How to Get the Most Out of CG Cookie: Tools and Habits That Help You Learn Blender Faster

I’ve found over the years that most Blender artists begin similarly, collecting project-based tutorials, bingeing a few YouTube videos, and looking for the next video that will unlock the missing skill.

It’s not the wrong way, more so if you’re serious about building a career, income, or even just taking Blender to the next hobby level. Progress doesn’t come from passively watching more videos. We’ve witnessed that it comes from engagement.

We like to think CG Cookie is built for that next step; it’s more than a library of tasty Blender tutorials, it’s a coaching ecosystem in some ways, a community, and a space to grow alongside artists who actually care about your progress.

Key Takeaways

• Download project files and follow along with instructors at your own pace
• Adjust video playback speed, search captions, or download videos for offline learning
• Submit exercises for human feedback from CG Cookie’s instructors and assistants (Wayne’s feedback is pure gold)
• Take notes directly on lessons and revisit them anytime
• Join discussions and connect with other Blender artists, it’s part of the process

Learn Actively, Not Just Passively

When you first join CG Cookie, it’s easy to treat it like a streaming platform. Hit play, sit back, and watch a few Blender tricks. 🍿

And sure, if that’s what you want, we’ve got thousands of videos for you. But the real growth starts when you lean in, when you ask questions, take notes, and practice what you’ve just learned, over and over again.

“Engagement beats exposure.”

Education research backs this up. A Harvard study found that students who actively participated in class actually learned more than those who only listened to lectures, even if the lecture students felt like they were learning more.

Similarly, PositivePsychology.com highlights that emotional, behavioral, and cognitive engagement, things like asking questions, collaborating, and reflecting, are strongly linked to better performance and retention.

So yes, hit play. But also:

• Leave a question when something doesn’t click underneath the video lesson, or ask in the community
• Take notes directly in your lesson window, or in real life. Your future self will thank you.
• Jump into the CGC Blender Discord to swap ideas and get quick help from other artists

The more you engage, the faster you grow. Watching teaches you what to do. Engaging teaches you how to think like a 3D artist.

Learn by Doing: Exercises and Feedback

One of CG Cookie’s most powerful (and under-talked-about) features is the lesson exercise feature.

To make sure you've really got it, a lot of our courses include hands-on assignments. When you send in your work, it gets checked out by our instructors or instructor assistants, experienced Blender artists who will give you personalized feedback.

You’ll get a pass/fail grade, but more importantly, personalized notes on what worked and what could be improved. And yes, you can retake exercises as many times as you want. That loop: practice, feedback, refine, is where skills really stick.

If you haven’t read it yet, check out Elevating Your Blender Skills: The Impact of CG Cookie’s Instructor Assistants to see how this feedback cycle changes the way artists learn.

Work Smarter With Course Tools

Every CG Cookie lesson includes extras that make practice smoother and faster:

• Downloadable .blend files so you can deconstruct instructor setups or follow along stroke by stroke
• Playback controls to slow down complex sections or rewind 30 seconds easily
• Searchable captions that help you jump straight to the moment you need
• Offline downloads for travel days or weak Wi-Fi zones (how to download CG Cookie videos)

These details might sound small, but they remove friction, and when you’re learning something as layered as Blender, small wins compound quickly.

Connection Is Part of the Curriculum

Blender can be a lonely craft if you’re learning in isolation. That’s why connection is baked into everything CG Cookie does.

Our community exists across the site and on our Blender Discord, but also in the quiet moments, when an instructor assistant leaves an encouraging note or another student answers your question before staff does.

It’s the same theme explored in CG Cookie Is More Than Learning, It’s Connection: growth happens together.

Wrap-Up

You joined CG Cookie to get better at Blender, but the secret to actually getting there is participation. It’s proven to help you. Download the files. Take the notes. Submit the exercises. Ask the questions and say hello.

The tools are here, and so are the people who’ll help you use them well. Autotroph, the humans behind CG Cookie, Superhive, and Orange Turbine, are a small bootstrapped team helping foster and elevate the Blender community.

Thanks for reading, and if this is old news for you, I’m happy to hear it. For those reading for the first time, welcome and thanks for taking the time to do so!

— Wes