Hello everyone,

I don't agree with any concept that frowns on the passing of knowledge. I relied heavily on tuts to get started with maya. An actual working example or even a downloadable scene that I can take apart, do more to show the way than any book. Most books are edited so badly that what your looking for is not even in it. Another important thing about tuts that I see, is multiple ways to accomplish the same task. The world is round people, if you could shoot an arrow all the way around, it would stick in your @$$.

"I want to write a story."

"Here is a piece of paper, you can write on it. You have these tools to use; a pencil, a pen and a crayon. Oh, by the way here is a neat tool to speed up the job; a typewriter."

We now have Word and many other tools at our disposal, to make things faster and easier. Try and find a tut online for using these that is not free. These used to be big $$ programs, only available to the business community, similar to high end CAD programs. Anyone can download a fully functional learning edition for free, to learn. Which is what most of the users on here have done.<cough> We did not get as far as we are now by being stingy or selfish, at least not all the time. If you want to keep it for yourself, fine someone else will tell me. Openly sharing knowledge should be as self gratifying to the giver as it is the reciever, if not more. I have played guitar since I was nine, I willingly show others tricks on a regular basis. I will even show someone how to play their favorite song note for note, if I have the time. Why? Because it makes me feel really, really gooood.

My only disappointment in the passing of my knowledge to someone else, is when they don't do anything with it.

In 1990, I taught someone how to play guitar from ground zero, we spent several hours a week together, for almost a year, while he struggled to grasp the simplest licks. He is on MTV now and I am not. Did I put him there? NO. Did I help? Maybe. Would he have gotten there without me? Most likely. Does he still look up to me as a mentor? I hope not, because I never looked at him as a pupil. To me, the playing surface has always been level, I just got a head start. We both own a guitar, we both have hands to play it with, and it's a lot more fun jammin with someone when they have something to share. "I play for free, I play for me, I don't want to be a rock star, I just like to play guitar."

Mr. McKinley, I raid your tuts quite frequently. Usually, I am looking for reference to a single tool that you use in that tut. Your contributions are well laid out and informative, for that, I thank you. I only wish I could provide to the growing CG "community" as much as you have.

Thank you.