Hi! I'm Daniel Roberts, founder of
BlenderTimer! I started BlenderTimer back in early 2016 for no real purpose (other than fun, of course). I'm a self taught photographer, videographer, digital artist (3D and 2D), YouTube creator, Pixabay Ambassador, programmer/developer (mainly in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, .NET, and Python), transcriptionist, international IT support agent, DIYer, and kinda a musician. I'm currently based in Idaho, USA.
Behind the Logo
The logo you see today is actually my 5th logo. Here's a timeline of the logo progression.
![BlenderTimer Logo: May 13, 2016](./static-0/files/images/Logo-BT0-512.png)
May 13, 2016
![BlenderTimer Logo: October 25, 2017](./static-0/files/images/Logo-BT00-512.png)
October 25, 2017
![BlenderTimer Logo: November 1, 2019](./static-0/files/images/Logo-BT000-512.png)
November 1, 2019
![BlenderTimer Logo: October 31, 2020](./static-0/files/images/Logo-BT0000-512.png)
October 31, 2020
![BlenderTimer Logo: December 29, 2020](./static-0/files/images/Logo-BT-512.png)
December 29, 2020*
*The last logo went through a color revamp on April 20, 2022. Hold your mouse down on the last logo to see the difference.
I finally settled on the current logo as it represents many things I love including photography (the iris), color theory (the color wheel making the iris), 3D art (the cube), hexagons (pretty obvious I like those lol), and much more.
I also settled on it as it's easily visible on pretty much any background.
I started making educational YouTube videos in late November, 2021, though I uploaded the first video on March 16, 2022. I animate all the videos in
Blender, create the music in
LMMS, and narrate the videos.
FAQs.
What software do you use to create your animations?
I create all the animations in
Blender, create the music in
LMMS, edit any audio (such as narration and SFX) in
Audacity, create vector graphics in
Inkscape, and edit other types of images in
GIMP.
Is that your voice narrating your videos?
Yes, I narrate my videos.
How did you learn to use Blender?
I learned mostly from experimenting and trial-and-error, however I also learned quite bit from YouTube tutorials as well.
How long does it take to make a video?
This question really requires quite a complex answer. For example, some videos take significantly longer to make than others. I'll give my best estimate though.
Full length videos take, on average, 2 months to make. However, not all this time is spent actually making the video. The compiled time (i.e. if I worked on a video 24/7 till it was done) a video takes to make is around 50 hours, although around 25% of this is simply render times so, excluding render times, it's only about 36 hours. In making a video, around:
- 17% is spent on research and writing the script
- 4% is spent recording the script (and editing the recording)
- 39% is spend animating the visuals
- 28% is spent rendering the video
- 6% is spent combining all the music, narration, SFX, etc.
- 2% is spent gathering all the video sources
- 2% is spent trying to come up with a good title
- 1% is spent making the thumbnail
- and 1% is spent uploading the video
This time is also not accounting for the time required to actually come up with an idea in the first place. Finding a good idea is usually what actually takes the longest time (generally a good few weeks to a month).
It's also worth noting that shorts take significantly less time. Usually they only take a few days to make (and only about a day to animate).
Do you have any tips for becoming successful on YouTube?
The main advice I can give is quality over quantity. At this point most content available on YouTube is not high quality so everyone loves it when they happen upon a great quality production.
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