What would you do if you were a 14-year-old who had never earned more than a couple of hundred bucks from keeping a lemonade stall in the gated community, and suddenly get a grant for ₹18,000 to build a full YouTube course on your favorite FOSS project?
That’s how I started my recent talk at a FOSS United Bengaluru Meetup, and honestly, it’s all very surreal even now, a full six months after I got the grant! But to explain how I got here, we have to go back a couple of years.
How I Learned
From mid 2021, I started learning Blender from the geeks on YouTube, people like Polyfjord, Ducky 3Dhttps://www.youtube.com/@TheDucky3D, Smeafhttps://www.youtube.com/@Smeaf and many more. But I didn’t start by memorizing shortcuts, menu items or commands. I start by watching the most eye-catching VFX videos first just to get excited. Then I take up a project and learn basic stuff as needed by looking up things like “how to delete a cube” or “how to add a sphere”, or just read BlenderDocs. I think that’s the best way to learn stuff.
That’s how I learned, and that’s how I started teaching others too.
First Workshops, First Earnings
I had to see if I could actually teach others this way and if they would enjoy it and find it useful. So in early 2025, I conducted two online workshops for teens. I taught them the basics of Blender in the backdrop of creating a simple table vase scene. No elaborate conceptual theory, just enough to build the scene. The participants loved it. And that’s how I earned ₹3,000!
The First Talk
My journey with FOSSUnited started with a talk at the May 2025 Monthly Meetup: [Creating with Blender: It’s Easier Than You Think](https://fossunited.org/c/bengaluru/may-2025/cfp/d3u892c2sf). That [talk](https://youtu.be/154pqz_T3pE) was very well received and I got great feedback.
IndiaFOSS 2025
Encouraged by the feedback, I conducted a [workshop at IndiaFOSS 2025](https://fossunited.org/c/indiafoss/workshops/cfp/e2jsst185s). I taught participants, (all adults and even one college professor) the fundamentals of modeling, lighting, and rendering through the backdrop of a table-vase scene. It went well, and I totally enjoyed it. Later, during a conversation at IndiaFOSS with [Rahul](https://fossunited.org/u/rahulporuri), a question came up: “Why not make a Blender course in Kannada and publish it on YouTube?”
There are many courses out there, but very few in Kannada, and probably none made by a teen.
The Grant Approval
Then it started. I applied for a grant, and it got accepted.
I remember getting the happiest email of my life. After celebrating, I contributed $10 back to the Blender Foundation and got to work.
Navigating the Initial Hiccups
I went into this with a detailed plan. I had every episode mapped out and a schedule for recording and editing. However, as soon as I actually started the work, I realized how much I had underestimated the process.
The first episode, which I thought would take two weeks, ended up taking an entire month. Recording in Kannada was surprisingly difficult; I found it challenging to explain technical 3D terms in my native language. I had a few “Ohh, damn!” moments where I had misunderstood certain parts of Blender myself. That had me go back to the basics and relearn the software correctly, which eventually gave me a much stronger foundation.
The Team and the Grind
For help with certain animations and graphic assets, I reached out to a [friend from Chennai](https://www.youtube.com/@letsmakeit-everything), even though he doesn’t speak Kannada. We agreed on a 20/80 split for the work and funding, and we got started immediately.
With the team in place, the real work began. I stopped trying to stick to a rigid schedule and started free-styling. This meant months of work: posting drafts on the FOSS United forums, gathering feedback, and re-recording sections until they were clear. It was a constant cycle of editing, rendering, and refining every single frame to ensure the tutorials were easy to follow.
Mission Accomplished
The effort finally paid off. The full Blender course in Kannada is now officially published. Looking back, I’ve gone from those first two online workshops and a nervous lightning talk in May 2025 to creating a complete, sponsored educational series on YouTube. I’m incredibly grateful that FOSS United takes chances on new creators. If you’re a teen with a project in mind, I highly recommend applying. The community and the grants team is very supportive of those willing to build.
Looking Back
This was the first time I made a full course on YouTube, and also my first sponsored content! I of course had a great time. And the grants team were extremely supportive.
And here are leanings I take away from this experience
- I spent too much time on each episode, the workflow can be much better.
- Editing could have be done so much more efficiently. (I am a Blender guy, much less of a video-editor)
- Note to self – in the future use the [scenes feature in OBS](https://obsproject.com/kb/sources-guide)
- Improve my spoken Kannada to make it more formal (its very Bengaluru at the moment)
- Probably a good idea to dub in English also.
- Ask for more grant next time 😂
Where’s the full course?
The course is live now. Check it out [here](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYPU23CdB71Ph0Zlh7aDB41ThJliHCvG3).
