January update, (manim upgrades, part-time hire, etc.)

Actually became really excited about your work initially because I saw you were using Python to animate your videos. I remember a few years ago near when I first ran into your content trying to use manim myself but then giving up because the documentation wasn't really there. So it's honestly quite exciting to see these initial tutorials and documentation for it, and I'm very happy that you're working on it!

I support you for your awesome contributions to the world of learning mathematics in a succinct and digestible way for visual learners. It doesn't matter what form it takes. I'm on board for all of it !

I think working on Manim is a good use of time because it directly benefits your videos, and has indirect benefits to other math content creators. But I wonder about making videos about Manim - that seems to only have indirect benefits. Could helping others to use Manim be achieved through a less time intensive way, like documentation and demo projects?

Eren Nimzowitsch

I want to reiterate the support from others, manim development will ultimately lead to higher quality videos (if that's even possible), and as it's made easier to use, production time will likely decrease. I am happy that my patreon subscription will be contributed to such a powerful explanatory tool, and I do not mind that your upload frequency is on the slower end. Good things take time, and you do a very fine job in communicating your progress. Also, I very much enjoyed the Medical Tests video.

I, for one, loved the medical tests video, while the monster group one was a bit over my head. Even if the making of isn't as gratifying in some cases vs some others, know that you provide a tremendous value to your audience/supporter with every video you make.

Uhm I just want to support _you_ and I don't really care how you spend the money. I think what you are doing is valuable and I would like you to continue no matter what form it takes really. This is all a bit more complicated of course but I also believe that you should have the right to take some time off and still get the money from me, you know as is the case for all (fair) work.

who is counting

I am DELIGHTED that you are making infrastructure available to allow more folks to produce high-quality math videos like yours. Happy to support you in that! And I might even use the software myself, for something far afield from math: I think I could use it to help people with a mind's eye understand what it is like not to have one (aphantasia).

Nicholas Sterling

I think as long as you are working toward your overall vision of creating educational content, I'm happy to continue funding whether videos specifically are being produced.

Personally I'm happy to support you through patreon in all months, even if new videos aren't coming out. Whatever helps you have the time to keep making great educational content -- even if it's fixing bugs or refactoring your shading code!

Totally onboard with supporting your work in a broader sense than just videos.

Joshua King

I support you via Patreon because I see mathematical insight and curiosity as fundamentally good for the world, and I want to encourage you and others with similarly awesome talents to spread that goodness as freely and quickly as possible. I suspect, then, that your work on Manim is as central to my wishes as your content creation, but I'd love for the Patreon setup to let others express more clearly whether they're specifically intending to support one activity or the other, or just you personally.

I support _you_, so whatever you choose to do is fine with me!

I think working on Manim is a great use of your time and I'm glad I supported you (at least in a small way) while pursuing this. I joined your Patreon not only because of the videos you post in YouTube (although that is a big part), but because I think you have a tremendous talent in teaching, explaining, and creating resources connected to these. As such, I see the support from Patreon as additional income so you can spend your time on the projects you are passionate about. That might mean you'll work on other courses, software, textbooks, etc. but I am more than happy to support all of that too! Also, I would LOVE to see tutorial videos showing how to use Manim to its full capabilities.

I'm pretty sure you could simply add another tier that is intended for suppotring both math vids and manim development (or any other of your endeavors). That way yor patrons can easily decide what they would like to support. Just don't forget to announce it in news feed so people know about it. Pretty sure many would swap for an unconditional monthly support tier.

As a patron I support both video creation and tooling around with manim. I love reading your documentation on manim simply because your videos are so beautiful.

I will happily support financially any effort to improve and expand the open source capacity of manim, especially if it’s original developer wants to continue developing it. I think manim is a beautiful tool to convey complex topics visually and I think it will become foundational to how we communicate explanatory information in the future.

Please do not pause the contributions! I am 100% supportive of your work on manim and any other tools you use that relate in any way to your videos and educational mission. If anything, working on manim is more important than making a single video.

I definitely am supportive of your development of manim through 3blue's patreon. Being someone who both makes awesome content and can develop in python, you are perfectly positioned to make a great contribution to a library like this.

Perfecting the manim engine is a noble cause and should have even better impact on math education (and probably would require more funding, so there's no reason to pause funding)

Support for 3blue1brown definitely includes the tooling that goes into making the videos.

Kurt Bruns

Don’t you dare pause MY billing. As a revenge I am bumping my tier to the NEXT LEVEL!!

