I just had another idea... I don't know if it's practical or not but I wanted to post it before I forgot; and the last idea seemed to have a good result albiet quite different from what I was thinking to begin with. So here it is: Would it be possible for some of the regular artists to do a sort of tutorial explaining how they arrive at their final result? I thought they could maybe take one of their higher rating images, and give a step by step account of how it was created. As you know one of the more common questions on the site is "How did you do that?" These tutorials could perhaps go in the "FAQ" section... anyway, thoughts and ideas appreciated, would anyone actually be interested in doing these? I envisige that they wouldn't be too complicated and would assume a basic understanding of the software. Maybe I am expecting too much? Let me know what you think.

Speaking as one who is not qualified to write tutorials but would certainly love to read same, that sounds like a great idea! I've long since lost count of how many times I've looked at an image and thought: OMG, how in the world did they do that!

Good idea, Sam.
It could be nice for render pictures, maybe it's possible to have the same for the improvement of photos...

Yes, you could show a few "bad" photos, and explain the different methods/techniques used for improving them...

Very, very good ideas Sam and Pierre! Sounds great for render images as well as camera images. There are always comments about resolution and that would be a great start for the tutorials. I think the tutorial should be on its own and not buried in the FAQ maybe even bold like the "Upload Images" link. Personally, I have recieved a lot of help on color correction of photos and one I would like technical help with is cropping to retain the best quality image.

I actually started such a section a while ago. The first one I was going to do was about choosing an optimum compression algorithm for images since many people seem to have difficulty with this.

My suggestion for this is that the tutorials be formatted as single images. That way people don't need to have great html skills and the tutorial is all together in one file. A friend of mine (precurser from EndEffect) did a few tuts like this and they turned out really good. It wouldn't be too dificult for the upload page to be modified to take care of tutorial image uploads as well.

Could someone put this on the dev site for me?

Okey dokey... I'm not sure what you mean about the format though... do you mean the tutorial text would be uploaded as a normal image would be?

Yes, I'm saying the whole tutorial would be one huge image. I figure that if you're good enough to write a tutorial then you should be able to do some type setting in PS.

Yes, that sounds great. So, this way the image could be set up with smaller images in it showing the progression of the image after certain effects were applied. Wow, what a brain twister that turned out to be! Do I have the proper understanding?

yes, exactly. I tried finding the example that I mentioned with no luck. You also have to opportunity to add arrows to certain images from the text that describes it.

Ok, now you lost me I think? Arrows are links to certain images?

I'm saying you can draw arrows around where ever you want (between text and images eg.).

Ok gotcha! Thanks, I like the sounds of that compression algorithm! That would be very helpful I think!

I think that’s a terrific idea, for renders, photographs and maybe scanning too. I have often asked, “how did you do that?” I doubt I have the talent to contribute but Id love to find out how people create their masterpieces.

Any news about that ?? I am begging the webmasters to put a section online for that!! ^_^

I can wait to try all of those "how the hell you do that" tuts!

And... I thanx in advance all the people that will take the time to do such thing!

All the uploads have to be wallpapers right now. We can't start uploading tutorials until I can make a script for it.

Refresh!

Heres what i think the tutorials shoud look like...... HERE

Yes that's very similar to my vision of it. The only difference with the final way we will do it is that the large image will be in only one size and it will be presented on a normal caedes.net page to look just like it was coded in html.

Did you ever locate that copy you were looking for Caedes? It would be very helpful!

No I couldn't find it. I don't think it's online any longer.

I will do a search if you can give me some keywords!

I'm wondering if we caould have links in the image to give more detail, for example where you have put "Magic wand" you could have a link leading to another tut on how to use that feature, explaining tolerance etc (which I didn't know about BTW!); these other tutorials could be made by other people aswell...

Is it possible? yes
Is it difficult? yes

Ah well... what would life be without challenges? :-)

all in favour of this say aye....Aye!!!

Je l'aime...sounds good :D

Cool! So this is how they would look using the scripting? It's easier to read than a JPEG I think; and I presume the other advantage is the size wouldn't be too limiting. BTW that tutorial sounds very helpful, almost all the tools you mentioned I have never heard of let alone used...

alright i got half of that tutorial although not exactly positive as to what you were doing but understand the filters enough... awesome

awesome idea samatar and caedes! btw do you know when this will be up? (if it will be up) thanks...thats a really great idea i have also wanted to know how some people make such great images :)

Caedes: May we have a 'tutorial' gallery? It would be very interesting... :-)

where can i download bryce for hell?!

