Poll

What course would you most like to see first/participate in most?

Modeling and animation
35 (39.8%)
General Scripting
45 (51.1%)
Datablock specific information (state system, emitter/projectile/explosion properties, image limitations, bots, etc)
7 (8%)
Other/Not listed (make a post)
1 (1.1%)

Total Members Voted: 82

Author Topic: Add-on Making Academy (Google Classroom details in OP, new poll)  (Read 25808 times)

i really don't like this. it's telling someone who's trying to get into a skill that if they don't know how to do it, they're too stupid to ever be capable of knowing how. it's not constructive and it's not useful. if someone doesn't know anything about a subject, they aren't even going to know how to ask questions about it. you can never know what you don't know, and you can't even guess at what pieces you might be missing if you don't have any point of reference. resources mean nothing if you don't know how or when they're useful to you, and you won't know how to find them if you don't even know what you're looking for.

in blockland, we have a unique situation where a lot of veteran players naturally pick up some rudimentary coding knowledge along the way, just from tinkering around with console commands or editing mods, and that definitely helps us here, but most people doing these things have no idea how this stuff is put together. if you're starting from square one like that, you really need something or someone to point you in the right direction just so you can get your feet on the ground and learn, if nothing else, just enough to know how to poke and comb your way deeper
Totally agree. I remember being told about a decade ago that I would never be able to code for this reason (and yes, they were wrong). It's a rather elitist position to take, and really harmful to those wanting to get into programming. It was around 4 or 5 years until I tried to get into programming again after being told that; because I believed it.


Topic title changed but no other new info? Is this google classroom open yet or are you just announcing that it'll be available soon?

i didnt even know that existed, this is an excellent idea. thanks for the suggestion, i've set up a classroom - if you want to join, the class code is fpk1yt.

edit: made it more obvious in OP.

also as general news we have a couple more teachers: Carbon Zypher/Darksaber will be doing milkshape lessons, Trogtor will head/help with modeling lessons, and Mctwist will help teach coding.
« Last Edit: May 09, 2017, 06:09:05 PM by Conan »

Update: We will start Sunday, hopefully with two lesson paths (but at least one for sure). vote in the poll on what you'd like to see first!

First modeling lesson has been posted by me on the classroom pending a few updates. Mctwist also did his coding intro on the weekend and is in the process of getting the recording uploaded.


Am I the only person who is getting cut off at the start of a page on one of the documents?

learning is for nerds. experiencing is for masters

Damn McTwist for linking this thread to me. So I'm very familiar with Blender, modeling for Blockland, and making bricks so technically I have the necessary skill set to teach others how to do those things and oddly enough I have enough free time in my schedule to dedicate to this. But I'm not really sure what I should do to be honest or whether I actually want to do this.

I could totally host a workshop on Blender fundamentals (for Blockland): mesh manipulation, materials, modifiers, DTS exporting, and getting items into the game. I've also made my fair share of bricks so I could do something related to those as well. (Using my exporter naturally.) I could just make a boring lecture but there's no reason to host pure lectures live, you ought to just make a video for that so I feel like a work-along workshop type of deal would be better. Thoughts? Ideas? Anyone interested?

Damn McTwist for linking this thread to me. So I'm very familiar with Blender, modeling for Blockland, and making bricks so technically I have the necessary skill set to teach others how to do those things and oddly enough I have enough free time in my schedule to dedicate to this. But I'm not really sure what I should do to be honest or whether I actually want to do this.

I could totally host a workshop on Blender fundamentals (for Blockland): mesh manipulation, materials, modifiers, DTS exporting, and getting items into the game. I've also made my fair share of bricks so I could do something related to those as well. (Using my exporter naturally.) I could just make a boring lecture but there's no reason to host pure lectures live, you ought to just make a video for that so I feel like a work-along workshop type of deal would be better. Thoughts? Ideas? Anyone interested?
yeah definitely interested - would be best if you just recorded yourself talking + your blender screen using OBS, and publish the videos. would be great if you went over your dts exporter and how to use correctly/any niche things that you didnt outline well in your documentation, and maybe dts exporting as well. I think basic modeling and animation is already decently covered by me and trog

This would most definitely be cool.
I've always taken a running start at it, but never taken the time to properly understand it.

i could contribute a video on add-on creation if its needed, more focused on the balance consistent design and other stuff than modeling or coding
« Last Edit: May 18, 2017, 07:03:53 PM by PhantOS »

i really don't like this. it's telling someone who's trying to get into a skill that if they don't know how to do it, they're too stupid to ever be capable of knowing how. it's not constructive and it's not useful. if someone doesn't know anything about a subject, they aren't even going to know how to ask questions about it. you can never know what you don't know, and you can't even guess at what pieces you might be missing if you don't have any point of reference. resources mean nothing if you don't know how or when they're useful to you, and you won't know how to find them if you don't even know what you're looking for.

in blockland, we have a unique situation where a lot of veteran players naturally pick up some rudimentary coding knowledge along the way, just from tinkering around with console commands or editing mods, and that definitely helps us here, but most people doing these things have no idea how this stuff is put together. if you're starting from square one like that, you really need something or someone to point you in the right direction just so you can get your feet on the ground and learn, if nothing else, just enough to know how to poke and comb your way deeper

Definitely agree with you there. The only reason I even took up coding is because Port taught me how stuff works some years back, and he basically walked me through add-on making until I was confident enough to do things on my own.
Having a tutor is a HUGE help, heck, even having a guy encouraging you from the sidelines is sometimes enough to get you to learn something awesome.