Blender 101 + Blender for Dummies book giveaway

February's ATO RTP meetup will feature an introductory talk on Blender, a topic we've wanted to feature for a while now. In addition, the speaker (Jason van Gumster) is the author of "Blender for Dummies", a very popular book now in its 4th edition. We'll also give away a number of free Blender for Dummies books to randomly chosen attendees (https://www.blenderbasics.com/).

What is Blender? It's a free and open source 3D computer graphics software toolset used for creating animated films, visual effects, art, 3D printed models, motion graphics, interactive 3D applications, virtual reality, and computer games.

This meetup is virtual/online only. It will be hosted as a Zoom webinar and the webinar will "open" and be accessible beginning at 11:55 am ET. Live programming begins at 12 noon ET and will wrap up by 1:00 pm ET.

A quick Zoom registration is required:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_c9dN1bt2S0uNT4eAn_rv7Q

SPONSORS:
We thank the world-class sponsors making this event possible..
Camunda - https://camunda.com/
Fidelity Investments - https://www.fidelity.com/
AlmaLinux - https://almalinux.org/

Finally... we will be recording the session and making it available on our YouTube channel here https://www.youtube.com/c/AllThingsOpen/featured

THE DETAILS:

What: ATO RTP February meetup

When: Tuesday afternoon, February 15

Time: 12 noon ET

COST: 100% FREE

ZOOM REGISTRATION (required):
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_c9dN1bt2S0uNT4eAn_rv7Q

GIVEAWAYS: Books, ATO t-shirts and stickers, and sponsor swag. We'll give away a number of Blender for Dummies (4th edition) books - https://www.blenderbasics.com/

Talk Title: Blender 101: An introduction

Talk Abstract: Coming soon

Speaker: Jason van Gumster
https://monsterjavaguns.com/

Bio:
I do a lot of things. Mostly I make stuff up. I write, animate, and occasionally teach. I have heavy entrepreneurial tendencies that run nearly as deep as my creative ones… so I have a constant fascination with producing creative content with as much control and independence as possible. Naturally, I’m a big proponent of open source software; very nearly everything that I produce is made using Free and open source tools.

Using those open source tools, I ran my own small, independent animation studio for 8 years. And in the course of that, I had the privilege of managing mid-sized international production teams on ridiculously tight deadlines (4-7 minutes of CG animation in 2 days)… and that’s the stuff we did for fun. I’ve transferred some of that experience in writing to two separate books, Blender For Dummies (now in its 4th edition!) and GIMP Bible. The rest of that experience I continue blurt out a bit at a time during my weekly[-ish] podcast, the Open Source Creative Podcast.

For 9 years, I’ve had the privilege of applying my understanding of these tools in one of the most unique combinations of art and engineering that I’ve ever been involved with: protecting currency from being counterfeited. That’s right, I designed and animated kinetic effects on paper money to prevent people from making copies of it. Or as I like to put it, I helped fight bad guys with art.

Currently, I’m traveling the country with my family, helping studios and toolmakers integrate Blender into their production pipelines while also working on my own creative projects. I spend the majority of my time drinking coffee and trying to be awesome. The former I’ve pretty much gotten down to a science. The latter… well, every now and again I succeed at that one and make it look like it wasn’t an accident.

Questions can be forwarded to the ATO team at info@allthingsopen.org