NextPreviousHomeWhat needs to be done?


komies | 6 years ago | 28 comments | 10 likes | 3,512 views

Kanon, LostBoyz, SparkyVegas and 7 others like this!

I'm always surprised when people on this community don't know about a fundamental things about BluffTitler like the CTRL + SHIFT.

Or ask what an effect does? Like RotateTowardsCamera.cfx because an explanation is given in the Effect Text Box beneath it, in this case:

"This effect keeps your layer oriented towards the camera. When the FX XYZ property is set to 0, the layer is only rotated in the horizontal (XZ) plane. When the FX LETTERS property is set to 0, the text is rotated instead iof the individual letters."

But the key is experiment, with the properties, settings and effects. Just try and see what happens. And start with the easy ones like for TEXT the TEXT effects and for Picture the Picture effects and see what properties are added and what they do and use the SEARCH in the community with these terms to see other people's questions and maybe answers and shows where this property or effect is used. Like this link: outerspace-software.com...

My New Years resolution was/is to spend more time with BluffTitler and post simple shows for others to download and learn from so that they could build there own shows for the 15th anniversary.

Please give suggestions and tips how I can help you better in achieving this goal.




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Thank you Komies,
the problem is not to read what effects do, but to look at one by one they exist.
Many times you get ideas and maybe you do not know that there is already an effect that can help you.
For example, I was interested in knowing if there is an "effect" to move arms and legs of any 3D model

Franco Aversa, 6 years ago


What I would like to see are simple, short tutorials.

Things that you accidentally found out and had fun with.

Not more than 1 property and what it does. A bit like this:

outerspace-software.com...

michiel, 6 years ago


Very Cool komies! :)

LostBoyz, 6 years ago


Here's a very simple one for you, for some reason I just haven't worked it out and believe me I have attempted a few times, but to my shame (again) I still can't do and it's probably so simple.

Ok the effect I like is to have a floor surface, wood, concrete or whatever and then have the mirrror layer above it with the wood etc then having a glossy finish.

Don't laugh to loud guys it's embarassing enough, lol.

As always, cheers.

tayla, 6 years ago

Komies... what you intend to do is wonderful. Thank you.

I got dumped in to BT by accident. Bought most all the stuff.
Have no idea how to use 90% of it. If that much.

I think a structured training program will work best.
You select a subject and start a thread.
Go through the subject and entertain the Q/A that follows.

Fundamentals would be my suggestion to kick off the training.
I hope your offer of training is not confined to 2018 as
I can foresee with me I'll need a lot more time! LOL

SMSgtRod, 6 years ago

Franco, in the past i have created a small utility to list and search in filters, but what you need is a real database with keywords and advanced search......a GoogleCFX, maybe you can build one using Excel linked to cfx folder and adding your own keywords

vincent, 6 years ago


Very good Alex!!! i really like this show, city night, effect and letters collision. This is the 0 default show..?????

vincent, 6 years ago




@Michiel

I will post concept shows and tell the reason why I choose a particular way of doing this or use of effect. There are to many settings, effects and combinations that I had fun with, so I can post a lot of shows like you propose but is it what an BluffTitler needs at that moment.

I find a question is direct and in the moment of need and know that it will help at least one BluffTitler. I also find that those answers get lost in the comments and often have to repeat the same solutions even to the same person, For example CTRL SHIFT: outerspace-software.com...

The goal is to make Blufftitlers more self proficient, when they have an idea or concept they like to work out to give the tools how to tackle this. The Userguide, The search option, installer shows and Bixpacks are great tools for this but also experimenting, practice, ask questions and discussion are great tools.

I learn a lot by helping others, it forces me to think differently and bring things back to there basic elements, do I know everything? NO, how boring would that be, but I'm willing to find out and practice and experiment and put in the hours to get skilled in something. There is the 10.000 hours theory witch I don't subscribe to because it leaves the individual aspects of a person out of it but that you have to make hours is a given. Then there is the learning piramide also a theory that's more a guideline, by doing stuff you remember easier is what I do subscribe to.

By practice and experience with BluffTitler you can learn from a Show-off show because you recognize the elements and how they might fit, I can watch a movie, trailer or other presentation and see how I would reproduce them in BluffTitler.

