Elevating Your Blender Skills: The Impact of CG Cookie's Instructor Assistants

In 2008, we were among the few regularly providing Blender education to the community. Now, 15 years on, the landscape has expanded with thousands of talented Blender enthusiasts sharing their expertise with communities, schools, and studios alike.

As the options for learning Blender have expanded immensely, we're dedicated to continually evolving our offerings. We aim to curate Blender topics that satisfy your current interests and guide you toward future possibilities.

Our mission is the same: to foster and elevate the creative minds within the Blender community. 

Today, we achieve this by producing hundreds of Blender tutorials in one convenient location and offering our students support from real, experienced humans who are fanatical about Blender.

This is made possible by the humans behind CG Cookie. Let's meet a few of them. ❤️

Meet CG Cookie's Instructor Assistants (IAs). 👋

This small but mighty team of instructor assistants is here to help grade exercises, provide feedback, answer Blender questions, and guide students through challenging areas. 

Furthermore, they are vital in our content production process. They critically review each video lesson we release in close collaboration with the instructor of the course. 

Adrian Bellworthy, Lead Instructor Assistant

Location: Born and bred in the leafy London suburbs, UK

I'm a Blender Hobbyist and Indie Game Developer in the making. I'm proficient in most of what Blender has to offer, while eager to learn more about Animation and Grease Pencil. 

I love helping others achieve their dreams. My work career has been about helping others. From training new employees to writing corporate training material, providing the knowledge and tools for people to succeed is just something I do. Helping others is tremendously rewarding.

"Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up" -Thomas Edison

Omar Domenech - Instructor Assistant

Location: Santo Domingo, La Hispaniola

A Computer graphics artist enthusiast, Blender hobbyist and foodie how just likes making cool stuff. Be it playing the guitar, cooking, Blendering or all three at the same time. 

Back in 2012, the internet had limited Blender resources and finding good tutorials was tough. Discovering CG Cookie was a game changer, but Blender's complexity often left me with unanswered questions, and there was little direct access to expert guidance. I longed for someone to ask for quick insights to understand my mistakes. It felt like a survival challenge, where you either solved it or didn't make it.

Now, it's fulfilling to be that helpful person for others.

Providing the support I lacked feels rewarding, knowing the struggle of learning without help. My aim is to assist without overdoing it, ensuring learners become self-sufficient, not overly dependent.

"The enemy of art is the absence of limitations'' - Orson Welles.

Because people find it so hard to just start a project when they don't have a goal or deadline. I'm like man, you need something pushing back, when you have a client and that thing needs to be handed in on Monday first hour, believe me you're going to be amazed on what you can do.

That is part of why Collabs at CG Cookie are so amazing, they create that accountability most people lack when they are just enthusiasts. 

Martin Bergwerf (Spikey), Instructor Assistant

Location: Born in Holland and currently living in the south of Germany:

I'm a Blender enthusiast with a long-standing passion for 3D computer graphics. My journey began in earnest in 2011, when I realized after spending a fair bit on 3D software (Poser) that I wanted to create my own content rather than just playing around. That's when I stumbled upon Blender

What really drew me to Blender was the freedom to explore various aspects of 3D modeling without breaking the bank on specialized software. So far, I haven't encountered any aspect of Blender that I don't enjoy, which perhaps makes me a bit of a generalist. Though, in many areas, I still consider myself a beginner. There's a whole world of knowledge out there for me to dive into.

As for my background, it's a mix of mathematics, music, and art, which all contribute to my approach to 3D graphics.

Don't be afraid of mistakes: we learn more from making mistakes. 

In Conclusion

CG Cookie's Instructor Assistants (IAs) play a crucial role in helping creatives in the Blender community reach their goals, bridging gaps across different time zones and catering to diverse background experiences. They're instrumental in ensuring that every student's voice is heard and their questions are addressed.

Whenever you're diving into a Blender tutorial at CG Cookie, remember that assistance is just a forum post away.

We also encourage you to show appreciation for the IAs hard work and dedication. A shoutout of support for them, whether in the forums or below, goes a long way in maintaining the vibrant, supportive community we're building at CG Cookie. 🍪