Behind the Scenes: Pennywise By Alina Khan on January 31, 2025 Behind the Scenes Bennie, a self-taught 3D artist from South Africa, shares how he brought Pennywise to life using Blender, blending creativity and technical skill to craft this iconic character.INTRODUCTIONHello everyone,My name is Bennie, and Im a self-taught 3D artist, born and raised on South African soil. I live in a country rich in history, racial diversity, language, and culture, filled with African wildlife and breathtaking landscapes such as bushvelds, grasslands, forests, majestic mountain peaks, beaches, and coastal wetlands.I developed a love and passion for character art at a very young agepreschool, to be exact. Throughout my adolescence, I sketched various types of characters almost every day. However, after graduating high school, I had to face the challenges of adult life. During this time, my passion for sketching characters began to diminish, as I was too occupied and exhausted from working and building a life with my late wife.Years later, a former colleague who knew about my sketching abilities introduced me to Blender. My first encounter with Blender was with version 2.5 Beta in 2010. Unfortunately, online tutorials at the time were rather limited and lacked the comprehensiveness they offer today.The first thing I wanted to learn was whether I could create character art using Blender. One day, while browsing the web, I came across a YouTube video by Kent Trammell, where he sculpted a male torso. That video reignited my passion for creating character art in Blender.I became a hungry 3D artist, eager to master human anatomy courses. This led me to discover my favorite 3D artist, Rafael Grassetti. I purchased Rafaels male and female anatomy courses, which remain gold standards to this day. Although Rafael primarily uses ZBrush, his workflows and sculpting techniques can be effectively applied to Blender as well.Apart from character design, I wanted to master all the workflows in the 3D pipeline so that one day I could create my own short movies. I became a citizen member of CG Cookie, and it was through their foundational courses that I began achieving my goals. These comprehensive courses allowed me to elevate my skills to levels I had never imagined. My favorite course from CG Cookie, even to this day, is Piero by Kent Trammell.I started setting goals for myself and committed to daily practice. I immersed myself in learning theories, terminologies, and the fundamentals of the entire 3D pipeline. Day after day, year after year, I continued to hone my craftand I havent stopped since I began.Today, I can proudly attest to the hard work I invested all those years ago. Was the journey smooth? Of course not. There were moments when I almost gave up on myself, overwhelmed by the complexity of Blender and the pressures of the outside world.But one thing I knew for sure was that I wanted to excel in Blender. I embraced the challenges because giving up simply wasnt an option. Art doesnt just bring joy and happiness to my lifeit also serves as a therapeutic medium for self-expression.Now that Ive introduced myself, lets shift gears. How did I go about creating this character, Pennywise? Please join me as I share some of the insights behind my creative process.INSPIRATIONAll of my inspirations are rooted in the shows, movies, video games, and comics I enjoyed during my childhood. The inspiration for this particular piece struck me shortly after watching IT: Chapter II. I always try to level up my abilities when it comes to creating new projects. The great thing about evolving as a 3D artist is that you can always return to old projects and create revised versions.Here is an example of such a test I did on myself The Ring of Power (created in 2012 but uploaded in 2017) The Ring of Power (2021) PROCESSCollecting & Studying ReferencesThe first and most obvious step was to collect references. I used PureRef to manage my artboard. To get a better understanding of the characters likeness, I watched certain scenes from the movie several times to study muscle structure and flow. Once I was confident enough, I launched Blender and started a new file. The objective I had for this project was to create a mix between realistic and stylized, not aimed at likeness.Sculpting the HeadThe first step I took was activating Sculpting from Blenders Splash Screen.I manipulated the default sphere by sculpting primary details with a voxel size of 0.350 until I had an acceptable shape. Afterwards, I sculpted secondary details by changing the voxel size from 0.350 to 0.01. When I create character busts, I always start with the head. This gives me a clear perspective on deciding how the rest of the