What is a ‘speed tutorial’

Alright.. you may have noticed I have videos linked to my blog, and posted on Youtube, with the words ‘speed tutorial’ in the title. I want to explain what I consider a speed tutorial.

The thing about us computer people is that many of us learn visually. We learn visually at different rates as well. The video tutorial has revolutionized software education (in my option), there is nothing better short of individual mentoring or experience. We can now view the lesson in real time, on the screen, just the way it was originally done. This is the magic of video tutorials: No grey area for interpretation. It is a documented account of an actual process right down to cursor movement and shortcuts. Have I sold it enough? Alright good, on to the speed part.

What I mean when i say speed tutorial is simple: Its a normal tutorial like video, played back at a couple hundred % speed. Why would that be useful? Well, some people out there can actually look at something played at 600% speed, and learn a lot. Yes, it’s true: Video played back at a couple hundred percent speed faster than normal can teach a lot to the discerning eye. Speed tutorial show us what is possible in a compressed span of time. Problem is, the sharp, specific details can be lost.

Here’s where full fledged, narrated tutorials come into play. Take that video sped up to 450% speed, and slow it back down to 100%, and increase the resolution. Lets make the text readable, and add a voice over. At this level, the video instructs at finer detail.

Sure, some dude made a bloodstream in maya 2minutes of video, but it may actually take 10 minutes to explain it to somebody new to the material; and thats all well and good. A normal speed tutorial is great for detailed instruction.

So I’m approaching tutorials like this: First I’ll release a speed tutorial to show what’s possible, and then I’ll slow it down and explain over the top of the footage later. The full length tutorials, along with a collection of links to other tutorials, will be available on a seperate page off my website soon. I’ll post the link here as soon as possible.

-neight