What kind of questions can I ask here?

Questions about Visual Effects.

Your question should be:

• detailed and specific
• written clearly and simply
• of benefit to visual effects artists or other vfx professionals

Some examples..

• What software was used for the the explosions in Transformers?
• How do I get a job at ILM?
• How can I use quaternions to simulate rotating rigid bodies?
• How can I make a prman stereo render?
• How can I make a Maya shader that behaves like a gobstopper, without using MEL or the API?
• How can I specify normals when I write a 3d deformer plugin for Nuke?

You get the idea...

Please look around to see if your question has already been asked (and maybe even answered!) before you ask. If you end up asking a question that has been asked before, that is OK and deliberately allowed. Other users will hopefully edit in links to related or similar questions to help future visitors find their way.

It's also perfectly fine to ask and answer your own question, but pretend you're on Jeopardy: phrase it in the form of a question.

What kind of questions should I not ask here?

Avoid asking questions that are subjective, argumentative, or require extended discussion. This is not a discussion board, this is a place for questions that can be answered!

Can I use VFX Overflow to advertise a product?

No. But you can can make genuine recommendations in response to questions about products. If we smell ad-spam we will remove the offending post.

Be nice.

Treat others with the same respect you'd want them to treat you. We're all here to learn together. Be tolerant of others who may not know everything you know. Bring your sense of humor.

Be honest.

Above all, be honest. If you see misinformation, vote it down. Insert comments indicating what, specifically, is wrong. Even better — edit and improve the information! Provide stronger, faster, superior answers of your own!

Do I have to log in or create an account?

Nope. You can answer and ask questions to your heart's content as an anonymous user, much like Wikipedia. However, there are some things you won't be able to do on the site without registering. But it's easy to register if you want to. All you need is an OpenID account.

What is reputation?

Reputation is completely optional. Normal use of vfxoverflow — that is, asking and answering questions — does not require any reputation whatsoever.

Remember, vfxoverflow is run by you! If you want to help us run the site, you'll need reputation first. Reputation is a (very) rough measurement of how much this visual effects community trusts you. Reputation is never given, it is earned by convincing other users that you know what you're talking about.

Here's how it works: if you post a good question or helpful answer, it will be voted up by your peers and you will gain 10 reputation points. If you post something that's off topic or an incorrect answer, it will be voted down and you will lose 2 reputation points. You can earn up to 200 reputation per day, but no more. (Note that votes for any posts marked "community wiki" do not generate reputation.)

Amass enough reputation points and vfxoverflow will allow you to go beyond simply asking and answering questions:

15	Vote up
15	Flag offensive
15	Add an image to a question
15	Add more than one link (URL) to a post
50	Leave comments
100	Vote down (costs 1 reputation)
100	Edit community wiki questions
100	Ask questions faster than every 20 minutes
100	Answer questions faster than every 2 minutes
250	Vote to close or reopen your questions
250	Create new tags
500	Retag questions
2000	Edit other people's questions and answers
3000	Vote to close or reopen any questions
10,000	Delete closed questions, access to moderation tools

At the high end of this reputation spectrum there is little difference between users with high reputation and moderators. That is very much intentional. We don't run vfxoverflow. The community does.

What is community wiki and when should I use it?

When you make a post, you have the option of making it "community wiki" by checking a box at the bottom right of the input field. This has the following effects

• You earn no reputation from up/down-votes on that post.
• Users with 100 reputation can edit the post (for non-CW posts, you need 2000 reputation to edit).
• If the post is a question, all answers are automatically made community wiki as well.

Here are some basic guidelines:

• If you're trying to make a list of resources, your question should be community wiki. You should also request that people post one resource per answer so that it is easy for people to sort the list by voting up/down.
• If it would be inappropriate for you to accept an answer (i.e. you know when you're posting the question that there isn't really an answer), then your question should be community wiki.
• If you'd like to post a shoot-from-the-hip answer that you'd like other people to flesh out, or if you'd like an answer that pulls together elements from many other answers to make something more complete, you should make a community wiki answer.

What if I don't get a good answer?

In order to get good answers, you have to put some effort into the question. Edit your question to provide status and progress updates. Document your own continued efforts to answer your question. This will naturally bump your question and get more people interested in it.

If, after two days, you still don't have an answer you like, you can offer a bounty. Slice off a bit of your own hard-earned reputation -- anywhere from 50 to 500 -- and attach it to the question as a bounty. We'll even throw in 50 reputation to sweeten the deal. The bountied question will appear with a special icon in all question lists, and it will also be visible on the home page Featured tab.

Once initiated, the bounty period lasts seven days. If you mark an accepted answer, your bounty is awarded to the answerer (do note that accepted bounty answers are permanent and cannot be changed). If you do not accept an answer in seven days, the top voted answer will automatically become the accepted answer, and half your bounty will be awarded to that answer. You will always give up the amount of reputation specified in the bounty, so if you start a bounty, be sure to follow up and accept the best answer!

Of course, bounty awards, like all accepted answers, are immune to the daily reputation cap and community wiki mode.

Other people can edit my stuff?!

Like Wikipedia, this site is collaboratively edited. If you are not comfortable with the idea of your questions and answers being edited by other trusted users, this may not be the site for you.