I agree that it would be wonderful to see more material from you about Manim. I would especially enjoy seeing you break down the source code from one of your past videos, so we can see more about your process. I'm also curious how these recent improvements relate to the ManimCommunity version. I saw previously it was recommended that other creators use the ManimCommunity repo because there is more active support, but if Manim is adding sweet new features like faster rendering and interactivity, those certainly seem like things I would want to use.

Eric Severson

As many have said, I support you and whatever work you think is most appropriate to work on. If that's spending time on refining Manim for its general use and future use in your videos, go for it! It all serves in support of your general work and I'm happy to support all of it on Patreon!

As a software engineer, I think a video about manim would be super interesting! Part of why I like your channel so much is because of the quality of the animations, and how they’re made is part of the story.

Please do not pause the contributions. If you feel that your time is best spent paying down some of the tech debt that has accumulated, that's perfectly OK. I support the channel not for a steady diet of entertaining material; I do so in order to give you the freedom to create the material and tools that you believe in.

MarkM

Like others, I patronize you for your work, and have faith based on previous work that it is very little money well spent. That said, I am interested in manim, and would appreciate a "how to use" or "how I made" video about it, warts, bugs, and ugliness included.

It is very fair of you to pause the donations but I personally feel you do not need to do this. I don't want to buy a video from you, I want to support your work altogether.

Happy to support you in any way you see fit, especially your Open Source work.

I want to encourage you to unpause this. As a paetron I understand you feel the need to produce content but this one post is enough for me to justify support for this. If you need to make a special level for those us that want to support content and open source so be it. Open Source is work and I am happy supporting you.

Happy to see you working on manim, some tutorial videos would be great! Not motivated enough to dig through some guides or documentation but a video is easy watching. Looking forward to the differential equations coming back, some of my favourite vids!

I also think there is no need to pause. Manim is the tool that you use to create your videos, I'm happy that the support goes for it. I appreciate that you asked for feedback first, but go for it. :-)

I agree with general sentiment of no need to pause. I believe that manim work is related to video work and think it would only be an issue if you were going to stop videos for something like 6 months or more to work on manim. I am happy to support work on manim as long as it is open source. I think it has the potential to be a multiplier of impact. There's only so many videos you can make per month, but if you can enable others to make quality videos as well, the number of math videos you enable to be produced per month is limitless. That being said, if you think your skill in explaining is more rare / valuable than your development skills (no idea if that's the case), it might make more sense to outsource the development work and play to your strengths. In the end, I think people who support you in Patreon support you to do what you think is right, and don't mind minor changes in priority / roadmap. You probably don't need to pause payments unless you plan on doing a large, long-term change in your work.

As the director of a CSS graduate program where multiple faculty use your videos in our courses, I fully support either option. Honestly, your videos are an absolute gift and I wish I could pay for an academic subscription or something more official for the program. (And as the mother of two STEM undergrads who are big fans, I am so thankful your videos keep them loving math even when their classes don’t hit right.)

Grant, Granted that I have not read many of the comments above, but I wholeheartedly support you in all your endeavors with my contribution. Thank you for all that you do. Keep on rocking.

Hi Grant, I just want to share some very personal advices/views on this, being in a similar situation... I'm am myself teaching, creating content and working on my own innovative tools to produce them (more on that another time), even building a team around it. I can fully understand your statement today, because I could have said the same thing about myself. The part about fixing old cars, too. You are talented, and you have the power to do well on both plans : your tool and your explanations. In the end you may do what makes you the most happy, and you will have a community anyway. Here is a little bit of warning. Probably, if like me, you find it more painful to produce your content. The reward of coding a tool is more immediate, you fix a bug or add a new feature and directly see the result. And somehow it feels less lonely than having to faces the big challenges of making people understand a nuanced idea. But on the other hand I think you are more "rare" on the content side. Yes your tool is very good and useful, yes you fill a gap by doing it. But in a world without Grant, I feel that it would be hard to replace you on the tool, but a lot harder to replace you on your way of explaining and showing maths. For me, clearly I spend so much times on my tools, and I should spend more on using them. Sometimes I pretend to myself that I'm more useful working on my tools than on content, since it "scales" better, and since other will be able to use them. But part of the truth is : it's less painful for me to do it. And realizing / admitting that helped me. Tooling may be your confort zone. No wrong in this, but if this is the truth it's better to acknowledge it (not to your community, but to yourself). And maybe ask yourself another question : "how can I make it less painful for me to create content ?" Maybe you can relate on this, I don't know since I've only see the "public" Grant. Anyway you will have my support whatever you chose, no need to pause Patreon ;-)

My funding is mostly based on the past work that you've published, and the confidence that it gives me in quality of what you're going to produce in the future. I know that you're asking for some guidance here, but I'm still confident in you. We don't have a lot of insight to your process from this end of the patreon. If you're looking for suggestions of stuff to talk about, besides manim you could talk about what you think the hallmarks of compelling math content are.

