Dear all,

 

I'm contemplating a really serious project on creating a collection of tutorials on Poser and related stuff, and I'd like to hear your opinions on things.

 

My current ideas:

• Tutorials are bundled in series, each consisting of sections of chapters, each containing videos with PDF support (and eventual additional files). Videos are considered relevant as a lot of people are not getting that much information from reading alone. Seeing and hearing are of utmost importance. Further support is delivered from my Missing Manuals website.

• At the moment I think of two series, both from some 'realism' point of view- Composition, Camera handling, Light, Rendering and Materials.

• Animation, Dynamics (Hair, Cloth, Physics), and Clothes Fitting.
  Including Rendering, Materials, etc relevant to this field of interest.

• Since Modeling, ZBRushing, Blendering, Rigging and UVMapping are not my personal areas of interest, I'll leave all that alone. As a photographer whos "working with models" does not include surgery to get the required poses or expressions done, I tend to use objects and morphs as they are made available.

• The target audience is painting artists and photographers (the "low-math's") who have some working Poser experience, and want to improve their skills and understanding from an artists perspective.

• So tutorials will be at about the intermediate level, no basic user interfacing for mere beginners. And they will be understanding-oriented, no standard recepies or 'monkey tricks' as the real works are always scene and artists style specific, and tricks tend to get obsolete or couter-productive with new Poser versions.

• As a consequence, all details in technical directions and in the (photo) realism areas will be dealt with without turning the presentations into some kind of Math or Physics class or requiring some engineering degree otherwise.

• As another consequence, topics will organized in a results / workflow oriented way instead of following the purly descriptive structure of the software and manuals. The "how" has priority above the "what".

• I've no idea yet whether or not to make it free or payed. Up till now my written stuff was always free, but videos are a lot of work. Similar tutorial series offered by Rendo or SM (each say 600MB in size) go for USD 100, with 40 or 50 pct rebate every now and then.

 

My questions:

• What is your opinion about the concept?

• Which (additional) topics should be covered to make it attractive for you?

• What is your opinion on free vs sale and at what price is it still attractive for you?

• Would you have extra requirements on aftersales support (solving issues, coaching, …)?

 

Thanks ahead for your feedback.

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Usually I'm wrong. But to be effective and efficient, I don't need to be correct or accurate.

visit www.aRtBeeWeb.nl (works) or Missing Manuals (tutorials & reviews) - both need an update though