A review of AsileFX's DVD tutorials for Vue5 Infinite. Ok, I have purchased 2 out of 4 of the tutorials. The getting started and the Advanced Volume 1 discs. Now the following is my personal opinion and I'm only a hobbyist with 3D software so take all this with a grain of salt. There is a lot that is good, but unfortunately, almost as much that is bad with these tutorials. First look before even sticking the disc(s) in, it's obvious that these are homemade Discs. Is that bad? Well yes and no, for the price you expect something a little more professional looking. Not that anything is bad about them, just that it's a printed label from an ink jet or some type of home printer. Don't spill anything on them or get them wet because the ink will smudge. I discovered this simple by taking a drink from a glass of juice before taking the disc out of the cover and the little condensation on my fingers smudged it. At least use a water proof ink maybe? Disappointment #1 - These are not a DVD movie that you can plug into a consumer DVD player and watch on your TV while working on you're computer. Most people would like to be able to watch and work right along with a tutorial. At least I do. I do have two monitors hooked up so it's not so bad for me but 90% of people don't. Once getting the disc into the computer my next little bit of disappointment came when each of the videos have no titles other than, Movie 1, Movie 2, etc. If you want to find information on a particular part of Vue you're kinda screwed. OK so far not great, but nothing that would stop me from buying an information video. Now let's fire it up and see if the info is there.....? Opening up the Movie 1 gave me a nice surprise when it displayed a full sized Vue window. Which was nice, I was sorta expecting a little 200x300 quicklime window from what I had seen up to this point. But then right back to those little disappointments I'm sorry to say. The image is compressed a lot causing the blocky look which is very distracting when they are talking about the material preview and editors. Also the pointer is extremely jumpy which is also distracting and a bit annoying after time. Now let's cover the person doing the tutorial. Does he have knowledge and information that is going to help you use Vue better? Most certainly YES. Is it presented in a way that you'll get that info easily? Well...Sorta...... You can tell right off that there was no script, no rehearsing, no real forethought to the video before they started recording. You can tell he's just winging it through out the whole disc. There are times he's explaining something while walking through it only to end up back tracking or blowing it off all together because he's in the wrong area of the program or it simply can't be done. Don't get me wrong here, I'm not completely knocking these videos. There is certainly information here that just about anyone wither hobbyist or Pro can benefit from. Just for the money should be presented in a much more professional manner. Most tutorials done for free online are easier to learn from and are better organized. To sum it all up with ratings of 1-10.... Packaging/discs 4 organization 3 Presentations 3 Information 8 helpfulness 7 Value for your money 4 as they sit I personally can't see asking for more than $15-20 per disc. And that even seems a bit high. the $45 is way to much the way they are now. though I have to say that I have learned a good bit watching them. From simple interface adjustments to getting materials to look the way I'm trying to get them to. Re-Making them with a written and rehearsed script. Make it a consumer DVD so you can sit and watch it on a TV through a regular DVD player while actually following along on you computer. Breaking them up a bit more and giving each video a title so you can find the info you want would give them a much higher value.

I have 3 of the DVDs from asileFX. As far as running them in a DVD player, so far none of the training DVDs that I have purchased for a variety of programs (some for over $80) run on a DVD player. I am able to run Vue and the DVD at the same time, so I don't feel this is a problem. It would have been nice having the movies having a simple title. I agree, it's hard to remember if Movie 1 was the one I wanted to watch again. A printed table of contents would have been a nice addition and not add to the cost of the DVDs. Labels on the DVDs are OK in my book. It costs too much to have silk screened DVDs. They would have had to make more copies and charge more for something that is not critical. So far in my purchases, only the Gnomon DVDs have silk screen DVDs, and they are expen$ive! No script is also OK in my book as it makes it a bit more interesting to listen too. I need to stay awake to learn! I do agree that he some times runs into a problem and has to back-track. So do I... The only thing that does bug me is the jumping cursor. I guess they captured the video in a slower frame rate, but the author keeps moving things around when he really does not have to. Hopefully they will corect this for future DVDs. I felt the value for money was 8. If they come out with other ones for Vue (unless it is Lightwave and Vue), I will get them.

