When do you decide to post for help on forums?

daniellooartist

Hello. What is your personal rule for asking help? Being from an area that does not have a super large game art community, I do most of my work alone. I try not to abuse people's time, but the alternative is that you'll spend half your time just doing technical support work instead of art. It's the reason I don't post work. I can't finish anything because I keep having to drop what I'm doing and resolve some issue every few hours.

I've always used the Extra Credits rule in one of their episodes. If it takes more than an hour, hit the forums. If you look at my posting history, most of my questions are super basic things most people probably already know. But I've noticed it's much easier to get the ball rolling once you have the foundational tools needed to troubleshoot more advanced problems, so that would not be a problem... right? What criteria do you guys as individuals meet before posting?

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daniellooartist

What if the problem is something supposedly simple, but undocumented and you list troubleshooting steps and approximate time spent?

slipsius

If a quick google doesnt net me the answer, I ask. Like if Im working on a piece and i need crits to see whats wrong, or what i can improve. I post. If I have a tech issue, and a google search doesnt help, I search these forus. If there's not answer, I ask. 

JordanN

To the contrary, asking questions has always been a last resort for me.

The conclusion I've reached is making props/environments takes a looooooooong time, and that the time waiting on an answer can be better spent just finishing a prop or drawing instead.

One solution I found is it's better to just bookmark a crap ton of tutorials on the internet, go through all of them first, and only ask questions to see if they line up with what I read on the internets. 

daniellooartist

Oh yes, bookmarking is great. Have you tried the Vivaldi browser? Bookmarking becomes fun!

sacboi

Kinda veer to the other side of the equation, so don't specifically ask for a workaround solution or bug fix but tend too sort out an issue via testing/prototyping. It's pretty rare that I'd pose a query for help, possible personality 'thing' I guess.

Though I've found lurking about when stuck on something, that WIPs on occasion can throw up a feasible option or two every now-'n'-again.    

kanga

Part of this profession is problem solving. The steps are usually: first a quick look on the web, then in the support material, then hit the forums and ask. The difference between now and 10 years ago is that these days there is less chance you will get an answer, because, users are busy, or there are more resources that draw them away. In the beginning if you posted a question, in half an hour you would get 3 answers from 3 different continents.

Now when you post its like something you do as well as testing out your problem on a humble cube. Helping people with their questions seems to get you help when you need it yourself though.

Also when you post a question, get no responses and find the answer yourself it seems courteous to write up the answer in the same thread so people can find your solution in a search. Not just: I found the answer thanks.

throttlekitty

I tend to keep picking at a problem until I decide that there is no solution or I'm tackling it the wrong way. I learned early on that helping other people helped me learn: by forcing myself to solve a situation I might not encounter soon, I'd be better prepared at the very least if/when I do. The "nodding dummy" trick works wonders, describe your problem to someone who knows nothing (or can pretend to) about the whats or whys of what you're doing. This also forces you to simplify and lay out the problem differently than the gears in your head normally do, many times you'll nearly immediately see a solution before you've finished talking.

I probably spend a lot more time troubleshooting than I should, but I'm really stuck in the 'do it msyelf' mentality, for better or worse.

Francois_K

For technical stuff

1. Trial and error , can I figure out this problem on my own ( Or find a workaround )
2. If not , can I find it out on google , I always assume the problem has been had before by someone else
3. If that doesn't work , I ask people I know if they know a solution
4. If that doesn't work , post on polycount

For critique
I always ask if I'm not sure or uncomfortable with how something looks. Google hangout , slack , not so much on polycount anymore though.

For things about a studio
How or why something was done this way etc.

1. I ask people I know if they know an answer 
2. I potentially make a thread if they didn't know an answer and I try to contact someone who works at that studio. 

Zack Maxwell

I'll usually try solving it on my own until I run out of ideas, then I'll try googling it for a while. And if I can't find my answers that way, then I'll ask on a forum

Eric Chadwick

A couple things from the Info Sticky worth repeating here.

I think How To Ask Questions The Smart Way should be required reading for all forum users. But hey, what do I know?

http://polycount.com/discussion/63361/information-about-polycount-new-member-introductions/p1#asking

Asking for Help
We are here to help, but like to see people who try to help themselves. 

