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Is anyone keeping up with Digital Tutors?

polycounter lvl 14
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DrunkShaman polycounter lvl 14
http://www.digitaltutors.com/dtlabs/

I think I'll be going back for a little bit as six months or less.

I thought this might interest you so I posted it. :)

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  • makecg
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    Nah I haven't I loved them when I first started though. I think I am going to get some Gnomon DVDS for traditional stuff.
  • System
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    System admin
    Digital Tutors don't seem to get as much love round here as I think they should. I mean, I think Eat3D and 3DMotive are doing some really amazing stuff, and for realtime, they can't be beaten IMO... but I always point people in the direction of Digital Tutors if they're starting out, but in fairness they have some pretty comprehensive intermediate courses available too.

    The 'building game characters' series with the biker dude is actually really very good. I've never actually followed it all the way through but it covers the entire game workflow, and I like how you can take it into rigging and animating, and IIRC even into Motionbuilder to do some looping game anims too. To go from a concept, through base mesh, sculpting, retopo and texturing, and then onto rigging and animation is really quite something I think.

    The one thing I love about Digital Tutors, and I know some people actually prefer that this doesn't happen, is that they hold your hand through the entire process. Nothing at all is skipped, you literally see everything, at 1x speed, with the instructor explaining every step of the way. Sure, if you're more advanced, then the 2x speed stuff from Gnomon is cool, but for beginners, I don't think there's much that beats it.

    It used to irk me to no end when I'd watch a 'beginners guide to character creation' somewhere and they'd go 'Ok now take the base mesh and carry on sculpting and we'll see you in the next video..... when we have a fully sculpted masterpiece that you couldn't even dream about producing in your wildest fantasies you n00b' or when they say 'I'll just speed up this tedious bit' and you're there thinking 'noooo I need to see that bit!'.

    tl;dr I like Digital Tutors.
  • chrismaddox3d
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    chrismaddox3d polycounter lvl 17
    I agree Digital Tutors has really good tutorials, i still like them alot
  • seth.
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    seth. polycounter lvl 14
    digital tutors got me started in game art....I blame them for everything.
  • DrunkShaman
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    DrunkShaman polycounter lvl 14
    Four against one, you have failed makecg. :)

    It is indeed awesome site to learn stuff thoroughly. instead of fast videos.

    Also, you can watch half of the stuff on their site for free.
  • Jeremy Lindstrom
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    Jeremy Lindstrom polycounter lvl 18
    haven't bothered with DT since they went subscription based.
  • Wesley
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    Wesley polycounter lvl 13
    I get a free subscription to Digital-Tutors through my uni... but in all honesty the more I've progressed the less I've used them. They cover a lot of stuff and are great for introductions for applications, but it kind of stops there. They're really quick to cover applications that are becoming popular...

    But yeah Eat3D and CG Academy have been far more useful to me. Looks like 3DMotive are quickly becoming that way too which is awesome.

    I wanna know what's going on with CG Academy... no updates for ages.
  • DrunkShaman
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    DrunkShaman polycounter lvl 14
    I would go for eat3d if I want to learn udk. For other stuff I would stick to dt.
  • Treboras
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    Treboras polycounter lvl 12
    Digital Tutors have a wide range of Tutorials, from the main applications up to realflow. Its hard to find so much tutorials concentrated in such nice and low payments.

    But I would love to see more real in depth and advanced tutorials.
  • Ace-Angel
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    Ace-Angel polycounter lvl 12
    DT keeps on making 'Introduction' or 'Basics' tutorials all the time, which kinda irks me.

    I do understand if they make a basics video for software like ZB, which adds major changed every couple of decades, but giving me constant Basics video for software like Max or Mudbox every year there is a new update? Talk about padding.
  • r_fletch_r
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    r_fletch_r polycounter lvl 9
    Ace-Angel wrote: »
    DT keeps on making 'Introduction' or 'Basics' tutorials all the time, which kinda irks me.

    I do understand if they make a basics video for software like ZB, which adds major changed every couple of decades, but giving me constant Basics video for software like Max or Mudbox every year there is a new update? Talk about padding.

    not to mention that when they do go advanced the concepts are quite sloppily explained. Their stuff needs some scripting. Its especially annoying when you know something they are trying to explain and realise they have it wrong. you start wondering about the veracity of the rest of the information. Thats not to say that they dont do some good stuff its just a bit hit and miss.
  • Ninjas
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    Ninjas polycounter lvl 18
    I went to their anniversary cocktail party. Was kind of fun.
  • lloyd
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    I wish Maya had some more game art tuts, it gets no love :(
  • PaulP
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    PaulP polycounter lvl 9
    I do like DT, but I rekon they are a bit over priced.

