From Lightning Talk to Grant: My Blender Journey with FOSSUnited

When I gave my first lightning talk in May last year, I had no idea it would lead to my first sponsored content on YouTube about my favorite subject: Blender.

It all started with a quick 10-minute story about how I learned Blender in the May 2025 city meetup. The response energized me to apply for a workshop and a talk at IndiaFOSS 2025. While my workshop was accepted, the talk was still pending, but the workshop changed everything.

During that session, I guided participants through building a table-vase scene. Using just that one scene, I was able to introduce them to the coordinate system, modeling, materials, lighting, animation, and rendering.

Having learned Blender from YouTube myself, I always wanted to make a course. At IndiaFOSS, the idea of applying for a FOSS United grant came up. But I needed a unique pitch. One more Blender tutorial? Nah!

During a conversation with Rahul uncle, he asked: "What if it was in Kannada?" That immediately connected with me. I knew I had to grab that opportunity.

In the weeks after IndiaFOSS, I built a prototype episode, put together a funding proposal and convinced my friend Aarav (who doesn't speak Kannada btw) to join me in this. In less than three weeks, the grant was approved, and I created and signed the first invoice of my life.

In this talk, I want to share what I learned from applying for a grant and building my first sponsored YouTube series. I’ll also play a few snippets from my draft episodes to show you how it’s coming along!

• Project Status: Where I am right now with the series and what’s left to do.

• The Reality Check: Why creating these episodes was way harder than I initially thought.

• Planning vs. Reality: How my "perfect" plan went for a toss (and how I am improvising).

• Learning by Teaching: Realizing I had misunderstood a few Blender concepts only once I tried to explain them on video!

• Friend & Partner: Splitting responsibilities and money -- while keeping the friendship alive.

• The Emotional Rollercoaster: Dealing with the mix of nerves and excitement as the public release gets closer.

• Demystifying Grants: Why the FOSS United Grants program is actually very approachable for creators.

• A Call to Action: We need more teens doing this, come let’s build a tribe!