Hello everyone! Just another update on the state of things regarding new QubaHQ tutorials. As you can guess I have good news and bad news for you (and double good news for myself). Let’s start with the good ones.
New tutorials are on the way. This weekend I am planning to release a new text animator based preset, once again using After Effects’ built-in tools in an unexpected way. Originally I planned to release this preset as a part of larger, paid content, but after careful deliberation decided to throw you all another cool freebie. Follow my twitter for the updates on recording and release. Hopefully this time Camtasia will behave better than on the last recording session.
Now for the bad good other news: I have decided to stop including project files with my tutorials. There are multiple reasons for this decision, so let me just list a few.
Primum non nocere
This Latin phrase, meaning First do no harm is typically associated with medical practice, but I believe, should apply to the teachers, instructors, tutorial makers and all other manner of people sharing their knowledge. Recently I have been doing some research, trying to figure out how many people actually use the techniques I show in my tutorials and I was shocked to discover how many of my viewers don’t bother to take the projects even a step further. Most of them simply load up the supplied project file, change the text (some even don’t), render it out and proudly publish it to the world without a mention of where the content comes from.
The straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back came from a certain individual applying for a job in my studio with a portfolio containing rendered versions of project files from my tutorials (no credit given, of course).
My main goal with the QubaHQ tutorials is to encourage the learning process – to show new, cool and sometimes unexpected ways of using classic tools and drive the viewers towards their own experimentation. Providing them with ready-and-done project file encourages laziness, plagiarism and relying on one-button solutions. Even if it is just the minority of the viewers following such path – I don’t want to be a part of it. Want cool results – I provide the recipe – do the work yourself.
Money
Recently I have seen other people capitalizing on my work without as much as asking me for permission or crediting me. I have seen scripts based on my free expressions and tutorials sold around the net. I have seen templates built from my free source files (with minor modifications) offered and marketed for money. I guess it is all legal, since I release my stuff under Creative Commons license, but it does not mean it is right.
I fund this site from my own pocket as a purely non-profit venture. The money for hosting and bandwidth comes directly from my day job. Over a course of 1 year, that PayPal “Donate” button on the right has been clicked precisely one time. Thank you to the person who decided to make a donation – I am not sure if you would be comfortable mentioning you by name. The total amount of money that came to me costs the same as one copy of the script based on my stuff and would not be enough for a set of aforementioned templates.
For a while I was toying around with an idea of creating a premium, subscription-based system, where some special tutorials and project files would be only available to the paying customers, but I decided to drop it. As long as I can, I don’t want to treat anyone preferentially on this site. (I am kicking around some ideas for a product though).
Time
Recording a tutorial typically means sacrificing a weekend. Considering the fact that as a director and animator I already have many of my weekends busy with work, it is always a big question – should I take a well-deserved break or should I spend this time producing stuff I give away for free?
For some reason I do have this drive to share cool ideas with the community, so quite often I do opt to stay in and work on a tutorial. Dropping the time required to prepare project files will allow me to spend less time on the process, and perhaps do new content more often. I will also be able to stop using CS3. It has served me well over the years, but I think it is time to let it rest. Working with CS5 and CS5.5 is much faster – so again I will be able to cut few more hours off the process. Don’t worry though – any presets I release will be still compatible with CS3 and up.
Meanwhile… I point to weekend and I point to a new tutorial. That is all.
I specially like the 1st reason Primum non nocere , its good to not give away the project files. but you scripts are pretty useful , cause making a cool script not everyone’s cup of tea. so little bit worried if you stop sharing your scripts :(
anyways waiting for your new tutorial & i hope
Usually I don’t comment here or elsewhere, However I feel the need to support you Quba. I have encountered (more or less) same phenomenons with my content and also reached the same conclusions.
This is a good opportunity to thank you Quba for your original approach and for unique tutorials. Keep them coming!
@Eran Thanks mate, I also enjoy your content, even if you don’t see me comment :)
@shuvra No worries, I will be definitely sharing the key elements such as expressions or presets. I am simply adopting more of an IKEA or LEGO mentality (assemble yourself)
Good on you. I fully support this idea as well.
Your tutorials have amazed me ever since I laid eyes on the reflection rig. Personally, I never download project files for the exact reason you stated. I never learn anything! I don’t understand why someone would want to take an idea that they never understood and can’t replicate when needed.