    I also occasionaly lose fath in them when they do silly things, like in this one tutorial the guy wants to duplicate an object and mirror it in that axis (3ds max tut). Instead of doing Use Working Pivot=> Mirror (X,Y,Z), he duplicates the object, rotates it, and manuelly moves the object into position by dragging the move tool. And he does that OVER and OVER again!
  • Ace-Angel
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    Ace-Angel polycounter lvl 12
    lloyd wrote: »
    I wish Maya had some more game art tuts, it gets no love :(
    Maya gets love in the animation side of things, but I agree, I was hoping for some good art based tutorial for Maya as well.
  • DrunkShaman
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    DrunkShaman polycounter lvl 14
    DT started big on Maya so they probably have like 4k+ tutorials just for it. =\

    A good art based tutorial would be the Biker guy that they started creating from the concept art, than sculpting it out as a high poly, than converting it to a low poly, than texturing, than animating.

    I started XSI and they have really good resources for that one as well. I want to learn the ICE, rigging and animation. And I think there is a tutorial for exporting a next gen animated character in to OGRE 3d.

    They have a lot of advanced tutorials and they are thorough.
  • Cortes
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    Cortes polycounter lvl 6
    DT is awesome for beginners like me. + to the biker tutorial.

    Tbh I haven't really learned anything from Eat3d or Gnomon's tutorials... they go way too fast and assume too many things. Or don't really cover anything and the instructors just seem to be phoning it in.
  • DrunkShaman
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    DrunkShaman polycounter lvl 14
    You can just go on their website and watch half of the new tutorials and full of some of the old tutorials for free.

    For Example:

    Photoshop

    3ds Max 3rd page.

    Softimage XSI 3-6 pages.

    So people, who think that it isnt worth going back to this website, just compare eat3d, 3d motive, etc with DT and you'll see that DT is giving away soo much for free. It isnt exactly boring, I think its boring because many people assume that Digital tutors will do the speed modeling but they sit there model out a character thoroughly and guiding you through every step of the way. In many tutorials they would do just one section at the normal speed to show you how it is done, than if they require that step to be repeated, they would speed it up until they move on to the new step.
  • Ace-Angel
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    Ace-Angel polycounter lvl 12
    Free or not, their stuff is basics rehashed over and over again with different models and poor photoshop manip. Nothing to really happy about.

    Stuff which many artists show on youtube for free, I think if you followed everyone from Polycount who has a Youtube channel, you would get the same level of 'free' from Digital Tutors.

    I would like to see one other tutorial cover as much as eat3D did for ZBrush in their Hard Surface tutorial or one which covers as much as Gnomon's Cecil Kim and/or Sang Lee's tutorials do.

    Just because you like DT, and haven't really dug in other websites and what they have to offer doesn't mean that they don't exist or that the bar isn't already set pretty high.

    Once again, DT is great for beginners and intermediate level people, that's what they specialize in their tutorials. They do stuff alot 'by the book', but if you want to seriously level up, then you need to look elsewhere.
  • PolyHertz
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    PolyHertz polycount lvl 666
    Cortes wrote: »
    Tbh I haven't really learned anything from Eat3d

    Really? Everything I've watched from them has been great.
  • DrunkShaman
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    DrunkShaman polycounter lvl 14
    Relax guys, I dont mean to start a fight about who's the best and who is not. Ofcourse everyone have their own way of learning, and Tutorial websites that require subscription have their own way of teaching it. Whatever website relative to 3d / 2d art that Polycount(ers) provide is worth a good look and I have checked most of the websites that Polycount(ers) know about and have been obsessed about it. (Since they posted them soo many effin times who wouldnt know about it?)

    No offense, I just happened to be obsessed about the way they go through the stuff at Digital Tutors and I havent found many people talking about it, so I thought it deserves a thread here.

    Digital Tutors started me off on 3d arts and 2d arts, when I had no idea how to start. All I did before that was crappy doodle drawing and story writing for my ideas. After I studied via Digital Tutors for a year, I finally got a grip on the 3d stuff and can call myself an intermediate CG artist and I can actually bring something appropriate to the table (PNP of polycount). Now when someone talks about CG stuff I dont have to feel bad for not knowing the stuff because I kind of know it.

    I got the rest of the help via critics on polycount alone that I really needed / still need in terms of refining my work before I move on to other stuff to study.

    Like I said, the only way I'll study via Eat3d or 3d motive or any other subscription is, when I desperately want to learn UDK or Cry engine thoroughly, because thats the only thing Digital Tutors would not cover. The rest of the stuff is pretty great and worth a look since these guys have been around longer then the tutorial websites found today so I think they know what they are talking about.
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