How to make a BobbyBroccoli video

The wait is over, here's a quick overview of how I make my videos! Please feel free to ask questions in the comments.
Check out my class on Nebula to get access to my Blender project files: nebula.tv/how-...
Charlie Arsenault - Assistant Editor
@hotcyder on KZbin for the thumbnail
My Patreon: / bobbybroccoli
My Twitter: / bobbybroccole
(If you cannot see your scene through your camera when you zoom super far in or out, try changing the "Clip Start" and "Clip End" properties for your camera)
Some Blender creators whose videos have helped me in the past:
/ @chrishanel
/ @theducky3d
/ @erindale
Intro to Blender videos:
• Learn Blender 3D in 20...
• The BEST Way To Learn ...
The three tutorials mentioned at the end:
• Sunset Animation (Blen...
• CREATE A PROCEDURAL CO...
• Blender - 80's Style A...

[@BobbyBroccoli]

Want to directly support me and get access to my Blender project files? Nebula is the best way to do that: nebula.tv/how-to-make-a-bobbybroccoli-video

[@slyseal2091]

when will you comment on the mr shit situation

[@corydonk]

How do you find such interesting topics?

[@benoi5]

I wanna subscribe to you, directly on youtube, if it is possible that’d make it much more accessible to everyone. If commisions are a problem, i think even at a doubled price (and different support tiers) is still Ok since you are a lot of peoples favorite creator

[@BobbyBroccoli]

@benoi5 No worries if you can't support on another site, KZbin is still a great way to watch my work!

[@Diamondminer49r]

Step 1: be the GOAT

[@konataizumi5829]

Truuuuuuue

[@Velocityyyyyyyy]

Yes

[@yurareigiryu]

No cap

[@2Links]

he's 100% the goat dude

[@pain4066]

he's not a goat he's a broccoli

[@YourCanadianGuide]

Foolish mistake! Here comes the competition. Get ready for the channel Colin Cauliflower where I will be discussing the Nobel prizes in 1 hour and 45 minute videos!

[@BobbyBroccoli]

Colin better have his guard up

[@YourCanadianGuide]

But honestly though, as someone who grew up in Ottawa and lived through the collapse of Nortel and all of the other "-tels" in the early 2000s, those videos hit hard.

[@restitvtororbis5330]

I guess I'm stuck with Benny Brussels Sprouts or Kenny Kale then 😐 There aren't enough Cruciferous vegetables to keep this naming convention going much longer.

[@bmac4]

Unironically, I'd watch more videos on Nobel Laureates. There's so many fascinating ones. You got guys like John B Goodenough, who got his at age 97. You got Andre Geim, the first person to ever win both a Nobel prize and an Ig Nobel prize. You have Harry Martinson, who was so depressed by the fact that his win was controversial (due to him being a member of the academy for the prizes) that he took his own life in a horrifically gruesome way. So many stories to tell.

[@lerq0ux]

Alright bro, get ready for Ronald Radish

[@Cantdecidethough]

Dear Robert broccoli. Thanks for this. I was a university drop out that eventually worked my way back and now finishing my PhD in physics. I’m going to be doing my medical physics residency in July and for the past 6 months doing applications and interviews, I documented all of it to make a really cool documentary in your style. I’m so happy you posted this tutorial to get me started!

[@tfk_001]

now repeatedly commit academic fraud and you can have a video on this channel about you!

[@orangeants]

That's so cool! I'm about to start applying for PhDs, so I hope you'll be posting your journey. I've subscribed!

[@user_unsub2553]

Fuck yeah, I salute you

[@thepapschmearmd]

Congrats! I’m a former university drop out who is now an MD doing my residency, so I know how exciting and scary it can be to start again. Great job pushing through.

[@IAmTheCheddarMan]

robert broccoli

[@Vanq22114]

Oh, holy shit, a BobbyBroccoli video teaching me skills that I'm never going to use! I'm absolutely going to watch this at least two or three times anyway.

