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[kreator]

Sorry if the soundtrack is a bit off but I had my NAS drive running and the fan is a bit naff at the moment

I havn`t coloured it blue of stuck the label where you wanted but you could spend another few hours working it out! 

Lots of practice makes perfect!

[Owl]

... I haven't coloured it blue or stuck the label where you wanted but you could spend another few hours working it out!  Lots of practice makes perfect!

Thank you very much Kreator,
There is a point where all the practice in the world won't make it happen, Steve's software is amazing but:
The necessity to follow a specific, undocumented process with no error messages or else the final function fails makes the learning curve impossible.
To my point, I followed the directions given me on "Reply #38 on: December 16, 2014, 12:08:54 pm". Three days later, with lots of effort on the part of forum members it was disclosed "if the path crosses itself the extrusion will not cap"
(Is there a place to put this information for everyone else)
Again thank you so much for your help, it is very much appreciated.
Happy Holidays

 

[ENSONIQ5]

The best place to put this information, at least for the time being, is where it exists now: in this forum.  It will be discoverable by any current and future Anim8ors with the same question.  In the long run, a more comprehensive manual (perhaps that includes a 'tips' paragraph in each section) would be awesome, however it must be remembered that Anim8or is one man's project.  If Steve was to spend the time required to re-write the manual (and I agree it does need re-writing) he would have to stop developing the code, and nobody wants that.  It's great to see development on this project after a hiatus of a few years.

Having said that, it does not need to be Steve's job to write a new manual, in reality he would only need to approve it for publication on this site.  I suspect he would appreciate somebody taking on this task, if anybody had the time and inclination.  A new manual would benefit from the experience of 'newbies' being faced with what appears to be a steep learning curve with gaps in available resources, as well as those with several years experience with Anim8or.  I would love to take this on but it just isn't possible with my other commitments at the moment, that's not a cop-out just a realistic appraisal.

Another great way to share your experiences with others would be to create a video tutorial.  Many Anim8ors have done this, and many have learnt from them (myself included) and creating a tutorial is a really effective way of passing on your experiences.  In my own case, what I know about Anim8or came from three main sources: 1) The manual.  While it's definitely a bit light on detail it provides a general background of what can be done. 2) This forum.  Those members who have been around for a while have had the benefit of reading the forum posts of many, many others, so they have been able to learn from others' experiences. Some members have also been amazing in their willingness to pass on knowledge (Kreator, Raxx and many others), their threads and posts are a priceless resource. 3) Experimentation. This was probably the most important one for me, and from your willingness to conduct tests to determine a result I suspect it will be for you too, Owl.  I was lucky in that when I joined there was a regular series of 'contests' run by a couple of Anim8or sites.  Getting involved in these and biting off WAY more than I could chew was a fantastic way to learn Anim8or, particularly with the help of the aforementioned members as well as many others.

Also remember, many long time users got on board when Anim8or was smaller and simpler than it is now, and as each new development was added it was only necessary to add that to the knowledge pool.  This led to a shallower learning curve than that faced by today's newbies.

Finally, try not to get frustrated with Anim8or.  It can be quirky and in some cases varies a bit from what could be called 'industry standard' but if you stick with it and take the time to learn its foibles you will be richly rewarded with not only great renders, animations or models but a real sense of achievement.  Forum members are always willing to help but might not always have the time to unpick a particularly knotty problem and we can sometimes overlook the obvious, such as the path-crossing thing.  Back in response #45 I mentioned about not creating that final point, if you had done so the issue would have been resolved earlier for you but to be honest I doubt I would have realised why this caused an error so it was probably a good thing you ignored it, since now this thread contains an actual resolution to the problem.

Anyway, happy holidays to you too and I hope you have a great time Anim8ing!

[Owl]

(1) The best place to put this information .... (2) create a video tutorial. 

Great comments ENSONIQ
(1) The best place to put this information ....
 The reason to put all these in one thread is to not have to read through the pages of posts, some with mistaken information, but instead one tight Thread of "Tips", as you said. One short post, with appropriate SUBJECT line would cover the "line must cross" rule, rather than only one line near the end of lots of post. BTW! It also fails for me on a snap to grid of last point over first point, then "close".

(2)  create a video tutorial ....
May I respectfully suggest some tutorial rules be set up? For example to NOT use keyboard shortcuts in video, only slow visual mouse moves.
Thank You

[Owl]

Still looking for help on applying MATERIALS to all surfaces of an object.
It occasionally works, but after 3 hours of not finding the repeatable path I am reaching out for help.
To save time you can use the shoe box object and list the steps, hopefully no video is needed.
Thank You.

[thecolclough]

... For example to NOT use keyboard shortcuts in video, only slow visual mouse moves.

i'd suggest it would be ok to use a keyboard shortcut in this context, so long as a suitably clear-and-obvious caption was added to the video e.g. "Keyboard shortcut: [Key]" so viewers know what's going on.  obviously it wouldn't help if the key shortcut is used without any indication as to what was pressed though!

[kreator]

OWL:Try downloading The little Book I wrote at http://www.anim8or.com/smf/index.php/topic,5034.0.html

May be of some help and with a few projects to follow.

