I asked these in the chat but that is probably hard to navigate so I will post them as a question here instead.
1. What were those other N panel tools on your blender copy? There was some called "Photographer", "Create", "Rigging", "Animation", "Modeling" almost looks like custom N panel tools that your created yourself???
2. I think it would be fun for the next live stream like this to do a few contests of objects going into the summer render for the blender market. Winners would have their objects showcased. It could be pre-planned with like 1 per month or something similar and all around a common theme for the following year. The winners could have their objects even bundled together into a package or something similar.
The idea of a contest could have special rules and constraints that had to be followed to produce the right amount of boundaries and promote creative thinking. Thoughts?
Great live stream though. Really cool how blender is able to do sooooo many things. It's fun to watch one of our instructors work, and joke a little on the chat. Makes a great community feel.
1. What were those other N panel tools on your blender copy?
In my sidebar tabs I have:
I dislike how every addon tends to make its own sidebar tab, so I often go through and customize which tab they show under. It's a bit of a PITA, but hopefully it won't be necessary for long.
To change what tab an addon shows under (here I'll change the curve addon to be under Modeling, since a tab labeled Create is kinda dumb), find out where the script path is in the Preferences.
Open they python file and CTRL+F to find anything called bl_category:
Change that to something else (I'll change it to Modeling), and it'll now show up under a tab with that name when you restart Blender.
Probably more work than it's worth, but I enjoy trying to keep it tidy.
2. I think it would be fun for the next live stream like this to do a few contests of objects going into the summer render for the blender market.
I like the idea of a contest with limited assets! That could certainly help people to get creative within the limitations. I don't think it would work for a BM sale render though because 1. I can't distribute the assets 2. The assets I do use need to be from the market. So if you want to make models and put them on the market first I can certainly use them then, but it seems more straightforward to have the contest or exercise a separate thing entirely.
I'm trying to do something somewhat similar for each Fundamentals course exercise - set fairly restrictive limitations and see how far people can take it within those boundaries.
I'm glad you enjoyed it and hopefully I'll have something cool to show in a couple days!
1. Oh man that is awesome. I had no idea you could customize those but that's what I was thinking when I saw yours! Thanks for the explanation. I don't believe I have seen this advertised a lot so I consider it a golden cookie crumb to have stumbled on it during your live stream. Thanks a lot for sharing!
2. Yeah your constraints on the course exercises got me thinking about pushing this into more areas of CG cookie. I think monthly contests for the annual blender market reel would bring in some good talent. People who are chosen as winners get their stuff in the BM Render and maybe the final contest could earn a cool swag item from the Cookie Oven like a hoodie or something, or similar motivation. Getting popular advertisement of your model seems like cool motivation. Plus people would be able to add that to their bragging rights! So many ideas down this road. Just a thought though so I am not emotionally committed to you buying in. I just want to relay the ideas as they come about.
Looking forward to the results. I feel like I am a part of the render now just because you included us in the magic.