characters body will flow. For full-body character sculpts, I use spheres to block out the characters shape and form. Sometimes I use a skin modifier, depending on the type of character Im creating. Here is an example of such a workflow.Creating a Production-Friendly Mesh (Retopology)After I had completed the head sculpture, I proceeded to the retopology phase. I used a paid add-on called Quad Remesher to calculate the meshs density and transform it into a clean mesh with a decent topology flow. Ill be honest, I love creating manual topology using RetopoFlow, but I was too tired that day, which is why I chose to use Quad Remesher instead.Baking Texture MapsOnce the retopology was finalized, I added some seams and did a manual unwrap. The only texture maps I baked were Color (painted in sculpt mode), Ambient Occlusion, and Normal. Baking texture maps, as far as memory serves, can only be done in Cycles Render Engine. Here is a 3-minute tutorial on how to bake texture maps from a high-poly object to a low-poly object. Once the texture maps were baked, I started to apply them to the low-poly model. To conclude the characters face, I modeled his eyes and teeth.Creating HairFor his hair, I used the old method of using a Particle System. I have experimented with hair in the Asset Browser, but I still prefer the particle system. One day I will eventually transition, but for now, Im too comfortable with it.One thing to note is that when you create a particle system for hair, it is ideal and practical to select the affected areas that will contain hair in vertex mode and then duplicate that mesh. In my case, I did not follow this method. I created a particle system directly on the characters scalp, which is incorrect. However, since this was not a project for a client, I wasnt too worried about it.For an in-depth tutorial on creating hair using the new Asset Browser, please refer to this link:Creating the CollarHis collar was the most fun to create. I always enjoy playing around with cloth simulations. I started by adding a circle, extruding it once, and then subdividing it a few times to add more geometry. I then selected the inner circle and assigned it to a new vertex group. The vertex group that was applied held the inner circle in place, acting in a passive state while the rest of the vertices were affected by the simulation. For collision, I created a fake torso.After several simulations and mesh tweaks, the cloth modifier was then applied. I duplicated the simulated mesh by two and started placing them in a perpendicular position. Afterwards, I applied a solidify modifier to add some thickness.So, with sculpting, modeling, and the hair particles system out of the way, I finally reached a concluding result.Depth of FieldFor depth of field, I used an Empty object as my focus to drive the depth of the scene. Nothing to note here, just a simple setup.LightingFinally, at this point, I reached the most important part of the project lighting. I only used 2 lights here (Point Lights) instead of a 3-point lighting setup. I didnt want sharp shadows, so I adjusted the radius of the light to make the shadows softer. I created a cold and warm light with a value of 20,000 25,000 watts.World & VolumeFor the world, I used the default settings but made a few tweaks to the volume to add a fog-like appearance.Shaders & MaterialsThe shaders and materials that were compiled consisted of simple node networks. Below is a list of each.Head Eyes (Sclera) Eyes (Pupil) Eyes (Iris) Teeth Hair Collar Final render before compositing with volume disabled.Volume disabledFinal render before compositing with volume enabled.Volume enabledCompositingFor compositing, Ill include a step-by-step node setup, including the render result for each, which led to the final composition.Denoise, Diamond Sharpen and RGB Curves:Color Balance and Brightness/Contrast:Grunge Image, RGB Curves, Mix Color(Multiply) and Lens Distortion:Ellipse Mask, Blur, Mix Color(Multiply), Hue/Saturation and Composite.And that was it!RENDER: Pennywise On a final note, I would like to thank everyone for taking the time to read. I hope that some of the information presented was of value and assistance.Take care!About the Artist Bennie Griffin is a 3D Generalist from South Africa. He is known for creating character art and props for 3D printing. Links