[@universodolucas6023]

No way, a 15 minute video

[@4thalt]

thank you robert broccoli i'm now gonna make a 2 hour video essay on the history of banana bread

[@Jieuns_Flori]

Yessssss

[@LeakyTrees]

Dew it

[@danielcook5029]

Damn, I just was diagnosed with diabetes. Now all I see and hear is my favorite sweets. It's a curse.

[@lay-2356]

Dont back out on this

[@4thalt]

@@lay-2356 dammit.

[@Daffothrill]

1) Thanks for making this. It's something I wish more artists would do. It's great not just for people who want to take inspiration from your style, but also for non-artists to better understand how involved this process can be. 2) For anyone watching this that isn't familiar, Blender's keyframing system has changed slightly since the version of blender this was filmed on. You hit K instead of I to bring up the keyframing menu. I will now default to keying using whatever Keying Set you have enabled (Loc-Rot-Scale by default). 3) The Add Camera Rigs addon can help a lot with getting more specific camera control, like an orbiting camera or a dolly zoom. Blenderkit is an addon that allows you to search and bring in free assets directly in blender. I've used it extensively and it's a lifesaver.

[@fvdeddrift]

This is literal Blender GOLD for folks just starting or even a fair bit into the journey! This really needs to get pinned up there! Fur eels!

[@Grand-Rose]

But one question: How do you ALWAYS manage to find such poetic metaphors and endings to your videos? Like the July 4 announcement in the Superconducting Super collider or even the SS Edmund Fritzgerald for the Nortel one?

[@BobbyBroccoli]

Both of those were based in fact! I just had to read enough about the topics

[@Grand-Rose]

@@BobbyBroccoli Yes, but still it is commendable that you put so much effort into researching for your videos, perhaps that's why researching takes so long for you. Thanks for that. You have persuaded me with this to read more. I hope I can find such things in the future too.

[@ekki1993]

That's just creative writing, which is a specific skill you can train for.

[@elsi-e]

​@@Grand-Rose Yeah, the cool thing about reading and learning more is you start building up lots of connections and parallels between events, times, and places and you just start noticing those sorts of things without even trying half the time.

[@Grand-Rose]

@@elsi-e Indeed so. Already have caught many such things while reading the Superheavy book. And it is also one of the few things that work to INCREASE my attention span.

[@harryjsunshine1742]

i spent all of this week teaching myself using your google earth tutorial so i could make a documentary for my ecology class assignment. i’m glad you have more to teach me.

[@Gurmudgin]

My man discusses blender, and how to learn blender, and then DOESN’T link the doughnut tutorial. How could you?! In all seriousness this was a really cool peek behind the curtain. Thanks Broccoli.

[@adned6281]

If you start to make Nebula exclusives I'm finally getting it. That's it, that's the final straw.

[@wlf-hly]

Whoooo boy do I have somethin to tell you

[@tenta9876]

I love your videos Mr. Broccoli, I gotta say smashing all the graphs and models together is a genius way to tell a story, helped me work through some more difficult topics I would have never been interested in.

[@TH_5094]

Your videos are some of the most high production value and good quality content on the entire internet. It is rare to come across a channel that makes such well researched videos AND presents it in such a nice way. Thank you :)

[@blobofdespair]

This makes me want to rewatch all of your videos! You use this medium so well and your great storytelling skills mesh beautifully with it. You're top tier, my man.

[@jbug1979]

Huge Secret Base fan, so I'm happy to see the style spreading. Love your work too BB!

[@robertivaniszyn840]

I've thought about making content in this style for years and was always worried it would come across as just a cheap knock off, I appreciate Bobby showing us SB Nation and Jon Bois lovers that that doesn't have to be the case!