Thanks for taking the time to make your tutorials!
Thank you Quba for all your hard work. It makes perfect sense for you not offer free project files anymore. People like to take advantage of what you teach and try to pass it off as their own work which really upsets me. They have to remember your tutorials are a privilege you choose to share not a right or an invitation for plagiarism. Keep up the great work. I watch ur tutorials from start to finish and always learn something new. Thanks again.
It’s only right Quba. There are many who do this sort of thing and it’s not fair at all to you or anyone who is kindly sharing their knowledge freely.
I have followed a lot of your tutorials and I have learned a great deal from you – something for which I have never said thanks and for that I’m a little bit ashamed. I’ve never actually downloaded a project file, always preferring to follow along with the tutorial and I do try my best to modify what I am doing as much as I can while still maintaining something that resembles what the tutorials are about. In this way I have learned a lot and even though I am becoming more and more accomplished I still value other peoples tutorials a great deal.
So allow me please to thank you very, very much for the amazing tutorials you have shared with us. It’s a little late maybe but I mean it sincerely :)
I´m feeling you!
I don´t do tutorials, and i take it a step fourder: I don´t show the people i meet everything i know, DON´T get me wrong on that!
I´m a big fan of tutorials and i watch one in every free time i have!
I think i´m one of the more advanced AE users in oure town and i think i earnd it! – During the time i sit in front of the Computer and thinking about how i could do things bether oder easyer or eaven “sexyer” (on this i still have to learn ;) )
I´m a technical oriented user, you give the direktion, i make the way…
HOW EVER…
I made some major mistakes by showing a local-“fellow” AE user things i figgured out and at the end he was able to diliver the job on time (with he would not acomplished without my help) – wore or less i did the job on the technical side. AND he did not eaven thanked me i a way i felt aprishiated for my work. (i try not to get me started!!!)
He sold this work for his own and then he offerd me the chance of working for him… and the main think is –> The paymend offerd was more then lousy, a bad joke!! So he ended up by doing work for cliends totaly based on VCP stuff or AE+, it´s 101 the same stuff… cliends can´t tell, he wont say….
Ok, so where am i?
I think tutorials should be used as some sord of help.
I´m greatfull for every tut. I think it´s a unwritten rule NOT to use tutorials as a base of own work!
Take the things you learnd, keep them in mind and make your own steps as needed –> BUT MAKE YOU´R OWN STEPS!
So how about me watching tuts and don´t share knowlege… well, i think it´s a local thing, everybody has the chance to visid QubaHQ, VCP, EranFX, RJTV, AE+. And i did, and i understud the things, i eaven help people out on CC whenever i can. But i am not willing to help out some local compeditors to be the “SuperGuy” for there Clients, knowing the only shine becous of me helping them.
And i hate it whenever i see something i there work – where there is a tut for the things.
Maybe it´s a realy only a few, maybe it´s only me with the local expiriens, but it´s anoying, and don´t helps the commuity.
So, thank you for every tut!
(i thought you are right, but the ponate-btn leads me to a turkish PP, then i quitted, send me a mail(adress) and i aprishiate/donate)
Greetings
Mr.BadEnglish –> Steven
I totally get you Steven. I have lost a former “best friend” in a same way once – took time to tutor him in a cool new technique I developed only to have him snatch a job from me using the very things I thought him, claiming it as his own and terribly underbidding me. Well, business is business.
Rest assured I am very careful with what I present in my tutorials – I usually wait around a year between coming up with the technique, exploiting it myself and then releasing it into the public domain :) This way, I always can stay ahead of the free stuff I give away.
Additionally, I don’t really believe one can become a great animator or director through tutorials. It is the will to explore, to push forward and to try out new ways of doing things that differentiates true talent from the crowd. That said, tutorials are a great way of observing others at work, seeing their workflows and polishing one’s own craft.
About the donations – I am gonna put a note under the button – something’s fishy with the PayPal – it shows in Turkish for some and in English for the others. That’s all due to the fact my registered address is in Turkey and I can’t seem to be able to find a way to change it :(
I think I got that Turkish button sorted out. Sorry for the mess – I am pretty new to using PayPal donations.