A year ago, Google started off 2024 with some layoffs. It hasnt taken similar steps (yet) in 2025, but employees are fearing the worst. And if the Platforms and Devices team is anything to go by, theres ample reason for concern. Google has distributed a memo to all US employees working on Android, Pixel hardware, and other projects that offers a voluntary exit program guaranteeing severance for anyone willing to step away from their role at the company. The memo went out from platforms and devices SVP Rick Osterloh, according to 9to5Google.This comes after we brought two large organizations together last year, Osterloh wrote. Theres tremendous momentum on this team and with so much important work ahead, we want everyone to be deeply committed to our mission and focused on building great products, with speed and efficiency. Voluntary buyouts can often be a precursor to layoffs if not enough employees take Google up on its offer and choose to leave.Google combined its Android and hardware teams under Osterloh in April. Executives said the streamlined approach would help it integrate AI features across products and services more quickly.A few months later in October, Alphabets chief finance officer Anat Ashkenazi said she would prioritize cost efficiencies throughout the company. Theres really good work that was done, started by Ruth, Sundar and the rest of the lead team to re-engineer the cost base, she said during her first earnings call as CFO. But I think any organization can always push a little further and Ill be looking at additional opportunities. The cost-cutting measures are partly designed to offset Google pouring so much money into AI.Googles Pixel phones have never come anywhere close to the sales numbers enjoyed by Apple and Samsung, but the company is at least trending in the right direction; Counterpoint Research reported that Google recorded its highest-ever quarterly sales volume for smartphones in Q3 2024.Some employees at Google have recently been circulating a petition that calls for CEO Sundar Pichai to offer exactly this type of optional buyout before resorting to involuntary layoffs. Ongoing rounds of layoffs make us feel insecure about our jobs, the petition said, according to CNBC. The company is clearly in a strong financial position, making the loss of so many valuable colleagues without explanation hurt even more.At least for the time being, it appears the voluntary exit program hasnt been extended to other divisions within Google like search or the DeepMind AI team.See More:

ByRomane Armangau Published on 31/01/2025 - 11:47 GMT+1Updated 16:13 The Italian Data Protection Authority has halted DeepSeek AI over concerns about its handling of Italians' private data. Ireland and Belgium have also requested information from the Chinese company regarding the model's use of European data. ADVERTISEMENTItalian Data Protection Authority Garante has halted processing of Italians' personal data by DeepSeek because the agency is not satisfied with the Chinese AI model's claims that it does not fall under purview of EU law. Contrary to the Authority's findings, the companies stated that they do not operate in Italy and that European regulations do not apply to them, Garante wrote in a press release. On Tuesday Garante launched an investigation into Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence and Beijing DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence, giving the companies 20 days to furnish details on how the AI chatbot complies with GDPR, the European data protection law - looking into what data is collected, for what purpose, where it's being stored and if it has been used to train the AI model.This block means that DeepSeek will not be available on app stores in Italy. However, the ban could be bypassed online through use of virtual private networks.In April 2023, ChatGPT, OpenAI's US chatbot, was also banned by Garante over privacy violations for a month. It resulted in a 15 million fine.As DeepSeeks parent companies are not legally established in any member states, data protection authorities in all 26 other members can receive complaints and launch an investigation into them. So far, only Belgian and Irish data protection authorities opened a probes requesting information from DeepSeek on the processing and storage of their citizens data. Portuguese and Spanish data protection authorities. The French data protection authority, the CNIL, told the french media BFMTV that they will "analyse" the functioning of DeepSeek and will question the company. More countries could follow suit. Go to accessibility shortcuts You might also like

