John W. Allie has been using Blender since 1999, when it wasn't even open source. He lives in New Haven, Connecticut, with his wife. Comics and other artwork can be found on his website http://www.johnwallie.com.

Olivier Amrein has been working on 3D for over 15 years. He is a CG generalist, interested in production aspects and workflows. Right now, he is working for RGBprod, a studio in Switzerland. He is a Blender Foundation Certified Trainer who loves all kinds of visual experiments.

He has been giving talks and workshops in Switzerland, the Netherlands, Brazil, Venezuela, and Russia. You can find more information about him at http://www.olivieramrein.com/.

Michael Dunn is a Python developer at the University of Notre Dame and an aspiring 3D artist.

A sophisticated 3D studio such as Blender comes with a pretty steep learning curve. When he started to learn Blender, it was difficult to find good training materials for beginners—which made the learning process quite disheartening. So, it is with joy that he is able to contribute as a technical reviewer to Blender 3D Basics Beginner's Guide and hopes that it will help many other aspiring artists get off to a successful start with Blender.

Jasper van Nieuwenhuizen is a freelance animation professional with a special interest in the technical side of things. After graduating from an art school in 2004, he picked up Blender and has been using it ever since. Because he really enjoyed animation and 3D in particular, and wanted to learn as much as he could about it, he decided to go back to school. In 2010, he graduated in 3D Computer Animation and Visual Effects from Utrecht School of the Arts.

After this, he co-started the animation studio Fube, where he played his part in making commercials and an animated short film. During this time, he picked up Python and slowly evolved from a CG Generalist to a Technical Director, but still kept in touch with the artistic side of animation.

At the moment, he freelances under the name Lines of Jasper, and is involved in the startup of an animation collective. When he's not in front of his computer, he spends time with his family, grows vegetables on the balcony, and makes paper planes and robots. You can find more about him and his work at http://www.linesofjasper.com.

Brian Rocz received a BA in English from the University of Colorado, Denver, where he began studies in Math and Physics before transferring to the more subjective realm of literature and writing. His interest in 3D art grew out of his traditional art background, which, he admits, was left uncultivated and even less practiced. He has been using Blender for a number of years and is largely self-taught, though he cannot get away without saying that he owes a debt of gratitude to the Blender community for sharing their knowledge. He goes by the name Rocz3D in the digital space and on his website http://www.3dblenderstuff.wordpress.com.