I was raised in Tahlequah, Oklahoma (USA), where, in high school, I first began my journey into the 3D realm. I wanted to try my hand at making movies, but had problems getting my hands on a good camera or actors. So I thought I'd try out this little software we had there in the Multimedia Class called "Asymetrix 3DFX", and make a movie with my computer. The intended use of Asymetrix was for things like spinning logos and basic "3d clipart" (sort of a Powerpoint for 3D). I was able to manipulate some of the features and create animations that, while mediocre (at best), I was able to use it to tell a story. I played with Asymetrix up until my roommate in Air Force Tech school introduced me to 3D Studio Max. I played with that for a few years, until it was time to upgrade, and I was blown away at how expensive it was. So I trudged my way through trial versions, until I decided to get a full-blown copy of something that was affordable and offered the same basic tools. That's when I discovered Blender.

Blender quickly became my best friend, as it offered nearly everything I knew and loved from 3D Studio Max, but was even better, because it was free. The further I went with Blender, the more I grew to love it; besides being a great program, the Blender Community was so helpful and friendly, I immediately felt at home.

After the moderate learning curve, I found that Blender's interface was easy to use, and the keyboard shortcuts were so handy, I quickly "taught" my fingers what they needed to know. I followed tutorial after tutorial, learning as much as I could; and if I couldn't find a tutorial for something, I played with it until I figured it out. The further I went, the more I learned, and I was able to make some pretty decent models and animations, which I uploaded to Youtube and Vimeo.

While these videos were purely for entertainment's sake, I had a number of viewers ask me about certain techniques, how I did such-and-such, and where did I learn this-or-that, and if I had any suggestions for a problem they had ran into. So, after having had two years learning this great software, I decided to make a few video tutorials for things here and there, until finally, I figured it would be a nice thing to have a tutorial series that covered basically everything one would need to know in order to create a full-fledged walking, talking, decent-looking character. So I started the "Johnny Blender" tutorial series on Youtube (as well as a DVD with higher-resolution videos and all source files), and thankfully, people found it to a good source of knowledge. It was successful enough to inspire me to do more for the Blender community, so that's when I decided to apply to become certified Trainer.

I will be offering miscellaneous tutorials through the BlenderCookie website with content ranging from beginner to intermediate, to moderately advanced; going over things like rigging, modeling, texturing, and animating. I also plan to continue creating tutorials for my Youtube subscribers, with the possibility of a second tutorial series covering a more detailed and advanced character model.