Fetch A TowelEvacuate the meme jacuzzi, those The Sims 1 and 2 re-releases are actually a thing, and you can grab 'em todayYou can stop just perusing EA's weird Y2K website and properly fire up the early 2000s nostalgia machine.Image credit: EA News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on Jan. 31, 2025 Well, EA and Maxis have had something nice for retro Sims fans in store as part of the celebration of the series' 25th anniversary - those reported re-releases of the first two Sims games are real, and they're going on sale today.Reports had claimed EA would be putting these games out digitally on PC by the end of January - so, basically this week - and it's now done so on January 31, last thing on a Friday. Timing.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. The re-releases for PC via EA app, Epic Games Store, and Steam are dubbed The Sims: Legacy Collection and The Sims 2: Legacy Collection, and are also avialable together in a Sims 25th Birthday Bundle bundle."To celebrate our legacy and honor the incredible fans that have been with us along the way, were re-releasing two fan-favorite titles that contain familiar neighborhoods and beloved characters such as the sneaky burglar, unpredictable genie, and Sunny the Tragic Clown that started it all," EA wrote in its announcement of these being a thing, "Rediscover the nostalgia and magic of the classics that welcomed so many of you into our amazing community." To see this content please enable targeting cookies.One thing to look at is the prices - which will be $39.99 for the bundle, $19.99 for just The Sims: Legacy Collection, and $29.99 The Sims 2: Legacy Collection. Another is the expansion packs included with each game. It looks like the majority of the originals are present and corrected for, The Sims 2's IKEA Home Stuff pack does look to sadly have not made its way in.Devastating news, obviously, but you do still get two different kinds of hoilday pack with that game, and the H&M Fashion Stuff pack to satiate your appetite for corporate tie-ins. The Sims 4's Throwback Fit Kit and Grunge Revival Kit have also been chucked in with these re-releases, with the first coming with the first game, and the latter coming with the second, so a nice boon fot the latest entry if you've not got those already.So you, stop chilling in the bizarre "meme jacuzzi" section of the weird Sims Y2K website EA's set up as part of these festivities, dry your meme-water coated bottom off, and check these re-releases out if you fancy!

Bad news Shaggy mains, it looks like the online servers for MultiVersus will soon be no more. In a post to social media as well as a blog post on the official website, it's been confirmed that the end of the game's fifth season will also mark the end of MultiVersus updates in general. Read more

Update: PC only for now.The first two Sims games are still exceedingly well-regarded these days, but sadly, actually gaining access to them in a legitimate way isn't particularly easy. The first was a disc-only jobby, and the second has long-since been removed from digital platforms.Thankfully, with a new report from Kotaku (thanks, Push Square) accompanying an intriguing tease from EA itself, it looks like The Sims and The Sims 2 will be re-released on PC very soon. The catch? Well, according to Kotaku's sources, it seems as though a console release is still "unclear" at the time of writing.Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Image: Nintendo LifeFebruary usually means a couple of things for us Nintendo fans: a disappointing Pokmon Presents showcase, and the first Nintendo Direct of the year (also, a Kirby game is normally right around the corner, but that's not all that important to this discussion).Pokmon is a no-brainer, obviously, but in the year of our lord 2025, there's every chance that a Direct won't be plonked in our laps in the coming weeks. Why? The Nintendo Switch 2.In case you somehow missed it, we got our first official look at the Switch 2 earlier this month. In true Nintendo fashion, we got a two-minute trailer, a brief note on backwards compatibility, and a glimpse of what we're assuming is Mario Kart 9, before the company went speeding off into the sunset, shouting, "No further info until our April 2nd Direct. Okay? Byeeeeee".Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube794kWatch on YouTube After a swift two minutes of looking at what's behind the curtain, Nintendo covered it up again and left us with three months of waiting. What's more, it put a date on a showcase months in advance a very non-Nintendo move leaving us to wonder whether that April presentation is the next Direct or merely another Direct.So, back to the issue at hand: February. Nintendo has hosted some kind of Direct every February since 2019. With the exception of 2020's Animal Crossing-focused event and last year's Partner Showcase, these February presentations have all been full-fat deals, too.Just a taste of some February Direct alumni... Image: Nintendo LifeIn the past, these showcases are where we've caught the first glimpses of Metroid Prime Remastered (including a shadow drop), Splatoon 3, Skyward Sword