To echo Stwerts sentiments, this forum is the best of it's type on the net in terms of it's community, I find. I have tried to get 'into' Zbrush central without much success (though I largely suck at zbrush)and have often been ignored on cgsociety and a couple of other forums, I think most other forums are very cliquey in that you dont get 'accepted' unless you produce a certain standard of work, and that is why SM is so good is that it is not up it's own '...' . What I love most about Sm is it's solid foundation of regular friendly members. As long as that remains, thats the most important thing.

Gen spot on, good points.

stwert, again we agree. Dave there is something (dont know what) alien about this site, as stwert said it has a 'family' feel about it. It is fun to interact, the members are outrageously helpful and yeh, just plain old good and stwert hit the nail on the head with those comments.

Providing a large range of tuts as stated is a challenge, costs man, they lurk everywhere. As said Im a memeber of a couple of other mobs but SM gets me because its freindly etc etc

Why people arent stopping is a puzzle dave?? as you said there are a squillion members (look at the members serach), why they dont stick is weird.

I have learnt in the construction industry lots of things and if you have dead wood, get rid of it to start with. If SL and SMAX are dead, remover them or incorporate them in some way as an add on in the new look.

cheers bullet

Gen, whats wrong with boner pills??? Old fellas like me might enjoy such innocuous ads!! LOL

:beer:

Ive said this one before dave, hot tips for the week as part of it where anyone can contribute to an archive edited by the mods. You know shortcuts etc etc hotkeys etc etc tricks and stuff. Hey theres the name 'Tricks and Stuff'.

Hi Ben
Sorry I do agree with you, Bullet and stwert on that but if this site does not get moving it will be like simplymax,lightwave dead in the water, I dont want to see that.............dave

Bullet has Gen got a problem with a dog to need boner piles?

Exactly ben!!!!! Thats the reason Im still here too. Im a noob and going to other sites you are right ben!! We call it FIFO here in Oz 'Fit in or F..k off' attitude. They are kinda up themselves and thats where SM beats the crap out of them. This really is the most freindly site I have been too.

The fact (me even as a noob) people help around here without even so much as a glance at your capabilities/skill Gods or Noobs is the most important thing.

No I dont know what Gen is on about...bahahahaha LOL dave. God its only 0545 and I had visions of Aunties Poodle doing the wild thing on a leg after that comment dave.....................;)

they should do the simply3dworld idea and make it include lightwave, max, blender, and even a few others, get every program in one. You can make the forums have a general 3d section, and then have a max section, lightwave section, blender section... and so on. Of course you'd need moderators that know their stuff in whichever program they are moderating for.

I check this forum every day, it's the first one I found when I first got into Maya and I love this place, the tutorials are great, they got me started. I use the one's I've downloaded as references for other things. The haunted house to give me a reference for creating a house. The BMW to use as reference when modeling any car. Sea creature when I created my "Champy" monster, and so on. I love this forum and the people in it, great community and great tutorials.

I definitely do agree there needs to be more in the tutorials, along the lines of lighting and rendering using mental ray. Even more in animation and dynamics and particles and cloth. I'd rather spend what little money I have lately on simply maya than digital tutors or gnomon... although I have had to go to them for some stuff that I needed... it would be great to have it all here in this one little site. Like to support this place because I'd hate to see it go anywhere. It's been very helpful and everyone here has been very friendly. Never see out of control arguments from people on this forum. No one puts down anyone's work, only give positive criticism with ideas on how to make it better instead of saying "you need more practice, this sucks" which I've seen on other forums.

I'm not really keen on the all software integration, at least on an official level, as you'd have people asking about max or lightwave, and maybe wouldn't get an answer, depending on how many knowledgeable people were actually on the forums. There's quite a few Maya gurus here, so I think the site should stick to it's strength in that way. Of course people ask about zb and photoshop now and again, but there's no expectation that someone must have the answer.

I agree stwert, too many applications will make it more difficult to manage. SimplyMaya is just that, simply Maya.

Im as you are Rhet, this is the first site I came to 5 months or so ago when I started. The attitudes here ARE positive even when critique is applied, the arguments are mature and not personal. I too have been to other sites that really havent got a patch on this mob when it comes to etiquette.

SM dave either starts going commercial and loses its identity or SOFTLY changes even just its look and outlay. Maybe things could be catalogued in their respective boxes a bit better ie Poly tuts = vehicles, biuldings, landscapes etc same as the gallery needs it too.

Dont get me wrong SM should have small branches of the other apps but not commit fully, logistically it would be difficult. The trouble with being a specialist is extinction is inevitable BUT the same goes for overkill on multiplatform bases.

cheers bullet

Lol @ the boner pills :p. I don't think a merge would be the end of the SM atmosphere as we know it, there will be more members, more work, more questions, more people in challenges etc. Makes no sense for simply3Dworld to try make tuts/boards for a 100 packages, there are already sites like that and personally I don't really like any of them. The Maya + LW + Max merge will do. Inside those 3 lounges, I think it's better to stick with the task related way of labeling lounges instead of software specific because if you have a Photoshop and After Effects lounge you might as well have a Painter or Nuke or Toxik lounge and so on when you could've just used "Digital Painting & Compositing".

I completely agree with you Ben, the community here is pretty hard to beat, on other sites there is the heavy stench of elitism and its just generally cold. With that being said, the frontpage kinda plays down the community to the point where it seems like an afterthought.

As far as people not staying, I think ..
1. We have a fair share of lurkers, no problem, some people are shy, whatever.
2.For some reason people tend to gravitate towards the obnoxious and the snobby, anything simple and laid back tends to get thrown under the bus.

A lot of the the ideas you have been talking about where in the works at one point.. Just never got implemented..

Hopefully things will get going for you guys...

LOL Gen, I still have the poodle image in my bloody head...bahahah

You are right, there are lurkers etc but why they dont jump in I dont know.

As a noob I found this site good for me, as you said Gen the elitism and basic coldness of the other sites is bad for noobs and people in general.

I get disheartened quite a bit with my noob skills, especially as I have good background on Survey modeeling, I thought the transition would be easy, its not. That said when I have been to the others, I get discouraged and tend to close up and not want to do it. At SM there is none of that, critiques are funny, tongue in cheek, serious and helpful.

Yes the front page and pages there-in need a spruce, definitley. Your #2 is again spot on...why do people think champagne society is any better??? Sometimes I think folks like difficulty???

Lets hope something comes of this eh?

cheers bullet

Champagne society is "better" to anyone who measures human worth in social status.


Yeah Kurt, I heard about the merge but that was such a long time ago. Hopefully it'll get picked back up. /crosses fingers

Yeah just to echo, ther ewas a talk and movement of the site a while ago that didn't get implemented. Hope it dies at some point.

Ive seen a decline in the numbers posting up here, hopefully it will go up.

If peope want a challenge then I'll set one up, just need a topic that everyone wants to do (and enters which is the problem) and I'll set it up.

Unfortuantly I can't offer a prize

Hi all
I think hammer had the idea to redo the logo, how about a challenge to create a new front page this would be a photoshop challenge..............dave

Edit:I can donate 50 points if that would help

The problem that I could see is that whatever is on the front page needs to flow throught the whole site in its design etc.

Not too sure that if there is a winner who or if it would ever be used.

Don't want to rain on the parade, but
a) I don't see anything inherently wrong with the logo
b) Changing the logo would hardly increase traffic, I think?
c) As you say, that's a PS challenge... let's do a Maya challenge!