It’s that time of year again! While there’s too many talks for even me to watch all the way through, let me share what I think my top 10 (in no particular order):

1. Keynote

Ton highlights many of the latest features and things Blender users can look forward to. He is a great speaker; never miss it.

2. Building a Career Around Blender - Jason van Gumster

Jason prepped me before my presentation in April and did a great job with this presentation (also, great example of stage presence and pacing). For anyone that wonders, “Can I make money with Blender?” Or even, “How can I be a valuable artist/developer/employee?” This presentation answers these fundamental questions.

3. Cycles is better than you think… - Turpal "Alex" Saytiev

I don’t usually pay attention to “here’s my portfolio” presentations (sweats as I’m reminded of my own BCON LA presentation), but this has a good mix of humor and valuable rendering tips.

4. Denoising in Cycles - Lukas Stockner

My nerdy coder self loves talks like this (regardless of how well I end up understanding it). If you are the same, great dev talk and how much effort goes into denoising.

5. Forget about Nodes - Simon Thommes

Gizmo-based geometry nodes will make Blender tools more visual and intuitive. In my opinion, it will also lessen the need of many add-ons (in a good way). If creating tools like that interests you, look no further than this talk from the amazingly talented Simon.

6. Extensions: Should they Come Built-in? - Nika Kutsniashvili

Nika initially volunteered to help with my workshop. But I hadn’t realized he was giving his own presentation! He shares an overview of why extensions in Blender are such a game changer, and counter-argues why not everything should be built-in to Blender.

7. How to Improve Blender’s UI - Andrew Price

From the Blender Guru himself, he is back again with suggestions on improving the UI. Many good points that I relate with (I too disable the hide collection shortcuts) and sharing the importance of feedback when it comes to software development (and even game development).

8. Why Does Blender Crash? - Jeroen Bakker

Way more technical than what most people listen to, but in short: the latest hardware is best for the latest Blender version. It makes a world of difference in your stability. And thank goodness they’re converting from OpenGL to Vulkan (which will allow graphics stability in the long run).

Procedural Oil Painting - Simon Thommes

I told you Simon was talented. Well, he played a big part in creating a tool to generate brushstrokes for the Project Gold film (which unfortunately got severely abridged due to time constraints). But the plan is for it to be released as a free extension. I had experimented with brushstroke stuff like this, but the results here a far more sophisticated!

10. Remastering Your Add-ons as Extensions - Me!

Yes, I spoke at this conference! Just not in person. I unfortunately got sick last minute (mostly recovered now), so I recorded my presentation from home for anyone to watch. If you are an add-on developer and want to know how to convert your add-ons into extensions, give this a watch!

That’s it! Feel free to watch all these talks and more on their official YouTube playlist.