Nate

As an OSS developer myself, I'd happily support manim work. As a researcher in optimization, I'd *love* some well-made manim how-to's.

Riley Murray

I think I see a fair number of comments I agree with here. For my part I support you on Patreon fundamentally because I respect your vision and trust your judgement about what makes your content right. I have a bias towards videos because that's how I got drawn to your channel (the linear algebra series), but I think your content is like good art and can't be meaningfully manufactured. If it's your judgement that your time is best spent working on Manim right now, I'm all in on supporting that.

As a designer, I’m painfully aware of the difficulty in creating good educational visual material. I hate the tools I use everyday. Visual storytelling has such a high technical and experiential barrier that most educators simply cannot do it. Just like many other people watching your videos, I felt that I wasted years in school just because I didn’t have those intuitive analogies/patterns. So yes, it’s definitely worthwhile to invest in the tools. Actually I wouldn’t mind if you stopped making videos altogether to focus on manim. :D

Garbanarba

You absolute legend! I look very much forward to the difeq video, I subscribed here mainly to support the channel! I like the abstract math most.

I support you on patreon because of the amazing content you create for youtube, which ofc includes the development of the animation software. I appreciate your honesty in pausing the January subscription but at the same time I feel like you work so hard on the content that even if there is no new videos, the old ones motivate the payment tenfold. I don't watch new videos every month anyway because of a busy schedule. But you make stuff that is so unique and well made that basically with my subscription I simply want to fund your work in whatever shape or form. Developing a python library is arguably even more useful than videos because it is a tool for anyone to use, and visualising is crucial in understanding STEM subjects. I'm all for supporting it ✌

Just adding to the choir here. I subscribed because I support what you're doing in a general sense, and if you believe developing this software is part of this cause then I'm convinced. Personally, I do think improving manim has great potential to this effect, as it can help improve quality of content elsewhere.

I think it is important for creators to work on things that they think are interesting, not what they think the audience wants to see. I'd be glad to support you also to work on the tooling, but in general I feel the funding through patreon should give you the freedom to do what you want, not create an obligation.

Can you link the paper ? Curious to see how it was used

I would be personally very happy to support the development of manim! As virtual conferences and poster presentations (with pre-recorded videos) became widespread in my field of academia this year, the need for tooling enabling good visual explanations grew too. Maybe manim eventually becomes sufficiently accessible, that it can be used by (tech-savvy) academics too?

I would love to continue supporting you developing the software too. Is there a way for us to individually disable the pause? Or is there some other easy way to opt in to continue supporting you during any video pause?

Well said!

Holger Flier

Grant, I subbed because you’re such a great explainer and you’ve helped me get farther in understanding math more than anyone else to date. As a SW Dev myself, I understand the need for support code, so I’m just as happy to be a patron for that as for the more visible “work product”, if you will. Would you do some videos talking about manim and OpenGL? Sounds intriguing!

>I'm curious to get the pulse from all of you on this. When you choose to support 3blue1brown, is any part of that motivated by supporting the underlying tooling which is open for others to use, or would you see that as unrelated? I'd definitely support you in developing the tooling next to the regular videos!

koen smidt

> When you choose to support 3blue1brown, is any part of that motivated by supporting the underlying tooling which is open for others to use, or would you see that as unrelated? I choose to support you on patron because I support what you do, videos and manim all parts of your doing! I don't think there's any need to pause the billing.

> "like the last one on medical tests, it felt like I was covering a topic out of a vague sense that it's what the channel should cover, rather than from having something novel to say" To me, the formulation of Bayes' theorem with prior odds and the Bayes factor was the most memorable and insightful video from 2020. So I think you are being a bit too hard on yourself there.

I had been a Patreon supporter for the interesting coverage of the ideas in the videos you produce now I will continue in order also to support the creation of the tools that go into the visualizations.

Gregor Shapiro

I want to echo what has already been said; I'm happy to be able to support you in producing any content (math videos, tutorials, more intuitive code) Also, I loved listening to you on the Lex Fridman podcast. Listening to you talk about the philosophy of math was truly captivating!

