[FONT=Lucida Grande]So, for the record and as far as I’m concerned, Blueprints might just be the very best thing to come along since fresh donuts, waterslides, and movies with giant monsters and robots punching each other. They allow a programmatically challenged geek like me all the freedom I need to make my own games and gameplay systems. I think more than anything else I love them because they’re just plain fun.
[FONT=Lucida Grande]That said, I’ll be the first to confess that there is a little bit of a learning curve to them. At the end of the day, you’ve got to at least be able to think a bit like a programmer to make the most of your Blueprints. That doesn’t come naturally to most folks; it surely didn’t for me, but I at least have some long ago experience writing some Maya scripts (hooray for MEL!!) to kind of fall back on.
[FONT=Lucida Grande]In my role as a Developer Relations Tech Artist, I get to talk to lots of folks that are just trying to wrap their heads around Blueprints for the first time, and while they’re not exactly struggling, I noticed early on that they weren’t really getting some of the key principles that I had learned to take for granted. That’s when I decided it was time to get back up to my old tricks and put together some training videos just focused on those key elements.
[FONT=Lucida Grande]The goal here was to create a reference library focused on the most important parts of using Blueprints. Now, keep in mind that most of these are really short (#3MinuteWonder), but the idea was to create something that could serve as a quick video reference, get the point across, and get you back to work as fast as possible all without allowing myself to get (too) chatty. I’m all for folks using the pause button and the track bar, but if you can search directly for more info on something, I think that helps a lot when it comes to straightforward reference material.
[FONT=Lucida Grande]Anyhow, I hope you like what we’ve put together for you so far. There are still a ton of other little tips, tricks, factoids, techniques, and just plain cool things I want to show, but hopefully these will be enough to get you off the ground and get you going! Thanks and happy learning!
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