As of today, Blender Underground’s poll results on future tutorials are not really surprising. Here’s what I see when I look at the poll this moment:
Total Voters: 71
Total Votes: 126
Votes Per Person: ~1.8 (3 votes were allowed)
- 63 votes: Just more Blender (50%)
- 31 votes: GIMP (24.6%)
- 5 votes: Photoshop (4.0%)
- 2 votes: Photoshop Elements (1.6%)
- 4 votes: Jahshaka (3.2%)
- 20 votes: Inkscape (15.9%)
- 1 vote: Other (0.8%)
Here are some observations, with as much objectivity as I can manage:
- Most visitors are primarily interested in Blender tutorials
- There is also high interest in GIMP
- There is reasonable interest in Inkscape
- There is not much interest in the other represented choices
- The given choices were very representative (only 1 “Other” vote)
- Many voters didn’t make all 3 choices available to them
The Politics of Statistics
I was casually debating with a beloved relative the other day, and statistics came up. When I refuted his interpretation of some stats, he asked, “Don’t you believe in statistics?” The answer to that gotcha question is, “Yes and No.”
I’m going to make up a statistic to illustrate a point:
Violent crime is 50% higher in poverty stricken regions of the U.S.
Here are two possible interpretations (among many) of that invented statistic:
- Poverty causes increases in crime rates regionally
- High crime rates increase poverty regionally
Now I’m not starting a debate about the causes of crime and/or poverty, so please don’t post statistics or commentary about what causes what; this is strictly to illustrate a point. I could choose to argue either point and cite the statistics to support my case, so which one is true? Possibly both, possibly neither. (How’s that for equivocation?)
The real answer is: the real answer is probably more complicated. Statistics are bandied about on a regular basis as authority for all sorts of political arguments. Statistics don’t lie, right? Arguments from authority are not uncommon, and you’ll hear appeals to authority in debates all of the time, from statistics to experts. After all, 4 out of 5 dentists surveyed recommend Trident gum.
More Tutorials
If you’re still reading–and I wouldn’t blame you if you weren’t–let me give some different interpretations of the stats; and feel free to post your own:
- Most voters are interested in Blender tutorials only. (I’m reasonably speculating that most voters who didn’t take 3 votes were voting for Blender.)
- There is significant interest in tutorials for open source software.
- Most visitors to the site are interested in open source software.
- Blender Underground needs to produce more tutorials for Blender.
- Blender Underground needs to produce more tutorials for open source software.
- Blender Underground needs to attract a wider audience.
Our individual interpretations of these stats might depend on our own prejudices, needs, and wants. Let me throw out the most competing interpretations:
- Current visitors prefer open source software tutorials, so it makes the most sense to produce them exclusively or in majority.
- Current visitors are mostly of a particular interest, so to expand site viewership and widen interest in Blender, other tutorials should be produced.
Is there another, more pertinent interpretation besides these two? Are these interpretations mutually exclusive, or potentially complimentary? Maybe you would have opted for another choice: “Quit typing long, boring posts and get back to making Blender tutorials.” After rereading this gratuitous soliloquy, I think I like the alternative choice.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 1st, 2007 at 6:03 pm and is filed under Polls. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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This is like one of those questions where you understand it and know the answer, but just can’t put it down in words. Basically, I agree with everything other than the last paragraph, which I think is just plain silly Apollos
August 1st, 2007 at 7:01 pm
LOL Duke! At least it’s only the last paragraph!
August 1st, 2007 at 7:53 pm
I really like your approach to the stats, you covered different angles and showed that even though at first glance it looks like people just want more Blender tutorials, in truth its more likely that the people that are voting only found this site because they were looking for Blender Tutorials.
As for me personally I found this site looking for Blender Tutorials but I would be happy to see other software here as well. The Blender Basics you have done so far are awesome and I would love to see other tutorials of that same quality.
August 2nd, 2007 at 6:19 pm
Coyabbit,
Thanks for the compliments! I’m glad there are at least a few people that made it to the end of the post. I was going to recommend it as reading for people with insomnia, but I’m glad you found it interesting.
Welcome to Blender Underground.
August 2nd, 2007 at 6:55 pm
You know what I like most about this post? It proves that you’re serious and commited to your goals. You’re not just posting polls up on your website to get a sneak at what people think. You have reason behing your action.
This website is going to have most people voting for blender tutorials because it is blender oriented. It’s called BLENDER underground. The result above was only to be expected. If it were called TUTORIAL underground, maybe the result would have been a lot closer.
I think you are doing a fantastic job and I can see you will continue doing so. If there is any way I can be of help, please let me know.
