Watching tutorials vs following them?

Nomadvisas

Hi!

When it comes to tutorials, how do people generally use them? Is it always wise to follow along with them to put the skills into practice or is it better to watch them and apply them to a project of your own?

I think that for me personally, I'd like to follow along with a similar project and apply what I'm learning to my own work. Or do some of you just watch and take notes?

Thanks

Snweos

It depends how familiar you are with the subject matter. If you are completely unfamiliar and uncomfortable with the subject the tutorial is covering then it would be best to stick closely to the tutorial. If you are more comfortable with the subject matter then feel free to try apply the content to your own different project. If you are very familiar with the subject matter then just take notes on what the author does differently to you and look out for any tips or tricks you didn't know.

AndySC

The same here.  If it's something new and unfamiliar I'll follow along and experiment with all the settings as I do.  If I'm stuck with something specific I'll watch the tutorial and apply it to what I'm doing. 

throttlekitty

I find them helpful for the early stages of learning a new program. Once I'm familiar with how things work, I'm usually looking for specific techniques or ideas where I start skimming around looking to fill in the gaps.

Nomadvisas

Cool, that's good to know for picking up things here and there during projects.

How about complete workflows though? As in, creating an asset / scene from start to finish. Is it better to try and learn each step separately as an individual task or a complete tutorial guide? 

rexo12

I'd probably say a full tutorial guide, so you can get an overview of the steps required, and work out what you struggle with. Then you can go do some specialised tutorials on your area of need.