I've started working on a new Blender course and I feel like it's going to be something a little different. I usually want my courses to be pretty comprehensive and detailed. And because of this they can become fairly big, sometimes with more than 100 videos. I've seen some other video game character courses that are more than 50 hours long. And I feel like there are people who may want to give creating a game character a shot without such a huge commitment up front. 

​So what I'm doing with this course is trying to introduce the basic concepts and tasks of game character creation, without all the intricate detail of creating a high-end professional game character for a AAA studio. Just the basics. 

And hopefully someone going through this course will be able to create a character, get it into a game engine, and understand the processes and work that is required for such a project. And then they can decide if they would like to learn more about the topic. 

I want it to be an introductory course that can help someone understand if this is something they would like to pursue further. It will cover the fundamentals of sculpting, retopology, edge modeling, UV mapping, texturing and baking, rigging, and setting up the character in Unreal 5. At each step I want to show just enough to get the character to the next stage in the process. We will use free and open-source software. Except for maybe exporting the textures out of Blender. I think we may need to use the SimpleBake add-on for that. At $16 I think that's pretty reasonable. But other than that, everything else will be free to use.

​So that's my goal. I'm about halfway through the course now, and will hopefully be finished with it in a few weeks. So if you're interested in a introductory overview of the game character process in Blender, then stay tuned! :)

So it looks like beginning in January 2023 I'll be teaching a class at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. I taught 3D animation and game design at The Art Institute of Wisconsin some years ago. But this time I'll be using Blender. I've never been able to do that. At the Art Institute I had to use Autodesk Maya and I never really felt all that much more experienced than the students. Maya is a great program, but it's not Blender. 

But now I get to actually teach a class called "3D Modeling and Animation" using Blender! I've had about 18 years of experience using Blender and I've created more than 20 Blender online courses. So I think I finally feel kind of qualified to teach a college level course using Blender. And I'm kind of excited. I know not everyone is as interested or passionate about 3D and Blender as I am, but hopefully I can impart some enthusiasm for the topic. 

We'll see how it goes. Wish me luck!