[@franktothemax]

The blender community is an absolute treasure. At 37 years old (film background) I’ve been able to freely learn 3D _anything_ within blender. Game asset creation, 3D printing, VFX for videos. When I was your age, people had to pay a premium for Maya.. the list of those types of programs goes on. The cost/barrier to entry just to dip your toes in was absurd, so my childhood dreams of game dev was foiled. Blender is motherfcking free. KZbin has two decades worth of knowledge of 3D which translates well across any 3D program so long as you learn the basics. If animation/3D animation is something that you’ve always wanted to learn, you owe it to yourself to make your first donut. Once you see just how attainable photorealism is within a free program, your creativity will feel boundless.

[@lava172]

I genuinely watched your old tutorial on how to make the Jon Bois-style video in Google Earth the other day bc I wanted to make my own video in that style. The timing is amazing thank you Bobby

[@OnMicMMA]

After a month i have the basics of blender down, still not great at keyframing and rendering animations well but in due time. I can make timelines and graphs, import 3d stuff as well handle the camera and lighting. Very crazy program I can't wait to show you what im cooking because it would be impossible to do and get paid with out a format that really emphasizes pictures. First video will be a history of unsanctioned fighting due to its viral potential and simplicity, as well as timeless nature. This has been incredibly challenging and figuring it out would of been much harder without this video as a starting point. Huge fan, good luck on your future projects.

[@pinkflowers66]

i need more documentaries of yours, please, never stop doing this

[@homborgor]

Thank you so much for this. I've been using blender for 2-3 years now and I always struggle with telling stories with this, I might actually start uploading things now

[@Cheskaz]

Sharing knowledge is hella rad

[@minebeast3169]

I *just* finished binging almost all of your videos, and now i have another. Yessssssss

[@lenapawlek7295]

So cool to hear about your process! Seeing the pictures just makes me want to watch the videos again

[@DigiWongaDude]

Thank you so much for making this. It's exactly what I've been looking for. I really appreciate you taking the time and effort to help others learn from what you've learnt. The end result is amazing.

[@swisha_223]

This is incredibly helpful and insightful, the look at the behind-the-scenes and workflow is great, thank you so much!

[@CraftyMasterman]

Already made one in Minecraft 😅 Kinda crazy how many parallels that video process has to yours

[@TToastedG]

didnt expect to see you here!

[@AsiccAP]

No way, it's the madlad who made GDMC

[@ErikaGoebel]

I really enjoy seeing your work progress - blender has such an awesome community. Thanks for your tips!

[@hazeust]

Making your style of art accessible and fun to all is often an overlooked appreciation. Thanks for sharing your "secret sauce".

[@Pailamps]

Bobby, the timing COULD NOT be better. You and Jacob geller are my heroes, and I'm sure there's a lot to takeaway from this video. Thank you so much for all these tips.

[@LetsGoGetThem]

Sweet, I needed this to make my video on the disappearing Bobs in sports.

[@TheFilmFatale]

Oh wonderful! I have truly thought about this exact question. Deeply appreciate this video❤

[@robertivaniszyn840]

Just came across your channel from the SSC video and I gotta say, i recognized the Jon Bois style instantly and love that you both give credit to him and also have clearly taken the style and made it your own. Just finished your Nortel two parter, can't wait to watch more of your videos!

[@vluverr]

god i love you bobby im so glad you took your love for jon bois and added your own elements to it. you are one of the most skillful “documentarians” (i use quotations because i don’t think that accurately describes your content) in the entire youtube scene. I remember commenting this felt like chart party after watching your videos for the first time. keep up the great work!

[@sooskitashi1907]

The production value for your videos is insane and I always wanted a peek behind the curtain. Thanks this is fantastic!

[@FoxWithBrainDamage]

I’ve actually been thinking about this! Thank you!

[@Nuc04]

Thank you for this! I animated two of my videos in Google Earth and my friend has been practically begging me to learn how to animate in Blender, lol

[@squillz8310]

Jon Bois and SB are some of the best content on youtube if you love sports. Love seeing their inspiration in your work. Such an engaging and enjoyable editing form

[@osukarui]

As someone who has made videos using a very similar process in blender its a lot of fun seeing someone else's process listed out like that. Also, your videos are awesome and have been a lot of inspiration! Thanks for sharing this.