1. Try to find an answer by Searching the forums. Technical Talk is a great place to start.

1. Try to find an answer by searching the Polycount Wiki.

1. Try to find an answer by searching the Web.

1. Try to find an answer by reading the manual.

1. Try to find an answer by experimentation!

1. Include your findings in your post, so we know what you've tried already.

How To Ask Questions The Smart Way. 


Always Search
As points 1 and 2 already mentioned, you should search for answers to your questions before posting a new thread. 
You should also consider performing a search before posting a new thread if you think there is a good chance someone should have already made such a post - for example there may be a new art package, plugin, game or film just released that you want to announce.
If you are getting an error message, the fastest way to find the answer is to use that message as your Search text. For example, you can search the forums for "Your comment will appear after it is approved" This works great in web searches too. 

musashidan

The way I look at it is people who jump straight to a forum as soon as they hit a problem are wasting their time on CG and should travel a different path. 

As has been mentioned above, this stuff is all about problem-solving, experimenting, constantly researching and learning and bettering yourself by just doing. 

I've seen a lot of outright lazy questions posted here and not surprisingly the posters soon disappear from the forums. Even after a decade doing this stuff I still look up official documentation, be it 3dsmax or Zbrush or any of the other half dozen packages I might be using. That's my first port of call if I forget something or some tool I haven't used in a while.

Google searching is also a more or less foolproof research tool with the amount of info available these days. 

Having said all that I genuinely enjoy helping others with their problems, if I can, as that's what the community is all about. It's just the idiotic or lazy shit that pisses me off. Passion and perseverance is a must in CG and when I come across the lazy attitude, especially with the practically infinite resources beginners have available these days compared to 10 or 12 years ago, it just pisses me off.

So by all means post your problems but, please, don't be lazy about it. Did I mention that it pisses me off?

Larry

I always try different things to pinpointmy problem. Being self taught, I cannot have the terminology to search for my answer. So basically I try things, if I cannot solve it with what I know, I try to explain my problem with as few words as I can in a google search. Then after searching similar or totally different problems than mine, I get a bit of overall technical knowledge and narrow down even further what my problem is. If I stil cannot find my answer or gotten lazy, I post in the forums.

Dood1

Google for technical problems. Peers or mentors for art feedback

djwaglmuffin

I'm one of those unfortunate souls that don't know HOW to ask questions...s'probably why I'm stuck where I am in my development. I know what I want to learn and I try to follow along...but at THIS juncture, I really would benefit from a teacher or at least a willing human to go "Now, try doing X" and see what happens. 

daniellooartist

That's why I brought this up. Plenty of artists aren't technical at all. It's much harder for them to dive head first into documentation and old forum threads without having a frame of reference to structure their query. It seems like the general consensus is that as long as you list what you HAVE tried, and played with it for more than 5 minutes, then the boards won't tell you to GTFO.

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JordanN

JoshuaG said:

Honestly I'm pretty skeptical when it comes to getting help on forums. You never know if or when you'll get a response, let alone the right one. That's why I primarily go to Discord groups on 3D art for help and or feedback. 

Well in theory, it's a self correcting process. 

If someone makes a claim on here, it's open for anyone to challenge. Usually if there's information that's blatantly wrong, it's instantly nitpicked at. But emphasis on theory.  I have noticed some biases in answers, that unfortunately, can skew people's perceptions of what is actually right or wrong.

Semi

Im thinking that whenever you are asking for help, you could try helping someone else. And whether it's on a forum or in real life, I find it kind of annoying when someone asks a question that they do not seem to have properly researched or tried before, especially if I can find the answer on google. So I'd say whenever you think you've tried everything and that you need a specific response, and that youre not just wasting someone else's time. 

sacboi

daniellooartist said:

It seems like the general consensus is that as long as you list what you HAVE tried, and played with it for more than 5 minutes, then the boards won't tell you to GTFO.

By and large, I'd agree but also dependant upon how a particular query was framed as well. So being civil from the outset will also mitigate a potentially tossed GTFO...in your face.