I want to be a member of the underground
August 3rd, 2007 at 6:53 am
Dave,
I’m hoping Blender Underground is around for a while. I’d like to figure out a way to spend more time on tutorial development as well. Perhaps as traffic increases I can skim a few ad bucks or something. If I can do this full time, I will. Thanks for the encouragement too. The positive response from you and others has motivated me to do more.
This site is so new I don’t even know what’s involved yet. The fact that you and Duke and a few others bother to read and respond to posts is more than I could ask in the short term. As for the longer term, it is very appreciated that you offer to help, I will probably need it.
Right now Duke is working on his own tutorials. They will either be posted here at Blender Underground or linked to from here. At some point at least, I hope to host tutorials created by users that want them submitted, I’ve even been thinking of a “submitted tutorials” category or something to fit them in. This will be a great value to the site if and when it happens.
kaveh at river-valley.tv has converted both Blender Basics tutes to Quicktime, and added chapters, which has provided another format for the videos, and made them accessible to iTunes as video podcasts. I might look into other formats as well (you mentioned stage6 in another post, which would benefit from a DivX version).
I also want to subtitle the tutorials at some point, for those who may be hearing impaired, and to make localization possible for users in other parts of the world. This is a substantial undertaking for every hour of video tutorials produced, but I think it would add value, as Blender is an international effort.
Another future project would be some sort of lexicon. This was suggested by Duke, and it would probably be a useful resource for those new to Blender and 3D. Although I do plan on covering advanced topics down the road, I want this site to be beginner friendly, and offer everything needed to get someone started and carry them into intermediate subjects. His vision was for more than definitions, but included pictures or video, which is in keeping with Blender Underground’s style I think.
If you or Duke might be interested in posting at some point, I would consider that as well. I haven’t thought too much about it, but the website could probably benefit from having more than one blog contributor (me).
Again I can’t thank you enough for your offer to help. If you want, let me know some of your general interests or abilities, or ideas, shoot me an email, at apollos[at]blenderunderground[dot]com. It would be great to hear from you.
I don’t know how many of my plans will pan out, or how many new ideas I’ll get from myself or others, or exactly what direction this site will go in (besides video tutorials galore) but I hope to make a real go of it, and I can use all the help I can get.
August 3rd, 2007 at 9:38 pm
I love this web site.
And the poll Idea to know your audience is a very good idea.
If you want any suggestions, I think a tutorial helping people migrate from a 3D app like Maya would be useful.
And snapping in Blender seems very long winded…. Snapping one vert to another without merging seems to involve snapping the 3d cursor to a vert, then snapping the vert you want to move to the 3D cursor, still haven’t figured out how to snap to a curve.
If it wasn’t for your Vids, I’d of given up on blender before giving it a chance.
This is one of my first, and so far best wips so far:
http://s163.photobucket.com/albums/t301/pharion/?action=view¤t=LIZ2.jpg
Cheers M8, youve turned me into a Blender Devotee
August 10th, 2007 at 1:52 am
Pharion,
Glad to hear it! Welcome to sweet Blender goodness!
BTW there is a snapping option on the 3D header when in Edit mode for a Mesh. It looks like a little magnet. (don’t worry about the mode selector when you’re just doing single vertex to single vertex snapping). The main limitation is that it has to be a vertex in the same object.
Select a mesh, TAB into Edit mode, and you’ll see the Snapping mode icon next to the Vertex mode button.
Turn it on, grab a vert, and hold CTRL. When you mouse over vertices in the mesh, you’ll get snapping.
For snapping to curve verts, use the long-winded approach. Select the curve, TAB into Edit mode, select the vert you want to snap to, SHIFT+S to bring up snap menu, CURSOR->SELECTION, TAB out of Edit mode, select another object with the vert you want to snap, TAB into Edit mode, select the vert to snap, SHIFT+S for Snap menu, SELECTION->CURSOR. This will snap a mesh vert to a curve vert.
Hope this helps. Get back to me if my explanation is lacking, and I’ll clarify.
I’d love to do a “Migrating from Maya and Max” tutorial. It would be so much work. I’d have to learn Maya quite a bit better, and get a Max refresher. Still it may happen at some point.
EDITED:
Oh if you’re trying to snap a curve vertex to the cursor, you might notice it doesn’t seem to work.
Select the curve, go to the Editing context (F9) and in the Curves and Surfaces panel, turn on the 3D button. This should give your curve full 3D freedom.
You should now be able to snap the curve vertex to the cursor. If it doesn’t work the first time (I had this happen) toggle the 3D button off and back on and try to grab the curve vert and move it (G). As soon as it frees up, the snapping should work.
August 10th, 2007 at 2:50 am
Spaaam boooots!!! Might wanna try a spam filter plug-in Apollos.
August 10th, 2007 at 5:44 am
Yeah good idea. I’ll turn on Akismet when it gets unmanageable. Trackback spam! I never figured…
August 10th, 2007 at 11:55 am