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
thanks to all who make the Cookie what it is...
:D
It really is amazing how far Blender has come, and how far CGCookie has come!
Sorry you missed out this year. As an independent consultant supporting DoD technology probrams (cyber defense for the past 5 years), I know how hard it is to decide if the resources available justify the potential new business at an event. After spending significant resources with no results, I decided that my real market was word of mouth. People who knew me and my work would recommend me to new DoD programs.
That worked well for 16 years, but now I'm 70. And laws against age discrimination are totally meaningless because there are a hundred ways to circumvent those laws based on qualifications, currency, time, availability, etc.
My niche was military tactics, command and control, decision making, etc. But I retired from the Marine Corps in 1989. Although I've kept up with the evolutions in the military by working side by side with the world's elite forces for many years; more recently my contracts have been in support of theoritical technologies. For example, instead of tactics and command and control, for the past five years I've been supporting advanced technologies in cyber defense and in detecting highly sophisticated adversary APT's (advanced persistent threats which are extremely difficult to nearly impossible to detect within a network). However, developers are working on ways to detect the nearly impossible to detect and I was proud to be a part of those teams.
My company is a one horse show. In fact it is a one old war horse show whose time has come to retire--at least from what I was doing. My challenge now it to find new streams of income to suppliment my retirement. As of today, I have no idea what those opportunities might be--perhaps selling shoes at Sears. Just joking.
No, I've turned my focus to writing. I've had a wild ride in life which would be too envolved to summarize here. Just take my word that the Grim Reaper lost count of the times he tried to collect his due with me. So, I thought I'd try to write a novel that was a fictional mixture of all my experiences. Personally, I don't think it will ever be published, but some things need to be done because they need to be done.
I'm a member of CGC. I've learned much from your website. But at 70, I'm not trying to establish a 3D CG business. All of my works of art as BMF at Blend Swap are CC-0.
I've given some thought to offering some sort of nature pack, mechanics pack, materials pack to Blender Market, but I don't really have the time right now.
Love your website. The tutorials are sometimes too long and too complex, but I understand that you need to service all levels of expertise. Kent's series on materials is great, but a beginer or even an intermediate user would be completely lost.
I'm not suggesting that your tutorials be dedicated to beginners. I'm only saying that with regards to materials there is no beginner, intermediate, expert level of training. Kent jumps into the expert level and I think leaves too many aspiriing people who want to become better at texturing behind. I love Kent's tutorials. But they are way beyond the average Blender user.
I also love your coursess section of CG Cookie. But in my opinion there doesn't seem to be a logical progression of basic, to intermediate, to expert in the course.
I think you would be more successful if you created a course that started at the very basic level, progressed to the intermediate level, and then to the expert level.
But I have to believe that you already have a businesse model that is successful, and so you don't need my inputs.
Take Care. I'm 70 years old and thankful each day if I end up on the right side of the grass each morning, so I have a differnt perspective on life than most who are much younger.
Cool video. Here's to a next year attendance *clinks wine glass*
Hearing Jon Denning saying he teaches Python Coding gives me hope to see some Python teaching here on CGC. I love me some Python.
Although I haven't been in this community for very long, I've enjoyed everything about my experiences thus far. You guys are doing a phenomenal job and, without you guys, I would never have been able to even touch the sides. You have brought me to a place where I am able to start something new every day. I love this place. Keep up the good work and keep doing what you do best.... "Blending. Loved the video and love you guys. This community ROCKS!
You guys are the best - continued success!
You guys rock! Great video, and keep up the great work!!
We missed you guys! I was there with the Theory Studios crew for that birds of a feather session . Was hoping to meet some of you in person. The video was in amazing though.
Hopefully we'll cross paths another year!
Good job on the video and keep up releasing good product.
Thanks guys and gals. Just started and I'm moving right along. The tutorials are very easy to follow and I feel like the opportunities to create open up after each each video.