I support whatever you feel is valuable to produce. Regarding the medical tests, I feel those videos were more for the need of the times. So don't worry about them

Magnasium

The amazing work you've done in creating & sharing manim is absolutely part of why I contribute to this channel. I picked up some manim basics over the summer, and it has made my own work as an educator **much** easier in this era of online instruction. I'm not on Patreon because I want to feel like I'm buying a product: I'm here because you're doing fantastic work & giving it away for free, which seems like it deserves its own kind of open-ended reciprocation. I'm more than happy to continue to donate even during months when you publish nothing. (That said, selfishly, I'm more interested to see math content than manim tutorials. I think the community support that's out there for manim is already pretty excellent!)

The point of supporting you is to give you the freedom to work on stuff you think is important, and we understand that deep, creative work doesn't happen without a few missteps and dry spells. For what it's worth I would have been happy if the only thing you put out this year were the lock-down math series.

When I choose to support 3B1B, I’m fine with any of those things and I’m glad the tool is being developed. Basically, I’m fine with anything you work on.

Cole

I didn't know manim was open-source until just the other day, when you plugged Reducible.. so, not a factor in my decision to support 3b1b, but that said, I'm entirely supportive -- it's just another way you can be a force-multiplier in the education space! And along those lines, re 2020.. I think your Lockdown Math series is/was a fantastic contribution to raise the bar for educational content on youtube. Sure it may not have gotten millions of views overnight. But that kind of content is never going to go viral .. it will, otoh, have long lasting value -- it will probably continue to be of educational value 20 years from now.

Shawn Van Ness

I'll just echo what most have said here, whatever you want to work on is fine with us!

I support the channel because I think it's great what you do. If part of that is you hiding 3 months in a cave to come up with something even better (or different, or something you really wanted to do), then I'll gladly support (and pay) that too. Go Grant!

Boudewijn Redeker

Motivated by supporting the tooling? No. Fine with that being part of what you're doing with my support? Absolutely.

C.J. Smith

This is really cool stuff! I might as well look into how I could contribute.

I'm just here to give everyone a little like. I didn't know manim existed but now I'll try it!

Big yes to manim tutorial videos! 🙏🏼

Dan Kinch

The support I give doesn't come with other expectations except that you work on what you think is needed or interesting. So in my eyes the billing pause is unnecessary. In large part due to your videos I started studying math in a university as a hobby year and half a go (a lifesaver during corona...) :)

I’m with Marcus on this.

Hi, Grant, I always look forward to whatever it is you're working on. You shouldn't worry about whether taking some time to spruce up manim is a problem, because it will pay dividends in the future, both for you and for other science/math educators. As for video tutorials on manim, I would wholeheartedly support that. I've been thinking about whether I could teach myself more about black hole physics and Penrose diagrams by taking a crack at doing a video on the topic, and I suspect that manim would be a versatile enough tool for the job. Having a readily available reference resource on manim, by manim's author, would undoubtedly help me and many others who have pondered testing the waters to actually take the plunge.

Dachannien

As a software engineer, I love seeing development work in math circles and specially so for education which I believe lacks ideal tooling, having had worked myself with visualization software in computer sciences. Then again I could be biases! I would like to get involved in the development, and unfortunate to not have known about it before.

Cf. Richard Feynman. "It was effortless. It was easy to play with these things. It was like uncorking a bottle: Everything flowed out effortlessly. I almost tried to resist it! There was no importance to what I was doing, but ultimately there was. The diagrams and the whole business that I got the Nobel Prize for came from that piddling around with the wobbling plate." Source: https://www.asc.ohio-state.edu/kilcup.1/262/feynman.html

I support whatever you think is most *fun* for you to do. That goes for everyone else too! It's the key criterion that leads to the best outcomes.

I do contribute to Patreon specifically because of manim. I love your videos, but I did not start contributing until I started using manim. Would I like tutorials? I am somewhat torn. I would like tutorials specifically tailored to me. :-) I kid, of course. As a professional programmer for a couple of decades, I am concerned that this could turn into a rabbit hole for you; developing and supporting third-party software is hard!