So I am a believer in "give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime"

The question is what is the way to make an Blufftitler Fisherman?

komies, 6 years ago


Practice, practice, practice.

vincent, 6 years ago


Komies... why not start a thread for Komies Lesson 1, another for Komies Lesson 2, etc.

Teach the portions of BT you want to remember. One a week. One a month. Your schedule.
Short, sweet and to the point.

I'll never forget the material I taught to my students. I also will never forget the material I had to research to answer a student.

Researching answers in BT is a little tough. There is so much that it is easy to run off on a tangent.
Tangents do lead to increased knowledge but sometimes I get so wrapped up I forget where I was!
LOL
If I had to pick something I'd like explained in depth is the waving of a flag or underwear on
a clothes line. The items keep flying away on me or I just can't get it to work correctly.

SMSgtRod, 6 years ago

@SMSgtRod

Thank you for your input, ideas and tips.

Would you and others be able to find these "lessons" when you might need it?

I ask this because this is what I got when searching the community: outerspace-software.com...

In the first Basics lesson 4 years ago, the CTRL + SHIFT was KING in Dissecting a show it was for some a revealation but still now people don't know about it.

So the question remains, would lessons determind by an individual's priorities be beneficial to others and how would you measure that.

A question answer approach would help atleast one and hopefully others. But if answers given are lost in the community and you start to repeat again and again the same solutions that mostly can be found in the Userguide, Search option and installer shows.

So what needs to be done to convey this info.

outerspace-software.com...

komies, 6 years ago


Komies:
If you do a lesson on say the "Camera" then I should be able to search:
"Komies, Lesson, Camera" and it will pop right up.
Make your efforts easily searchable. Myself, I'll copy and paste to my graphic pages.

In the classroom of 30 students I'd have a student ask a question.
When I answered it you could see the light turn on for twenty or so classmates.
Same here. Have to have one brave enough to ask. Many will learn.

I impressed on the students that there is only one stupid question.
It wasn't asked and doesn't yet have the answer to make it smart.

I don't think you can measure it. Hundred views and 7 likes. Who knows how many
truly liked/learned and were too lazy to click. I guess many.

If you ask members for ideas that's fine but you'll get torn in many directions.
As Michiel said, you set up the course and the pace that you would like.

At the end of your presentation, put references to further the educational process.

Do it your way!!

SMSgtRod, 6 years ago

Have you found my earlier lessons?

I would love to see that spark, but with online training you don't, you get likes and encourigment but no real feedback or see the results in shows. Then what is my motivation to spend hours of free time without seeing any result of progress.

When answering questions you do, and often they post the result.

And a question fills a need to that time, I can try to anticipate what is needed but there are different level of knowledge in that "Class" somethings people that already know are in that same class.

The point is to make them selfprofiscient so they can learn at there on peace at there own time. The information is there, the question is how to get to that info.

Many artist of Blufftitler are self taught, there is no secret place or hidden tricks. It's practice, making the hours and experiment.

komies, 6 years ago


Komies... I have been able to locate what I believe are the very first lessons you did.
About 3 years ago..... If only they had "Komies Lesson" in the title they would
be super easy to locate.
I will continue to scope them out.

SMSgtRod, 6 years ago

OK I’m really going out on a limb here and everyone can go ahead and chop my head off but here are my feelings on this topic.

Obviously I am NOT an advanced INTRO/OUTRO creator and don’t really have the ambition, or time, to dedicate to becoming one. I’m just a 74 yr old retired aerospace engineer who has taken up the hobby of creating, what I hope are entertaining/informative, videos that I post on my YouTube Channel “Mr GruntHunter’s Adventures” with no monetization. I stumbled across BluffTitler (BT) several years ago when I found out I couldn’t rotate some text 360 degrees like I wanted to in my SONY MOVIE STUDIO software. After purchasing BT I have thoroughly appreciated being able to download and play with many of the shows that were freely provided by users early on. Unfortunately this appears to no longer be the case and I suppose I can relate to those who are trying to do this as a business, but if that’s the case then why not create your own website for the purpose. I have since purchased 9 of the BixPacks offered by OuterSpace software. I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to be able to use them by changing text, maybe some colors, show durations etc (you know, the easy stuff) but have been struggling with everything else. Mainly I think it has been just to support Outerspace Software as I have only used 1 or 2 of the templates out of all of them. Thank You Michiel for providing the BixPacks and especially all of the DEMO shows provided with BT. You can’t imagine how helpful they have been. In fact every time a new version of BT is released I sometimes just sit and watch the demos run to see what new demo shows there are. Actually I think I have played with the demo shows more than I have with the BixPacks.

