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In my search for help with learning to use a software program like EM
2 or any program that does a complicated task like digitizing, I have
found that one of the most important considerations is the author of
the tutorial.
To show you why I say this, consider this - Almost anyone can learn
to use a computer program like EM 2 fairly quickly and easily, even
without a Tutorial, but that doesn't mean that they can digitize a good
design.
An example - Compare painting a picture, even a young child can quickly
learn how to paint a picture. They easily learn to use the tools
involved, paper, brush, and paint, just as almost anyone can use a software
program / tools involved in digitizing an embroidery design. The
tools that are used to paint or to digitize are easy to learn to use,
but it is the finished product that will be judged to see how well the
tools are used. With the EM 2 software, it is quick and easy to
learn which button does what and how to use the other features, but
it is much more involved to digitize a good design.
So now let's consider who can best teach anyone to paint or to digitize
an embroidery design. For learning to paint a picture, if you
were to look at a picture that I painted, your probably could not even
tell what it is. Now look at a picture painted by an artist and decided
who could best teach you to paint.
I could certainly write a tutorial to help you learn to paint, even
include all the details, what brushes, paint and canvas to use and the
methods are involved.
I could do a lot of research, organize it and add pictures and videos
and make a large impressive tutorial. But no matter, how good my tutorial
was, you would likely choose the tutorial written by the artist, once
you compared our painted pictures.
So
to choose a digitizing tutorial, the most important consideration is
to consider the finished products of a digitizing program - the
embroidery designs that have been produced by the author. So to
be precise and to the point, I believe that the very best way to choose
a tutorial for a digitizing program is to look at the designs produced
by that author. I do know that one can not teach what one does
not know.
I posted most of this article above to a discussion group
- and 2 of the replies that I got were as follows;
-
Quote - "If
you can learn by reading a manual written for a software program,
and you have options, the best one to buy
would be the one written by the person who uses it every day."
I disagree with
the above statement and here is why - Anyone can easily
learn to use a software program and use it every day, but that does
not mean that they can digitize a good embroidery design and that
they can write a tutorial that can teach someone else to digitize
well. I can not imagine how anyone could write a tutorial that could
easily teach someone to do anything that they can not do well themselves.
It really doesn't matter how good a teacher one is - even the very
best teacher can not teach someone to do something that they do
not know how to do.
Yes, I do agree that someone who uses a software
program can write a tutorial to help someone to use most any software
program, but using a software program (learning which button
does what) can be easily learned, on one's own without a tutorial.
Even I - can quickly teach almost anyone how to paint
a picture, ie - how to use the tools - brush, paint and canvass,
but I can not teach you how to paint a picture well. If I
were to write a tutorial and spend months of research and include
pictures and many pages of detailed instruction and even videos,
you still would be better off learning on your own without wasting
your time with my tutorial.
Even I - can quickly teach almost anyone to use EM
2, ie - how to use the tools , but I can not teach you how to digitize
a design well. If I were to write a tutorial and spend months
of research and included pictures and many pages of detailed instructions
and even videos, you would be better off learning on your
own without wasting your time with my tutorial.
Even I can use the EM 2 software well, I know how
to use all the tools of the software.
Even I can take clip art and digitize embroidery
designs.
I could digitize better designs than many of the
designs that are for sale on many web sites. However, the designs
that I would make would not be very artistic or realistic looking.
They would be what we call "coloring book style" designs that were
digitized with clip art or pictures and with the "picture style"
of a coloring book even if a picture were used. Coloring book
style designs have little depth or diminution, they are flat and
not artistic or life-like and have very little shading with most
individual areas clearly defined. There is nothing wrong with
using clip art or a picture as a guide when digitizing a design,
it is the flat, straight in non-artistic style that makes a coloring
book style design. Designs for children are a good use for
this style of designs.
-
Quote - "Terry,
I'd say that the person who teaches the software
ought to be someone who uses it, and who knows how to teach."
My reply - Yes, I agree to that statement,
but as I said above, using the software is no where near enough
and being a good teacher is not an advantage if the teacher doesn't
know what they are teaching!
I use the EM 2 software almost every day and I even teach using
it almost every day ( I do customer
support for our customers who just purchased EM )
and I know how to teach.
What I teach is how to use the EM software,
and I could write a good tutorial about how to use the EM software.
And It would help anyone to use the software. It would show
them how to use the many features of the software and even the steps
involved in digitizing a design well. I could even show them
how to do the shading and the other steps involved in making an
artistic life-like design, but I can not explain how to make an
artistic life-like design because I don't know how to do that.
Yes, I can teach you how to make a coloring book style design,
I do that almost every day for someone.
So now you may better understand why I say that -
The best way to Choose a Tutorial is to look at the
work of the author, or more precisely, the end product of what the
author is teaching you to do. If you are learning to digitize,
then you should look at designs digitized by the author and compare
them to designs made by the author of other tutorials.
Granted one must know how to teach, however no one
can teach what they don't know.
So now you may be wondering "how can I judge the quality of a design".
There is a good article on this subject at this url -
http://www.threadartist.com/embroidery_basics_tutorial_lesson.htm
.
Of
course, this best way to judge the quality of a design is to stitch
it out. There are many free designs for download now on the net,
but be careful when stitching out a free design or even a purchased
one of an unknown designer, because you can even damage your machine
this way.
There
are many free designs samples to download on this site that were digitized
by Sandy the author of the EM Tutorial. Please download a few
and stitch them out and see the quality of her digitizing skills.
And there is a free sample of her Tutorial that you can download and
get a preview of the tutorial. Please let me know if you have
any questions and also what you think of Sandy's designs and digitizing
skills.
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