Learning a New Update

Phoenix felt the tense ball of anxiety roil in his stomach as he watched the update program slowly progress. One of the programs he used for his game development had a massive update he was installing now, and he was nervous on how much he’d have to relearn or just entirely learn anew. The bar quickly shot ahead once the biggest parts of the update installed, and Phoenix fidgeted, his forked tail lashing back and forth behind him for a moment. This was not how he wanted to start his work day.

The program finally finished updating and booted open with a tap of his finger to the screen. Phoenix squinted at the program in question as it opened suspiciously as he registered that some of the tool buttons had been rearranged from what he was used to, and before he could open his project, a tutorial opened, which made Phoenix’s heart drop into his stomach. A fresh tutorial after an install never really boded well. He sighed and rested his chin in his hand, his elbow resting on the desk as he read what the program developers had to say about the update in question.

Seemed it was mostly a tutorial for people new to the rendering program, talking about how to use some of the less intuitive tools the program offered. Phoenix blinked at what he read about the layering system. Huh. He didn’t know that was a way to do it. He followed the instructions provided and blinked again in surprise. OK, that would definitely be a lot easier to use in the future. Amused and in amazement, he flicked the toggle on and off repeatedly, a small grin spreading over his face as he did so. The tutorial file he was playing with was just a simple, shaded drawing of the program’s mascot: a blue Psyduck tilting its head to the side, then when he hit play on the animation, it would clutch its head and tilt its head the other way. The toggle he’d been playing with showed the other frames, then when flicked off left the user with just the frame they were on to start. A good comparison to make sure the user was animating things correctly.

He proceeded with the tutorial, more carefully reading it now that he knew it contained useful information and wasn’t just rehashing things he already knew. It continued to walk him through other things as if he’d opened the program for the first time and hadn’t ever used it. Now that he’d learned something, he didn’t mind it as much, following the instructions to give the Psyduck glowing eyes that consistently followed the frames provided. How to produce the glowing effect wasn’t how he’d have done it, but he had to admit, the simplicity of what the developers came up with was nice to know as well.

OK, so this update wasn’t so bad after all, even if muscle memory was going to complain about it when he went back to his own projects later. By the end of the tutorial, the psyduck had glowing eyes and had a little spoon floating up in the air from behind, and Phoenix grinned at the accomplishment. It wasn’t much, but it still was something he’d done himself, even if he’d known most of it ahead of time.