It seems that this past year I have noticed more impatience being relayed from some of the more highly experienced long time users regarding mundane questions from newbie users. Possibly a solution would be to create another forum specifically for the new, and very inexperienced, users who are struggling with BT and just don’t have the time to memorize the online user manual. That way those users that have matured into the highly advanced level of creativity won’t have to be bothered reading posted questions that many consider to be in the “you should know how to do that” or be annoyed that someone hasn’t been able to find the answer in the user manual or hasn’t taken the time to research for the answer better. I’ll admit I’m certainly guilty of that but usually I’m right in the middle of a project, like I recently was, and don’t want to have to spend several weeks, or months, trying to find out how to do something. My admiration goes out to those of you have been able to remember all of the different combinations of effects and what they do.

Tutorials ! YES! More actual tutorials I’m sure would be greatly appreciated, but they need to be true tutorials. I know I would greatly appreciate, and have mentioned several times in the past, as a minimum, for someone to just make a screen recording of how they do some of the simple things I see being done. As an example of what I consider to be very detailed tutorials I would recommend taking a look at how George Peirson creates tutorials for PhotoShop on his YT Channel “How To Gurus” at “https://www.youtube.com/user/howtogurus/featured “. Obviously he takes a LOT of time to go into all of the fundamentals of the how and why of doing things. For someone who has the ambition and time they could create a dedicated YT Channel specific to tutorials on working with BT and if you’re really in to it even create a set of DVD’s like George has done and sell them. The last I’ve checked he has 19,500 subscribers and obtained over 2.5 million views so you have to know he is generating a substantial amount of income, and I dare say probably more than what some are bringing in from the sale of their INTRO’

MrGruntHunter, 6 years ago


I agree, few years ago there was more show to download. The behavior changed a lot in 10 years not only on the side of those who post....
I am a little younger than you and i use BT as an hobby too, not for money.

vincent, 6 years ago


CONT:
of their INTRO’s, but I could always be wrong. Rule of thumb is that formal instructions need to be written/created so a 10 year old can follow them. You don’t assume they know ANYTHING about what you are trying to convey to them.

Unfortunately I do not know where the most prolific users of BT are located or where OuterSpace Software’s customer target base or market area really is. I’m located in the South east United States and haven’t noticed anyone else posting shows or questions that appear to be from the US as well, so maybe I’m a very isolated case. I would love to find someone in the US that has evolved into the highly coveted ‘expert’ status that I could easily communicate with. With that said I can’t express enough how thankful I am for the help I have received from several of the users on this forum, especially Vincent and Selina who have gone to what I consider great extremes to help me with some of my projects, and yes you to Komies ;-) .

As far as new BixPacks go, maybe Michiel can give us an idea as to where his major customer base is located, by area (Europe, Asia, North or South Americas, etc.) and then maybe more specific BixPacks can be targeted for those areas. My take is that the more BT Intros/Outros being seen used by amateur videographers the more users will be attracted and want to become involved with BT. I have many ideas for BixPacks that might be appealing to US users.

OK, that should be a big enough bulls eye on me ….. Fire away.

MrGruntHunter, 6 years ago


@MrGruntHunter

Thank you for your time and this long but eloquent answer, it is very appreciated.

This article is my attempt to understand the need and wants of it's users and how information in and on this community is conveyed. The 15th Anniversary is coming and I thought that it would be nice to show our appreciation in the form of shows, and thought that I could make some more time in answering and try helping and post more downloadable shows to this end.

I also use BluffTitler out of hobby, and most of my posted shows don't fall in your typical Bixpack template format but more to convey information, ideas and maybe inspiration. This community is a small one compared to that one you mentioned because you know most of them here by name, I assume that the most frequent posters don't monetize BluffTitler because they have nothing to lose by sharing or revealing. If you look at the youtube statistics of OuterSpace Software and the latest Bixpack (25 Mars) you will see that that video was watched less than 1500 times. Not 1500 times bought, not 1500 users that watched it ones, You also see that OuterSpace Software has 1800 subscribers for this channel. So a dedicated YouTube channel would again be hobby and making good video tutorials take time/money.