Quba, I totally agree on not giving away project files. Just the other day, I saw at least 5 templates for sale on a well known site that were almost your exact project files. One even had the light wall right in the preview!
I would happily pay for a script that would create a reflective camera rig, on-the-fly. I’m sure others would too. You never know when a client will ask for a reflective floor and it’s no fun to go back and set it all up. Why not make it and get something out of it?
One of my co-workers had a similar experience with donation buttons. Over the course of two years, he received three donations. Not even enough to buy a beer, much less pay for hosting. Most people just don’t donate. BUT, almost everyone will shell out .99 for an app, or $5-$25 for a script. I don’t think anyone would cry foul or complain one bit if you made scripts that were pay only.
I don’t care for the project files as I usually just skip right to the technical stuff I don’t know. You might find an audience for paid subscription files over time but like you said, who really wants to work in CS3 anyway?
Thanks for the great tutorials.
Jeff
Jeff – there is a script for floor reflections being sold already. It automates the process explained in my tutorial and is being sold via one of the most popular sites for the After Effects scripts and plugins.
Unfortunately, I get no royalties, or even a credit in the script for developing the technique and teaching people how to do it, so forgive me if I don’t advertise where exactly it can be found.
Quba, I hate to hear that and I had no idea. I haven’t been on that site lately. After checking, it looks like it was just released earlier this month. I don’t blame you for not wanting to promote someone else making money off of your technique.
Maybe in the future you can roll out the scripts and cross-promote it with the tutorial? That way, you can get the jump on anyone that would want to copy you.
As always, keep up the great tutorials.
Jeff
Hello again,
First of all I wanted to make sure you guys don’t get a wrong impression here – I am not a starving artist, being robbed of the money for the shoes for my kids :) I make a comfortable living out of the commercials I direct and animate – can’t complain in this aspect.
As I stated earlier – I treat QubaHQ Tutorials as a separate entity, completely isolated from my day job. From the very beginning I planned them as a non-commercial endeavor – a way of sharing with the community and encouraging experimentation and creativity. As you may notice, you won’t find “Cool intro animation” or “Dynamic slideshow” tutorials in here. What I am doing is trying to show everyone that all software can be pushed beyond what it was originally designed to do, or to simplify some of the more laborious tasks through simpler solutions.
When I started doing tutorials, I was approached by AEtuts+ and even created one video for them (it is a part of the plus program and can only be watched by their subscribers). Soon I realized, this was not what I wanted to do – it is great to be rewarded by your work in a form of money, but it definitely is not the reason I run this site.
I have to say I have been very positively surprised by the amount of e-mails and donations I have received after publishing the above post. It is a great feeling to know people value my work, whether they express it by a monetary donation, a friendly comment or by spotting a mistake in my process and offering assistance in fixing it.
When it comes to the infamous reflections script – I decided not to contact the author nor pursue any kind of action in this subject. I believe my energy is best spent elsewhere – bi it a new commercial piece, an indie animation or more tutorials. I could perhaps think of developing my own scripts and selling them – but honestly I just don’t have time to learn AE scripting. I know expressions inside-out, use them in my daily work and I think I will stick to the direction I have been following for the past few years.
There has been a psychological study done recently that proven people lose the joy of their hobby when doing it for money. If I recall correctly, the two groups of puzzle enthusiasts were tested – one paid for completing them, another doing it just for the fun of it. The ones who got paid stopped enjoying solving puzzles without compensation. I’d rather not go down that road.
Another pitfall of doing premium, paid content, is that it could easily turn my mind into doing whats profitable, rather than what’s cool and fun.
I am not saying I am never gonna sell anything or create premium content – but that will most likely never become my main focus. At least that’s the plan :)
Of course I get pissed off seeing people monetizing on my work – who would not? The situation can be compared to the t-shirt companies stealing art from Deviant Art without as much as crediting the author of the piece they are selling. Check this site: http://youthoughtwewouldntnotice.com/blog3/ for tons of examples.
I think I am not going to talk about this subject anymore. It’s a waste of both my and your time and gives the plagiarists attention they don’t deserve. Thankfully, there are enough smart people out there who can tell right from wrong and give credit where it’s due. The others? F***k ’em!
