Age Writing Classes

cedward1 · **Joined:** Mon Mar 01, 2010 4:41 am **Posts:** 140

I was wondering if there might be some kind souls in the Cavern who would be interesting in training some of us in the Art of Age Writing. I can see a lot of interest in classes, and it would be kind of neat to see as either part of the Guild of Writers or the D'ni University. After all, the more of us there are who can write Ages, the more Ages there will be to explore!

D'raekmus · **Joined:** Sat Nov 29, 2008 2:47 am **Posts:** 35

lunanne wrote:

Age writing is not really you can learn in class, it is more something you learn by practice and making errors - lots of errors and failures...until something goes right.

So... it's like we're rediscovering the Art, huh?

We (the community) are the next D'ni. The Maker (Cyan Worlds) is giving us the Art (the means to create new content) so that we can explore new Ages (said content and modifications).

cedward1 · **Joined:** Mon Mar 01, 2010 4:41 am **Posts:** 140

But what about classes to teach us the basics, like how to use tools such as Blender or how to actually make anything besides a message that says "hello" or a big cube? My 3D cube Age may be impressive to me, but I doubt Kadish would have been impressed.

Oh well, it was just an idea.

Trekluver · **Posted:** Thu Apr 14, 2011 3:28 am

cedward1 wrote:

But what about classes to teach us the basics, like how to use tools such as Blender or how to actually make anything besides a message that says "hello" or a big cube? My 3D cube Age may be impressive to me, but I doubt Kadish would have been impressed.

Oh well, it was just an idea.

I figured out how to paint my cube. It's red.

PaladinOfKaos · **Joined:** Thu Aug 03, 2006 10:55 pm **Posts:** 625

Obviously better tutorials and lessons need to be created. It's something I plan to write a post about over at the GoW, hopefully we can get some momentum on that soon. It's one of many things that needs doing.

Perhaps once there's a good pool of lessons to pull from, and people are more familiar with them, we can look at livestreaming some sort of class. It's something I'll talk about with the Councilor of Artistic Direction.

[with my GoW Community Relations hat on]

Nilsson · **Posted:** Thu Apr 14, 2011 5:18 am

cedward1 wrote:

But what about classes to teach us the basics, like how to use tools such as Blender or how to actually make anything besides a message that says "hello" or a big cube? My 3D cube Age may be impressive to me, but I doubt Kadish would have been impressed.

Oh well, it was just an idea.

The Blender web site has quite a few tutorials to help you out.

Wes

Nilsson in Cavern

Karkadann · **Posted:** Fri Apr 15, 2011 12:40 pm

lunanne wrote:

Age writing is not really you can learn in class, it is more something you learn by practice and making errors - lots of errors and failures...until something goes right.

That sounds about right, but the possibilities are endless

Nalates · **Posted:** Fri Apr 15, 2011 6:41 pm

Building virtual worlds, or just ages, is complex. The net has loads of 3DS and Blender tutorials. One uses those to learn the basics of 3DS or Blender. Blender.org is down just now so I can't link. Blender 2.5 YouTube has tons of videos.

Community collages provide classes in game building and 3D modeling. All that I have seen take several semesters to complete. So, that should give you some idea of the complexity. Don't let it overwhelm you. It's an eat an elephant type thing.

Some start with SketchUp as a simplified starting place for learning to work with 3D on a 2D screen. Some jump into 3DS or Blender. Some use Maya, but that is sort of the odd man out in our community.

Once one can build something in 3DS/Blender then the GoW and GoMa tutorials give specifics about building for MOUL. You can start with those tutorials. While they are more MOUL specific I find they tend to make some assumptions about what you know. So, you will want to use tutorials from various sources.

In Second Life they offer some Blender classes. It is more of a classroom setting with students and teacher than we can currently do in MOULa. But, the classes tend to be more SL specific. Good for basics. At least one can ask questions. But, one has to have a computer that will run SL and Blender at the same time.

Dachannien · **Joined:** Wed Dec 13, 2006 9:48 am **Posts:** 216

They just came out with a new version of Blender with a revised user interface that's supposed to be a lot easier to use than previous versions. Haven't taken a look at it yet, but it'll probably make various older video tutorials a lot more confusing.

Tweek · **Joined:** Tue May 09, 2006 12:11 am **Posts:** 2633

Seeming no one has posted this, the GoW wiki has a lot of helpful tutorials on for Age building.

Emor D'ni Lap · **Joined:** Sun Aug 12, 2007 6:15 am **Posts:** 584

Andy Legate has gone to great lengths to write up what he has learned from many months of learning-by-doing. He has collated his original series of excellent agebuilding tutorials using Blender and the guildofwriters.com PyPRP plugin here.
For those using 3DStudio Max and the Cyan or other forthcoming plugins, Andy's Max tutorials can be found here.

And about a year ago, "The Magician" began a wonderful series of video tutorials that can be found on his website, a series that many wish he would continue.

As Nalates has indicated, it's often best to gather agebuilding info from a number of sources. All current agebuilders have found things that work for themselves, and they've been burned by other practices, essentially building up a personal set of bugaboos and mythos that are usually 85% - 95% accurate...but no one is infallible! This may be one reason why few might want to step up to the plate to volunteer as a realtime-lesson instructor.

cedward1 · **Joined:** Mon Mar 01, 2010 4:41 am **Posts:** 140

Thanks guys. I've started working through some of the tutorials.

I just thought if there were classes like this in the Cavern, it would allow Age Writers to share what they have learned as well as to strengthen the community itself.

Nalates · **Posted:** Sun Apr 17, 2011 4:15 am

It would be nice. But, today we can't... Blender training is easier shown than explained in words. Videos, pictures or some type of eyes on training seems a must.

As you find tutorials that you find helpful, keep a list. Share the best ones.

I suspect you'll have OMG-if-they-had-just-said moments. Sharing those can be a big help to others. Being able to see training through the eyes of the new student is difficult for the experienced.

Age Writing Classes

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