Because some people learn better if someone actually talking about it instead, someone just writing it down in .pdf file. Everyone learns differently and at different paces. Its better to have open mind than narrowminded, and if something is different than the current thing, its not always bad.

I just personally enjoy video tutorials more because I can sit and see exactly what they are doing step by step. Where in the case of something written, the author could have forgotten to put something down and or maybe thought it wasn't that needed.

Like mathewDratt said you get to see everything they are doing. In a pdf/word doc you only get a few screen shots and their best explanation, which sometimes falls short of what you need. In a video tut if they don't explain right or enough you can always just look at what they are doing. Both can be useful though, sometimes I don't have the patience to wait through a tedious video.

well i reckon the most important thing to realise is that not everyone speaks or reads english, so if i were to make a pdf in english, then the non english user will have to use google translate to help them understand what the pdf is telling them. in a video the user can see what is happening and follow easier and faster. also some things can be shown quicker in a video than reading through a pdf which might have to be more in depth to cover details. infact over the short period i have been on this forum, i have seem more requests for video tutorials than pdfs.

umm...

Yea, saying that tutorial videos escape you and saying they're inconvient is kinda narrowmined to me.


None taken.


indeed.

Some things don't work well in text form

For example, you can't properly show someone how to animate a weapon with text.

Let's just put it this way. A picture says a thousand words, and at 20 FPS even...
...well, you see what I mean right?

Nah but really, videos give you practical application showing that it isn't just a matter of magically popping some design out of your rear. It will help you TRULY realize the trial and error that even experienced people need to go through to get a good product. Not only that. It provides you with a constant view on the mouse cursor. Simply seeing where the cursor is going, in what order tools are being selected and utilized, and the audio description the creator is giving, can provide abundantly more "useful" data than anything a PDF can give you. Though I will say, if you do not like downloading videos, don't use the ones here that you actually have to physically download. Find a tutorial online. I guarantee that if you go on youtube, you will find other insanely good videos that you can just watch at your leisure that give as much, and in some cases more than what us amateurs can give you.

Monkey see, monkey do.
Videos are just better communication when it comes do demonstrating how to do something yourself.

The primary benefit for video tutorials (for me at least) was that when I was new to modding and didn't know how to do a lot of the "basic" steps. I could just watch them. A PDF might list "Apply your bitmap to your ground polygons" and for someone new, that's a lot of words that they might not understand. That's where the video comes in handy because you can see them click on the material editor, select the bitmap, name it, apply it, then apply material IDs. Also, 3d modeling is nearly impossible for me to explain to anyone. "Okay so see that vertex near the end of your gun? You're gonna want to weld that to this vertex over here, then slice right through the middle of this plane and bevel this face here..."
See what I mean?
It's infinitely easier to just do those things instead of trying to explain it to someone who might not even get it.

E: not to mention some people are just visual learners, like me, for example.
E2@Tiel's second post: Whether text tutorials are easier is debatable. Honestly it's easier for me to just hit record and talk as I go than it is to type out a short story length tutorial while painstakingly screenshotting it and pasting it into word as I go along.

oh and video tutorials with no voice and just text are annoying as hell. That's why my tutorials have voice in them.

Edited by UnevenElefant5 on Jul 4, 2012 at 06:20 AM

I've learned so much from video tutorials that I would never have been able to recieve from a text document.

As sad as it may be, just about everyone watches TV (video) but few actually read for comprehension. Both methods have their purpose, but I suspect that it is just easier to ramble on nearly incoherently in a YouTube video than to structure your thoughts in the written form.

It really just depends on what the tutorial is about.

If you are explaining the various parts of a certain tag, then there is no need for a video. In that situation a pdf is far more useful and far more convenient.

But if you are trying to teach a beginner modeller how to model, unwrap, texture, and animate a weapon then a video would be the easiest way to get your messege accross.

Both methods have their purposes, it would be a very bad idea to use ONLY text or ONLY videos for all tutorials.

There are three kinds of people in the world. People who can read on how to do something, and be able to do it, people who can watch a video to learn it, and be able to do it, and the people who are just too dumb to understand both ways.

Now, I can tell you for a fact that I am too dumb to understand both ways, but that is not the point I am puting across here.

Videos provide people with the exact places to look, and it also provides them with extra information. (Where to click, things to click, objects to use.) That is why I prefer video tutorials, even if I still do everything wrong when I use them.

Text provides the reader something that is silent, and provides plenty of information directly on the topic, which is good if you can understand it that way.

They're both usefull for different kinds of people.

Also, what if somebody cannot read because they are dyslexic. That is not very common, but it can still happen.

I prefer a combination.

- A good video that presents to you a certain workflow exactly how it should be done.
- Combined with written documentation that you can use as support material, to look up more detailed information about things illustrated in the video tutorial.

Basically videos are great way to illustrate the practical applications of the more theoretical text materials.

Exactly this. A video on it's own can work but documentation is always helpful and almost compulsory in some cases as a support material.

I found both interesting.
PDF for stuff like scripting and such, but when I first started I found videos of how to make models into .map files and first person animations MUCH more helpful than PDFs.

For some people its easier to hear someone say "press the -insert what the button says- button" and see it pressed in a video that see a screenshot with an arrow saying "press this"

- PDF's/Written tutorials needs to be written really well to cover the entire process of what the tutorial is teaching.
- Video's allow the watcher to see EVERYTHING that is being done, so the tutorial creator can't really miss anything out like a little button, and the watcher can also see where buttons ect are.

I work with a design firm and a quote from my boss I hear more often than necessary. "A picture is worth a thousand words and a video is worth a thousand pictures".

Kind of taking "picture is worth a thousand words" out of context. A video or image tutorial is not something I would say "this picture/video is worth a thousand words" to.

I'd rather a well written tutorial with pictures than a low quality video with a kid trying to keep himself from drooling as he talks. The video tutorials where they type in notepad... I don't want to see someone struggling with how to spell a word. Some sort of blog with comments is usually nice, at least provide some feedback with where a part of the tutorial can be made clearer - if the creator cares enough that is.