Your suggestion of splitting this (small) community I don't subscribe to, for many reasons but the most important one being that it would not be a community anymore. I learn a lot from questions posted in this community it forces me to thing differently and bring things back to there basic elements.

I was hoping with our combined experience to make BluffTitler easier to start with, easier to find answers or reduces recurring questions and therefore more fun to use or play with and therefore easier to recommend to others and make it more populair to use.

But maybe my ambition is to huge, but it comes from the enormous appreciation I have for this Software and his Community and that Includes you MrGruntHunter ?.

komies, 6 years ago


Thanks for your reply Komies. I think we're really on the same page and I would like to see BT grow and become more main stream as well. But, we still need to keep in mind that as BT acquires new users you will never cease in seeing many of the same questions keep popping up. Statistics has shown that it's difficult to get users to read manuals and instructions with most anything. Sometimes operating manuals are the first thing to be tossed out with the box. Having an engineering background I typically don't do that but that's not always the case :-). Human nature is hard to overcome sometimes. and with some, down right impossible. My suggestion for a 'newbie' forum was to maybe entice more questions being posted without anyone being intimidated by advanced users being frustrated with their repeated or basic considered questions. Heck, with my declining brain cells I probably could be asking questions every day and as Alzheimer's kicks in a few years down the road I might even be asking for help on how to change text. ha ha.

MrGruntHunter, 6 years ago


Never seeing the same question again would be overly ambitious, but less?

I don't mind questions, heck I believe that there are not enough questions being asked in this community. I seldom gets question on my shows and would welcome it.

A question is in the moment, and shows interest of learning things that might be directly applicable to there shows or awareness of his could be useful to you.

When you make a show or change a template more than the text, textures and font you will encounter some hurdles, and some "at the moment" knowledge would be helpful. Do you then have to learn everything that is to learn about BluffTitler, well no. But some to the point information would be welcome I would reckon.

In a practical sense of finding this to the point "knowledge" shouldn't there be a general common knowledge first like:

Blufftitler shows are make out of layers
Each layers depending of type has there own properties.
These properties can be adjusted or animated between keys in the timeline.
These animation follows the curve or line set in the physics dropdown (default constant speed)
Each layer can have a Effect assigned to it by Media/Change Effect (F9)
Each layer can have a Style set to it depending on layer type in the Styles Dropdown.
etc etc.

So could we as community come with our combined experience to a "General Knowledge sheet" that every BluffTitler should know or at least can be referenced to.

Did you know that there is no F.A.Q page on this site, only this would alleviate some questions and would be easy to find.

These are the things I'm thinking of with the question "What needs to be done"

sincerely yours,

Komies

komies, 6 years ago


Hadn't really thought about the FAQ aspect but you're correct, although under BT HELP this is a link to the Top 10 Most Asked Questions. That could possibly help. I think the existing BT Video Tutorials are great and of great benefit. More like those with lots of narration about what is taking place would be awesome. I have found the YT Channel I subscribe to regarding PhotoShop Tutorials to be extremely useful and easy to follow along with and duplicate.

The existing tutorials provide a great insight into some of the basic controls but when you get into all of the dropdown controls and effects and the combinations of those effects and what they produce I think is where everyone gets confused and overwhelmed. There are so many combinations it's almost impossible to keep up with what they all do. More of those types of videos is what I think is needed. The more easier it is to use the more users will be generated. All of the included demo shows and new BixPacks periodically being made available really helps. I suppose though, the question that needs to be asked is how many intros and outros does the general user really need to create. Many YT videos, and successful Channels, I watch don't even have an intro and if they do its pretty basic and nothing elaborate. I suspect there are quite a few customers who may create a couple of intros for their home videos and not use BT for another 6 months or longer. Just thinking out loud is all.

MrGruntHunter, 6 years ago


Hey, I'm in the Southeastern US!

If the experienced have their own place to converse then this area
would fail after losing it's knowledge base! LOL

I know one thing I failed to realize when I purchased BT is that it
has a very steep learning curve. There is so much to it that I am
truly baffled at times. Most times. Sometimes the clips and
Instructions get me overwhelmed and I just pack it away for
a day. Wading through the articles here helps but there are many.

I love using BT for my personal home video clips. I'll try something
and can't figure it out so I give it a rest and come back later. Then end
up asking for assistance here because I simply can't get it to work.

