Tutoring? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

murph101

Does anyone in this community do tutoring?

I have been tinkering with Carrara for years, many of which have been spent just trying to figure out the tools. I went through the video tutorials offered by Infinite Skills, both Basic and Advanced. As well, I went through many of the Dreamlight tutorials, although I've yet to delve into DAZ much.

While I've had some "aha" moments, I still find myself trying to figure out how to do certain things. ESPECIALLY when attempting to cross the divide between DAZ and Carrara. I like some of the easy features of DAZ that I see in other tutorials, but have yet to be successful actually making them happen, generally from confusion over basic use of the product and locating assets, proper use of tools, etc.

There are specific things I have in mind to do, but often have to forage for hours or days to figure it out, and sometimes never do, and give up in frustration.

What I would like to do is have someone help me through a list of things I'd like to accomplish but have gotten hung up on for one reason or another. I'd like to be able to hire someone, have them join me on my computer via GoToMeeting, then work through a list of problems.

Does anyone do this?

If so, let me know, your hourly rate, and method of payment, say CC or PayPal. I don't work on my projects full time, and I'd arrange dates and times with you for the future.

Thanks for all your help over the years!

John

FSMCDesigns

To be honest if you have worked for years with DAZ software and not "gotten it", I can't imagine being of any help if tutored. Why not just ask questions here like many others do,

Age of Armour

When you run into a hurdle and have spent more than a few hours trying to solve it I would just post about it in the Carrara forum. The Carrara users have historically been pretty eager to help.

Simply posting can often be of help because it forces you to think about the problem it in a straight forward, concise way in order to put it into words. It is funny how many times I was pulling my hair out then, while typing the question, it suddenly occurred to me what the problem was hehe.

murph101

"To be honest if you have worked for years with DAZ software and not “gotten it”, I can’t imagine being of any help if tutored. Why not just ask questions here like many others do,"

I've been working with Carrara for years, off and on. DAZ has only been installed in the past six months, and I've encountered a great deal of difficulty with identifying my content. The few days that I get to work with it are wasted uninstalling and re-installing everything, posting requests for help, doing things recommended, and chasing down rabbit holes. Then I'm off traveling or working on other projects. The next time I come back to DAZ I have to figure out where I left off.

Carrara has been easier for me, although the same behavior has kept me from mastering the product. I maybe know 10 or 15%. I encounter similar issues with Vue. Photoshop is much easier and there are tons of youtube vids. Same same with video and audio.

What I find in video tutorials is great, but ancillary to what I often want. For example, and it's just an example, I think "Hey, this character would look so much better if he had blood streaming down his face." I check out the tutorials on painting, get an inkling, try some things, doesn't work out right. I go to the DAZ store, find that there's a blood splatter product, buy it, then eventually discover it was intended for Michael -16 and, while it claims to work with Genesis, it looks like tooty-fruity ice-cream and floats above his head, or doesn't move with the body as soon as I change poses.

The above is a figurative example, but it's the sort of experience I often have, and the next thing I know, it's been a few days, some exchanges on the forums, I get something that kind of works, if I hold the stitching just right, but I don't dare morph his eyebrows...

I can't tell you how much I appreciate the forums and the help that I've gotten from them. I'm dazzled by the amount of time people will dedicate to answering lame-ass questions I post. However, I do feel it's a good deal like popping my head over the cubicle walls, saying "Hey, got a minute? or 20?" While the mutual support is great, I really feel like I'm chewing up other people's time. On top of that, while the answers I get are extremely helpful, they're just one of many, many, many that I have. I really don't want to monopolize the time of others. Even after I get my answer, I struggle for hours, sometimes days.

For example, I'd like to do an animated "commercial" for my novel. I can see it in my head, and I've done 200+ images in Carrara depicting scenes. But, I'd like to animate some characters, maybe make them say some lines. I have a background in audio/video production, so I can do the whole thing from that perspective, and if I had real actors, etc., I'd know how to do it all. Now, I could struggle for over a month trying to figure out how to do it, probably make a sloppy job of it, pull out my hair, and so on. Or, I could get help from someone who has done some animation of characters in Carrara to guide me. They'd ask about my vision, get a good idea where to start me, tell me, "use this product, not that one, do this, do that," I'd go do it, come back with a list of trouble spots, then we'd tackle them until I got what I wanted. The way it stands now, it might take me 3 to 6 months to get a whole project figured out on my own and splitting my time with umpteen other tasks I do simultaneously. With help, I can envision having it done in a week. A WEEK!!! Ha Ha! That'd be fantastic!

I know if someone said, "Murph? I'm thinking about writing a novel. What do you recommend?" I'd be able to help them figure things out so they don't waste YEARS of their lives plodding down treacherous paths. I'd say, "This book is really helpful to start off with..." etc., I'd guide them, but not do things for them.

I'm telling you, if you have a lot of experience, there are likely others who'd like to have the help, too. I could sign up for a seminar on some product for $1500, between airfare, hotel, car, meals, wind up dropping $3000, and end up with a lot of odds and ends of learnin' that I may already know or would soon forget (spent $2500 on a 5-day Intro Photoshop class, retained maybe 20%). Or, I can spend it on someone who tutors me to get exactly what I want, and a completed project to boot! Ha Ha!!!

Whadya say?

Geminii23

I would think that the best way of learning is just simply doing it. I didn't know one thing about 3D art when I started working with DAZ a year or so ago. I had only dabbled with Poser when it first came out back in 1995 or so (wow I am old now).

I basically just have experimented from day to day with different ideas. That and watched whatever tutorials I could find as well as asking questions in the forums.

So unless you are just itching to spend money I would say just give a try first and see how quickly you grasp everything. I would think that if you are an experienced Carrera user you would have a much easier time than I did learning DAZ.