
3D Buzz is shutting down - void_nill
https://www.3dbuzz.com/
======
LilBytes
Does anyone have any insight on why they're closing their doors?

Edit: I did some searching. Heart breaking stuff. What an incredible way to
remember Jason and the Community by, by releasing everything they have to the
internet. Wonderful stuff.

"Unfortunately, 3D Buzz is closing its doors, not without giving people a
final gift (more about that below). You may or may not know that Jason Busby,
founder of 3D Buzz and one of the principal partners, dying from cancer back
in 2017, and that affected 3D Buzz greatly. Besides founding 3D Buzz, Jason
was Director of Animation for The Renaissance Center in Dickson, Tennessee,
and was also the author of the books Mastering Unreal Technology Vols I and
II."

[https://magazine.renderosity.com/article/5641/3d-buzz-is-
clo...](https://magazine.renderosity.com/article/5641/3d-buzz-is-closing-
while-giving-us-a-final-gift)

~~~
cabaalis
I never thought I'd see Dickson, TN mentioned on HN. If you're around the area
you should visit the Renaissance Center. I remember it mostly from the
planetarium when I was a kid.

~~~
jscheel
I remember visiting back in 2000 or so, when I was considering a career in
animation. I ended up going to MTSU for their animation program (and
subsequently getting into tech instead), but I still remember how cool the
Renaissance Center was.

------
brokenfilez
> Most files listed below are available on this torrent: 3dbuzz.torrent. Some
> files are currently missing.

Looks like either the torrent itself, or the set of files the torrent was
created from is corrupt, or containing different versions of some of the zip
files, because the torrent does not completely verify against the zip files
that 3dbuzz originally released to the public on their website a week ago.

Someone on Reddit made a torrent too, and the first torrent that person made
had some issues too but then that person made a new, fixed torrent that
verifies correctly against all of the zip files that were originially released
to the public by 3dbuzz.

Here is a link to the torrent made by the person on Reddit, that verifies
correctly for all of the files:
[https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1bljXeR1xv9Tp...](https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1bljXeR1xv9TphXj4zpeypyYDVDtkpk1e)

~~~
icodestuff
It looks like they've updated the 3dbuzz.torrent file, and now it's 4GB larger
than the versions on reddit.

> All files listed below are available on this torrent: 3dbuzz.torrent

~~~
brokenfilez
> now it's 4GB larger than the versions on reddit.

Note that the first one they posted was bigger too, and in both cases, most of
that extra size is coming from the following duplicate files:

    
    
      ai-programming-behavior-systems-part-01.1.zip
      houdini-director-volume-ii-part-01.1.zip
      mathematics-algebra-part-01.1.zip
      mathematics-trigonometry-part-01.1.zip
      modern-javascript-real-world-dev-part-01.1.zip
      modern-javascript-real-world-dev-part-02.1.zip
      modern-javascript-real-world-dev-part-03.1.zip
      modern-javascript-real-world-dev-part-04.1.zip
      unreal-tournament-2003-2004-part-01.1.zip
      unreal-tournament-2003-2004-part-02.1.zip
      unreal-tournament-2003-2004-part-03.1.zip
    

However, the new torrent that they posted does indeed include the two files
missing from the Reddit torrent (which were also giving 404 when they
originally realeased the files a week ago):

    
    
      xna-volume-2-part-01.zip
      xna-volume-3-part-01.zip
    

I am currently verifying the new torrent, but I have to leave any minute now
so I don't have time to see what the result is until I get back but I think
probably the new torrent they posted is going to verify correctly. We will
see.

Edit: The new one is already reporting some files fail to verify as the first
one did.

For reference, in this comment I am talking about the torrent file
3dbuzz-2020-01-13.torrent from the 3dbuzz website with SHA256 hash sum:

    
    
      e3adc900ff7d8bcb286119a059f216ea57a37096e84488c737f0db5b8e8eaeb5  3dbuzz-2020-01-13.torrent

------
artellectual
I was one of the members of 3dbuzz early on. It pretty much shaped my career.
I now run my own video tutorial site (codemy.net) because I was inspired by
3DBuzz.

I got my first job because of content from 3DBuzz. Later focussed on web
development and now I'm here working in a very good job / able to start my own
projects. Most of it started at 3DBuzz. So this is a very sad day for me.

I remember when Jason passed away that was devastating. I reached out to some
members (who are now working at Epic / Microsoft). 3DBuzz set me (and many
other people I know) up for life.

~~~
lacion
same for me, Jason was incredible early in my career.

------
IRememberJason
For those who don't know, 3DBuzz was a small pioneering company providing
training material for 3D content creation suites.

At the time, it also was the only place where you could get training material
for Unreal Engine (3/UDK). I can only imagine that quite a few people in the
industry first got their start on UE through that material.

Moreover, it was a community with a forum/IRC and had a podcast running for a
while. While I wasn't an active member of the community, in its heyday I used
to visit the site daily. It was a great place.

As the founder Jason Busby struggled with terminal cancer, the site died down.

My gratitude and regards go out to Jason's family and everyone who was
involved with the site.

