We have more access than ever to quality content, and while too much choice is a nice problem to have, filtering out the noise can be overwhelming!
CG Cookie’s CORE Fundamentals Series has helped countless Blender artists advance their skills in 2024.
Presented by an accomplished team of skilled instructors, this collection of courses is curated to set you up for long-term success with Blender, no matter your goals.
Why the CORE Series Matters for Learning Blender in 2025
Blender is a powerhouse of creativity, supported by a vibrant global community of artists, developers, and educators. The result? An overwhelming amount of free resources on platforms like YouTube, forums, and social media.
So, why should you choose CORE as your go-to resource?
What sets it apart, and why should you invest your time, money, and effort into this structured learning experience?
Blender's Infamous Learning Curve
Learning Blender on your own might seem straightforward:
Download the software → watch a few YouTube videos → make a donut → profit.
But understanding Blender is more complex than that. The learning process requires troubleshooting both technical issues and creative challenges simultaneously.
At some point, you'll hit a roadblock: following all the steps, but your result looks far from what you imagined.
You know the feeling, that “Nailed It!” meme-level of frustration.
What Makes the CORE series Special
CORE was developed, recorded and release in 2024. All the content used Blender 4.2 LTS - this Long Term Support release will me maintained until mid 2026. Granted, this may not be the latest version available, but for the best experience we recommend you follow along using this version.
If you want to read more on why you should opt to work in a Long Term Release version, you can read my thoughts here: Top Reasons to Stick with Blender 4.2 LTS
CORE touches on all of the important areas of 3D animation and production. You can take any or all of the courses should you wish - perfect if you're seeking to become a specialist in one key area, or an all-rounder!
It’s not just about dabbling in Blender; it’s an investment in yourself.
Each course is presented by an instructor who has a good deal of experience in the area of focus, including our very own Jonathan Lampel, Kent Trammell and Wayne Dixon.
If you're a CG Cookie member, all these courses are available to you, but you can also purchase them from Blendermarket as standalone products - yours to keep and follow along with at your own pace.
So let's take a look at what you can expect from each of these courses:
1. Mesh Modelling with Jonathan Lampel
Learn the fundamentals of hard-surface and subdivision modeling with Jonathan Lampel. This course covers:
- Advanced selection tools, mesh operators, and clean topology.
- Techniques for creating both crisp, hard edges and smooth bevels.
By the end, you’ll confidently model basic objects and tackle more complex ones.
2. Digital Sculpting with Kent Trammell
Discover the joy of digital clay sculpting with Kent Trammell.
Kent's approach to teaching is to be as software agnostic as possible. In fact, this is a much-requested update to a course he created using Blender 2.81 🤯
- Learn how to use, modify, and create custom brushes.
- Explore sculpting modes like multires, voxel, and dynamic topology.
Kent’s approach simplifies sculpting, making it intuitive even for beginners.
By the end of this course, you'll be familiar with using, modifying and creating your own brushes, and have an understanding of how sculpting modes such as multires, voxel and dynamic topology can work interchangeably.
3. Lighting in Blender with Jesse Kaizen
Lighting is essential to making a good model look GREAT. So much goes into understanding how light works in 3D. Jesse will guide you through the basics of lighting and how Blender handles lights in both EEVEE and Cycles.
From the first lesson, Jess clearly explains lighting in practical ways without burying you in technicalities - unless absolutely necessary. He outlines the key differences between the two render engines in terms of light objects and how you can light a scene in Blender.
You might not have thought of lighting as something to convey story before, and this is where this course excels. Sure - you could learn about using color, setting up a basic three point lighting scene, learn how to use high and low key lighting, but Jesse always guides you back to why.
- Understand the key differences between Blender’s EEVEE and Cycles engines.
- Learn storytelling through lighting, from color theory to three-point setups.
By the end of this course, you will have gained a comprehensive understanding of working in both rendering engines, and feel confident when adding lights to your scenes.
4. Materials & Shading with Ewa Wierbik-Ziabka
Understanding how to create and manipulate materials and shaders allows you to achieve the desired look and feel for your projects, making your renders more convincing and visually appealing.
Ewa keeps things short and sweet, so you won't get confused by a whole lot of complicated technical words. In just a few quick lessons, you'll gain an understanding of what the difference is between a shader and a material; how and when to use a variety of shaders to build a material, and how to manage them inside of your file.