I know it sounds like I was bashing them, and i sorta was for the money they charge I felt a little riped off. But i do see a lot of good info there. Just need t drop the price or increase the quality to make the $$$ value they are asking. as to the labels, I'm fine with it. just use a good ink at least. the slightest damp finger smudged mine. Even Epson's cheapy printers are water resistent. I purchase these types of discs and usually watch them,learn what I need and in turn resell them on places like E-bay. Now I don't expect to get full price return off them, but with the water smudge it's going to drop it a lot. I loose because of thier savings

Well, I got three of them as well and although I don't regret buying them (didn't know that there was a new one, will get that one as well..) I do think the presenter should drink less coffee. I agree he jumps around allot, and when I'm trying to follow along I often feel like I'm going to hyperventilate. There is allot of useful info so I'm glad I have them, but the presentations lack a calm, methodical structured approach. Ever seen any of the Total Training DVD's for After Effects/Premiere? Yes, they're more expensive, but when I'm done with a lesson I don't feel like I want to chew on my furniture. Myself, I have no problem with the video format or the quality of the printing for the labels; I'm genuinely glad that someones taking the time to put them together, and hopefully his skill as a presenter will improve as only experience in making them will provide. For the time being I'm going to order the one I don't have yet and hope that I don't feel that I'm going for a ride in a nitro burning, hemi powered VW beetle after chewing on a bag of amphetamines.

"little condensation on my fingers smudged it.." "the slightest damp finger smudged mine.." I suggest that for those who have bought it, try and make a spare copy just in case. What I mant to say here is that, in this case "dye" ink is use and the inkjet coating on the paper is of inferior quality. The good one are usually "semi glossy". The worst of it is that eventually over a period of time (depending on environmental storage and handling), this dye ink would soak thru the label paper and sit on the silk layer of the disc...and eventually 'might' get thru the silkscreen layer thus damaging the disc. Same like writing with a normal marker on disc which eats into the silkscreen layer of any blank disc..unless those markers used are for Cds only. Yes, better inkjet ink should be used like "Pigment" ink which is water proof. Normal dye ink however becomes "water resistance" when used with photographic coated labels (which is hard to get for CDs label)and you can prink at photographic quality. Talk about having aproduct looks professional for such disc, it may be good that "lightscribe" be used which is common these days (after you burn your data, flip the disc onto the other side and inscribe your labeling) and with this, you do not have to worry about long storage when it comes to ink damaging your disk. Hope the above is of some help.

I've watched a couple of these at a buds and I have to say that if I bought them personally I'd be annoyed. Yes you can learn lots but the ooops, maybe that isn't how to do it is annoying. It seems like quick production to take advantage of Vue's popularity. Maybe a 6 rating.

I agree with krimpr, i don't regret purchasing them, I don't want to discurage them from making more.... just maybe clean them up a bit.... or maybe i'll just make my own? LOL..... NOT!

Thanks for that review Thomllama - I also have them all (without regret) and think you are pretty much spot on with your comments. My own feedback is based upon a desire for future improvement, and turning good tutorials into a great tutorials. (I use Jim Coe's Art-Ahead-Start, and Chipp Walters as benchmark examples of great structured tutorial writers for example). The demonstrator clearly was experienced with the program, but I concur that there was a 'winging-it' type of feel - as one might have at a booth demonstration, rather than a systematic scripted training seminar with pre-made examples to reconstruct ("Here's one I made earlier..." :p ) As a couple of people have picked up above - this came across in the over-use of the mouse to emote rather than only indicate functionality, which was very distracting at times, and a trainer #101 no-no as with laser pointers :) The videos appeared to have been recorded in long single takes, and as a result, at times the trainer occasioanlly stuttered and mumbled, got mixed up with what he was saying, made mistakes and undid them on-screen, which took a bit of polish off for me - don't get me wrong though - I learned loads, but it made me cringe a little when all they had to do was a second take to get it cleanly right perhaps? Talking of which - if the chapters were shorter and started off with objectives / summaries - perhaps like title credits you can make in Windows Media Maker, then accessing specific sections would also help to be able to return to them after(as well as making re-takes less painful ;) ) A DVD option might have been nice (or both), but the lack of an Auto-Run on a data disc and having to locate files manually rather than have a Chapter launcher (even a basic HTML one) is a few years behind now.. I'm a big believer in getting to play with examples after a class. Following structured tutorial steps is one thing (or not here), but being able to play around with a final scene or settings would have been a good addition too. So as not to give the wrong impression here - these are very good tutorial DVDs (some invaluable tips), but could be made great with the addition of a little more polish through better preparation, presentation and supporting examples. Or at least that's my tuppenyworth :) Kind regards