HD; and the list goes on. In short, these Feb Directs are usually big events, where Nintendo comes out into the new year with all guns blazing.But 2025 is a little different. The 'firing on all cylinders' approach has come and gone with the Switch 2 reveal, and we'd have to imagine that the real big guns are reserved for whatever April has in store. If all of the really exciting news is just a couple of months away, what does Nintendo do in February?Something focused entirely on Switch 1 and its line-up for the rest of the year feels like the most obvious approach. At the time of writing, we have no first-party release scheduled for February and only Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition dated for March after that. Sure, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond and Pokmon Legends: Z-A are both listed for 2025, but it could still be months until we get them and both may well be cross-gen.A little first-party Nintendo Direct could be a nice way to send off the current console and reassure owners that support will continue for a while. The chances of a new Mario or Zelda are slim to non-existent (we imagine they're reserved for the next console at this point), but rolling out some of the company's B-tier franchises could be a neat way to keep the fire stoked while we all wait for Switch 2 remasters of both Kirby: Planet Robobot and Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War have been mooted for a while, and we still believe that Nintendo has Metroid Prime 2 and 3 Remastered tucked away somewhere.Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube794kOf course, such announcements could just land via a social media post ( la Xenoblade Chronicles X's reveal), but if we're assuming Switch 1 and its ~150 million units will be supported for a while yet, there are still a good few months to fill. Heck, just look at how long Nintendo kept churning out 3DS games after the Switch's launch.An Indie World or Partner Showcase could help fill the void, though surely most big studios for the latter are focused on Switch 2 by now, and the former hardly inspires much hope of a 'stacked' Switch 1 calendar. Of course, there's always the chance that a heavy hitter like Silksong or Deltarune Chapter 3 & 4 could appear at either, but both have massively outgrown the Indie World roster by this point and, as we say, Switch 2 is right there.Look, trying to predict Nintendo is a fool's game, and we are the fools, but February is right around the corner and we want to know how much our expectations need to be tempered.Image: Nintendo LifeSo, what do you think? Do you think a Nintendo Direct is on the cards for February 2025, or is it going to be radio silence? Maybe a Partner Showcase or Indie World will carry the flame in the coming weeks instead? You can let us know your answer in the following poll and then take to the comments to share your predictions.Do you think there will be a Nintendo Direct in February? (51 votes)Yep, it's Switch 1 swan song time57%There will be a Partner Showcase, but nothing full-fat14%I can see there being an Indie World2%It'll just be a tweet announcement or two, no showcase6%Nope! It's Pokmon Presents only20%Other (comment below)2% Nintendo Direct dates and round-upsWhat did you vote for? Let us know your best guess for Nintendo's February plans in the comments.See AlsoShare:00 Jim came to Nintendo Life in 2022 and, despite his insistence that The Minish Cap is the best Zelda game and his unwavering love for the Star Wars prequels (yes, really), he has continued to write news and features on the site ever since. Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...Related Articles69 Games You Should Pick Up In Nintendo's 'Supercharge' eShop Sale (North America)Every game we scored 9/10 or higherOpinion: My Daughter Made Me Realise That Mario Wonder's Difficulty Options Need WorkYoshi or Nabbit, make your choiceRandom: Local Supermarket Wins Trademark Battle Against NintendoIt didn't expect to beat "such a commercial monster"

