Change of plans...

Okay, I've made some executive decisions about the direction of this site.

Frankly...I'm bored.

I think the approach that I've been taking is just too slow. There are so many things that can be done in Blender that the way I've been going about trying to help you, will simply take forever. You will lose interest and so will I.

This is the new approach. I believe that you can learn the best and fastest by watching someone do what you would like to be able to do. So, naturally, that means video tutorials. This will help me produce material at a much faster pace and frequency. I'll still throw in the occasional text-based post but, tutorials will be in a video format. There will still be .blend files, quizzes, and maybe some games. But mainly, I want to do some Blendering and just crank out tutorials! :)

Take note: These videos will be a bit raw. In order for me to do this, I can't spend a whole lot of time trying to make things cute. My focus is on content. My motto: "That's good enough, keep going!" My goal is to be able to sit down and crank out a video in less than 30 minutes (including rendering, hosting, posting, etc.). Over time, things will become a little more polished, if needed.

The video format has yet to be finalized because, frankly, I'm no expert with codecs and such. And, I really don't have time to become one. So, the format used will be based on what is easiest for me and what creates the smallest file while maintaining very good image quality. I can tell you that I really like the Flash (SWF) format and I'm sure that I'll use it for presentations that I want to be more interactive. I'll try to keep the videos short and to the point however, I expect that there may be some longer videos as well, where I just start with an idea and go for it with the "camera" rolling. I think it will be interesting to capture mistakes and how to recover from them.

The presentation styles will include:

- Over-the-shoulder, where you simply get to watch something being done. No audio and very little text. The purpose of these types will be to help you understand how certain skill and techniques work in a "live" situation. You will have already learned the skills involved so, any audio or deep explanations will be redundant. Plus, I'm oratorically-challenged!
- Interactive, where you will be able to click "Next" and "Back" buttons, as well as click on links to related materials, etc.
- Quizzes, where you get to test your knowledge of recently covered material. They will be in HTML format with images, and maybe some video clips. The tests will be complete with scoring and corrections so, you'll know immediately how you did.
- etc. (this post is getting to be a little long-winded)

Anyway, I hope these things will interest you. And, I hope these changes will make this a much better site.

Tell your friends...heck tell your non-friends and strangers, too!

See ya soon.

technorati tags: Blender, 3D, video, tutorial