Like Jesse's lighting course, understanding how materials work differently depending on the render engine is key. Ewa not only explains when to use certain shaders in a particular render engine, and the major differences between the two main ones - Cycles and Eevee. You'll also get a comprehensive rundown of Eevee NEXT and the features you'll be excited to use.
- Understand the difference between shaders and materials.
- Learn how to optimize materials for Cycles, EEVEE, and EEVEE NEXT.
By the end of this course, you'll have a clear understanding of how to create a vairety of shaders and materials, as well as what to consider for rendering.
There's in-depth lessons to explain how caustics and volumes work, and how to get the most out of your glass materials at render time.
5. Texturing with Ewa Wierbik-Ziabka
The process of texturing involves applying images or procedural textures to 3D models to add detailed surface qualities like color and patterns. Texturing enhances the visual appeal of models by simulating intricate details and materials without adding extra geometry.
If you've never looked at texturing, Ewa will explain all the principles you need to master - texture and normal mapping, subdivision and displacement, and what types of files to consider when creating textures.
This course breaks down texturing beyond the basics and gives you a clear overview of topics like texture mapping, Physics based Rendering, Procedural textures, and texture painting.
But Ewa goes further to explain a solid texturing workflow. You get to follow along and texture a supplied model so you not only understand how all the previous lessons can be applied, but you end up with a really cool result!
- Learn texturing workflows, including PBR materials and texture mapping.
- Follow along as you texture a model from start to finish.
And what course is complete without a challenge you can undertake to really show off your new skills? By the end, you'll feel confident to apply your texturing skills to your next project!
6. Animation with Phil Osterbauer
Animation can be challenging, especially when tackling advanced topics like character animation or motion graphics.
Phil Osterbauer aims to set a foundation to learn from and get you up and running as quickly and efficiently as possible, helping you overcome the technical hurdles that Blender might present.
Understanding keyframes in terms of what framerate you might be using is a novel approach when talking about timing, and it provides a fantastic foundation for the rest of the course, because you'll be always be conscious of how to break down motion over time.
The basics of motion also take a technical approach to remind you that concepts such scaling in world vs local space, and getting comfortable with hotkeys are fundamental to your workflow.
Phil will then take you through the basics of object and armature animation, and along the way you will learn about manipulating motion curves in graph editor, mastering the power to make a good animation outstanding.
This is truly a fundamental view of animating in Blender because you get to see how all the parts work together in sophisticated hierarchies which you have access to.
- Understand keyframes, framerates, and motion curves in Blender.
- Learn object and armature animation fundamentals.
By the end, you will feel confident moving forward into the more advanced topics of animation because you understand the software intimately. You work will focus more on refining your animation rather than struggling with Blender.
7. Learn Rigging with Wayne Dixon
Rigging can get very complex, but fortunately you have Wayne Dixon as your guide. This course literally starts at the beginning, explaining the building blocks of a rig in detail.
Wayne explains what a bone is, how it functions and what it does, before moving on to teaching you how to weight paint meshes, and how this is directly connected to the rigs you build.
- Learn what bones are and how to weight paint meshes.
- Build your own rig and test it with practical exercises.
Finally, you will create your own rig, putting that knowledge to the test. It is a solid example of how you can best learn by doing - a motto Wayne reinforces in all of his content.
8. Blender Physics with Kenny Phases
Kenny's style embodies what we mean by "fundamentals" - succinct, key, and clear.
Physics is complex, because you're tying to simulate real world messiness through math, and Blender's simulation tools have gotten really good, really fast.
There a number of topics to cover, and in this course, you'll gain mastery of all of them: Rigid and soft bodies; cloth; fluid smoke and fire; particles and force fields.
Kenny will even show you how to bend physics by using dynamic painting techniques, and what key areas you should focus on when troubleshooting.
- Topics include rigid bodies, cloth, fluid, smoke, and fire simulations.
- Learn troubleshooting techniques for complex simulations
By the end, you'll gain a new appreciation of simulation and feel confident to bring these sophisticated effects into your projects.
9. Learn Compositing with Sean Kennedy
Sean Kennedy brings literal decades of experience to this course and gives you an understanding and appreciation of building an image through compositing.
