■1: Face rigging, warpy perspective, and a theory of selling
A theory of selling
I work in sales. As in, I earn my money by selling you stuff. I sell you on my videos, and I sell my digital product, Grades (for all your grading needs). Before YouTube, I worked in marketing. I have had to learn a lot about selling, and I fucking despise it.
There are myriad techniques, models, and frameworks for selling. And they’re all disrespectful to the customer. They treat people as objects to be manipulated.
The biggest one on YouTube nowadays is the CuriosityGap©. It says, “People will watch your video if you tell them they need to know something they don’t yet know.” It’s why all thumbnails allude to some secret thing that’s been hiding under your nose, with the promise of revolutionizing your life.
The sales model that I learned in school is AIDA. Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. First, make them look. Then make them care. Make them want it. Tell them what to do. In time, marketing people became cognizant of how bad this makes them look, and they added S to the end. AIDAS: Attention, Interest, Desire, Action, Satisfaction. Yes, they figured out that actually delivering on the promise was a good idea.
It’s depressing walking through this morass. So I cling to the little positives that I can find. And there’s one model of selling that I really like. It’s from Blair Enns, whom I’ve quoted a lot on this blog. It’s what I try to follow for my YouTube videos.
Inform the unaware
Help people understand their problem. For my videos, this means saying “Did you know PNG isn’t the best format?”
Inspire the interested
Show people the alternative. My PNG video says, “Look how much space you can save, and how much quality you can gain!”
Reassure the intent
People will have worries before buying anything. You should address those worries. In a video, that means giving proof that it works early on and mentioning the weaknesses of the technique. For a product, it means good documentation, reviews, satisfaction guarantees.
This model is the only model of sales that I find to be entirely positive. And I believe it works.
Discuss this post on Substack.
Tutorial: Facial rigging
Blender Studio just released a course on rigging a face. These guys know what they’re doing. It was the best Blender rigging tutorial I have ever seen. Just ten minutes in, it starts getting to features I never knew about.
Plus, a Blender Studio subscription supports Blender.
Inspiration: Rob Pointon’s weird perspectives
In my recent live stream, I tried to replicate Rob Pointon’s weird perspectives. (I found a pretty good solution, too!)
I love this guy’s art. Truly something I don’t feel like I’ve seen before.
Tip: Replace material
Oh no! I used the wrong rock material on a bunch of objects. And some of those objects have other materials on them, too. What do I do?
This same trick works for all data. Replace all uses of a node group. Replace all uses of a mesh.
The marketing bit is something I'm passionate as well. Until I started listening / reading to authors such as Blair Enns and Chris Do I was kind of depressed about it as well as I thought what you described was the only way do to these things. It turns out it really isn't.
IMHO you gave a perfect example of how you can still market and sell but also be respectful to your audience / customers.
Fortunately I'm seeing more and more companies realizing and doing the same. It makes for a better world imho.
Just my five cents, keep up the great work! :)