[@RESPRiT]

As someone who has also made a Boisean Google Earth video (based on your original tutorial!), and has since moved onto learning and using Blender, it's really cool to see how the workflow you've developed is similar to mine! I wanted to share another quick tip, and also ask two quick questions: - TIP! If the colors of your images don't look quite right after importing them to Blender when using Images to Planes, even when using shadeless or emission textures, check to make sure that the "View Transform" setting under Color Management (Render Properties -> Color Management) is set to "Standard." Blender seems to default to "Filmic", which caused me a ton of grief when initially trying to create color-accurate visuals. - QUESTION 1! You mentioned on Twitter that it is possible to replicate Google Earth-style camera motion in Blender - it doesn't look like that made it into this tutorial, so I'm curious how you recommend getting that kind of "steady angle, lift up, ease back down" camera movement? - QUESTION 2! When I initially tried doing data visualizations, I attempted a geo nodes setup but really struggled to get things going. Since then, I've used Python scripts for all my viz work, but the scalability seems quite poor (on my older mid-range computer, once you hit hundreds of objects, things start to chug). Do you have any recommendations for resources to help ease into geo nodes? Love the vids, cheers!

[@BobbyBroccoli]

The best way to get into geonodes for visualizations is the Nortel project file I have on Nebula. You're instancing points instead of making seperate mesh objects

[@Lucas72928]

I know it's not as flexible, but if you want to animate the visibility of an object just popping in/out instead of having it grow into existence, you can hover the mouse cursor over the camera icon in the outliner (that's the render visibility toggle) and press "i" to keyframe it. That way you save a bit of memory and speed the render a tiny bit... Or a lot depending on the object

[@amberfaux2329]

can't believe bobby recreated blender and the whole video animation in blender!

[@RattlesnakeJake101]

I thought you were gone but I'm very much happy to see you again your videos are the best.

[@BobbyBroccoli]

I take several months between projects, this is normal for me these days haha

[@FrankieR4440]

This guy is tremendously talented.

[@Jackmarlin]

Thank you so so much for making this! I've recently started making videos in Blender, highly influenced by you and Jon Bios' animation style, and this is insanely helpful, and even your prior Google Earth tutorial as very helpful in laying out the fundamentals

[@ALittleOffProduction]

YES! I've been waiting for this video.

[@Wmann]

One of the steps being such a great content creator overall…

[@JoyRender]

I love this video, i have been learning blender for around a year and this has showed off some really cool tricks and better ways to do things! thank you!

[@the33rdguy]

This video is amazing for me! I have been wanting to get into blender for my own upcoming documentaries! So this will be so helpful man!

[@HussainBassam]

You know he is humble when he watches erindale videos and doesn't tell anyone

[@sciguy4297]