I haven't heard of that version...

kazaa

Ceades - I've had a look at your tutorial on contours. I'm no expert so I thought it would be good to see if your instructions worked for someone like me. They did (see my upload "step to the left"). However the use of a menu *tree* would make the instructions clearer. I know my image has bugs but I was determined to try the idea out within a limited timeframe (about 1 hour) to test its general usefulness. As I made the image I learnt alot of other useful things, so it felt like time well spent. Hope this test image is of use to you! I would be interested in any other tutorials too.

I'm glad the tutorial has been put to good use. =)

Would it be possible to put the tutorials in HTML format. I think the tutorial idea is great, but it might be better to put it in html format instead of one huge image. That way the images used can be included... you can tweak the image on your own, to see what happens etc.

The point of having one big image is that it's easy to keep up with. Having to deal with the html and all the images would be a pain.

Also true. Never thought of that.

Plus many people don't know enough html for it.

Im offering up another tutorial... its a bit big....well 3 pages infact.. but that was the smallest amount of steps i could produce it in to provide as much detail as i could while still attempting to make the tutorial acsessable to as many people as possible....Reese provided me with the stimuli by posting a photo he had'nt had any real success in editing iin the way he liked...... Have a look at the Original Image HERE ... and see my edited version HERE ... and for the tutorial here's Page 1 ...Page 2 .. and Page 3 .... let me know if anyone can spot any serious flaws etc.. :D

Sam's been posting some reall nice tutorials.... plain and clear just like mine.. :D... have a look at Storm Witch Tutorial ...HERE and the SeaStar Tutorial ...HERE . Maybe we could get a temporary Tutorial Gallery.. untill caedes impliments some sort of tutorial uploading process :D

yay!

Ahh my prayers have been answered... the new Tutorials Gallery is up and running :D.. its got a link on the end of the Galleries section :D

That Gallery is just what we needed. Thank you, Caedes, wherever you are!

In my boredom today I decided to convert one of the Tutorials into HTML format. This is the result - Shark.

All credit goes to Joby for the Tut. Hopefully he won't mind me using it as an example. I just want to know if this is easier to use than the large image Tutorials?

Wow!!! Interesting page, Crusader. Great result! Maybe you should post the result in the 'tutorial' gallery... :-)

I don't think it allows you do post HTML... LOL. I was thinking of perhaps converting some more of them (with the author's permission of course!) if it seems that they are easier to use in this way.

Well you could do mine if you want, but I don't have any of the images of the steps so you would have to use what's in the existing tut's.

Thanx Samatar. Here's the result, the layout needs some tweaking though... Seastar.

I think that format is definitely better, but the question is can it be easily integrated into the site?

I don't know. That would be something for Caedes to consider. In any case I've enjoyed messing about with HTML again. It helps to dust off some of those rarely used skills now and then...

Having now done it in HTML here is my conclusions on HTML vs JPEG image.

Pros:
Text is crisper
Slightly easier to navigate
You can provide links to better explanations etc on specific tools/filters etc.
You can use some of the images and do some tweaking of your own.

Cons:
LOTS of files to keep track of. Samatar's tut uses 8 image files + 1 html file.
Not easy to store (by user) for future use.
Not everyone knows HTML and it's a pain to get the layout just right

As far as size difference go, there isn't much of an improvement between HTML and the JPG images. The best improvement I saw was about 6KB less than the JPG images.

So, I have to agree with Caedes. The best way is to create the tuts as one image. It makes it loads easier to handle the files (1 file instead of 8) and you don't need to worry about how to integrate HTML into the site.

your prob right crusader.. you would'nt even want to start trying to make my 3 page tutorial into a HTML version :D

Is that a challenge? ;) It would take a while, but it could be done.

:D hey feel free to do it if you want.. but im thinking of your sanity.... :D

Perhaps when I'm REALLY bored... first I need to work on my own webpage though. Got to get rid of those "Watch this space" pages!

I am just starting to learn Bryce and I was wondering if some of you that work with Bryce would write some really detaild tutorials. With the images in steps above with captions below them from start to finish. Either that or suggest a really good site that will show step by step tutorils for beginers.

I will have a go when I have time.

That would be great Sam.

OK I have uploaded my first Bryce tutorial... I have tried to keep it simple but have probably made it complicated with my convoluted explanations. Let me know if it helps at all, or if there is anything specific you want to know for the next one.