Stepmania University: We'll make your files suck less (under construction)

[Patashu]

Welcome to Stepmania University, where we aim to formalize the process of teaching a new generation of dabbling stepcharters using the knowledge of the old, bringing them to a level of sophistication that will be widely accepted by the Stepmania audience, and to a level of understanding and self-knowledge such that one knows not what works, but why. All students are welcome to attend and contribute, but you must be willing to learn.

This thread will contain general discussion, assignment scheduling and feedback, lectures and scheduling thereof. You are always welcome to submit simfiles for general feedback, either in PMs or uploaded in the topic.

Our irc channel is #smu on irc.chatspike.net - join for live discussion and file sharing. If you don't have a client download mIRC

LECTURE/ASSIGNMENT ZERO: Read me first!

LECTURES:
Minilecture: Getting started
Minilecture: Pitch relevance intro (Part 2)
Microlecture: Freezes intro
Lecture: Hands/Quads
Lecture: Importance of Playtesting
Lecture for the professors: Making a Balanced Assignment


CURRENT STUDENTS:
who_cares973
leonid
moches
kjwkjw
Xx{neon}xX
rzr
marioGP87
t-rogdor
_.Spitfire._
{Zero}
i love gabba
ZC_Wolfy
Coolboyrulez0
TC_llama499
megamon88
operationstrawbarry
cedolad
TC_Halogen
~HentaiXXX~
trumaestro
alexdestructions
dag13
i love you
BluearrowII
Legacyzero
StormKlowd61
mnnicol
x After Dawn x
-paexaea-
warriormag17
Wineandbread
i hate you
xingyguy

CURRENT TUTORS:
xandertrax
moches
who_cares973
omgitsnpv
PsYcHoZeRoSk8eR
xferrarix

CURRENT PROFESSORS:
me
kommisar
puppet
stargroup (lectures only. don't send him your crap kiddies)

[who_cares973]

sounds like a great idea. i think this should stay open for general discussion and have like a seperate one on one time scheduled conference over aim or something



in for student i guess

[moches]

I like this idea but the problem might be that later, the student:tutor ratio will be pretty high.

Not sure whether I'm in or not. I can't really TEACH stepping, per se, I just listen to the song and do what I can. Also for some reason I can only step simple music. Maybe it's because I'm not even 14 yet. Does age have something to do with how good your files are?

EDIT: About my age...basically I made this account when I was 8 or 9 and thought that breaking the age rule was cool and hip and ****. Evidence of this can be seen by my first retarded post about the Megaman song. Basically this means I wasn't legally allowed on this forum when I launched up FFR Community Pack. There, I said it. Hopefully that doesn't mean I'm retarded for that.

I hope Tass doesn't see this and ban me. I'm legal now though.

[Patashu]

Age isn't the component; skill and maturity is. You can be a smart 8 year old or a dumb as hell 18 year old.

Besides, if you don't strive now because you're 'still just a child' you'll regret it later. Maybe not at stepmania (lol) but in general for sure

[moches]

No, I meant that he might ban me because I've basically been an illegal forumer until May of '08. Can he do that? I mean, I am 13 now, so...

But yeah, I agree that age has nothing to do with maturity. I was just wondering if there's things in music you need to be, like, older to be able to hear because your brain hasn't fully developed yet. That could be a problem when stepping more complex music.

I dunno what this has to do with U of Step, so I'll stop now.

[leonid]

Is attendance checked in each class

If not, in for student

[Patashu]

@moches: I was referring to the first half of your post. anyway, he could (I've seen people do it on other sites) although it personally doesn't make much sense since there's nothing to deter. yeah there is a correlation between age and being able to process things better but some people are better at it earlier, others later, and a -big- factor of it is practicing no matter what age you are so that the skills set in

@leonid: nah lol. it would be dumb to have stepmania take precedence over the rest of your life no matter what.

[moches]

Alrighty.

[Patashu]

Btw if you're here to learn you can start as soon as you want, lol. If you have any works just put them up and ask for opinions on X or Y or the whole thing. Or you can ask general questions, I'll answer them as best as you can.

[kommisar[os]]

i thought of this at one point actually. should have two divisions: beginner and advanced stepmania theory


i'd join as a tutor

[kjwkjw]

This is a very interesting idea. In for student.
I might put up some of my terrible files here in the future. =P

[bluguerrilla]

Neat idea. Like what the File Testing threads should have been, imo.

[moches]

In for tutoring beginner theory and student for advanced theory.

[Vote4Nixon]

Nice . Is it going to be setup like a pseudo-file testing thread (ie where the students will speak to the professors regarding specific files), or more like an actual university?

It would be interesting to have different "courses" available to the students (ie PR 101, Layering 101, PR 201, Syncing 302, etc) where one would learn general stepman theory/techniques in a course and then apply the newfound knowledge him/herself to his/her files. And then, you could make a "curriculum" or something out of it...

It would be rather time-consuming to arrange a syllabus for a course and whatnot though.

[Xx{neon}xX]

wait so the idea of this is to help people new to simfile making be better and more technical? o_o

[Patashu]

@V4N: Actually setting it up like a university would be insane. As it is we can do it as a 'commune', just telling people what they need to know when they need to know it; the structure of a typical university is only needed when you've got thousands of students to handle and you need systems in place. The more popular/successful this gets the more I'll have to think about it

Xx{neon}xX: Pretty much, yeah. You don't have to be new to it, you just have to have potential left to be realized.

P.S. as a litmus test, I'd like all aspiring tutors/professors to submit to me what they consider to be their most 'artful' work. (or just tell me what it is if it's in a pack) By artful I mean required the most amount of creative energy and thought behind specific pattern placement to make it work; for example I wouldn't submit something like glove's Not Again because that chart 'rides along' with the song's solos and just has to add pr really.

[moches]

You also might want to edit the opening post with who's tutoring and who's learning. Just in case tomorrow, like 40 people reply. Speeds up organization.

[Xx{neon}xX]

ive always wanted to make simfiles but it all just seems way to confusing ):

[Patashu]

What about it is confusing, neon? The process of setting up a stepchart with the right bpm, gap, etc and laying down them notes or making those steps good?

[Xx{neon}xX]

the whole making of a stepchart not like making it good