by John Swanson

Product Title: "Digital Tutors website"
Trainers: varies
Level: Beginners/Intermediate
Overall Running Time: Thousands of hours
(available through streaming only)
Price: Check the website for prices
Site: Digital Tutors

You probably heard about them. You might have even been to their site to see what they have to offer as far as 3ds Max is concerned. I can tell you that this site has a lot to offer and they do so at a professional level with some pretty sophisticated methods. Read on and I’ll tell you what I mean.

Digital Tudors gave me one month access to the training on their site. I logged on to the site on my first day so I could dive right in to the site’s offerings. From previous visits to the site I was aware of the wide selection of software for which DT provides training.

I found the layout of the site to be intuitive. Although this makes it possible for a novice to get going with the training right after signing in, I feel the instructional videos go a long way in getting you acquainted with the site and all the learning aides available. The video player that you view the training on works well with all the usual controls to make the operation easy. Right there you have access not only to the other parts of the subject you are learning but also related topics to the subject at hand. Nice.

The first thing I did was view the videos there for new members to the site. You really should watch these to get the most out of the site. Here you learn the way the curriculum is set up so you can easily navigate and manage the choices you make on what you want to learn. You’ll learn how to tag parts of the video you may want to go back to, how to make notes at specific parts of a video, and how to make clips – a way of repeating over and over as many times as you like a section you want to learn. Perhaps you are following along with an instructor and it’s just not working for you yet – this clips feature is a big help – I used it a few times myself.

The first tutorial I tried was the making of a cartoon character in 3ds Max. The instructions were easy to follow. The instructor took his time and really explained the techniques and techniques well. I liked the fact that along the way we were treated to a number of useful tips, the kind of tips that I usually don’t find in training at this level. This particular training topic is squarely aimed at the beginner Max user, but it’s never too early to start modeling at a more advanced level. I also liked the fact that the student ends up with a fully textured character, albeit a simple texture. In this texture exercise we are shown an interesting way to get quick UVW mapping to yield some interesting results. I think this will satisfy the novice and get her thinking about the possibilities and capabilities of UVW mapping in Max. Below are the results I got when I followed along with this lesson.

After looking through the offerings at Digital Tutors I decided to try my hand at another cartoon character – The Scientist’. I think if the teaching techniques are good then it really does not matter what you model, because in the end you should be learning the techniques and tools of modeling in 3ds Max, not how to make a specific model.

I was impressed by the way we are shown every step along the way – polygon by polygon. Sure there was a bit of model tweaking done off camera between the sections but that was very minimal and did not lessen the learning experience at all. Section by section we are shown in a very logical order from setting up the reference planes all the way through to a completed cartoon character type model. I did not have time to finish the model but I will show you the part I finished. This model is built one polygon at a time then a turbosmooth modifier is applied.

In addition to these sets of instruction I also took a look at some other instruction topics in 3ds Max like “Getting started with the Graphite Modeling Tool in 3ds Max”, “Getting started with the Freeform Modeling Tool in 3ds Max”, “Creating UV Layouts for a Cartoon Character in 3ds Max”, and “Texturing Game Props in 3ds max and Photoshop”. I thought each one of these were well thought out and presented in an easy to digest manner.

I saw that they offered training in mental ray the renderer I personally use. So I delved into an “Introduction to mental ray in 3ds Max”, “mental ray Production Shaders in 3ds Max”, and “mental ray Rendering Techniques: Interiors”. Again I was pleased with the content covered in these areas.

I give Digital Tutors high points not only for the way their training is organized and presented but the content itself is delivered by competent instructors who show not only a high level of expertise and their ability to teach the subjects but display an obvious enthusiasm for them as well.

OK so the 3ds Max training is worth checking out, but that is not all Digital Tutors has to offer. There is a long list of instruction for other 3D and non 3D software programs. I sampled of some of it so I can tell you that it is worth looking at. I went straight for the PhotoShop tutorials and looked at a number of them. Like all the topics here some were just one lesson long, others were stretched out and covered a PS topic in more detail. They spend as much time as needed to get the instruction across.

I am interested in Flash so I checked out “Intro to Flash 8” Mudbox is another interest so I viewed the entire “Introduction to Mudbox 2009” and was very impressed with that. I sampled many of the topics just see how they were handled. Tthey seem to be every bit as good as the Max training. So if you’re curious about other 3D programs you’ll find some good instruction here to get you up and running.

All in all I was pleased with my encounter with Digital Tutors. I’ve been using 3ds Max for a while and was able to pick up some worthwhile informatiion about the program. What else can you ask for in a training site? How about access to over a thousand videos on your iPhone – they got it. Maybe you like to augment your learning by interacting with fellow students on community forums– they got a very active forum for you. Perhaps you like supporting a business organization with a conscience – Digital Tutors believes that “…through working together, we can help create a better world. And, it’s through this belief that the team at Digital-Tutors donates a portion of our proceeds to noteworthy causes and volunteers our time to charitable organizations.”

This site has the mechanics, and the tools for easy access and manipulation of the training videos down pat. It’s the content and the way that content is structured that sets Digital Tutors apart from similar sites.