CG Cookie Missed SIGGRAPH This Year, So We Made a Video
Aug 11th 2016
“No tacos, beer chats or thick-as-oil hot chocolate this year,” I thought sadly as I cancelled our SIGGRAPH hotel reservations. The reality is, CG Cookie just didn’t have the resources to attend this year. But now, we have something up our sleeve that’s (almost) as good. The next morning I am a couple sips of coffee into the day when I see an email from David Andrade from Theory Animation, with the subject of “Hey Dudes”. The email was inviting CG Cookie to speak at the Blender BOF SIGGRAPH 2016. An invite which came less than 24hrs after I had cancelled our rooms. Dratz! However, after a few email exchanges we agreed to send along a video.
What does SIGGRAPH mean to CG Cookie?
CG Cookie has been fortunate to attend a few SIGGRAPHs in the past. Like most business owners, Jonathan Williamson (CGC Co-founder and friend) and I would discuss ways to increase the ROI (return on investment) of the expenses incurred. In the past, CG Cookie offered flyers with discount codes and held conference-related sales. Neither of these yielded groundbreaking results. That being said, we still viewed attending SIGGRAPH as something to look forward to and of value. In reality, as we both agree, “It’s simply important and fun to catch up with our digital relationships in person”. Having dinner face-to-face with a group of Blender users, fans of CG Cookie or new faces is the reason CG Cookie goes to SIGGRAPH. 
From left to right SIGGRAPH 2014 [Sean Kennedy, Wes Burke, Jonathan Williamson, Ton Roosendaal]
What Blender means to CG Cookie
We can’t talk about SIGGRAPH without acknowledging our close ties to the Blender community. 
With past SIGGRAPHs, CG Cookie has both participated as Blender booth personnel and financially helped sponsor the Blender booth. We LOVE Blender! From its founder to developers and artists, we are big fans of all things Blender. In large part, SIGGRAPH has transformed internet acquaintances into friendships with the people we just mentioned. Blender holds a very real place in the CGC heart.
Now, about that video…
The presentation guideline was simple and open: show something you’ve created in Blender and keep it under 5 minutes. Given the opportunity and importance of SIGGRAPH to CG Cookie, we knew sending a re-hashed demo reel wasn’t going to cut it. While reels by themselves are good and have their place, they can often feel sterile. Instead, we set out to express something more personal. Something that also presented the Why and the Who that drives CG Cookie - in addition to the art and training we create.
“Admittedly, I wasn’t thrilled about creating another demo reel. While I love to show our work off as much as the next guy, to me, SIGGRAPH represents the gathering of the humans on the side of the 3D viewport - It’s more social than showy, which I admire. So when Wes pitched to me his idea of showcasing the people and the motivation behind CGC, that’s when it clicked; that’s when I got excited.” - Kent Trammell
Drafting a script, recording talking heads and deciding which art pieces to include is only half the puzzle. The rest is finding rendering solutions. Fortunately, Kent Trammell has a small Blender render farm in a filing cabinet, literally. After some updating and beating it with a hammer, frames were ticking away 24/7 leading up to the delivery. 
With a successful rough cut of the video, the team was then able to visualize the final piece and focus on the sections each of us were responsible for. The team's "Hello!" videos began coming in, then the final audio, the video timing, and final graphics were purchased. There was a section of video with voice overlaid talking about CG Cookie. This just felt self-serving, so at the last minute, we put a call out to the community for an audio testimonial regarding their time with CG Cookie. Thankfully, a CG Cookie member Melissa NG responded and recorded a humbling audio recording her experience using CG Cookie that moistened the eyes of some CGC crew members. Huge thanks to Melissa and definitely check out her work! Matthew ran a final audio level check and color correction pass on the entire project. The video was then zipped up and sent over. I was excited that our good friend and Blender VFX ninja, Sean Kennedy, agreed to present the video. Thanks for watching and don’t forget to have fun in what you do! Wes Burke @wesburke
You guys are my favorite. Kind of like when I was trying to learn how to mess around with After Effects for the first time and stumbled upon video copilot. You guys are that to something that is even more close to my heart. There is something similar in all the tutorial sites I go back to time and again. You don't have to drudge through hundreds of useless and outdated videos on youtube or fine some monotone video that goes through the steps but lacks the excitement and love of what is being taught. There is so much in between the basics that are taught in classes and working in a group professionally.
CG Cookie to me has always been that walkway that takes your hand when you first start to walk and continues to keep you excited to take the next steps. It's hard with just a programming background figuring out how to become the creative genius that it takes to produce a game. I had no idea where to go from where I was and not as much time as I had 10 years ago to just mess around in Qbasic to learn the basics of programming or programming rpgs from my TI-83 in math class. Finding something that lead me here from creative cow is still the thing I look back at that gave me excitement and hope that I could get back into programming again.
I can't speak for the rest of the community, but you guys are worth far more than what I pay monthly to be a citizen. Keep up the great work. Thanks for all you do for the dreamers sitting frustrated on their computers trying to figure out which direction to go when the answers aren't really clear out there in the countless forums I've sifted through on my journey.
(It's late so I'm not going to proof read this, and sorry I kind of got long winded there)
Awesome job guys thx for all your hard work and contribution to the community!!!!
Keep it up!
Nice! Nice!Nice! Keep doing a great job!!!!!
Great job on the course materials and community support! Looking forward to taking more of the training! Wish I'd found you sooner! Rock on!
