What makes a great Tutorial or Course?

j0pine4

Hello and thank you for taking the time to read my first post on Polycount!

I've recently started my professional career as a Modeling and Texturing artist. I've learned so many great things from my peers and I feel inclined to pass this information on to the community to benefit from. This being said, I want to make sure the information is presented in the best way possible.

What do you find to be the most important aspect of a quality tutorial? In your opinion, what factors play the biggest role? 

sacboi

Clear ,relevant, succinct, straightforward content delivery, with an emphasis on pro authored material.

Alex_J

Execution : succinct; straight to the point; cut out the ummmmm's and rehearse before you film so there's no mouse cursor searching for a menu you can't recall; broken up into segments for fast reference later. Michael Pavlovich does the best IMO.

Also be sure to explain in very simple laymen terms what you intend to do, what the goal is, before you do it. Then the viewer doesn't have to sit and wait to understand why you are using certain tools, they can deduce it logically and thus remember.

Style : Two basic styles of tutorial I think. Technical focused and artistic focused. Also got to be clear about who the audience is. If you are focusing on breakdown of your artistic method don't waste time explaining how to use tools (unless it's liike really unusual.) Vice versa, if you are teaching how to UV unwrap don't waste time mentioning proportions and stuff like that. Just remember that your tutorial is in a sea of many and nobody is expecting comprehensiveness, rather something specific that they can refer back to.

throttlekitty

I agree with bigtime. Something I don't like is when the author makes a mistake and takes a long detour to correct it while half-explaining what happened. Mixing that with the general umm uhh and frantically mousing around in menus, it makes for a bad learning experience. Detours like this don't give a clear view of what the viewer should be doing; keeping them focused on what you're teaching is paramount!

I'm actually going through some obtuse game modding videos right now, and it's driving me nuts. Though It's something I haven't seen in 3d tutorials in a while.