“I’m building an ancient Greek cinematic world. Here’s how Blender courses and social media are funding it.”

Animator and director Martin Klekner, 36, spent years honing his craft as cinematic director of role-playing game Kingdom Come.

Five years ago, he left it all behind to create his own animated world, Heroes of Bronze, making courses and leveraging social media to fund his creative journey. Now he’s got his sights set on Hollywood.

He took me through his journey so far👇.

Discovering a passion

I went to film school in my home country of Czech Republic and studied direction, screenwriting, things like that. A teacher showed us how to do visual effects and I was mesmerized.

He helped me get a job at a visual effects company in Prague. I thought this was going to be my dream job.

In reality, it completely sucked. It was a 9 to 5 grind plus lots of unpaid overtime.

I was overwhelmed and after six months, I went back to study at a philosophy university. But I kept my professional contacts and started designing applications and doing some digital painting for clients on the side.

Getting into video games

I got my first business experience soon after. A high school friend approached me about a tour guide idea he had.

Our most famous Czech king was Charles IV. My friend and I thought we could run Charles IV-themed tours of Prague, using videos with visual effects and 3D rendering to showcase how the city looked in medieval times.

We tried this for a year and a half. People liked it, but it was a commercial failure.

It did helped us advance our careers, however. I’d learned a lot about 2D and 3D graphics and animation.

This experience helped me get a job with a company making a role-playing game called Kingdom Come. They hired me just after running a Kickstarter.

I ended up working there for four years, initially making marketing videos for Youtube and Facebook.

Gradually, I learned the tools to make cinematic sequences that play inside the game. Nobody else in the company was willing to make them, so I became cinematic director. I hired a team, including some old film school buddies.

Going solo

I left Kingdom Come in 2018 and started work on my own storytelling project the next year. It’s called Heroes of Bronze and it’s how I got into tutorials and courses.

I got the idea for HoB after reading a series called Long War by Christian Cameron about seven years ago. It’s about the Greco-Persian Wars, which are depicted in the movie 300.

The books made me realise you could do a much better job of portraying this period than 300 does.

I started out just testing out ideas in 3D. Images of ancient Greek warriors and battle scenes. As I started rendering individual characters, I came up with little plotlines, and eventually an overarching narrative.

Starting out with tutorials

I realized I could raise awareness of the project by sharing the techniques I used to make the characters and build the world.

My first tutorial was a Youtube video about modeling and texturing, finishing this ancient Greek shield. People reacted very well to it and asked for more tutorials.

I started experimenting with these videos. I bundled a series together into a course I sold on Gumroad. It teaches you how to make a 3D Spartan character model using free software called Blender.

I posted about it on Youtube and Instagram and shared the course on specialist sites like BlenderNation.org and BlenderMarket.

Eventually, a group called CGBoost asked me to make a course for them. That’s where I still do most of my work now.

Tutorials started off as maybe 5% of my income. Then it got to 20%. At the best of times, I earned around $5,500 per month with just this one course. 

Tailor your content by platform

Key to growing your social media audience is figuring out how to shape your content to fit the right platform, and then making sure to post regularly.

Everything I’m making is focused on ancient Greece as well as this technical stuff. I think the ancient Greek niche has helped my content stand out from other Blender tutorials.

I have had great experiences on YouTube, which is where I have the most followers.

I built my audience there by posting consistently. Every month I’d release videos and gradually, people started recognizing my tutorials.

The next best platform for me is Instagram. I have a great group of followers who are really interested in the topics I focus on: the story, the history and the technical tools. It’s where I’ve seen the most growth in engagement, although my follower count is a bit lower.

I use Twitter, but mostly for sharing technical stuff. The historical and story stuff is not successful there, but behind-the-scenes workflow videos are. I think that’s because my following there is more tech-focused.

Cracking Youtube

When you post videos, make sure they have good thumbnails and titles to stand out from the competition.

Make the thumbnail readable even in very small sizes, so that it's clear what your video is about to anyone browsing their recommended content.

Choose just a few words that explain the content of the video and use a nice image that illustrates the topic. If you show how you can help people, you’ll grow your audience pretty fast.

I wouldn’t recommend making videos with clickbait-y banners and titles. You know, ’12 steps to better 3D renders.’ That sort of thing.

Don’t get me wrong. I’ve done it myself. But I feel like I’m tricking my audience.

It’s much better to focus on quality. Make a really nice video with a really nice shot and just breakdown how you made it. Don’t rely on coasting on trends.

Growing an online eco-system

When income from my Gumroad course first started dropping, I started doing a lot of other things to bring in money. I started selling 3D models online, which I still do on my website and via Patreon.

I’d monetize my content with product placement, affiliate links, stuff like that.

Once you’ve built an audience, you can use it to recommend other people’s stuff, or even make commercials for their products.

Often, I’ll use a company’s software, present my results on social media and tag the company. Sometimes they’ll reach out and send me stuff to test out or pay me to make a video.

Some people aren’t picky about how they do product placement, but my rule is to only promote things I would actually use. Otherwise your audience might lose trust in you.

These days, I make $3.5k to $5.5k a month from my courses and other online work. But I expect this to go up after I release a new course around Christmas.

It will basically apply everything I know from film school. How to create shots and put together compositions. How to tell stories with animation.  I’ve been working on it for months.

Building my own world

Two years ago, I released a six-minute short film that introduces the Heroes of Bronze story. It took maybe four years to make, on the side of my other work.

The release was one of the best moments of my career.

I premiered the film on Youtube, and there was a stream of comments before it even began.

When it actually started, they just stopped. I thought, oh Jesus, this must be bad.

But when it ended there was another explosion of comments and the reaction was amazing. I think people had just been captivated by the film.

I’m still building the world, releasing short stories and digital illustrations. I’m putting all this together into a collection, which I’m really close to finishing.

I’m thinking about doing a Kickstarter to launch it. Then I’ll use the content to try and get funding for a team that could take Heroes to the next level.

Ultimately, I’d love to make a TV series with multiple seasons. That’s the biggest ambition I have for the project. I know it’s a little crazy, but it’s my goal.

Over the next year, I’ll talk to people in the industry to figure out how to get money from producers. 

Take a break once in a while

There is kind of a trap in selling all these things online. You have to keep making content, whether it’s new videos or models that make money themselves, or posts that keep your audience engaged.

I have a hard time getting rest because I’m always thinking that I need to make something or my income will go down.

I really recommend making sure you have hobbies and force yourself to get away from everything once in a while.