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Support me! ​

Why support? ​

Short version ​

You get access to the CGWiki Discord! There's hundreds (hundreds!) of friendly folk ranging from beginners to experts, masterclasses by supporters within the discord, screen-sharing, chatting, laughing, it's great.

At the moment I'm setup for Patreon and Paypal:

Patreon is better for regular micropayments, and its easier for me to keep in touch.

Paypal is better for one-time payments (or if you want to avoid fees).

If you use Paypal, please put your contact email in the comments, so I can send you a discord invite!

Masterclasses! ​

Yes! Every few months we might start talking about a particular thing, and someone who's an expert in that thing will offer to run a live masterclass. People play along, ask questions, they're usually recorded and offered as a bit of discord exclusive content. It's an incredible resource, huge thanks to those that contributed to these.

The masterclasses we have as of Dec 2023:

  • 2.5 hour vfx integration overview from Olivr Hotz, going over syntheyes, houdini, compositing
  • 3 hour Resolve overview from Stephen Walsch
  • 15 min crowds and USD overview from me
  • A multipart UE4 virtuual production masterclass from Ted
  • 3.5 hour masterclass on crowds and agents from Squidbean
  • Many mini vex challenges
  • Masterclass on Top/PDG from Tom Goffelli

No, I won't post the links here. Join the patreon or paypal, you'll find them in the discord. 😃

Long version ​

Over the years people have suggested I should put this site behind a paywall, write a book, record paid video tutorials, go on the Tony Robbins motivational talk tour circuit. Having run this wiki for a while, I have opinions on all these options:

  • I don't believe in paywalls, I don't think hiding information is in the spirit of the online community, plus I've learned so much from others sharing their information freely, it seems unfair to then privatize any knowledge I acquire.
  • The bottom seems to have dropped out of the book market. When was the last time you bought a CG related book?
  • I just don't have time to record quality video tutorials. It's great that other people do, I know I can't make that time investment.
  • I do talks when and where I can (you'll see me occasionally show up at SIGGRAPH and stuff), but that's still plays to a limited market, this website can be available to everyone, everywhere.

And finally, I don't want anything to get in the way of this being a useful resource for busy artists. There's loads of fantastic video tutorials available for Houdini, but if you're on the day of delivery, you don't want to watch a 2 hour video to be reminded of how to source @v into a pyro sim. That's where I think this wiki works well.

So, the site will remain free, and despite it not being in my best commercial interests, I'll still put all my knowledge and scene files here too.

That said, people still kept asking how they could support the site, that's when people suggested Patreon and Paypal.

As such, here's the deal, if any of these apply to you:

  • you've downloaded one of my hip files
  • one of my tips managed to help you on a paying job or school project
  • if we met in real life you'd offer to by me a coffee as thanks
  • a gnawing sense of guilt has consumed you over all this amazing free content, and you want to absolve yourself

Well, throw me a couple of bucks. That seems fair.

But lets be clear what your couple of bucks buys you:

  • nothing
  • nada
  • no special treatment
  • no private support
  • no demands for tutorials
  • no demands on my time
Also, Discord ​

Ok, you get one perk. I setup a Discord server! Anyone who signs up on Patreon or Paypal gets access.

It's nice, very friendly, lots of like-minded cg folk. I'm in there pretty often, but again it doesn't grant special access to me; I'm not sidefx support, this is not my fulltime job. Anyone who gets pushy and ruins the mood will be kicked, so be nice ok?