CGGE Represents China’s Blender Community at BCON Austin 2026, the Official Blender Conference in the United States

Austin, Texas / Shenzhen, China — April 16, 2026

By Catina Yiu

BCON Austin 2026 is the only officially recognized BCON in North America, taking place in Austin, Texas on April 13–14.

CGGE is proud to announce their participation as a Sponsor at BCON Austin, under the OriginCG brand, CGGE’s open-source creative community platform. Catina Yiu, Lead Curriculum Designer, and Timothy Tan, VP of Global Business Development, shared CGGE’s journey in educating over 1000 artists and developers in open-source techniques annually, and their efforts in hosting international events such as the 1^st Blender Conference in Asia, BCON Shenzhen, in December 2025.

About BCON Austin 2026

Blender Conference is the official Blender conference series, with the momentous flagship event held each year in Amsterdam. This year, BCON Austin or BCON North America brings that same energy, care, and community focus stateside.

Taking place at Inn Cahoots, the event welcomed over 200 attendees and featured over 50 sessions spanning main stage talks, hands-on workshops, and technical and creative demonstrations, spread across both indoor and outdoor spaces including the main stage, side stages, and two breakout rooms. Attendee socialized and mingled throughout the venue, connecting over their shared interest in creative technologies.

 Highlights from BCON Austin 2026

Taming the Beast – How to control AI by Andrew Price

Andrew Price, also known as “the Donut guy”, showed how to use AI to automate repetitive tasks, freeing blender users to focus on creative decisions, turning AI from a threat into their most powerful workflow tool.

Let’s make a VFX shot from start to finish by Jacob Holiday 

It was a hands-on workshop building a complete VFX shot using Blender’s 10-step professional workflow. Jacob walked through every stage, from setup to final output, uncovering underused Blender features and giving artists a clear, repeatable framework for tackling any VFX project.

Why You Should Storyboard in 3D by Maurits Valk

As 3D Story Artist at Lucasfilm, Maurits made the case for ditching flat sketches and storyboarding directly inside Blender 5.0, demonstrating how 3D space adds spatial clarity and creative depth to pre-production, helping filmmakers and animators make more intentional decisions about framing, camera movement, and visual storytelling.

China’s Blender Community: Connecting Artists through Events and Education by Timothy Tan and Catina Yiu

CGGE shared highlights from BCON Shenzhen 2025 – Asia’s first Blender conference – alongside updates on the growing OriginCG community for artists; Blender Certification through the International Alliance of Blender Educators; and community contests. This was a firsthand look at how China’s Blender community is growing and contributing to the global ecosystem.

CGGE, Supporting the Growing Blender Community in China

As the founding organization behind China’s Blender community platform OriginCG.cn, CGGE demonstrated its long-standing and multifaceted commitment to the global Blender ecosystem.

Since 2018, CGGE has worked to make Blender accessible to Chinese-speaking audiences by translating tutorials and learning materials from Blender Studio into Chinese. Witnessing the growth of the Chinese user base, CGGE hosted Asia’s 1^st Blender Conference in Shenzhen
 in December 2025, which brought together over 1500 international and Chinese Blender artists, developers, educators, and enthusiasts under one roof.

As the Founder of the International Alliance of Blneder Educators, CGGE has also been working closely with Blender Educator SIG (Special Interest Group) members to help construct the Blender Badge system and develop the Blender Certification program.