Right!
or like Piccard would say it: “Lets make it so!”
or Robin (the 60is one) : “Holly Cow, you´r right!”
or even Chuck Norris would nick to this!
When it comes to AE, I’d put myself in the advanced bracket. Granted, I say that, but will still check out tutorials from time to time, from all the main sites and the less well known ones. We’ve all seen reels and job applications from assorted clowns calling themselves designers where every clip is directly ripped from VCP or Greyscale Gorilla or similar – I’m not knocking them as I too have learned loads from both, but where many fuck up is that they only repeat rather than learn, adapt and progress. Ultimately, they’ve got no tricks up their sleeves and only ever end up twisting the latest VCP tutorial to suit a job – the same goons are the ones who are complaining on AE Tuts+ when there isn’t a project file included.
Personally I find quick tips and tuts under 10 minutes the most beneficial where somebody explains the finer points of what a plug-in does, what happens when you link up a string of expressions, etc. That gets me thinking about how I can use that same workflow (as opposed to “treatment”, “look” or whatever) to produce new cool stuff.
It is a shame when people steal others work. I have been worki in broadcast design for many years and although I feel I could take on virtually any project, tutorials and tricks offered on the Internet are a great resource even for us designers. Often I get a client who needs a graphic whipped up on the cheap, and rather than sitting round for hours trying to solve problems tutorials often shed light quickly on these issues. I have also purchased scripts and templates in the past but never use a template as is. The way I see it is if I can buy a template for up to $100 and some of the elements in that template can save me time (which is worth money) then why not. The creator gets cash (hopefully they did actually create it) and I get to save time, and my client is happy.
I believe those who give away tutorials deserve a big pat on the bag. I think you should sell scripts and even the comps, as some of us would happily pay for your expertise in preparing these files on occasion, and by charging the thieves would have a harder time getting the short cut.
I was mad and sad first, but you are right, you need to make your money too :) and I’ll say thank you for the tutorials!! That’s exactly ow I learn by trying to reproduce the results myself,
Stumbled upon your site like 10 minutes ago…and came across this article. I (and my students) really appreciate your hard work and dedication to keeping this site free.
Agree with the stop on free AE projects. If anyone REALLY wants to learn and EXPLORE, they will watch the tutorials and work around things they don’t understand. That is the ONLY way to soak in the tools and techniques.
Thanks again for your passion and dedication!
Your tutorials have been a fantastic learning step for me… I usually follow along making the project as you show it, so not supplying the actual AEP file is no loss for me… for those who only copy what you’ve done without any change or credit given it karmically wrong, and you need not be concerned with anything past as it will take care of itself. I appreciate your efforts, and often review the tutorials to re-learn what I’ve forgotten… btw, one of my absolute favorites is the QubaGrid… which I’ve made many variations of and they look great.
I’ve included my website, but it’s not really up yet due to getting screwed several times by developers who can’t seem to get the needed PHP coding done correctly… If you have a good reference for this, let me know. I have a patent pending which should complete within five months or so, for this web application approach to automatically making a video based on a chosen template. I’ve also envisioned taking projects/templates from many AE artists and paying a royalty fee for each time their “style” is chosen and sold, which I believe would make a tidy income for many, including you.
If you are interested in chatting a bit about the possibilities, my SKYPE name is Dr. Ben Licht and I’m located in Delray Beach, Florida, USA
Once again, THANK YOU for your efforts… I have learned much from you (and Eran Stern, Harry Frank, VideoCopilot, the “Cow”, and so many more)
I’m sure with your talents, you are kept very busy. I hope you find time to make some more tutorials.
Ben
12/14/12
Hey man,
I just discovered your site and watched one tutorial (stop motion kit) the next thing I happened to look at was this post. I’m sorry to hear that you have struggled with posers and rip-off artists.
So I just made a donation. It’s not much, but I hope you get the encouragement you deserve for putting together such a big resource for the community.
I fully support your position. I am one of your new viewers who is very grateful for you clear explanations and advanced workflow techniques.
You are doing a favour to those who actually want to solidly learn Ae. Thank you.
First, I ‘d like to thank you for your great effort making these very special tutorials for us.
Second, I think you can release some products that relate to your audience and offer it for money to support the site and people will buy it even just to support you and the site.