Komies in particular teaches the way I did. Try several methods until
the light comes on. Investing time and effort only because he
wants others to enjoy BT as he does. We all need to make sure we
send him lots of Kudos!!

SMSgtRod, 6 years ago

Hey SMSgtRod, nice to know there is someone else stateside using BT, and even in the SE. I'm on the Space Coast of Fla.

MrGruntHunter, 6 years ago


The File Dialog System is again a subject that got (partially) lost, the information is there but you have to find it at different places.

Suggestions that I got so far:

1. General Blufftitler "everyone should know" sheet OR Quick Guide

2. A (better) Frequently Asked Questions Page

3. A couple of shows that people can make by easy to following instructions.

I wanted to include all users/artist to fill in these suggestions.
It is to help and to get information sooner and easier to find or recall, all with the best intentions to make BluffTitler even more fun, easier to recommend and therefore more populair.

komies, 6 years ago


I kind of like the F.A.Q. page especially if it could be made searchable. I think it also would be very useful if you were ably to post a short video response to a question if needed.

MrGruntHunter, 6 years ago


Komies,
You and Vincent (and others) have provided some excellent explanations on using certain features of BT. Perhaps if these detailed explanations could be included in the BT User Manual they may be easier to find. My opinion on the User Manual is that it is detailed in some areas but other areas make for a good outline structure in need of an expanded dialog. Maybe those with superior knowledge of all the intricacies and interactions between all of the many effects and controls available should have a way to provide input to the different User Manual topics. To take the load off of Michiel all input should be submitted in as much of a 'Cut & Paste' format as possible.

The clarification Vincent recently provided back to me about Depth Bias and why it may be needed and how to use it is a fine example that I feel if added to the User Manual under Depth Bias would be very helpful.

MrGruntHunter, 6 years ago


I used BT many years ago (last version was 10) and just repurchased it this weekend to get to 14. Since I don't do this for a living but I do like to create vids for myself and "try" to be creative, this was definitely the best bang for the buck. What I found back in the day is that it was incredibly hard to figure out how to do something. The interface is not as slick as some of the expensive titlers and finding out how the magic was done can be problematic. Long story short, it became so frustrating that I gave up.

I'm back now and I'm getting a fresh look at everything. What I was hoping for in the Bixpacks was something I could use. 30 packs later there really isn't anything I can use. They don't match what I'm looking for in a titler (most of the time). What I would be looking for is almost exactly what komies is suggesting. I want something that shows me how to overlay on top of MY content, be it an animated background, video or ?


After a couple of hours into BT this second time around it was a bit of deja vu. How do I do this? First, nobody really "reads" the manual. I jump to it when I'm on a specific screen hoping that maybe it can help me out. That part is on me. I have to say though that the manual is more technical than tutorial so a lot of times it isn't really helping. The free shows were always a bright light where I could hopefully dissect how they did it. I eventually stumbled across the "Shows" folder. I don't know if that was in V10 and earlier but YES, that is HUGE. That's a major step towards figuring out how to do something.

Let me take you back to yesterday when I was trying to do the simplest thing and could not find information on how to do it. I wanted my text to appear over an animated background and appear slowly after the 1st second of the show. I knew to play with the Transparency setting of the text but it kept flashing black to start with and then it would fade in in a horrible grayness until it then lightened. Long story short, after I released the video I found the key. Use a Container, attach the text to the Container and tell the Container that it's transparent! Ya, that was intuitive. If there was a tutorial for this and I knew how to find it then that would have helped. I found the one where it showed 3 items doing this but it wasn't clear that the CONTAINER needed the Transparency. Once I stumbled across a message to that effect, aha!

So what I'm looking for is stuff that shows various some "overlay" skills I guess. The second thing I'm looking for is a Bixpack that isn't the actual intro but rather something I can use to teach me a technique to incorporate in something. Like a spinning box, or a circle drawing and then letters showing up. Something generic that can be plugged into a variety of different shows. And usually I'd like it to be more classy vs. cheesy. I like bells and whistles, colors, explosions, but sometimes the best stuff is just simple but really cool looking.

OK, I'm sure I've written way too much but at least I finally had a place to get it out. Thanks for reading this far!

rkligman, 5 years ago

Thank you for your feedback!

This show demonstrates how to animate the transparency of a text layer without using a container layer. Please reply to the article if you have further questions:

outerspace-software.com...

michiel, 5 years ago


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