CG talks

This time we had an opportunity to talk with Zacharias Reinhardt - a 3d Artist, tutor, YouTuber, entrepreneur and founder of CG Boost, an educational platform for 3d artists that want to boost their Blender 3d skills. If you are a 3d artist and haven’t heard of Zach yet, you probably might have stumbled upon online competitions/challenges such as weeklycgchallenge.com or SculptJanuary - Zach is the person behind these events.

We take a dive this time into the nitty-gritty of tutorial-making art. This topic is close to both Zach’s and DJ's hearts so the conversation goes deep into the subject - neither even if you’ve ever attempted making a tutorial nor plan to do it, you surely have watched both good and bad tutorials, you should listen to this convo and get some benefits from it. We try to define what makes a great one and what can destroy (or harm) the learning experience of the viewer.

We asked Zach to recall his first tutorial and reflect on all that he has learned through the years that made him one of the most successful Blender tutors around. We also discuss the inspiration coming from other tutorial makers in the community. It turns out that both DJ and Zach are huge fans of Ian Hubert’s one-minute ‘Lazy tutorials’ which are perhaps more useful for more advanced users who gladly skim through most tutorials just looking for that one nugget tip that answers a specific 3d workflow problem. However, these might be more on the entertainment side (which is of course great) Zach likes to make sure that his tutorials are extensive and easy to understand and follow - even (or perhaps especially) for beginners. He regards his Blender Launchpad course as the best he has done so far and considers it to be a great extension and thorough introduction to Blender for everyone who may have stumbled upon Andrew Price’s ‘The Donut tutorial’ and is hungry for some more in-depth training. Zach does not consider this competition, but rather a symbiosis of all the Blender tutorial creators who cater to all possible flavors and tastes of various community members. After all, 3d artists are one big family and we never stop learning.

Zach also gives us a glimpse of some future plans he has for CG Boost which include reviving the CG Boost challenge that got on hold for a short period of time.