It's not just about tweaking a few colors or making things a bit glowy, but reaching into properties buried deep within your scenes and using that information to control, manipulate, and master your final renders in ways you didn't even know you could.
Sean gives you a good insight into how best to structure your scenes from the start so that you can take them apart and reassemble them, and effects can be added into your compositing node tree precisely where they are wanted.
- Learn how to build and manage node trees for color grading and effects.
- Add polish and realism to your scenes with post-processing techniques.
If you've never really looked at the compositor before, Sean will make it look easy and give you the confidence to wrangle those node trees like a true master.
Why the CORE Series Stood Out in 2024
For several years, CG Cookie has put out quality content with a focus on the student. There has been much trial and error (and this is a never-ending battle we all face) but when things stand out and resonate, we pay attention.
CORE represents a coming-together of several factors based on what we've learned as educators, as enthusiasts, as Blender users.
Past endeavors such as the Collab course showed genuine enthusiasm for learning by everyone involved. It also gave us key insights into what students wanted to learn and more importantly how.
We also noticed that much older courses were still very popular, and many of the comments about these were variations of "when will you update this for current versions of Blender?"
2024 was a year where we began to invite collaborators and educators from outside. Some topics were best handled by people who knew the subject intimately.
All this to say, CORE was the perfect alignment of several factors which contributed to creating a well rounded and solid series of courses. Upon its release - both here on CG Cookie for members, and on Blendermarket as a stand-alone purchase - it saw a massive influx of interest. The reviews have not stopped pouring in, and we're humbled and happy to have shared such a quality learning tool with the wider Blender community.
How the CORE Series Prepares You for Success in 2025
Candid disclosure: I was asked to search the reviews for CORE and find out what students were saying about the courses presented in this series. I did not have to go far to find examples where the reviewer had learned something new and had connected with the instructor's teach style.
And just look at some of the images students upload to our galleries!
Why the CORE Series Is Perfect for Schools and Educators
Our Teaching Guide written by our very own Wes Burke is an excellent outline for bringing Blender into the classroom. I'll be referring to the principles as laid out here to explain why CORE is a terrific learning resource that can be used in a class - whether in person or online.
Before you present CORE to your class, we recommend you use the same version of Blender as presented in any course. For CORE, we chose Blender 4.2 LTS. You can download the latest bug-fix release from here (currently 4.2.6) and be sure that your students will be provided with a consistent and hassle-free experience.
Some key reasons why CORE is a good fit:
- Our CORE Series offers a structured curriculum suitable for classrooms because each course has a clear topic and goal.
- As an educator, you can review the course material and even with a basic understanding of Blender, you'll feel confident presenting these lessons to your students.
- If your school or college already has a digital arts program, and you wish to bring Blender onboard as a tool for students to learn, CORE is the ideal bundle of courses to supply, because it covers the tools most students already learn for creating 3D content.
How to Get Started with the CORE Series for 2025 Success
So have I piqued your interest? Are there a few standout courses there? Or might you be interested in doing all NINE? However you want to get started, we have options!
The best way to get started - and I may be biased, but hear me out - is to sign up for a CG Cookie Membership. This gives you access to EVERYTHING - and not just the CORE courses. You can complete the exercises, submit them for review, and get feedback from the instructors.
Another way is to purchase any of the courses as stand alone products - or in the complete bundle - from Blendermarket. They are yours to keep forever, and include all the relevant files and lessons. While you can still sign up to CG Cookie on a free membership to access the community boards where you can ask questions, discuss topics or get help from the wider community, you will be missing out on the direct interaction with the instructors of the course.
However you choose to get started with CORE,
Conclusion:
- CORE is a comprehensive and well-crafted collection of courses which covers all the major areas of Blender. It is designed to get your skills to a level where you can feel confident to apply them to your own projects, or projects for up-coming work.
- It has been road-tested by several satisfied students and customers, so you can be assured that independent parties are vouching for its quality and integrity. 2025 would be a great year to get on board with CORE.
- The most value-for-money way to ensure your best experience would be to become a CG Cookie member, because you get access to all the courses as well as support from the instructors when submitting exercises.
So, if you've gotten this far through the article, why not refresh yourself with a visual reminder of what CORE is all about?
