You get what you pay for and more

Back in the day of XSI I used to fork out much much more than I could afford just to learn the software. Beginners guide, Organic Modeling, Z-Brush Integration, etc. The DVD collection was emmense, and as expensive as the software itself. Don't get me wrong, I got what I paid for. The tutorials were concise, clear to the point and above all useful (if not overly long for my liking). I don't look back on it with much regret save for what I could have saved in the long run had there been at least some useful free tutorial with the same level of quality and commitment.

Then I turned to Blender. The Tutorials I started with were blocky to say the least, useful to get me started but still slowed me down none the less, having to wade the internet and find myself havingto pay much more for a piece of software that was for all intense and purposes, free. Did this pose a moral problem with me? Well no, people have to make their bread and butter for the time they put into work (believe me I wish I was doing that right now). No it was more a fiscal one, money and funds are and have been tight for a long time. So time and money was not on this project's side. War of the Worlds seemed like a pipers dream, nothing more. As inspirational as the work coming out from the Blender community was, my efforts were just a spec in the ocean with little hope of improving anytime fast.

Then, amazingly, a website comes out of the blue, almost iin answers to my prayers. CG Cookie. With free quality tutorials of a level par with the XSI training kits I was using only two years earlier. Not only that, but they listened to what their audience wanted and they delivered. And ironically as much as they covered other packages as Maya, 3D Studio Max and Z-Brush, their Software of choice seemed to focus largely on Blender. The little fish in an already dominated market, the the point that it eventually got a cookie site all it;s own in the guise of Blender Cookie.

suddenly my knowledge of Blender leaped to levels I didnt imagine. Thanks to their head tutorial I was modeling my first Martian in less than a week. As Blender Cookie progressed so to did War of the Worlds, so in many ways I owe the people at Blender Cookie a hell of a lot. Now they include private classes for individuals, and a cizitens program for exclusive content and Tutorials, and at $10 a month, compared to other classes out there, the Citizen program is well worth paying for, especially as a portion of that goes to Blender Foundation. So there you have it, Blender Cookie gets another mention. Even if you don't pay for the citizen's program the quaility of the tutorials are no less useful.

In many ways Blender Cookie is the Grandaddy of this project, and so it is with pride and much thanks I dedicate this post entirely to them. Keep up the great work, and continue to inspire