McGyver
Energetic
DISCLAIMER: The following post may be too long.
Do read it if you want to stay awake, have a short attention span, are bleeding profusely or have a small bladder.
If you don't like reading or are running out of blood, but still want to know the question, skip down to the bottom where it says "ACTUAL QUESTION"
And... It's a moot point too!
The question is about a post/suggestion I was going to make.
It's at a different site, not here... the one with a rainbow octopus logo.
Background:
I don't post much there anymore and I really gave up trying to help out people who ask questions...
One of the reasons I stopped trying to help is because I mainly responded to questions where the OP was clearly being misunderstood.
And more often then not the post I'd make trying to clarify what exactly the person was asking, would get buried in responses to a question that was not asked.
It's kinda funny sometimes because I'd wonder if people were actually reading more then half a sentence into the OP and then just assuming the rest.
But whatever...
I also gave up making suggestions there because it's pointless... If there is a problem, it's going to remain a problem and people are either going to defend it or get pissed off because nothing is being done about it.
Which I have to say is a totally different environment here since 99% of the time LisaB or Chris will respond to something like that... Granted the other place has more traffic and is "bigger", but it's really nice to know you are heard or that there is someone minding the store who cares.
Anyway...
The point was I had noticed quite a while ago as DS grew more complex that some of the products there were not for beginners... Particularly certain shaders, materials and plugins etc...
Hell, even some characters.
People would often post they bought a product and needed help using it... You'd see they had like 3-4 posts to their credit, so most likely they were a noob.
Often from the answers you would see that the method was kind of complicated and even well known forum people would respond with statements like "gee, I didn't know that, that's good to know..."
How is a noob or even an intermediate level user supposed to know something is complicated to use or get the same results in the promo?
It's kinda disappointing to fiddle around with something amazing looking and then find out you need another three years of understanding and three thousand dollars worth of computer more to be able use properly.
Today I read a thread where someone was asking how to use a product and one of the answers, though helpful, concluded with something to the effect of "you have to learn how to use these things first, this is a complicated effect and you need more experience"... Which was entirely accurate.
So I looked up the product and right in the main promo is the effect the OP was trying to achieve...
There is no indication this requires much know how or is potentially resource intensive.
How is a noob or beginner supposed know this is not as simple as it looks?
So here is the idea I'm never going to suggest to anyone, but I'm curious if it's totally batsnot insane or has some slight merit.
ACTUAL QUESTION:
Would it have helped you when you were new to 3D if certain products had a skill level rating?
How about a resource usage rating?
Skill level would be simple... Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced... I'd imagine the vendor should know enough to honestly predict or suggest that.
Resource usage would probably be harder to gauge, but basically Low, Medium and Intense...
So that's it... Thanks for your participation and have a great day!
Do read it if you want to stay awake, have a short attention span, are bleeding profusely or have a small bladder.
If you don't like reading or are running out of blood, but still want to know the question, skip down to the bottom where it says "ACTUAL QUESTION"
And... It's a moot point too!
The question is about a post/suggestion I was going to make.
It's at a different site, not here... the one with a rainbow octopus logo.
Background:
I don't post much there anymore and I really gave up trying to help out people who ask questions...
One of the reasons I stopped trying to help is because I mainly responded to questions where the OP was clearly being misunderstood.
And more often then not the post I'd make trying to clarify what exactly the person was asking, would get buried in responses to a question that was not asked.
It's kinda funny sometimes because I'd wonder if people were actually reading more then half a sentence into the OP and then just assuming the rest.
But whatever...
I also gave up making suggestions there because it's pointless... If there is a problem, it's going to remain a problem and people are either going to defend it or get pissed off because nothing is being done about it.
Which I have to say is a totally different environment here since 99% of the time LisaB or Chris will respond to something like that... Granted the other place has more traffic and is "bigger", but it's really nice to know you are heard or that there is someone minding the store who cares.
Anyway...
The point was I had noticed quite a while ago as DS grew more complex that some of the products there were not for beginners... Particularly certain shaders, materials and plugins etc...
Hell, even some characters.
People would often post they bought a product and needed help using it... You'd see they had like 3-4 posts to their credit, so most likely they were a noob.
Often from the answers you would see that the method was kind of complicated and even well known forum people would respond with statements like "gee, I didn't know that, that's good to know..."
How is a noob or even an intermediate level user supposed to know something is complicated to use or get the same results in the promo?
It's kinda disappointing to fiddle around with something amazing looking and then find out you need another three years of understanding and three thousand dollars worth of computer more to be able use properly.
Today I read a thread where someone was asking how to use a product and one of the answers, though helpful, concluded with something to the effect of "you have to learn how to use these things first, this is a complicated effect and you need more experience"... Which was entirely accurate.
So I looked up the product and right in the main promo is the effect the OP was trying to achieve...
There is no indication this requires much know how or is potentially resource intensive.
How is a noob or beginner supposed know this is not as simple as it looks?
So here is the idea I'm never going to suggest to anyone, but I'm curious if it's totally batsnot insane or has some slight merit.
ACTUAL QUESTION:
Would it have helped you when you were new to 3D if certain products had a skill level rating?
How about a resource usage rating?
Skill level would be simple... Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced... I'd imagine the vendor should know enough to honestly predict or suggest that.
Resource usage would probably be harder to gauge, but basically Low, Medium and Intense...
So that's it... Thanks for your participation and have a great day!