Tips from a Newbie to other Newbies
IceDragonArt
Posts: 12,548
Thought I would share some of the things that have shortened my learing curve a bit.
The most obvious one is of course, ask questions! But, search the forums first, there is a huge amount of info already here and I am
pretty sure that the people who answer our newbie questions have the patience of saints because they answer these questions over and over.
Join the contests! I have only had the chance to do two contests so far but I have learned things that I wouldn't even have thought of. INVALUABLE! There is a monthly newbie contest with a theme to help you learn different aspects. Join the current one. Then go back and read all the previous contest threads. Then try a render or two using each threads theme. There is also a regular freebie contest under the freebies thread as well various other spots. If you have a platinum membership there is a weekly contest or two there as well. Doesn't matter if you don't know what you are doing, join in, try it, you will get a ton of great advice, and you may be surprised and just how good a render you may end up with.
Track down issues of DS Creative (here is a link to issue 14 you can find the rest from here. http://issuu.com/philatdsc/docs/ds_creative_14) Start with issue one and READ the whole thing. Not to mention the great freebies in each issue.
If you need content and don't have a lot of cash to spend, go to the freebies thread. They have lists. lots and lots of lists of freebies and sites to get freebies. Good stuff!
If you want to save money on content, get a pc memebership. My three month prescriiption paid for itself the first time I used it and I have literally saved thousands of dollars in the last six weeks between the sales and membership discounts.
Go through any of the threads that have questions on how to do things, if someone is having an issue with something, especially the newbie section the commons and the technical help section. A lot of the issues that I run into, I don't have to ask because I just read about that issue last week in the technical help section. or wherever.
And probably most important. If you ask a question and people come along and try and help you SAY THANK YOU! The amount of time some of the members spend helping
us learn is truly incredible and totally voluntary, and I am sure most precious to the people who are giving us their time. Its a gift and we should be most grateful!
Any other advice anyone has feel free to add to it.
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Comments
Nice tips, Sonja. :-) I second your PC recommendation. I'd forgotten how much the PC could save members on content, until I recently rejoined.
Something I've found handy -- if all else fails, search engines can be handy. A time or two, I've searched for an issue and found exactly the information I needed. :-) There are a lot of great tutorials out there.
Yes I agree a TON of great tutorials! And I know I always do a search before I ask. Usually its been asked before so with some digging some of those questions can be answered.
IMO, your first approach should be to Google your question. Then use the forum search- because the forum search takes a bit to wade through. It's often more fragmented than the results with Google.
Next, don't forget the stickies at the top of the forum. A lot of questions that get asked are already answered and stickied.
And of course, I have to say go through the Art Studio threads because artists will tell you what they're trying, and what products they're using. A wealth of information there, and they've put the Animation folks there too. My six threads on products and tips go back 3 years and many talented artists showcase them to help out. The focus lately has been on Iray lighting, but there's two years of threads which test the 3DL lightsets too. One tip I would give is to try the lightsets that come with the products before you buy lights, as many have great lighting that can be used for other scenes.
And yes, the contests are a fun way to participate and also ask for help. The ones in the New User section are quite helpful with the great feedback, also take a peek at the RRRR contest which is absolutely whacky, and surf the different forum sections for the contests as many are not in the Commons (mine is in the Art Studio thread. At the moment, need people to help out and vote.) The RRRR contest is random draws of products, and it's really funny to see what people do with the products they have to use- and very nice prizes!
Last, don't forget to check and see if you have access to the members' only section if you are a Platinum Club member, as in the past, occasionally it didn't show up (admin can easily fix that for you.) I think with the new forums it has been smoothed out.
I have honestly been blown away at the amount of effort and time you and others have put in to make all this information available to everyone. Its really amazing and I, for one, truly appreciate it. Hopefully as I learn and grow I will be able to contribute as well. I have noticed there are contests all over the place too which is great fun. Even if you don't join in to the contest, they are still a wealth of informaion! And if I didn't have a day job (sadly, my family does demand food and shelter lol) I would probably be able to participate in more than just one at a time. Hoping that as I get better it won't take quite as long to put a decent scene together either which will probably help
WRT forum search. Just say no. Append site:daz3d.com to your search and google will happily limit itself to just the DAZ site.
Great tip!
Happy to help! We have a lot of wonderful forum members who chip in, I've been impressed for years with all the tips that are shared.
I know what you mean about the length of time it takes to do a render when you're starting out. My first one took four or five months!
If you could still go back to the beginnings of the New Users area you would find that it all came about because a group of people got together and persuaded DAZ that we needed a place where New Users could learn things by asking questions without being told "That has been answered before, go here to see", or "search the forums", blah blah blah etc. Experience showed that this attitude was just driving New Users away. This group worked really hard with Daz 3D and thrashed the concept out, eventually coming up with what is now "The New Users Help Forum". They then went on to completely revamp the New Users Contest as well, to make it a fun way of learning, with the possibility to win prizes while learning. The original group was selected to include people who enjoyed helping people, who could do so in a fun and friendly manner and who didn't mind answering the same questions several times. Daz 3D was so pleased with the concept that was thrashed out that they gave this original group a "Title" They became Community Volunteers, and each Volunteer who is granted that status is very carefully selected for both their ability to stay cool, calm and friendly and their knowledge. As stated in the original blurb about the forum
All of the current Forum Moderator Team were actually selected from among the original memebers of the Community Volunteer group, and any new CVs are still selected very carefully, so that we can keep this ethos going.
So I guess the moral of this story is, If you only have time to enter One Contest, then make it the New Users Contest, as it is "Edutainment" and if you only brows one forum when you first start then make it the New Users Help Forum, which is staffed by selected Volunteers, who are joined by other forum members who have discovered it is nice to help New people.
Well, I think you guys are awesome so thank you! And I will say that I had blast with the New Users Contest and learned a HUGE amount of stuff. I am planning on going through all the previous contest threads as well as I have found them to be a great source of information
Have you found the thread where they are all listed > This One Which reminds me, I need to update that with the last 2 or 3 contests.
Sure have thank you! That's another thing I really enjoy here. Things are fairly well organized so that we can actually find what we need relatively easily.
Thank you, @Chohole. I hadn't found this particular one yet so now I've bookmarked it.