Awesome!! Cg Cookie and Blender is the best! :)
though zipped up, how did you send this VidEO file to the Show? Net, DropBOX, ???
Hey bmf2,
You know? I was thinking the exact same thing as you not too long ago. The part of having the course stuff be more organized. Then, one random day, as I was going through the courses, Jonothan Williamson had sent me an instant message asking how things were going for me. So I brought up the organization problem. He explained to me that they do have this level of organization and where to find it. So here is where you will find it.When you log into cgcookie, you will see on the left side of your screen, a list of selections under the heading "Education". Click on "Flows". That's where you want to be. "Flows" are exactly that... A learning flow. So whatever category you are putting your focus on learning, you can start at the beginning of it and progress from there. For instance... Once you've clicked on "Flows", scroll down a little and you'll find, "Introduction to Blender". Don't get too caught up in that title because if you notice at the bottom of it, it says there are 123 lessons, 5 exercises and 16 quizzes. It covers most of what you want to know as a beginner. When you click on it, you will find that it's broken down into 9 categories. I really like that they did that because it can really help when trying to find a lesson for a refresher when I'm doing my own stuff. I think you'll like this too. Here is the biggest tip I can suggest to a person... Don't bother trying to memorize it all. It's information overload. Instead just follow along as best you can and be sure to do the exercises. The only way to overcome the learning curve is by repetition. So absolutely at least try to do the exercises. Just like when you had to tear down your rifle and put it back together. They taught you to be an expert and really fast through repetition. The same goes with these 3D user interfaces. And as for Kent's tutorials on materials, textures and shading and blah blah blah... hahaha You're right... It is complex and hard to learn and there really isn't an easier way unfortunately. The key is to just keep practicing. It takes time and experimenting on your own to fully understand it all. Also another big tip I think might help is, I found that writing down the terminology he uses and looking it up helped me better understand because words like "ambient occlusion" and "specularity" just caused me to glaze over and right then and there I was lost. I had to first understand what these words meant and then it all started to click and I could understand what he was talking about and follow along and be able to look at his example and see the changes he's referring to. Kinda hard to see his changes when you don't know what you're looking for. hahaha All that aside... What Kent is trying to teach you is, to get an idea of how the user interface (UI) works and show you the things it's capable of doing through examples. He then tries to show you how he approaches his efforts and in trying to create an "effect". It just takes a lot of practice to get good at and a lot of experimenting. This is why the video's can get quite long and hard to understand. To create these "effects" can sometimes be quite difficult because you'll find yourself creating many layers to get the darn thing to look the way you want it to look. Just know this one very important thing. The way Kent creates an effect is not the right way, nor is it the wrong way. It is simply just "one way" of creating a desired effect. He's simply trying to show you his approach. You can either choose to use his examples or experiment with your own. He even encourages us to do that and if we come up with a less daunting way of creating an effect, that we please share it with him and the community. Don't be discouraged though. Once you better understand what all that technical terminology means and which "nodes" to use to manipulate things like "specularity", you're on the home stretch. You'll find yourself making your own textures all on your own. They may not look super real but you'll at least be able to better showcase your art. Trust me... We all know how hard it is to make our art look awesome in Blender. Try not to compare your efforts to anyone else either. Especially not professionals like Kent. hahaha Just be proud of your art and know that your blood sweat and tears went into that effort. We will all appreciate it for what it is. "ART" Eventually you'll get the hang of the stupid textures... Or maybe not. hahaha Don't sweat it though. I suck at it too. It really is hard even with the best of the best teachers. One other thing... If you din't already know this... Most professionals are focused on one portion of the work. They don't do it all from start to finish. In the professional world, one person does the modeling because he's really good at it and then passes it on to another person who rocks at textures and then they pass it on to someone else and so on. Maybe you've heard Kent say it already or maybe not but Kent is actually a modeler. Textures and shading and all that isn't even his strong suite. Kent is a very well rounded professional. His "Piero" tutorial showcases that fact. You really want to see how it's done from start to finish? Watch the "Piero" tutorial. I really encourage everyone to watch it. It will really help you understand the bigger picture so you develop forethought on your own stuff. You'll know when to do something and when not to do something. (For example) You'll know not to build an armature before you're ready for it because you'll know you still have some things to do before you get to the animation stuff. Anyways... Hope this info was helpful and not too long winded.
As a new student I have been loving my CG Cookie membership so far. I am learning so much in blender in a structured environment. This video only gives me more inspiration to keep learning and discovering all the great aspects of blender.
Loved your alternative idea to simply adding another demo reel! It was great to get a little more personal glimpse of the folks at CGC! Thank you for creating CGC and I wish you continued growth and many exciting new paths in the future!
Hi bmf2 - I just became a member of CGC with the intention of learning Blender, primarily due to the loss of my student versions of Maya and 3DsMax after I graduated in 2015 with a degree in Media Arts and Computer Animation. So far I've run through the modeling course and the texturing course, and I agree that these would be difficult for a beginning level member without any experience in working with 3D. My background is teaching and if I ever have the opportunity I think I would like to work on tutorials that address this type of issue. We'll see. Right now I'm just hoping to master 3D enough to create a few good shorts before I depart this particular level of existence. I'm 62, just retired, and also will be looking for supplemental income. I wish you success with your writing endeavor and a continued interest and fascination with the things you love to learn about!