One of the reasons Blender has become so successful is because of its community - the passionate artists who get hyped about every release, talk about how to use and improve it, and encourage others to try it. That was mostly happening on forums and individual websites when I started, but in recent years the Blender community on YouTube has exploded in popularity and now helps to drive a lot of interest in the open-source 3D software.
I sat down with the Blender YouTubers Nathan Duck (Ducky 3D), Märten Rääli (Bad Normals), and Riley Brown (Riley Brown 3D) at our recent event, BCON LA, to hear their perspective on how the community has changed over the years, how they transitioned to doing YouTube full time (certainly not AdSense!), and what advice they have for creators who are just starting out. Listen to the full conversation below or read on for a brief summary.
Making a Living from YouTube
It took Nathan 3 years to generate a full-time income from YouTube, which is pretty quick, all things considered. YouTube advertisements don’t generate much unless a video goes truly viral, so he offered his subscribers bonus content on Patreon in order to garner support. Nathan experimented with sponsorships as well and had mixed experiences. Some sponsors were great to work with (he specifically called out NVIDIA as one of the good ones), but others would pay late, try not to pay at all, or be extremely picky about exactly how he made his video.
Both Nathan and Märten recommend creating a product and being your own sponsor, so that you can be paid exactly what you’re worth, not give the profit from your viewer’s attention to another company, and also be more authentic and relevant to your audience.
Education, Entertainment, or Both?
Back when CG Cookie first started making YouTube videos, what worked well were fairly unedited, not exactly flashy, explanations of how to use Blender. Below is an example of our most popular video for almost 10 years.
Nowadays? Not a lot of people would click on that. Audiences expect more entertainment, which could be due to the total audience growing beyond hardcore users or just higher standards due to the much higher competition and exploding numbers of creators both in the Blender space and out.
Nathan, Märten, Riley, and I all take slightly different approaches to the education / entertainment balance. Nathan focuses on short but still compelling complete projects, Märten prioritizes impressive visual results and shows how to solve the most complex part of creating them, Riley leans on providing encouragement and inspiration for his viewers, and my main goal is to be as comprehensive as possible, with visuals often taking a back seat. Each style has its own audience and tradeoffs, and one is not necessarily better than another.
The one thing all of them agree on when it comes to style though, is to be consistent. Once an audience expects something specific from a creator, it can be very difficult to switch to another style or type of content without losing the attention of existing subscribers.
Advice for Newcomers
Another thing that the YouTubers all recommend for beginning creators is to have a healthy relationship with analytics. They all agree that it’s important to pay attention to the numbers to see if people are interested in the topic or style of a video, but that it’s also important to take the numbers with a grain of salt as what the algorithm boosts can be a bit random sometimes.
Märten suggested that creators ask for feedback on their artwork and videos from people who are not Blender users or maybe even not 3D artists at all. A painter might be able to give you much more helpful feedback on a render than a 3D modeler who might ignore some of the common telltale signs that something is 3D because they’re so used to seeing them, or might give a technical response when what could be most helpful is a compositional or artistic one.
Riley also advocates for getting feedback, but more specifically for having mentors or people that you can go to for advice, as that has been helpful for him recently and is something that most creators seem to be missing.
Overall, if you’re thinking of doing YouTube for fun, go for it! It’s never been more accessible and the community is incredibly positive and encouraging. It can be very tough to make a living from it, so don’t expect to get rich from the endeavor, but it can definitely be a great way to promote your skills, help out others, and drive the community forward.
You can follow Ducky on:
- Twitter: x.com/Ducky3d
- YouTube: youtube.com/@TheDucky3D
Bad Normals on:
- Twitter: x.com/badnormals
- YouTube: youtube.com/@BadNormals
And Riley Brown on:
- Twitter: x.com/rileyb3d
- YouTube: youtube.com/@rileyb3d
