Yesterday I reached 100.000 subscribers on Youtube. So I figured I’d write some thoughts about the history of the channel and myself, in case you’re curious. In 2018 I had 10 subscribers and I posted the first Blender Secrets video on Youtube beginning of october 2018 (a month after I posted the first one on Instagram).

Of course, 100k subscribers is not a lot compared to some other channels and it took me 3 years of hard work to get there. But it’s much more meaningful to me than the 200k subscribers I have on Instagram. For me, Youtube is a storytelling platform with a lot of potential for filmmakers.

And that’s my ultimate goal - to make films and put them on Youtube. It took me a while to get back to this goal. Some personal backstory: In 1994 I was 15 years old, and my ambition was to make a parody of Terminator 2 (which had come out only 2 years prior). I never made it - in 1995 it was hard to even get a video camera! I simply didn’t even know of anyone who had one who I could try to convince that they should lend it to me. I did have an old single-8 camera (a chemical filmstock format similar to super-8) that my dad had used to shoot family films on vacations. So I used that to learn filmmaking and later went to film school where I studied directing and later editing as well, though I dropped out before finishing.

I felt like the path to becoming a filmmaker was too opaque and there seemed to be an big amount of gatekeeping. What appealed more to me was the way Robert Rodriguez made films for almost nothing. At the time I was in film school however, Youtube still didn’t exist (this is all making me feel very old). I wish it had!

These days, everybody has a video camera in their phone. And access to Youtube, which makes applying to film festivals irrelevant. Who needs them? You have a camera, and with Blender you can make pretty decent VFX. Or you can use it for storyboarding, and even editing. In short, Blender and Youtube - a great combination of storytelling tools. So for me, the 100K subscribers on Youtube means the world. It makes me want to get back into short film making. I’d lost the spark by doing corporate videos for 3 years as a freelancer. Nothing like doing what you love for clients, to lose the passion. But it’s slowly coming back.

It’s funny that the 100K milestone happened now, because it happened during a bit of a hiatus where I’m working on a course. So I haven’t been updating the channel, and yet it still grows.

Soon, in januari, I will be posting fresh content again. I probably won’t be able to finish work on my course 100% by then, but that’s the time I’ve given myself to temporarily work on that full-time.

Some Blender Secrets history: I published the first Blender Secrets video over 3 years ago, september first 2018, initially only on Instagram and it was only 6 seconds long. I really only did it, because I’d been taking a lot of notes in my freelance work so I wouldn’t have to keep looking up things that I’d forgotten. And my wife had started an instagram account to post what she was cooking, and it seemed like a fun thing to do.

The first 5 Blender Secrets posts on Instagram.

Then a month later I decided to post those videos on Youtube as well (I think simply because someone in the comments on Instagram asked me to), where I only had 10 followers. Compared to doing corporate videos where the only feedback would be from clients communicating endless changes, getting feedback from viewers who actually needed the information I was giving and who were happy with my videos, was really much more fun! So I kept doing it and eventually compiled 100 tips in a PDF.

I didn’t know if anyone would buy it, and the people I mentioned it to said nobody would buy it. They could have been right. But as it turns out, today I’m working on Blender Secrets full-time thanks to the people who did believe in it, you guys. And thanks to the Blender Foundation, for making such wonderful storytelling software in the first place, and the great and welcoming Blender community. Honestly, if the Blender community had been very hostile I probably would not have kept going for this long. But it’s a strong and friendly community, where instead of being afraid of competition, everyone seems to want to help each other. If only the entire world was like this.

I feel very lucky that I’m now able to support myself with Bender Secrets, and have even been able to hire a freelance editor, Tushar, to help me. We started working together about 9 months ago, and it’s been great fun to work with him. Thanks to Tushar I can spend more time updating the e-book and putting more overall quality into the work.

I just want to thank you all for following me, and especially those who have purchased my e-book. I will never forget those first sales, it was really incredible. I still can’t believe it.

As long as people keep buying the book, I will keep updating it and making more Blender Secrets videos.

So thank you again from the bottom of my heart, I truly appreciate that you subscribe to my channel and support my work. On to 200K subs!

Jan van den Hemel, 9th of dec 2021