# BCON Austin - The Officially Recognized North American Blender Conference **URL:** \ **Category:** Events\ **Tags:** conference\ **Created:** [February 5, 2026, 7:50pm UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/bcon-austin-the-officially-recognized-north-american-blender-conference/1629754 "2026-02-05T19:50:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AMBER\_KELLY](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/amber_kelly/32/1035852_2.png) [@AMBER\_KELLY](https://blenderartists.org/u/AMBER_KELLY)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2026, 7:50pm UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/bcon-austin-the-officially-recognized-north-american-blender-conference/1629754/1 "2026-02-05T19:50:41Z")
After the great success of BCON LA, the community inspired us to host another officially recognized Blender Conference, this time in Austin Texas on iconic 6th Street. We invite you to join us (and Francesco) April 13th & 14th > **[BCON AUSTIN — bconna.org](https://bconna.org/2026/)** > > BCON AUSTIN - One of the events of the year celebrating the Free and Open 3D Creation Software ---
**Author:** ![joseph](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/joseph/32/1433056_2.png) [@joseph](https://blenderartists.org/u/joseph)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2026, 8:09pm UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/bcon-austin-the-officially-recognized-north-american-blender-conference/1629754/2 "2026-02-05T20:09:12Z")
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**Author:** ![thetony20](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/thetony20/32/1121876_2.png) [@thetony20](https://blenderartists.org/u/thetony20)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2026, 4:15pm UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/bcon-austin-the-officially-recognized-north-american-blender-conference/1629754/3 "2026-04-22T16:15:31Z")
For anyone interested, the videos of the talks for this are starting to be published (which is good to see). [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3GeP3YLZn5jmxyFfJckSspQP8lw5BFWQ](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3GeP3YLZn5jmxyFfJckSspQP8lw5BFWQ) ---
**Author:** ![thorn](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/thorn/32/1035944_2.png) [@thorn](https://blenderartists.org/u/thorn)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2026, 4:23pm UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/bcon-austin-the-officially-recognized-north-american-blender-conference/1629754/4 "2026-04-22T16:23:22Z")
Andrew Price explaining why he thinks AI needs to be embraced. At a conference that **actual artists** paid to attend. ![image](https://blenderartists.org/uploads/default/original/4X/0/c/1/0c1f721801e105ff22ac48fb74260bd1d1eb602f.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![sozap](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/sozap/32/443872_2.png) [@sozap](https://blenderartists.org/u/sozap)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2026, 10:40pm UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/bcon-austin-the-officially-recognized-north-american-blender-conference/1629754/5 "2026-04-22T22:40:55Z")
Yeah just watched it, I think it definitly lack some context. Yes you can generate random assets loosely based on arranged forms, just like you can download random assets and frankenstein them together to make something, in that matter this isn’t new… Yes you can drive AI to do something clother to your needs and I’m sure those type of workflow is going to be part of an artist’s toolbox. However, how that would hold up in an actual real world scenario where you work with art directors, clients that are going to tell you to change this or that every weeks ? When things are going to be rigged, and handed over to other departements… How those techniques could fit a design language or help solving design / functional problems ? Is this about putting together a scene just from prompts in a weekend as a hobbyist who wants to fiddle with 3D without actually learning it, or is this actually something useful to a professional working in the industry ? If this is about doing concept art, let’s recall that Andrew has no experience in that field… Also, I find interesting his take on automating stuff or assets and it kinda answers the whole talk I think : Yes you can use pre-made assets and save time without bothering how they work under the hood, but this is forcing you to stay on the surface level. Which might be ok in some cases. The whole argument is about automating things to fullfill “your vision” and you just need to be creative without wasting time understanding the actual techniques. But how can you make something truly unique if you use AI to model regurgitated shapes, that you don’t understand how material works, how compositing works and you just rely on existing assets… I think Andrew made good learning material over the years, polygon looks like a good ressources for textures, they made good kits back in the days with grass and rock essentials. But it ends there… They have no professional experience beside teaching. They are more on the tutor side rather than the artist side as well. Yet they can talk about how this is supposed to be done with confidence. They give carreer advice that they don’t have in the first place ! Even though if as an entrepreuneur Andrew’s career is clearly sucessful ! ---
**Author:** ![sozap](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/sozap/32/443872_2.png) [@sozap](https://blenderartists.org/u/sozap)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2026, 11:08pm UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/bcon-austin-the-officially-recognized-north-american-blender-conference/1629754/6 "2026-04-22T23:08:40Z")
Anyway, I watched the first video with Bill Plympton, quite worth watching, and it’s so great that there is nothing more to add 😃 ---
**Author:** ![revolt\_randy](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/revolt_randy/32/8606_2.png) [@revolt\_randy](https://blenderartists.org/u/revolt_randy)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 4:05am UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/bcon-austin-the-officially-recognized-north-american-blender-conference/1629754/7 "2026-04-23T04:05:36Z")
Wait, what? > [@thorn](#): > > Andrew Price explaining why he thinks AI needs to be embraced. > > At a conference that **actual artists** paid to attend. You mean I missed this??? 😭 When I wipe the tears from my eyes and can see again, I’m rushing off to see this video… 🙄 Not going to comment on AI as that would be off topic. @thetony20 Thanks for posting a playlist link!!! Randy ---
**Author:** ![joseph](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/joseph/32/1433056_2.png) [@joseph](https://blenderartists.org/u/joseph)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 12:21pm UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/bcon-austin-the-officially-recognized-north-american-blender-conference/1629754/8 "2026-04-23T12:21:30Z")
Andrew’s gonna Andrew, nothing new here 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Helmut\_S](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/helmut_s/32/568553_2.png) [@Helmut\_S](https://blenderartists.org/u/Helmut_S)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2026, 6:39am UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/bcon-austin-the-officially-recognized-north-american-blender-conference/1629754/9 "2026-04-24T06:39:37Z")
Watched it yesterday. Funny, he virtually delegated _all_ the creativity to AI, yet didn’t even notice. Unsurprisingly, because as he admitted, his normal workflow would have been to scrape artstation for ideas … 🙄