A lot of Anim8or`s don`t actually use the keyboard shortcuts that are available, and prefer to click on the tools, unlike blender that is heavily reliant on Keyboard presses

[captaindrewi]

[/youtube]

[Owl]

... would be ok to use a keyboard shortcut in this context, so long as a suitably clear-and-obvious caption was added to the video ...

My opinion to your question is:
The biggest problem to my learning Anim8or is not knowing the mode and path to get to a function. [That's also how this tread started ... "Where can I start?"]
Unless everyone can use a tutorial and get the same results it is not so useful. This is why showing the mouse clicks are useful because it shows the decision tree from a known point, to the solution. This can't always happen for me with just a hot-key shortcut. Showing mouse movements for us visual learners (remember this is a visual program), looking to get the solution into muscle memory, is a necessity.
But different folks learn differently.
Thank You,

[ENSONIQ5]

A lot of Anim8or`s don`t actually use the keyboard shortcuts that are available, and prefer to click on the tools, unlike blender that is heavily reliant on Keyboard presses

Wait...there's keyboard shortcuts?? Just kidding, I am aware of them but I am one of those who prefers to use the mouse/buttons/menus.  No reason, just habit really.

Regarding rules for tutorials, while I understand the sentiment it really shouldn't be necessary.  A video tutorial should not skip anything and should explain every step, so a viewer can follow along and have the identical experience.  Ideally it should include either a voice-track or subtitles, preferably both.  Best practice would be to have a non-Anim8or-savvy assistant work through the tutorial as a check before it was published anywhere, but remember that this is a forum of enthusiasts, not professional communicators.  My advice would be to show the community how it should be done!

[Owl]

Youtube on material on 4 faces.

Great video, the missing  parts for Newbies, FIRST ... it would be nice to start from where the program opens.
Then  the video would answer these questions:
1) Where did the Materials menu come from?
2) Why Would you center the cube?
3) How did it get from "Front" to "Perspective" view?
4) Why is it necessary to increase the Material's gray scale?
5) It didn't seem necessary to be in "flat shaded". "smooth shaded", the opening default, seems to work the same.
6) Why go back to front face, seems you can click on the face from perspective view?
7) Why use UV, just select the a different face image of each face, lot less steps, then select material and "Apply"?
8 )But why does it only work on a few of the faces, even though: you chose the face, it turned yellow and you hit "Apply" for each face?
9) Why in "materials" is diffuse chosen for the face image?
10 You chose "arc rotate" mode, but why does: World, Object, Screen Coordinates buttons make no difference?

These are not questions to answer, but show the complexities that a Newbie has to face.

Back to my question, How do I apply light blue to every face with only one Materials "Apply" mouse click.
I tried it with the simple box, same results, Some time it works and some time not!!


THANK YOU!

[jwalt]

These are not questions to answer, but show the complexities that a Newbie has to face.

Back to my question, How do I apply light blue to every face with only one Materials "Apply" mouse click.
I tried it with the simple box, same results, Some time it works and some time not!!


THANK YOU!

Sorry for the jpg image.

1 Select object point edit
2 Select  face select
3 Select drag select and draw a box around the cube (selects all faces)
4 Set up the color material you want and Apply

Selecting individual faces for a single application of material requires left click select for initial surface, followed by right clicks for additional selections. If you make a mistake, alt-right click will deselect the last selection. Note if you are using some of the later builds, it may well work differently.

[Owl]

Thank You jwalt,

The reason I am asking how to apply light blue to every face with only one Materials "Apply" mouse click, is small features can quickly make LOTS of faces and it would be very time consuming to apply to every face. Usually if you select the entire object using the dashed-line "drag-select", from any view, it will select the entire object and thus apply the material to the entire object. But I have had it fail often.

Also "front/back" doesn't seem to work on an uncapped extrusion.

Nice to have you contribute as a Newbie. I have spent over 100 hours learning to draw a pallet and a shoe box and I am an experienced 3D user in many other programs for many years. The difficulty has been identifying where you are wrt modes and functions, because at each point other features or functions may not work or work differently.

I spent several hours going to a specific points in the program's structure and from there trying every single function/feature to see which work and how it worked. The problem has been that I often came across apparently same paths that worked differently on apparently same objects. A couple of those are in my questions in Reply#85. I will add those to this thread as the tolerance for my annoyance allow

Thank You

[kreator]

Thank You jwalt,

 I have spent over 100 hours learning to draw a pallet and a shoe box and I am an experienced 3D user in many other programs for many years.

I`m intrigued!... what other 3d Programs have you used?

Anim8or is regarded as the most simplest of 3D programs and is specifically aimed at new users to the scene. The Pallet took me just under 5 minutes to construct and a couple of minutes to do the texturing. Your Shoebox took a little longer to texture as the Normals were reversed , as you had used a combination of Quads and Tri`s. 

[Owl]

Here is another failure-to-cap mode for extrusion. Open the Anim8or, draw an N-gon, Build>Extrude>X>Cap both>Ok
See the video. Every time I open the program it will fail to cap, if not the first time, then it will fail one or more times within the next twenty tries.

Thank You,