The year is 2007. I'm a student just about to enter my high school years. My dad (an art teacher) is telling me about a new course he's teaching. It's called 3D animation. He brings home a paperback book. It has a wide-eyed blue-faced character on the cover. The book was "The Essential Blender: Guide to 3D Creation with the Open Source Suite Blender" by Roland Hess.

The rendering on the cover was, for me, reminiscent of characters from Pixar's "Incredibles." These Pixar films were a huge part of my childhood. Toy Story came out when I was just 2 years old. Every subsequent Pixar film was a huge event in my life. I remember going to see "Finding Nemo" in theatres as a 10-year-old. I remember the huge cardboard cutouts of the characters in the theatre lobby. It's perhaps one of the first films I ever remember seeing in a theatre.

Here, for the first time, I had some tangible connection between those films and my actual life. For the first time, a bridge appeared to connect reality with a faraway, almost mystical realm of 3D creation. For the first time ever, this was something I might actually have access to, to start creating.

From there, my life changed. I couldn't wait to attend high school to get started, so my dad installed Blender on my home machine. I became instantly obsessed. I pored over the physical books he brought home, and eventually discovered online forums and tutorials. I posted questions in the Blender Artists forums. I was surprised to be getting answers from some of the teachers whose names I had seen on book covers and on video courses. This small community was so free with information! Using Blender became second nature to me. I honed in muscle memory for all of the keyboard shortcuts, and before I knew it, I landed my first freelance gig at 16.

A local dentist saw some of my renderings I'd been posting on Facebook (it's all we had back then). He called me in to meet with him at his office. He explained all of the animations he dreamed of having in his waiting room. A loop that showed patients various dental procedures, all without needing to show the bloody reality in full detail. We agreed on a small hourly rate and I got right to work. Not only did I love working in 3D, but I realized I could actually make money doing it.

It's been another 16 years since I was 16. Today I'm married with 3 kids and a dog. Incredibly, I still make my living using the same software I started with. Blender. In fact, it's how I've supported my life and my family for all of these years. It was free software that was so accessible, I could get started on my ancient family computer. With a community so eager to share, my investment in learning was the only barrier to entry I ever faced.

Today, all these years later, I find myself in an interesting situation. This year I parted ways working as producer for Blender Guru (one of the channels I watched in those early years). At first it felt like a dream job, but for personal reasons I found that not to be the case. I've once again faced one of the more difficult questions in my career. Is this sustainable? Of course, with a lifelong obsession like mine, that question is almost secondary. I love 3D art too much to let it go, so it's something I'll do whether it's my main source of income or not. But I'm not that carefree 14-year-old kid at my parents' computer anymore. I have responsibilities! Debts to pay. Little people to feed and keep alive! Ultimately I have limited time in the day.

So I've been using that time building a platform. A platform that is as close to my early days of Blender discovery as I could make it. It's a place to get free, open information. To access free, quality 3D models and tools. It's my little attempt to build for others what was built for me. A starting point that has launched a career of creativity and opportunity.

I've thought a lot about how to balance my need to tear down barriers of entry, and earn my own income. Every time I've charged for models or courses I've eventually folded and made them free again. And that's exactly what I've done this time as well. All of my models and trainings on this site are free. And they're my best effort! I've taken what I've learned over decades of using Blender professionally, and paired it with years of experience teaching and producing for some of the most-watched 3D educational channels (Blender Guru, CG Cookie, etc.). The result is Blender tutorials that I hope can inspire a few people to start creating and telling their own stories. And 3D assets and extensions to help them along the way. Whether they create games, films, or something else.

I still haven't quite figured out the income part. But I'm going back to my roots. Focusing on my passion, and trusting I'll figure out the income part as I go.

What I do charge for on my site is optional. I charge for the convenience of having assets directly in Blender's asset browser. But I don't charge to download the models directly from the site. I charge to take quizzes after each chapter in my free training series, but I don't charge for access to the trainings themselves.

I hope this is a good model, but only time will tell!

To all the people who continue to create and share openly, thank you! We live in some pretty messed up times as artists, and I don't think that's unfair to say. Now, more than ever, artists are defenseless against exploitative practices and outright theft. Our works are stolen and used to train ai generative models at rates no human observer could ever keep up with. We face the constant marketing drum beat of "adapt or die."

As a YouTube educator, I'm surprised at how much money is being invested to change the narrative in favor of ai. My inbox gets so flooded with generic "hey I love your content. Want to promote this ai tool?" emails that I now just have a simple email template that reads "Sorry, I don't promote ai tools. - Riley"

Do I think there's a future in 3D art? Yes. Because it's been evident again and again in my career that creativity and expression are more than something I do for money. That has been a huge enabling factor, but in the end it's something I do even when the money stops coming in. I take part not only for self expression, but almost therapeutic reasons. I love the little puzzles of retopology or UV unwrapping. I love the engaging work of writing and concepting, alongside the somewhat relaxing work of letting muscle memory take over while I put on a good film on the second monitor. I love how fast computing is getting, but I also enjoy the fact I have to press "Render" now and then, which forces me to get up and leave the computer for a while. To schedule and plan ahead. I, and many others, are still committed to teaching a craft that we love. In hopes that others will pick it up and build on it in ways we haven't even considered yet. The question is, why are you interested in 3D? Why are you interested in art in general? The current state of the craft is a forge that forces people to ask themselves this more than ever. What we're seeing is a clear divide. The "grift," as they say, is very real. People come into this space to prey on others. We've seen it with NFTs; we see it again with ai. It's been a guide in my own career to determine who I'm willing to work with, and who I'd rather just be distant friends with.

Somewhere out there is a kid whose dad, friend, mom, uncle just brought home a little artifact that connects their real world with the world of creativity and expression. For me it was a book. I can't control much about the state of this industry, but I can control what's on the other side of the bridge when they cross it. And I can help as many across as I can. Come on over.