EEric I've seen a few posts aimed at helping others navigate the timeline of this course. Thanks for doing it, they're helpful and appreciated!
I'll be the first to admit that my courses aren't perfectly planned workflow narratives. Even a perfect plan can't account for unforeseen problem solving, as is inherent to any complex 3D workflow or project.
Still I wonder if this advice will resonate with you: Watch courses twice; first at 2x speed with popcorn and second to follow along.
I recommended this to folks watching HUMAN because it's such a dense curriculum. Those that listened seemed to appreciate the advice. An initial watch "with popcorn" means a broad viewing to get a sense of the workflow as a whole. The second viewing is a detail-oriented follow-along which often makes it difficult to see the forest for the trees.
While watching a course twice may sound like a lot of time - and it's easy to say a good course shouldn't need two viewings - the combination of macro viewing with micro viewing has proven effective for other students.
@theluthier Watching the videos twice is great advice. It's also table stakes for a guy like me. The first pass is to see the road ahead and to take notes. The second pass is to follow along. I feely admit this is all still challenging for me, and repeating videos more than twice (especially late in this course) is a semi-regular occurrence. Being one or two full videos ahead is my standard M.O.; beyond that the information gets muddled, while a one-two video lead gives the active lesson a known direction, and the incoming information a place to anchor.
As a learner, I'm not looking for a perfectly planned workflow. Especially with a project this large. The real strength of your courses, the real treasure, is process. Any process requires flexibility and realtime adjustments: Learning happens, ideas change, certain things can only be known once we are further along the road (see above). How a person with experience works through their process is as valuable as the course's didactic content. Additionally, you regularly sprinkle art and design concepts as you work. Again, these are treasures that I am always on the look out for.
I'll gladly watch a well-explained, clear directioned, content-rich video that requires multiple viewings. I've seen the other side: 30 second Youtube Shorts that are borderline impossible to follow and require an inordinate number of viewings precisely because the direction is so poor. It didn't take long to realize there was no real learning to be done that way. Fast does not equal quality. Brevity does not inherently equal good guidance.
Learning takes time.
So, know that your advice is heeded, maybe not exactly as you prescribe, but in a way that works for me at my current level. Trying to stack quality reps and hoping its adds up to some improvement on my part.
Thanks for the time and feedback