DeepSeek has gone viral.Chinese AI lab DeepSeek broke into the mainstream consciousness this week afterits chatbot app rose to the top of the Apple App Store charts (and Google Play, as well). DeepSeeks AI models, which were trained using compute-efficient techniques,have led Wall Street analystsand technologists to question whether the U.S. can maintain its lead in the AI race and whether the demand for AI chips will sustain.But where did DeepSeek come from, and how did it rise to international fame so quickly?DeepSeeks trader originsDeepSeek is backed by High-Flyer Capital Management, a Chinese quantitative hedge fund that uses AI to inform its trading decisions.AI enthusiast Liang Wenfeng co-founded High-Flyer in 2015. Wenfeng, who reportedly began dabbling in trading while a student at Zhejiang University, launched High-Flyer Capital Management as a hedge fund in 2019 focused on developing and deploying AI algorithms.In 2023, High-Flyer started DeepSeek as a lab dedicated to researching AI tools separate from its financial business. With High-Flyer as one of its investors, the lab spun off into its own company, also called DeepSeek.From day one, DeepSeek built its own data center clusters for model training. But like other AI companies in China, DeepSeek has been affected by U.S. export bans on hardware. To train one of its more recent models, the company was forced to use Nvidia H800 chips, a less-powerful version of a chip, the H100, available to U.S. companies.DeepSeeks technical team is said to skew young. The company reportedly aggressively recruits doctorate AI researchers from top Chinese universities. DeepSeek also hires people without any computer science background to help its tech better understand a wide range of subjects, per The New York Times.DeepSeeks strong modelsDeepSeek unveiled its first set of models DeepSeek Coder, DeepSeek LLM, and DeepSeek Chat in November 2023. But it wasnt until last spring, when the startup released its next-gen DeepSeek-V2 family of models, that the AI industry started to take notice.DeepSeek-V2, a general-purpose text- and image-analyzing system, performed well in various AI benchmarks and was far cheaper to run than comparable models at the time. It forced DeepSeeks domestic competition, including ByteDance and Alibaba, to cut the usage prices for some of their models, and make others completely free.DeepSeek-V3, launched in December 2024, only added to DeepSeeks notoriety.According to DeepSeeks internal benchmark testing, DeepSeek V3 outperforms both downloadable, openly available models like MetasLlama and closed models that can only be accessed through an API, like OpenAIs GPT-4o. Equally impressive is DeepSeeks R1 reasoning model. Released in January, DeepSeek claims R1 performs as well as OpenAIso1model on key benchmarks.Being a reasoning model, R1 effectively fact-checks itself, whichhelps it to avoid some of thepitfallsthat normally trip up models. Reasoning models take a little longer usually seconds to minutes longer to arrive at solutions compared to a typical non-reasoning model. The upside is that they tend to be more reliable in domains such as physics, science, and math.There is a downside to R1, DeepSeek V3, and DeepSeeks other models, however. Being Chinese-developed AI, theyre subject tobenchmarkingby Chinas internet regulator to ensure that its responses embody core socialist values. In DeepSeeks chatbot app, for example, R1 wont answer questions about Tiananmen Square or Taiwans autonomy.A disruptive approachIf DeepSeek has a business model, its not clear what that model is, exactly. The company prices its products and services well below market value and gives others away for free.The way DeepSeek tells it, efficiency breakthroughs have enabled it to maintain extreme cost competitiveness. Some experts dispute the figures the company has supplied, however.Whatever the case may be, developers have taken to DeepSeeks models, which arent open source as the phrase is commonly understood but are available under permissive licenses that allow for commercial use. According to Clem Delangue, the CEO of Hugging Face, one of the platforms hosting DeepSeeks models, developers on Hugging Face have created over 500 derivative models of R1 that have racked up 2.5 million downloads combined.DeepSeeks success against larger and more established rivals has been described as upending AI and over-hyped. The companys success was at least in part responsible for causing Nvidias stock price to drop by 18% on Monday, and for eliciting a public response from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.Microsoft announced that DeepSeek is available on its Azure AI Foundry service, Microsofts platform that brings together AI services for enterprises under a single banner. When asked about DeepSeeks impact on Metas AI spending during its first-quarter earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said spending on AI infrastructure will continue to be a strategic advantage for Meta. As for what DeepSeeks future might hold, its not clear. Improved models are a given. But the U.S. government appears to be growing wary of what it perceives as harmful foreign influence.TechCrunch has an AI-focused newsletter!Sign up hereto get it in your inbox every Wednesday.This story was originally published January 28, and will be updated continuously with more information.

