Some people have asked a few questions about the ManCandy FAQ DVD, so here they are, FAQ style:
Q. How much is the duration of the video?
A. Roughly 7 Hours in total, spread out over 38 files with durations ranging from roughly 2 to 23 minutes.
Q. What level are the tutorials?
A. Difficult to say, but not beginner- intermediate to advanced- there is a “basics” tutorial to give an overview of the concepts used in the rest of the tutorials, but it is no subsitute for a solid grounding in blender basics. You should at least have rigged a basic character, or know the basics of using blender, or have a good working knowledge of other applications before attempting this DVD.
Q. Are they animation or rigging tutorials?
A. A bit of both: there are rigging and animation tutorials. The rigging tutorials show how I built Mancandy’s rig- this should help people looking to rig their own characters. The animation tutorials focus on how to use Mancandy’s controls, and how to animate in blender in general. They are more on the technical side, so no subsitute for a good animation book (Like the Preston Blair book, or the Richard Williams book)
Q. Are they “step-by-step in depth” or “overview” type tutorials?
A. Again, a little bit of both: some tutorials show how to build part of the rig or an animation from scratch, and others dissect what is already there.
Q. How soon will I get my DVD?
A. Well, the DVDs have all been printed and started shipping- how soon you individually get them depends mainly on the speed of the mail at this point. They are shipping from Europe (Amsterdam) so European orders will arrive a bit quicker than others.
Q. Will the video tutorials and blend files also be released for free to download off the internet like elephants dream?
A. The content is CC licensed, and as such, can be legaly shared/distributed, even by posting on the net; theoretically, anyone who owns the DVD can do so. The problem is the amount of data: 5.9 Gigs of video is not very easy to host on a reliable basis. Perhaps in the future we could do a lower quality version that is small enough for the web, or use google video (or something similar)
Q. Does it have the trailer that you showed in SIGGRAPH 2007?
I would love to have that in a high res video..
A. If by the trailer you mean the 10 minute “Mancandy FAQ” animation I showed at siggraph, with voice over by Fateh, then yes; this is on the DVD , as are all its blend files. I never intended it as a trailer, but as an integral animation overview part of the DVD.
Q. The video files wont play on my computer. They’re .flv and .ogg - never heard of them before - whats going on?
A. The flv files are flash video (like youtube and google video) and are intended to play in the html interface (index.html will start you there)
the ogg files are an open source/open format, they will play in:
VLC for all platforms ( download the one for your OS here )
If you’re on linux, the ogg files should just play
If you’re on windows, you can play them in media player if you install the ffdshow codecs (open source video codecs) which can be downloaded from multiple sites including sourceforge (just google ffdshow codecs download) and you should be all set.
If you have any more questions, ask them in the comments section and I’ll add them to the post.
Q. Can the mancandy dvd be viewed from a standard dvd player?
A. No, the DVD requires a PC (personal computer) to view the videos. This is due to the resolution limitations of standard definition video, as well as the dificulty of packing a long playing high quality video on a DVD. On the plus side, DVD should work on any computer capable of running blender, so long as you have the right software and codecs (see above)
Q. So, is it just me, or is the DVD missing section 4 and 14. And have two 13’s?
A. No, it’s not just you- I got the numbering for the videos wrong. However, though the numbering is wrong, the videos are all there, and there are no missing or repeated ones. I’ll try not to make mistakes like this for the next time.
Q. Will the DVD work with the newly released blender 2.46?
A. Most of the DVD is still valid in 2.46, however, there are a couple of small changes to be done. I will release a small errata page soon, along with a new version (Mancandy 2.3), and you will be able to continue enjoying the DVD with this addendum.
18-01-2008 at 2:07 am
Wow, 7 hours! I didn’t expect that much. I have to plan to have a ManCandy camp.
18-01-2008 at 3:45 am
will the video tutorials and blend files also be released for free to download off the internet like elephants dream?
18-01-2008 at 8:41 am
Yeah.. a question:
Does it have the trailer that you showed in SIGGRAPH 2007?
