Hi folks,
Today is my first work day in the new year, so it’s time to write my traditional years review on my (free) Patreon:
I wish you all a healthy, successful and creative year 2026.
The world needs more real (indie) artists and art than ever.
Ci vediamo, Helge Maus
P.S. For my upcoming Blender and Godot trainings, please look at pixeltrain Academy | Blender for Production | Godot Game Development for Indies
Here are the next dates for my Blender training courses (German and English, remote).
The German-language courses will be held in collaboration with the Visualisierungs-Akademie Schweiz GmbH:
🇩🇪 Blender Introduction Course, May 22 + May 23:
https://visualisierungs-akademie.ch/de/kurs/blender-einfuhrungskurs/21d29c48-ee8a-4549-a500-6f82f7ff7ddc
🇩🇪 Blender Rendering Course, June 12 and June 13:
https://visualisierungs-akademie.ch/de/kurs/blender-renderingkurs/98514946-325f-4818-bcdb-4f6b351a490b
🇩🇪 Blender Animation Course, July 3 and July 4:
https://visualisierungs-akademie.ch/de/kurs/blender-animationskurs/68ff897c-f766-4119-bea3-9f3422704d2f
🇩🇪 Blender Modeling Course, July 24 and July 25:
https://visualisierungs-akademie.ch/de/kurs/blender-modelingkurs/ff1b0321-e948-41c1-bca6-1c23651e75ea
The dates of my English Blender training courses (English, remote) are also available.
These courses consist of 4 sessions, each a half-day long.
🇬🇧 Blender Fundamentals course, starting May 22 + May 23:
https://www.pixeltrain.net/pixeltrains-academy/
🇬🇧 Blender Shading & Rendering course, starting June 09 + June 10:
https://www.pixeltrain.net/pixeltrains-academy/
🇬🇧 Blender Rigging & Animation course, starting July 07 + July 08:
https://www.pixeltrain.net/pixeltrains-academy/
More information and all dates can be found on my website.
Please contact me if you have any questions or specific training requests!
The first bug fix update for the current stable version of Blender has been released:
Blender 4.4.1
https://www.blender.org/download/
This version contains 108 bug fixes. A detailed list of changes and fixes can be found here:
https://developer.blender.org/docs/release_notes/4.4/corrective_releases/
At the same time, the current LTS (long-term support version) of Blender has been updated to Blender 4.2.9.
Enjoy Blender!
PS. If you are looking for a “Blender Fundamentals class (English)” / “Blender Einführungs Kurs (deutsch)” you can find my details on: https://www.pixeltrain.net/events/
The new dates for my next Blender training courses (German and English, remote) have been announced. The German-language courses will be held in collaboration with the Visualisierungs-Akademie Schweiz GmbH:
🇩🇪 Blender Introduction Course, March 27 and 28:
🇩🇪 Blender Rendering Course, June 12 and 13:
🇩🇪 Blender Animation Course, March 3 and 4 July:
🇩🇪 Blender Modeling Course, July 24th and 25th:
The dates of my English Blender training courses (English, remote) are also available.
These courses are each four half-days long.
More information and all dates can be found on my website:
🇬🇧 https://www.pixeltrain.net/pixeltrains-academy/
Please contact me if you have any questions or specific training requests!
A quick reminder for all Blender enthusiasts:
Next week I’ll be starting two training courses for BlenderFundamentals:
⭐ pixeltrain Blender Academy – Fundamentals (with Senior Blender trainer Helge Maus)
starting from January 20th, remote, in 🇬🇧 English:
👉 shorturl.at/e8NG3
⭐ Blender Grundlagen Schulung (mit Senior Blender Trainer Helge Maus)
in collaboration with the Visualisierungs-Akademie Schweiz GmbH
January 23rd + 24th, remote, in 🇩🇪 German:
👉 shorturl.at/cXWj4
There are still seats available in both courses 🙂
I’m looking forward to seeing you,
Helge
Yesterday was officially my first day at work and I would therefore like to wish you all a healthy, successful and happy year 2025. All the best for you personally and for your creative projects 🎨!
Like last year, I published my annual planning and a few thoughts on my (free) Patreon
👉 https://www.patreon.com/posts/lets-talk-about-119489745?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link
Have fun!
Helge
Are you a fan of NPR Rendering or Anime in Blender? Big things are coming to Blender.
I’ve written a short article on my (free) Patreon about that:
Have fun!
