Michael, Pilou,
thanks to both of you. Lots and lots of info to digest but I'm not sure I'll live long enough to just scratch the surface of the rendering world. It's like the United Nation where there are a lot of different languages and cultures but no indications where to find the translators.
I came across this video http://www.vimeo.com/4810249 for example. It's not bad per say, some may even say it's excellent but it's almost useless for total newbies. It's what I would call a recipe type document, do this, do that and by the way you can do this and that as well. You see I was a teacher in another life and I know that people don't learn much from document like this because it looks so very easy for someone who is already an expert using these 3 apps together. But for a newbie, after downloading and installing Blender and Lux he or she basically hits a cement wall 4 foot thick. As you well know Michael, I don't think anyone could say that one can learn to just navigate with some ease through Blender UI in a few minutes, maybe not even in a couple of hours. More or less, the same could be said for Lux, MOI and any other apps for that matter.
It's true that one of if not the most efficient method of learning is by <doing> stuff yourself especially when you have a project that gives you plenty of motivation. But that's forgetting the main ingredient, basic knowledge of the context or some basic theoretical knowledge as some might say. Say your goal in life is to become a fisherman but you're a total newbie at this and you come across a video tut that basically tells you go get a boat and a net, throw the net at sea, drag it for a while and bring it in, all this while the video shows the net coming in filled with fish. Sound and looks easy but unless you are a very very lucky guy I would bet a week pay that you'll have a nice day at sea but few if any fish to show for your work. One would think it's easy to figure out what's missing in my example but it's not, especially for an expert kind of guy.
The basic idea behind all this is that when someone knows how to do something it always looks easy to a newbie and when one tries it on his own it's not long before one realize the learning curve is more or less steep depending on one contextual prior knowledge of the task.
Though some may find this an interesting or possibly a boring topic. It made me realize that I need to be a bit more specific about what I'm looking for, especially that at this time, I'm a newbie at 3D design and rendering. Basically, I'm looking for reference material (books and or papers) that are use currently as teaching material in university level programs on 3D design and or whatever programs where rendering photo realistic scene is a prerequisite or that is part of the main program. I'm sure such material exist and it's plentiful and that's the problem and the reason I ask you all, knowing that some of you still have those books from college or universities as we call them here. I can read in both English and French just in case someone think of a french book.
Thanks,
Felix
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