I would love to have that in a high res video..
18-01-2008 at 2:41 pm
Q. Will the video tutorials and blend files also be released for free to download off the internet like elephants dream?
A. The content is CC licensed, and as such, can be legaly shared/distributed, even by posting on the net; theoretically, anyone who owns the DVD can do so. The problem is the amount of data: 5.9 Gigs of video is not very easy to host on a reliable basis. Perhaps in the future we could do a lower quality version that is small enough for the web, or use google video (or something similar)
Hi folks. Hehe,Sajuro, I like the sound of that ;)
Nate and Redbirdiii: added:
Q. Does it have the trailer that you showed in SIGGRAPH 2007?
I would love to have that in a high res video..
A. If by the trailer you mean the 10 minute “Mancandy FAQ” animation I showed at siggraph, with voice over by Fateh, then yes; this is on the DVD , as are all its blend files. I never intended it as a trailer, but as an integral animation overview part of the DVD.
18-01-2008 at 9:22 pm
If your looking for a place to upload the video’s then try archive.org They host all Creative commons and public domain licensed files. Plus they seem to have unlimited space seeing how they’ve got > 2gig mpeg2 archive files of many of their video’s as well as a copy of the entire internet :) (see wayback machine.) Here is the large file unloader if you decide to use it http://www.archive.org/create.php?ftp=1
18-01-2008 at 10:23 pm
Philip, that sounds like a much better “fit” than youtube or google video for this type of content.
18-01-2008 at 10:45 pm
thanx Bassam for the quick response I find your tutorials for blender
in 3d world very helpfull and informative. Im sure the DVD will be
worth buying as you are a very good teacher.
19-01-2008 at 12:32 am
Thanks a lot for your answer..
I’ve bought your DVD and I’m looking for any release you’ll do in the future..
19-01-2008 at 12:41 am
Or someone could get a bittorrent going. (Mine’s in the mail, but I’m anxious to start a-learnin =p)
19-01-2008 at 3:09 pm
I just received my copy and I must say that this is awesome material! I’ve used Blender few years but character animation has always been a bottleneck for me. Thank you very much! And good luck with Peach :)
21-01-2008 at 12:02 am
“Q. How soon will I get my DVD?
A. Well, the DVDs have all been printed and started shipping- how soon you individually get them depends mainly on the speed of the mail at this point. They are shipping from Europe (Amsterdam) so European orders will arrive a bit quicker than others.”
I live in southamerica… can they get in here?
23-01-2008 at 6:12 am
I’ve got my copy today. Exciting.
25-01-2008 at 11:35 am
Where can I get the music of the “Trailer”? The .blend files are on the DVD, but I can not find the music. I searched on Jan’s website but there was nothing.
Daniel
25-01-2008 at 11:56 am
Cesar: I’m pretty sure the Blender Institute has no problem shipping to any part of the world- they just use post as far as I know. If there is a problem with your local post, perhaps there is a place you know you can use as a mailing address to pick up the package? You could also wait until someone makes a torrent or puts up the DVD on a file sharing network (I’m sure that will happen eventually)
Sajuro and everyone else: thankyou for buying it, I really hope it is useful (and maybe fun) to you.
Daniel: Well, for the trailer it’s only music, so there’s always the sound track of the trailer itself.
I’ll ask Jan if he wants to make available the trailer and main soundtracks as individual files. He will most likely do so with some CC license (I believe he likes the CC BY NC varient)
29-01-2008 at 2:15 pm
I just received mine in the mail and I can’t stop watching it, its addictive in a really good way. Great work Bassam!! I can’t wait for the next training dvd from the blender institute.
24-02-2008 at 8:08 am
Someone has released the DVD via torrent and due to CC licence it can be legally downloaded.
Here’s the link http://www.mininova.org/tor/1190981
:)
25-02-2008 at 12:30 pm
[...] When it comes to animation, the videos do exactly what Bassam stated on his ManCandy FAQ FAQ: they explain the technical side of it (setting keys, posing the character and so on). To get deep into animation, I make his words mine and say: go also get Animator's Survival Kit, by Richard Williams (read a nice review of it) and the Preston Blair book. [...]