Huh, I was wondering if you were using blender for this stuff! Glad the software is finally getting friendly enough for new users to take it up! For context, I have been doing freelance blender work for years now. It is a super powerful tool for being completely free, and near perfect for this kind of task. Really hoping more people take up something similar to your style, it is much more dynamic than the usual flat video editing associated with video essays. A couple random tips from someone who knows blender like the back of their hand at this point lol: EEVEE is your, (much faster rendering), friend. You sort of dismiss it a bit, but for the fairly flat and lighting-less shading your work typically has it is a near perfect match. EEVEE works on the same principals as a high-end game engine, just without the requirements for low latency on each frame. The main things it suffers under are transparencies (IE glass/water) and high resolution lighting/shadows. Cycles has the benefit of being a full ray tracing engine, so lighting is extremely realistic but this comes at the obvious cost of performance, especially on older GPU's without hardware support for ray tracing. This style of animation you are doing, really doesn't need much lighting at all. And just cranking up EEVEE's cube map sizes will likely fix any aliasing anyways. If you want more keyframe control, especially for how your camera motions accelerate and decelerate, look into the 'Graph Editor' window. I typically add this window right below my active camera view viewport, as the camera view is always more rectangular and there is space for a small window below it. The Graph Editor lets you mess with your keyframe's handles, allowing control over steepness, acceleration and deceleration. In this window you can also add modifiers to your keys for things like procedural noise (which makes for good camera 'shake'), bounce/rebound effects and much more. Python is another friend! I am so happy to see someone using it. Blender is built on top of python, or at least the UI is. ANYTHING you can do in the UI, you can do in the scripting tab. If a task seems mundane or repetitive, you can probably automate it! Free blender assets are literally everywhere! You mention this, but I want to reiterate for anyone else. You can find free assets in blender for near anything, or tutorials for how to built it yourself. To do this kind of animation you really don't need any sort of modeling skill or knowledge. Same goes for textures, CC0 is my personal go to for free textures but that is more suited for proper Cycles environments. The node editor is extremely powerful! You showed it for a brief moment, generating your corkboard textures. I would recommend trying learn a bit about how it works to anyone using blender. There is so much it can do and so many neat effects you can pull off with it. The node editor is the sole reason I can even texture models, as I have practically no innate 2D art skill. Most if not all of my textures are generative, because my programmer brain can understand it. Also as a final little warning for anyone wanting to get into this. Your recommendation of rendering to PNG is a good one, as if your render breaks or crashes and you are rendering to a video directly you WILL lose all of your progress. But do keep in mind that a full PNG render will take up MASSIVE amounts of space. Put it on a big hard drive, or you are going to run out of space mid render... Ask me how I know...

[@7catsinatrenchcoat789]

So amazing to see more of your process :}

[@OnMicMMA]

Damn bro, crazy I ran into the fighting in the age of loneliness docus first and then yours and was always wondering. This is killer info, thanks.

[@stylisttaps]

god i love this channel - cant wait for the next upload. ty bb

[@hughjackful]

Comment for the algorithm. We will support you to the death Mr. Broccoli

[@Brascofarian]

massively well received. thanks for this video we were all asking for.

[@dragonfluf]

Thank you, I've always wanted to learn how to blend broccoli

[@ritac9769]

I've just made the decision to start my own science youtube channel and I also already know how to used Blender for static scientific illustration. Had no idea you could do these kinds of animations so I'm stoked to try it now!!

[@Yezpahr]

I hope this inspires people to make more videos of that style. I saw a video Nuclear Engineer Reacts, he was reviewing your island of stability video and he also loved the animation style.

[@Boofcan]

thank you for making this bobby

[@MilesMister]

Its so interesting to see the way you make videos! Thanks!

[@Jieuns_Flori]

I love free to use community driven resources~ Thank you Bobby 😊

[@VegaTheLyra]

I just realised the comedic genius of the thumbnail, well played Bobby, well played

[@Peterscraps]

It's interesting you should use timelines as an anchor as that's what most editing programs use. When I first got my feet wet with video structures I used book chapters as inspiration with a visual motif to mark them. when it released it got 1 million views, It took me 5 years to realize that story structure matters the most, even of no one notices it.

[@Peterscraps]

Nvm 3 minutes in and you already mention chapters 3:15 I guess the creative process is similar across all mediums

[@froggo9367]

lets go new video (i will watch it again on nebula later)

[@forever_stay6793]

I was JUST thinking to myself, "hmm I wonder when BobbyBroccoli is gonna upload a new video" and then I opened KZbin and this was the first recommendation on the homepage!!! Perfect timing lol

[@LoganNagol]

Really hope one of these videos I can finally use these tutorials to actually make a video. I feel like I got solid ideas but it gets so daunting every time I start

[@paulvillerius848]

A video styled after a board game would go HARD

[@aze4308]

yoooo let’s gooooo thank you for making this

[@rge9992]

Now I want a video on your research process.

[@Sam-yo6rb]

omg ur videos sooo reminded me of chartparty

[@santoast24]

#7 is by far the most useful tip, dont miss it if this is your first introduction to Blender!

[@kodaaxolotlnerd9352]

holy shit dude. i have never done any animation before in my life, and now i want nothing more than to beef up my computer setup and start doing this.