A startup called Graze, which lets you build your own feeds for the Bluesky social network, has caught investors attention. In addition to offering tools to easily build, customize, publish, and manage Bluesky feeds, Graze will soon allow feed creators to monetize their efforts with advertising, sponsored posts, and subscriptions.In other words, Graze has stumbled upon a potentially viable business model for Bluesky before the social network itself has. Investors are taking notice, too: Graze is poised to announce the close of an oversubscribed pre-seed round of funding.Ive been doing tech startups for 30 years and this is actually the craziest early-stage growth curve Ive ever seen, says Graze co-founder and CEO Peat Bakke, speaking to the tools adoption. We went from zero literally no traffic to serving hundreds of thousands of unique people every day, tens of millions of content impressions. Its nuts. Its totally nuts. And its all word of mouth.Bakke is joined by co-founder Devin Gaffney, whose background is in social media and network analysis. The two began working together around 12 years ago on Little Bird, a social data analysis startup that relied on parsing Twitters full feed, also known as the Firehose, to extract insights that could be useful to businesses.Now, theyre working with the new generations firehose: the Jetstream offered by the open and decentralized social network Bluesky, which includes all the public posts from its now over 30.3 million users as well as future apps building on the underlying AT Protocol (or atproto, for short).Weve always been interested in social networks, especially the nascent, growing social networks, to see whats happening next, Bakke says.Image Credits:GrazeFollowing the events that drove millions to leave X to join Bluesky over the past year (and in even larger numbers after the U.S. presidential elections), the two founders seized the opportunity to start working in this space again.In November, they began building Graze, a tool that gives Bluesky users the ability to create their own algorithm, so to speak, in the form of custom feeds built with complex logic, multiple filters, and rules. And its tools have rapidly taken off.Grazes growth is being helped by Blueskys increasing popularity; the network added 23 million users over the past year.Though Bluesky looks and feels much like X (formerly Twitter), with its text-first nature, timeline, and DMs, its offering a more democratized experience than traditional social networks. Instead of being centrally managed by a billionaire owner like Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg, anyone can run their own Bluesky Personal Data Server and set their own moderation controls. They can also build their own custom feeds to filter the networks content in a variety of ways, instead of only relying on Blueskys algorithm.Image Credits:GrazeGraze operates on Blueskys Jetstream and works with atproto allowing people to build not just feeds, but also their own websites and experiences based on their filtered versions of the Jetstream.For instance, one Graze customer is building a social media platform focused on professional cycling. With Grazes toolset, the customer can create different algorithms that identify and track specific teams and people, and also moderate the feed so its safe for work. Its also the tool that built top Bluesky feeds like News and BookSky.Several of the apps building their own TikTok for Bluesky-type video experiences are working with Grazes toolset, too. Image Credits:GrazeWhats potentially more interesting is that Graze is one of the only platforms working to monetize these custom Bluesky feeds, and its doing it with the Bluesky teams blessing.The startup has already quietly tested sponsored posts via its platform, which loads ads into custom feeds. (Because Bluesky doesnt have a way of differentiating ads in its product, these posts use a hashtag to flag themselves as ads.)Temu cant just come in and buy like $100,000 of advertising on [someones] news feed, Bakke says. Instead, an advertiser offers a sponsored post and the number of impressions theyre aiming for. The feed operator has to consent to it. They maintain 100% editorial control over what goes into their feed.Plus, he says, if someone overruns their feed with ads, the users will likely abandon it. So, theres a natural ecosystem balancing process, he says. The ads can be set at whatever price point the feeds creator chooses. Initially, Grazes guidance is a $1 to $3 CPM rate. Thats a quarter of what it costs to advertise on other social networks, but so far, the click-through rates and engagement are comparable, he says.ScreenshotImage Credits:GrazeGraze also respects Blueskys existing privacy guidelines meaning the ads are not targeted by collecting users personal data and or demographic info, but rather by which feeds the advertiser wants to reach. (Presumably, a cat food brand would do well advertising in a feed focused on cats, for example.)Other Graze tools will soon allow for private feeds, including those that require a subscription payment to access. With both ads and subscriptions, Graze is eyeing a 30/70 revenue split, similar to the App Store, with creators taking the larger share. It will also work with brands and businesses to match them to feeds that would best serve their interests via a creator marketplace, launching next week.Portland-based Graze is currently a team of three, including front-end developer Andrew Lazowski, based in San Jose. Topics

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