TonyB wrote:
> 
> Hello everybody. OK. I know that to become an advanced user you normally
> have to go through several standard steps. (At least that is what I have
> been lead to believe.) On the 'to do' list I have jotted down the
> following: chess set, bathroom, mountain range, and hallway (in no
> specific order). I am working on my hallway. It is of the rusty,
> abandoned factory type. It should have a door at the end, railings on
> the side of the central platform, and rust and dust everywhere. Oh yeah,
> and lots of pipes, and perhaps a fan. I just wanted to review if I have
> missed anything, and if you have any pointers for me. Thank you.
> 
> --
> Anthony L. Bennett
> http://welcome.to/TonyB
> 
> Graphics rendered
> by the Dreamachine.

 I think you are missing one fundamental point in your logic. It is not any
one specific scene that you design that will increase your knowledge rather
it is the complexity of the features available at your disposal you choose
to incorporate into that scene. My own advice for becoming one of the elite
is to choose a Pov operation and work with it until you understand how it
works and then choose another one until you understand it too. Continue this
process until you have familiarized yourself with as many of the operations
you have time to learn and only then will you have the proficiency needed
to be among the elitist.
 Long before I ever made my first complex scene I had littered my hard drive
with test scenes of simple objects but with complex (to me any way) features
used in them. It was by this process did I gain proficiency with the program.
It is like in math class. They don't start you out with calculus they first
teach you addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Once they were
sure they had drilled those concepts into your young mind did they advance
onto more complicated aspects of mathematics. Pov can be treated the same
way and short cuts can easily miss important key elements that you should
have taken the time to learn in the beginning.
  I guess what I am saying is making a chess set may teach you some of the
fundamental skills but it really won't make you an advanced user until you
have paid all of you dues to the club. It takes a lot of work and it can be
very boring sometimes but the steps outlined above will make you a better
user in the long run and should not be dismissed out of hand if you are
serious about learning the program to it's fullest extent.

  I'll step down from my pulpit now :)

-- 
Ken Tyler
  
mailto://tylereng@pacbell.net
http://home.pacbell.net/tylereng/links.htm

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