Curious about Blender?

You may have heard some amazing benefits that Blender can provide 3D artists:-

• “Blender is the Swiss Knife of the industry”
• “The possibilities of Blender are limitless!”
• “It includes powerful tools for modelling, animation and visualisation”
• “It is free, open-source and yet as capable as expensive alternatives”

On the other hand you may have heard of some challenges when learning Blender!

• “The interface is tricky for those starting out with Blender. Navigation is quite “unique”
• “Blender is a moving target, it is constantly in development”
• “It is overwhelming on first look : there are a huge variety of options and plugins”
• “A steep learning curve but totally worth it!”

We’ve had many artists in our community wanting to learn Blender but have been held back by some of the hurdles above.

Learn to build “pixelscapes”

Scene Building in Blender for Beginners

We’ve put together this new Blender coaching group so that you can:

1. Feel supported and guided through a robust step by step live Blender course.
2. Feel confident in creating an environmental render from start to finish.
3. Approach the learning of Blender without feeling overwhelmed.

This is for you if you are in one of these situations:

1. You’ve tried Blender in the past but you were burned by the user interface!
2. You feel you’ve hit a ceiling with your current scene creation software.
3. You’ve always been curious to learn Blender but have felt lost with relying on pre-recorded tutorials.

This is for you if you want to…

1. Learn basic Blender modeling and texturing techniques
2. Explore the building of natural scenes
3. Gain a basic understanding of Blender’s node systems. We’ll give you a cheat system to bypass the complexity of this!
5. Learn and use some of the most useful (yet powerful) plugins for beginners
6. Gain a solid foundation of the render engines and lighting in Blender.
7. Grasp how to import props and characters into a scene.

Camper Van : Learn how to model in Blender

We’ll coach and support you even if you…

• Struggle with the interface
• Feel that Blender is just too different from what you are used to.
• Feel overwhelmed with the basic amount of plugins (50+) that come with Blender. We’ll guide you through this maze!

Without having to…

• Sift through countless resources and tutorials (a bunch of which are outdated) to gain a proper footing in Blender.

Proven Experience

AlanSmithee – Blender Coach and Trainer

Alan is a talented digital artist and coach, skilled at live training and supporting artists at every stage of their learning journeys.

AlanSmithee : Course Coach and Trainer

AlanSmithee is a visual artist based in Philadelphia, USA, with experience in filmmaking, photography, design, and art direction. Their day job involves project management, design for web and print, book covers, instructional design, and the creation of graphic assets. They are knowledgeable in the use of Blender, Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, InDesign, Premiere, After Effects, etc.), FlowScape & many other tools.

See Alan’s creative works on YouTube  and on ArtStation.

Paul Bussey – Course Host and Facilitator

I have been inspiring, promoting, educating and connecting digital artists since 2010. We’ve  published over 140 issues of our magazines 3D Art Direct, Digital Art Live and VISNews, with in-depth interviews of fantastic artists that inspire others with their work. I’ve hosted and organised over 220 live events to connect and educate digital artists, with many events having a focus on 3D figure based software such as DAZ Studio or Poser.

Paul Bussey : Group Host and Facilitator

Areas of Artistic Growth

Over 8 weeks of learning, we’ll look at these aspects of Blender in a structured framework.

Build a Stylised Landscape : “PixelScape”

• Understanding the User Interface
• Initial Setup
• Basic Asset Creation
• Using Modifiers
• Basic Terrain Generation

PixelScape part 2

• Geometry Nodes 101
• Scattering Assets
• Basic Materials & Shaders
• Simple Lighting
• Rendering an Image

How to Generate Realistic LandScapes

• Generating Terrain
• The Benefits of Add-Ons
• Using PBR (Physically Based Rendering) Materials
• Texturing the Terrain
• Using Displacement

Realistic LandScapes part 2

• Sourcing & Importing Assets
• Scattering Techniques
• Utilizing HDRIs
• Lighting an Environment

Realistic LandScapes part 3

• Examining Cycles
• Understanding Rendering Settings
• Tips to Speed Up Render Times
• Compositor Basics

Animating Environments

• Assembling the environment
• Kitbashing
• Adding animated elements
• Dynamic Paint

Animating Environments Part 2

• Eevee Lighting
• Rendering in Eevee
• Rendering and Animation

Conclusion and Review

• Assembling your Animation
• Review creative achievements of class members

Here’s How it Works

Eight weeks of Support and Training

Each week we’ll have a live webinar meeting (up to 1.5 hours) composed of training , coaching and follow up.

The meeting will be recorded, which will be searchable and include captions (standard and VIP membership only). So if you miss a meeting, or want to go over something again then you’re covered. Basic membership level will include an MP4 recording for each meeting that will not be searchable or captioned.

The topics of these training sessions will be based on the needs of the group. We will share solutions, strategies and techniques to help you get results where you need them.

This is where everyone will share wins, goals, and challenges to get support, accountability, and feedback from the group and guidance from us.

You’ll have opportunities to get a focus just on you and have us as as a  group look over your goals and challenges to help help you leap forward in your creativity.

Private online forum to interact with the group between lessons

Any time you need some input or encouragement, you can turn to the private forum to connect with other group members, which will be inside the Digital Art Live STUDIO
This extends the benefits of the coaching group beyond the live webinar lessons. (for standard and VIP membership levels only)

When will the Course be Run?

We’ll run the course from Saturday July 2nd. Each live meeting will be run on Saturdays at 19:00 BST (London) / 11:00 PDT (Los Angeles) / 14:00 EDT (New York)

VIP Add-On

If you would like additional resources, there’s a VIP add-on option that gives you the following in addition to everything above:-

• Two additional classes on more advanced Blender techniques
• Blender model asset pack by AlanSmithee

VIP Blender Additional Class 1

• How to build and light an urban environment in Blender

VIP Blender Additional Class 2

• Advance modelling techniques