[@Vachan_notavailable]

lets goo hes on NEBULA too finally

[@BobbyBroccoli]

I've been on there for about 1.5 years now!

[@alexbenjamin8117]

you can hit ( I ) on the render and view icon in the collection to toggle viability for the render insted of scaling it to zero

[@BobbyBroccoli]

This unfortunately is not able to be keyframed easily as the keyframe disappears from the dopesheet

[@alexbenjamin8117]

@@BobbyBroccoli yes if you hide it from the viewport the keyframes will disappear but if you use the camera icon it shouldn't disappear when you click on them

[@yixuan7043]

Im going to use this for my school project

[@batteredthem]

Not this video causing me to rewatch all of your long-form essays again. XD

[@whamer100]

that's... a lot simpler than I was expecting it to be! I've been meaning to try learning to use blender for reals, and this might be a fun way to try it out.

[@AnAngryRaven]

when i learn from tutorials, i have a tendency to think that I'm not "learning it properly" or that because I'm not figuring things out myself, it's not really me doing it -- general impostor syndrome stuff, i suppose. seeing that's how you've learned to do most of what you do though has kind of helped to assuage that feeling so ig in short, thank you for making this video; even though i don't see myself making stuff like yours (just bc i have wayy too many other projects lol), it has been helpful in other ways ^-^

[@Pdasniper]

What an incredible contribution to the community

[@DaveWhiteInYoFace]

I love your videos. Please keep making them.

[@erm12341]

Thought its gonna be a video about broccoli smoothie

[@MattGree]

Thanks for making this! I’ve been using apple motion for some 3D work I’ve been doing but it’s really painful for a lot of things. This is probably the push I need to start learning blender instead!

[@Crowald]

There are four creators I drop fucking everything for when I see they've uploaded a new video; you, Soup Emporium, Ahoy, and Barny64. Nothing even comes close to approaching the kind of content I find that is, somehow, specifically formulated to fit right into my brain that you make. It's so good, and being primarily someone who learns through listening as opposed to a visual learner, it's pretty incredible that I can't take my eyes off of some of the scenescapes. Without a doubt, the $21,000,000,000 Missing Collider is one of the most excursive, thoughtful, complex and descriptive documentaries I've ever seen. I was captivated from end to end. Most of your videos do the same, but I love the interlacing political drama side-story that insinuates itself into the SSC's journey from dead idea to burial ground.

[@cutebeloved]

was literally going to wait until jon bois was mentioned and it didnt even take 20 seconds HAHA he really is the goat man

[@thebetterjay6125]

Dang this is another good broccumentary

[@jonathanord]

Shift + F Ah, the pre-2.8 Walk/Fly shortcut. Glad to see someone else uses it over panning and tilting, which i find more inconvenient.

[@titotatitod6846]

Im not even a content creator but im watching til the end for sure

[@2Gamerss]

Thanks!

[@nbttranslator]

Thanks. Huge thanks. I'm going to make a video about absolutely different topic - but I LOVE your videos. They are nice. Thanks. Huge thanks.

[@OtakuUnitedStudio]

"Broccumentaries" The power has gone to his head, he's become unstoppable!

[@ethanpeschman4458]

I thought I felt this style was familiar. I love Jon Bois been subbed to him for a long time.

[@finnmckinlay]

hot tip! the default short cut for walk mode is Shift + ~

[@KillianTwew]

Awesome. Been looking forward to this video! I was recently trying to animate a Hopf Fibration with Python, but the libraries available don't handle it well. I think Blender is exactly what I was looking for

[@yeaeayaye]

that thumbnail caught me off guard, too lively and bright (unlike your stories)

[@flatypus]

Thanks so much for sharing your tips a couple months ago!

[@maxbrooks5468]

This is a great tutorial, now I want to try it just because!

[@parksto]

Very inspiring 🙏

[@RealTal.]

You inspired me to learn blender you're amazing.

[@nathbizl]

I love your shit bro