Interview with Andrew Price

Hello, Habrovchane!

This week I received a response from Andrew Price from Australia. He found a moment of free time for an interview, to tell a little about himself and give a couple of tips to those who are exploring the vastness of digital graphics. This person is well known in Blender3d fans circles.

He creates truly great lessons that help uncover the new features of this great product.

The interview is not a super-duper unique, because Andrew is very busy and agreed to answer a small number of questions, and I'm just learning :)
')
Me: Hi Andrew! Tell me something about yourself. Why did you start doing computer graphics? Why blender3d?


Lincoln: Hi, Sergey! I first discovered Blender3d at the age of 15. I was a crazy gamer at that time, and therefore the idea that I could create my scenes based on game plots, using my imagination. From that time began my acquaintance with palener and computer graphics, namely Blender3d.

Me: How much time do you devote to computer graphics? Is this your main activity or more of a hobby?

Andrew: For the first 5 years or so, it was just a hobby, but since I focused on my dream of becoming a digital artist, I stepped up a notch. I worked in Blender3d every day after work until I had to go to bed. This went on for a year, until I released the book Wow-factor and started earning enough to turn my hobby into a job. I now work with Blender almost every day. For me this is a full time job and I am creating new tutorials and products.

Me: Do you remember your first job at Blender? What are some special memories?

Andrew: It may seem a bit unusual, but I never worked as a freelancer ... in any case, it didn't work out very well. My first and only paid order was about 1 year ago - it was a TV commercial for Red Cartel in Sydney.

The task was just emulation of smoke. The deadline was Friday, and I sent the DVD by mail only on Wednesday. It was a big mistake to send the disc by mail and hope that it will reach Friday at the appointed time. I managed to save the situation by uploading the video to FTP, but I had to cut the time of the video significantly. Needless to say, I never took up such orders again. These are special memories ;-)

Me: Did you take part in big projects like the guru of Blender3d?


Andrew: Not really. From time to time I get requests for participation in large projects: videos, short films and games, but I refuse to participate. I'm too busy and also involved in my own tiny world to work in other projects: P

Moreover, I now have slightly different goals: to become the number one supplier of training content for Blender. Participation in other projects will simply force away from this goal.

Me: Do you think Blender3d can compete with other 3D programs? Can he replace paid software?

Lincoln: Not yet. Blender is very powerful, but it lacks support. For big players in the digital industry, it is very important that when a problem arises, they can call the developers to talk about their problem and get absolute support from the developers.

Blender cannot provide this, so it cannot now be a competitive tool in the mainstream market. However, small studios are actively beginning to use blender for everyday work, so it remains to wait and hope for an increase in its share in the digital graphics market :)

Me: What do you advise our readers for a better education in the field of digital graphics?

Andrew: Practice, practice, practice. You can read all the books, view all the video tutorials that you can find on the web, but until you open the blender and start to really do something and try to create your own, you won’t learn these secrets and understand how it works. .
An important feature in gaining experience is perseverance.

Let me tell you a little secret - all the masters of computer graphics (including me) face problems every day. We work on our projects and there are always problems that are hard to predict. We have to suspend the process for analyzing, understanding and choosing a new approach to solving the problem. In such moments, users often give up and give up, calling in every possible way a blender, to at least somehow justify their position.

But what separates the experts in their fields is to continue to solve the problems despite the fact that, step by step, you solve the tasks and arrive at the final visualization.