Noob Tutoring?

trythil · Post by **trythil** » Tue Feb 24, 2004 6:39 pm

LightningCountX wrote:Well, the guides are cool and all, but like i said earlier...alot of people dont understand how to do the methods described in the guides and so they give up trying to learn how to rip dvd's and stick to kazaa.

This is why you get in contact with the author of the guide you're having trouble with and ask for specific clarification. Most guide authors are perfectly willing to clarify or correct information in their products, so long as you provide them with specific details about what is confusing or incorrect.

There are too little guides and this site and it kinda pisses me off.

Google is your friend. If you don't find the answer here, there's a pretty good chance it's out there in USEnet archives, the Web, or somewhere else.

Otohiko wrote: What I'm afraid will happen is that people will flock to tutors looking for 'magic tricks' or 'quick solutions' - things that will get them from zero to great editor in no time, without investing the patience to go through the info and getting the 'dumbed-down' explainations instead. But it doesn't work that way! There's no 'magic tricks' or 'quick solutions'! And the 'dumbed-down' info will get them stuck and running back for answers in no time...

I agree. Spoon-feeding is not the way to teach. All the fun I had, and continue to have, with AMVing is finding out what kinds of neat things I can do on my own.

Declan_Vee · Post by **Declan_Vee** » Tue Feb 24, 2004 10:40 pm

trythil wrote:
There are too little guides and this site and it kinda pisses me off.
Google is your friend. If you don't find the answer here, there's a pretty good chance it's out there in USEnet archives, the Web, or somewhere else.

What guides do you think are missing?

trythil · Post by **trythil** » Wed Feb 25, 2004 12:45 am

Declan_Vee wrote:
trythil wrote:
There are too little guides and this site and it kinda pisses me off.
Google is your friend. If you don't find the answer here, there's a pretty good chance it's out there in USEnet archives, the Web, or somewhere else.
What guides do you think are missing?

I don't think any guides are missing -- it seems to me that the basics of AMVing, or at least the technical aspects of it, are well-covered here. ErMaC and AD's guide needs to be updated to reflect the changes in video processing since its latest edition, but they're pretty well on the ball with that.

However, there is a lot of information about video and general multimedia tweaking left out of the guides, and intentionally so. There's just no reason to bombard people with stuff like the mathematics and physics behind aspect ratios, the optical justification for colorspaces, in-depth discussions of representation of colorspaces in a video file, MPEG standards, nitty-gritty details of XviD, AVISynth, concepts of inverse kinematics, etc., because most people don't need to know any of that. I think it'd be neat to include some of that material, but what I think is neat vs. what is actually required are obviously two different (and often diametrically opposed) things.

If, however, people do want to learn that stuff, that's what search engines are there for. Sure it takes time to filter through the junk and get to really informative sources (I've misinformed myself a hundred times by learning via the Internet, and I'm sure I'm still wrong on many things) but that's what the learning process is.

Asking for help is also part of said learning process. That's what these forums are for. It's also what instant-messaging is for.

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And now for a tangent:

The original post in this thread may have had a good idea. A sort of "Ask The Experts" thing might be nice to have around to handle advanced questions. However, there are several issues with this:

(1) Define "expert". Would they be self-appointed as per the original post? What qualifications would you need to have?
(2) What are the limits of an "advanced" question?
(3) How do you know if the answer you received is correct?
(4) What benefit does this offer over going to the .org forums or some other forum setup and asking for help?

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Anyway, all that is my justification for the Google comment. I think that the guides are sufficient as-is for the basics, but if LightningCountX is looking for more, then there's always many other places to look.

mckeed · Post by **mckeed** » Wed Feb 25, 2004 10:22 am

I think a monthly column where you could submit questions and people would moderate them might not be to bad of an idea. The highest moderated post would be chosen and then a appropriate expert would be chosen to answer that specific question.

Zarxrax · Post by **Zarxrax** » Wed Feb 25, 2004 12:42 pm

What advantage would there be to simply asking the question on the forum?

Arigatomina · Post by **Arigatomina** » Wed Feb 25, 2004 1:26 pm

Zarxrax wrote:What advantage would there be to simply asking the question on the forum?

For the person wanting help? Lots.

You could ask every single question that ever comes to your mind for days - if one little thing doesn't work right, why, just go ask your 'tutor,' - you don't have to worry about public flames or anyone thinking you aren't trying - your tutor will answer any question without making you read something like a guide or lift a finger to do something that might require effort - you don't even have to read a forum description! your tutor will answer anything because that's what he's there for - to help. You don't have to wait for one of the 'helpers' to answer a question - you just run to the tutor - because he has no life of his own and of course he'd never get frustrated with you the way people do on public forums. And if by chance he *does* decide you've become a leech and cuts you off, you can always find another one and start again. Once you have people who will spend hours every day 'helping' you, you'd never bother with the forum again unless there's some aspect your chosen tutor can't do for you.

There are a lot of advantages to having a personal 'tutor' versus people who help you only if you're willing to help yourself. A personal tutor knows you aren't capable and never expects anything from you except questions. The biggest benefit, of course, is that you don't have to share the tutor's time, because once you're 'friends' the tutor has to see to your needs first - helping others on a wider but less personal scale would come after the allotted time spent with you.

Yeah, I'm cynical and being extreme. But I think you have to prevent dependency when possible. And having a group of personal slaves will lead to a bunch of creators who can't so much as run a test version of a video - they have to know exactly what you tell them to do - heaven forbid they experiment on their own and learn anything through trial and error. I don't mind getting personal with the people I help - it's easier to help some problems with aim chats and instant conversations. But once the person starts relying on you for everything, you know you've hurt them a lot more than you've helped.

godix · Post by **godix** » Wed Feb 25, 2004 1:43 pm

One question: Why? There are already forums to help noobs with their hardware, their software, general video issues, general AMV issues, and even a suggestion area in case they can't come up with their own ideas. What aspect of creating AMVs isn't already covered? Short of just making the AMV themselves, what could a tutor do that isn't already avalable?

Kalium · Post by **Kalium** » Wed Feb 25, 2004 2:13 pm

I think it's more the idea of having someone readily available to ask questions of. In many ways, it's a lot easier.

Zarxrax · Post by **Zarxrax** » Wed Feb 25, 2004 3:29 pm

Arigatomyna: I was actually referring to McKeed's suggestion for a monthly column when I asked that.

Kalium: That's why people make friends. You go on the forums, the chat, whatever. You talk to people. You get to know them. Then they help you :p

mckeed · Post by **mckeed** » Wed Feb 25, 2004 5:17 pm

well.....i would say a collumn would go more in depth. Usually on the forums people give you guidelines. In a column you kinda expect more like an extually demo of step by step. Kinda like a video deconstruction. but with a very focused topic.