Why free?

[vovka]

We have many emails when people asking: why tutorials are free?
So I created this topic for this fill free to add your comments.

Does word "FREE" mean chip, amateur, low quality? Or it is word of confidents in your work?
Does buying music, film, software or tutorials fill like buying cat in bag? Never know what is inside? And worst of all, you open - you stack with it, doesn't matter how bad it is.
Our idea to create place to encourage people creativity and inspire them, and doesn't matter how bad is there English , hurray to spell checker.

[zerebrush]

I think that "free" can not be used to classify any software or item (meaning quality or not).
Most big companies (software distributors) now have free versions - PLE's or demo's - out, and most of them are crippled in one way or another.
That is quite ok, because they must make a living out of selling software.
But, so do others, too. Others that offer free software just for the benefit of a certain communty or a circle of dedicated users.

So we have another kind of advertising on the one hand, and on the other hand - hard to put it the right way - people with enough compassion to hand out items for free that might as well earn them some profit if they would just sell them.

And now ask to whom of them I would turn.

I have purchased enough software that should have been "free" because it had been low quality, and/or unreliable. But I have seen some free items, that had been top notch. Free for everybody to get.

"Does buying software feel like buying the cat in the bag?"
I can remember days when you purchased a package of software, installed it, and started to simply work.
Nowadays you purchase the program of your choice, and even while installing you are looking for the first bug fix (nicely called "update" or, even better: "service release").
And, you have to be glad if this "service release" comes free as it rightfully should be.

There are exceptions to the rule - Xfrog (one example) has not updated for years. They crafted the program some time ago, and they did it the right way, so it seems.

What I mean is simply - crafting software has degraded over the yeas. Not in general but far to often.
If you go and get one of them "backup versions" (called crack) you are called a cheater or even worse a criminal.
Releasing high priced software in a premature state should be illegal just as well.
No ranting, just what happens day by day.

So for me there is no question where my personal support should go - because I strongly believe that every bit of generosity should be answered by an equal amount of support.

Ok, this post is done only to show that a German can write as much bad English as any Russion fellow possibly can .

[Mannie]

You are totally right, Free doesn't allways mean bad, and when you buy stuff you have to cross your fingers you get what you pay for. Take web aplications for instance, some forums you have to pay for each year again while there are plenty free ones that do the same job and sometimes even better. Same goes for software, or their prices are to much for the normal guy and that is why piracy is big buissiness.

And we can allways spread the word about this place to get more customers. If there are some banners to put on our sites. It might get more people that buy megapacks and such to

[mwalter1]

Maybe at first glance "Free Tutorials" may come accross as cheap, but I would think that once a customer has viewed one, they reailize what a gold mine this site is. I have bought many training materials for both Vue and other programs. Paying a high price does not make it a better product! AsileFX is one example of pricing themselfs out of my pocketbook - $45 to 55 dollars for download versions, poor support, and not half as good as your tutorials. Not going to buy from them again. Keep up the good work. I love GeekatPlay!

Hope to see Epic Tutorials 2 soon.

Peggy

[3Drash]

Why would "Free" mean cheap? I found this site just a few weeks ago and have learned more about Vue than in all the rest of the time I have been using it. It gets old trying to figure it all out yourself. The first couple of versions of veiw I had were from 3D magazine CDs. There were tutorials in the mag for Vue but I found them hard to follow. These DVD tutorials are a lot easier to follow and understand. I can work along with them, pause them any time I want, play around with what I'm learning (and experiment) then come back and continue the tutorial. It's because of these "Free" tutorials that I just bought my second set of tutorials off this site. I plan on staying very busy with them. It's nice to see not every one is out to take your money.
I wish the rest of the 3DCG world would take note of the site and follow suit. Well, time to go back and play in Vue (Esprit) some more. So many ideas, so little time.

[3webjam]

I don't see 'free' as something cheap. I see it as some extremely, very nice persons sharing their knowledge hoping that other people enjoy it and can use it to create something beautiful.

Jacqueline