Helge
You are looking for an online class for your Blender Learning Path with a well structured curriculum? With our module course system you build your own learning path tailored to your needs. You can book only one or two or all the modules, however you want 🙂
pixeltrain’s Academy is characterized by small learning groups, well-structured units while keeping room to meet the needs of each individual.
All sessions are held live by Senior 3D & VFX trainer Helge Maus.
Module 1: Blender Fundamentals
20.+21. Jan. ’25
27.+28. Jan. ’25
Module 2: Blender Shading & Rendering
10.+11. Feb. ’25
17.+18. Feb. ’25
Module 3: Blender Animation & Rigging System
10.+11. Mar. ’25
17.+18. Mar. ’25
What we offer:
– Each module consists of 4 live sessions with a total length of 16 hours (4 x 4 hours)
– Each module takes two weeks with two sessions each week (Tuesday + Wednesday)
– Live sessions + downloadable recordings of each session
– Exercises + feedback
– Private discord channel for the students
Information and registration:
👉 https://www.pixeltrain.net/pixeltrains-academy/
If you have any questions, please let me know 🙂
The last Blender training courses for this year still have a few seats available. I’m looking forward to help you deepen your Blender production knowlege.
These trainings are delivered in person by Senior Trainer & Mentor Helge Maus.
Helge teaches 3D-, VFX & Game software and workflows for over 20 years.
If you are interested in an individual Blender or Godot Game Engine training with Helge Maus, you can reach us by email info(at)pixeltrain.net.
Nov. 28.+29, online, German language
👉 https://visualisierungs-akademie.ch/de/kurs/blender-renderingkurs/98514946-325f-4818-bcdb-4f6b351a490b
Two days of intensive training for everyone who wants to use Blender to create sophisticated materials, shaders and visualizations for architecture, product design, games & film. In addition to photorealistic rendering, you will also learn techniques for non-photorealistic rendering for animation, motion design, manga, comics and architecture.
Dec. 05.+06, online, German language
👉 https://visualisierungs-akademie.ch/de/kurs/blender-animationskurs/68ff897c-f766-4119-bea3-9f3422704d2f
Learn the powerful Blender animation system from scratch. Immerse yourself in the various editors such as Dopesheet, Curves and NLA and learn how to bring your scenes to life. We also dive into the exciting world of rigging in Blender. Learn about organic and non-organic rigging, as well as the powerful built-in add-on Rigify.
P.S. If you are looking for these training in English or for your company, please reach out to me. Let’s talk!
I’ve released a new Blender tutorial on YouTube. In this tutorial we will talk about the work with instanced collections in production, why they are so important but also which problems will come up if you don’t organize them correctly. We talk about some strategies to find the source collection of the instances in one scene, but also when they are linked from the outside. Then we look into a great free add-on / extension with the name „Edit Instanced Collection“, which helps you to modify the content of a collection easily.
You find the add-on here:
https://github.com/SuperFLEB/BlenderEditCollectionAddon
These topics are covered in this tutorial:
00:00 Helge Introduction
00:38 Introduction of instanced collections in production
01:20 Explanation of instanced collections
03:08 How to instance them
04:05 Object Data & Object Data Properties
05:02 Solutions of finding the source collection
07:57 Installation of add-on „Edit instanced Collection“
09:21 Generate a temp scene with the instanced content
10:22 Modifying the source of a collection
11:39 Changing all the instanced collections
13:00 Wrapping up
As a Senior 3D & VFX Trainer, Helge Maus teaches 3D- & VFX Applications for over 20 years.
His focus lies on Generalist work for VFX and Games. He works with studios, agencies and freelancers from different visualization areas and from the games industry.
Meanwhile he focuses on Blender, Unity, Godot & Fusion for his daily work and training. His strong industry background in teaching Houdini FX, Nuke, and Maya over many years helps him to train artists from the industry within a wide production context.
If you have questions or topics, which should be added, please let me know.
If you want to support me for publishing more free tutorials you could join my Patreons:
https://www.patreon.com/pixeltrain3d
or give me a fast Coffee time Tip on
PayPal:
https://paypal.me/pixeltrain
Find more information on www.pixeltrain.net
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/pixeltrain3DVFXTrainings
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pixeltrain/
Mastodon: https://mastodon.art/web/@pixeltrain3d
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/pixeltrain3d.bsky.social
Flipped Normals: https://flippednormals.com/creator/pixeltrain3d
Blender Market: https://blendermarket.com/creators/pixeltrain3d