~~~
heydabop
> had a podcast running for a while

This is oddly enough what I remember most about the place. IIRC it was very
relaxed and felt like the hosts just hanging out talking about whatever, but
was also engaging unlike many podcasts that try to do that.

------
bdefore
If you don't want to download via torrent, note that many (maybe all?) of the
videos are available on their YouTube page:
[https://www.youtube.com/user/3DBuzz/videos](https://www.youtube.com/user/3DBuzz/videos)

~~~
zubspace
A lot of things seem to be missing. Blender, C#/C++, Android-Development,
Modern Javascript, MMO Development, etc..

------
buhrmi
I remember taking the Houdini class. I've modeled a desk lamp. It was crappy
and I knew it, but the teachers said it was an "amazing design" and encouraged
me to learn more about the software. It truly was inspiring and a great
community... Thanks for everything.

------
excerionsforte
During my elementary/high school days, I remember their C++ videos for
creating a simple, but fun mage fireball game in Windows console. It was a
good introduction, for me, to object oriented programming. Really showed me
that C++ wasn't hard at all and could be fun. Authentic videos where mistakes
were made and showed you the human side of programming.

3dBuzz Variables and Data Types -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=og_8Bx-l80k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=og_8Bx-l80k)

Mage and Fireball -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=923ELha-L4Q](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=923ELha-L4Q)

------
jiofih
This is sad but it is SO refreshing to see something on the web that takes us
back a decade or two - plain content, links, no banners, tracking or email
subscriptions. Just people sharing a bit of their passions online. Farewell

------
mesaframe
For the non introduced people can anyone explain what 3DBuzz was?

~~~
erikbye
3DBuzz was an educational subscription service website, launched in 2002 or
thereabout; it offered what they at the time called Video Training Modules,
mainly on DCC software (Autodesk products, etc.) and content creation for
games. They had a lot of free content, too. In the beginning, if I remember
correctly, videos were available for download and shipping (CD). Later, they
implemented a video player; I cannot remember if they removed the option to
download at that point. The site evolved and a community formed. They started
offering programming tutorials. At its height, it was the best site for
learning UDK (back when Unreal Engine had a hefty license fee UDK was the free
version). The community was in decline for a long time before the death of its
founder. One of their most prolific instructors now works at Epic Games. Over
the years, many community members have credited 3DBuzz for their current
employment.

------
ww520
This looks like a treasure trove on game art creation. Kudos for releasing
them. Much appreciated. It’s so much hardwork and wonderful knowledge.

------
crtlaltdel
i know it signals the end of something people poured their hearts into...but i
do enjoy reading these kinds of announcements. i find it fascinating to see
how founders communicate to their communities and now-ex-staff. in a lot of
cases, i find it inspiring.

------
CharlesMerriam2
Leaving with bountiful abundance to all who come after is the true sign of
character. I heartily say, "Well done!"

------
ronyeh
Links to the files (torrent) on reddit:

[https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/ekhzsd/comment/fdd...](https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/ekhzsd/comment/fddm16u)

------
schaefer
I took the Mastering Maya class as well as several others when they initially
came out more than a decade ago.

I learned so much, but also got such a sense of community working with the
other students.

I'll always be grateful for that opportunity.

------
toastedSandwich
It was a gold mine back in the day. Through 3D Buzz I ended up taking one of
their courses at the The Renaissance Centre in Dickson. I was 17 and it was
only the 2nd time I ever travelled out of the UK, and the first I travelled on
my own! Had a great time and I went on to do a BA in Computer Animation and
Visualisation. I work in mobile development now and owe a lot of my early
programming skills to 3D Buzz. Their C++ and MEL scripting videos were
highlights for me. Rest in peace Jason.

------
spinlock_
Man, that's really sad. I followed the progress of Jason's sickness on fb (he
was posting about it pretty regularly) and it was really heart breaking to see
how fuckin cancer chews you up and spits you out. I still have two of the Maya
courses from 3DBuzz on DVD at home. Just a week ago I was throwing away all of
my old CDs/DVDs but decided to keep them for nostalgia reasons. I guess it was
a good decision.

------
lacion
I recently learned that Jason died in 2017 and it was incredibly sad, even
though I stopped using 3dbuzz a long time ago, it was an incredible tool when
I started in the VFX industry, it was affordable incredible good training.

------
DubiousPusher
I tried to wget this and got a cert error. I believe this is due to a known
bug in wget for Windows but would be curious if people on Linux see the same
issue.

~~~
gregoryl
If you're using powershell, wget is just an alias! Install ps6 (core?) and
it's much nicer.

------
romanovcode
Damn, 3dBuzz is the reason I became programmer. Delphi video tutorials were
first introduction to the topic and that's when I got hooked.

------
erikbye
Thank you, for everything.

------
sbr464
Thank You, seeding.

------
anton96
Again something I discover when they stop it

------
Exuma
RIP

