinion, we also deliver free copies of our product to industry magazines hopefully giving you a inside look at what you are purchasing. Sometimes titles may seem well thought out but cant always give a full picture, for example character modeling for production is supposed to be part of a series highlighting the techniques used for Blur studios production techniques. This is a great DVD for the artist with good modeling skills that would like to learn or see what it takes to model for Blur or create character in a pipleline for cinematics ;)

There is a huge strength in being able to analyze how different artist approach the same task therefore we try to offer several titles on similar topics showing how artist approach the same task in different ways. There are seldom any two artist that instruct the same way and often find that like the dvds and instructors there are diverse students out there some are audio some are visual and some are physical. Different people learn in different ways while one person may learn the most from an actual demo another may pick it up better from power point etc. This makes it extremely challenging to create one title that fits within one label so to speak.

Gnomon tends to be geared more towards the student or professional but what it comes down to is putting out as much info on the most current techniques from professionals as possible giving every user at any level the opportunity to advance hopefully with the new clips and info available you will be able to have a bit more insight on your purchase.

We love getting feedback from you and will use whatever suggestions we can to make clearer choices on naming conventions and information.

Cheers,

Trav