2-04-2008 at 9:18 pm
the above link does not work it shows got bad file info-path .html disallowed for security reasons i cant able to download it is there any other way to download
2-04-2008 at 9:26 pm
weird.. it works for me.
(btw thanks ordigdug! I saw the preview for creature factory(the second BF training DVD, made by Andy) on Blendernation, and I’m very excited to get it myself.)
8-04-2008 at 4:56 pm
Hi Bassam!
I got the DVD from the torrent download, and I have started using it. I must say that it is really great material for me. What I like most are all the little nifty tricks that I didn’t know about. Best practices and such.
The reason I downloaded it instead of buying the physical DVD was that I could see that shipping would end up being quite a large part of the total cost, and I thought that would be a waste. I want to support blender, not the postal services. Anyway - I would like to pay for the DVD. Should I just use the “Donate” page at http://www.blender.org or do you have a better idea?
Thanks for a great collection of tutorials!
Mikkel
9-04-2008 at 7:46 pm
the donate button on blender.org is a fine idea- I don’t know if they takes comments with the donation, but you could say this is a “donation in return of torrent” if they do, just so they know.
cheers
Bassam
14-04-2008 at 4:21 am
Ok, donation done! On the paypal form there is a small option: “Add special instructions for the Merchant”. I wrote to them that it was payment for the Mancandy DVD that I downloaded from torrent.
Mikkel
12-05-2008 at 1:39 am
I bought the dvd, but I still have some questions…
24-05-2008 at 10:37 am
I am going to order the dvd and was wondering if the rigs/keys will work with Blender 2.46? I am currently waiting for the BBB.
24-05-2008 at 11:51 am
They will work with two minor modifications; I am going to post a small errata on this site, with a new version (Mancandy 2.3) and Notes on what changed and why. Summary:
a-action constraints had a bug in 2.45 which necessitated using wrong values to make the right result, in 2.46 this is fixed, so you have to re-enter the right values. This affects mancandy’s eyes and mouth.
b-copy location constraints with local/local constraint space (which are equivelant to the “local” option in 2.45) need the “offset” button to be pressed, or they will not work properly with forward cycling (this affects mancandy’s arms, legs and neck)
The errata will have video or images, and the DVD will then work without problems.
cheers
Bassam
26-05-2008 at 11:24 pm
I have the same problem as above #18 bebin’s… got an error message while downloading via BT… looks like the tracker is bad…
26-05-2008 at 11:42 pm
I found the problem was due to using Bittorren on Ubuntu… no problem if using it on Windows.
5-06-2008 at 9:42 pm
I can’t seem to get the face controls to display when using Blender 2.46. I know I didn’t have this problem with 2.45. They are there in wireframe but they won’t display in shaded mode.
5-06-2008 at 11:55 pm
Hi David
In the object buttons, make the drawtype for the armature “wire” instead of shaded or solid, and turn on xray if it isn’t on already.. that should make all the bone shapes visible.
6-06-2008 at 12:12 am
Armature drawtype - Doh - missed that one step. I must have domestic hearing :) Finally working my way through the mancandy DVD. What a wonderful rig to animate with.
14-06-2008 at 8:58 pm
Animating to a path. I have been trying this with the BBB Squirrel and I note the Pelvis bone is oriented 90 degrees to the path rather than the 180 in your Mancandy tutorial. Obviously applying -Z doesn’t work in this case. Can you advise an option?
18-07-2008 at 4:58 am
Hi Bassam,
I’ve watched the dvd tutorial and that’s make me impressed to learn blender.
As a newbie i have to replay the video so i could understand and practice with it.
I got it from somewhere from the internet. and I am so sorry that i haven’t participate to donate in Blender. hope i could do it next time.
Looking forward to hear the good news about Durian project, coz the fruit name come from my country.