FAQ's - NEW SITE

[admin]

Ok guys its just about time I think I can start using all your help to build content on the new site. Lets start with FAQs.

Right now I have:

Maya Fur Faq
Maya Paint FX Faq
Shake Faq
3dsmax Faq
Z-brush Faq
XSI Faq

Please post your suggestions for other faqs and let me know who can help with which.

[joojaa]

general 3d concepts faq could be nice there one could discuss such things as what are normals and hwo they affect the shapes, whats a dmap shadow ettc etc.

By they way isnt maya going to get a normal FAQ?

[admin]

well thats the question what should we call the maya one? Maya General, Maya Getting Started? Im sure we could have a few?

right now we cant do a general one as the faqs are under each "community" section .. So in the case of Maya we have (not the full list):

Maya
- Downloads
- - Melscripts
- - Tools
- - Shaders
- Tutorials
- - character
- - modeling
- Tips
- - character
- - modeling
- Feature Requests
- - character
- - modeling
- FAQs
- - Paint FX
- - Fur

[user_deleted]

Would be really cool to have an FAQ on mental ray for maya. Like helpful tips on artifacting, memory issues, settings.
General stuff.
Maya 101
Haha I liked how the Gnomon guys titled thier general dvds recently. I'd say borrow their lead.

[admin]

good idea..

ok i'll add:

Maya 101
Mental Ray

[admin]

any suggestions if we need subcategories for either?

for fur faq we have sub categories "general" "troubleshooting"

maya 101 could technically have subs like:
- animation
- modeling
- rendering
- scripting

thoughts?

[joojaa]

howabout a dynamics faq?

[user_deleted]

maybe an interface and workflow section under the 101 for tips and the most useful MEL/Plugins that any user should have.

[admin]

dynamics yes
workflow yes - we can link to some tutorials from there too
interface yes - also we can link to some tutorials

the new site has a number of new features for figuring out whats good:
1. editors picks
2. rating
3. comments
4. most downloaded

that is all handled in the "downloads" section and those are presented as "related downloads" in other areas like tutorials etc.

[admin]

I did this project the other day where we had to batch rename segments of sequences and this program we have on the site called sequence 911 really saved us hours.

http://www.highend3d.com/tools/?group=glob...rt=file\_name#87

thats my editors pick for the new "rename/pad" section. I also use colorcop on a daily basis.

[joojaa]

just out of curiosity shoudll we discuss what the faqa should contain too... I could write a shor thing on setting up your project environment and system variables. As well as some general render torubleshooting and my favorite about things one does not se wich include normals... And mybe booleans, wich wquite frankly has been my most answered topic ever.,

should we also need a redner torubleshooting and a shading section.

[admin]

well we also have our new "tips" section. if its not a commonly asked question i think it would fall under tips.

like for instance for every faq whwere we have a 101 like 'maya 101' im going to put the question "whats the best 3d application" and put the same answer for all..

just stuff we get asked all the time

[rob-bateman]

dunno if this is of any use, been putting my mel script lecture notes on my site for next term, still got a bit to finish off, but might be useful as a basis for a mel scripting FAQ?

www.robthebloke.org

[joojaa]

looks good: a couple of remarsks tough.

Tell people that variables typed in script editor become globals if not declared in scope, with nbo chance of deletion. And that automaticaly typed variables can cause problems with using globals. And that theres NO way of deleting it unless you restart maya.

also you could surround you snipets with {}

[rob-bateman]

cheers, it's good to get feedback, i'll update them shortly....