Hi Grant, As a new Patreon follower I thought it was great that you 1) stopped the payments this month because you weren't creating videos and that is what the Patreon account was setup for. This shows a real care for the intent of the channel. 2) Also asked us followers if we would be willing or even thought the that the donations should go to support tools for the channel. Again, this shows a real care and interest in your followers. That being said, part of the videos that makes them so good are the tools that you've developed and I would absolutely continue to contribute the donation for videos and development of Manim. I've just started learning Python and Manim so I'm looking forward to reading your just announce documentation. I'm still figuring out how to use Manim with Anaconda, but that is the fun right? To make this just a bit longer, thank you for asking what your followers think and understanding focus of your channel. But please, continue to charge my account for videos on the development and how to use Manim. I look forward to it. Thanks

My support is to whatever you think is worth doing. It would be nice to get a video tutorial on manim though.

My main reason for contributing is that I believe math education is one of the most important ways to improve the world and that you do so in a uniquely salient way. If manim helps others explain or conceptualize math in the same visual style as you, it's likely the most effective way for you to scale your impact. That means manim videos could do the same. I'd keep billing on regardless if I were you. I'm just as happy to support manim dev work and videos as I am supporting math video production. I'm also happy when you cover popular topics since that's a great way to build your following even if they're not as novel as you'd like.

Hi Grant. I'd actually prefer if you spent more time on manim and less on making videos for a few months. I'm sure it'll pay off in the long run. I really appreciate you keeping manim open source, and I'd love to see a tutorial series from you plus more info on how that "interactive development process" works. Thanks!

Wow, Grant, I just set up the latest version of Manim to play around with that SurfaceExample scene and I can already tell this investment into the animation software will pay off tenfold. I also think moving to OpenGL is a great decision since the overall capabilities of that engine is way larger than the previously used cairo. It's the industry standard in many ways and I'm really excited to see how using this evolves manim in the future. Thank you for your work!

Your feel as creator might have been akin to disappointment (sorry to hear!) but to me as supporter it is nothing of the sort: you might not have shown a novel approach, but your clarity of communication which has been very welcome in the murkiness of recent times. As for my feeling towards manim, I'm happy with supporting its development along with the content creation. I also fully understand the "code ownership" dilemma :D just remember there's only so much one can do per day :P

Paolo Torelli

Just one person's opinion, but I'd be interested in some manim videos!

Miles

I think the tools are not only parts of something you create, that you are passionate about developing, which I think are generally why most people support creators. Coding with Python and developing visual explanations could also be beneficial to a lot of people studying mathematics and are interested in exploring the explanations of them. I would love to see tutorials on manim if you're up for making it!

Grant, My support of 3Blue1Brown on Patreon is inclusive of your entire enterprise from R&D of creative tools like Manim, to end product productions of math video tutorials, as well as any support you need to hire. You really can't have quality products without your time in the R&D, and you've offered Manim itself is an interesting product, therefore you really shouldn't have paused billing us on patreon. In fact, I look forward to thoroughly digesting the great Manim documentation you've already created on github. As a budding Data Scientist, I see it as a really fun way to improve my Python programming skills. Therefore, I insist that you bill my account on Patreon. Thank You and Best Regards,

> When you choose to support 3blue1brown, is any part of that motivated by supporting the underlying tooling which is open for others to use, or would you see that as unrelated? I would love to support the development of any underlying tooling for your videos along with potentially any tutorial content for those tools!

I support the channel for the beautiful storytelling and new perspectives on math topics. If manim work enables more of that, that’s great, but I would not trade math videos for manim tutorials ;) thanks for the high quality content, it’s delightful and educational on so many levels!

Don't be disappointed about that medical tests video. That topic indeed *needed* to be covered in your clear way, and, besides, that proved a nice example of application of Bayesian statistics which is far less understood than it should be. As for manim, I am fine with any division of your time as long as you do produce an occasional video now and then. A short intro/overview on manim would be nice, just to let potential users see quickly is it something satisfying their needs, but apart from that your time is probably better spent on your "regular" videos, manim development and other work you are engaged in.

Dragi Raos

Hi Grant, Your work on manim was one of the big drawcards for me to become a patron. I really value the effort that you put into the animations to illustrate and convey (for me) some complex mathematics. I was a member in the manin discord channel for a while, and there are a number of passionate people in there, who, with some guidance, and mentoring from you may be able to produce the content explaining how manim works, and how it can be applied in a variety of different ways. If I were you I would continue to create beautiful content, continue contributing to manim and guiding its development and engaging with its community to see whether there is someone who wants to step up and assist you.

I'm here to support what 3b1b is creating, whether that is videos or Python libraries. Keep doing great work!

binaryfox

You're doing great. Much of your channel's appeal is that you're choosing to share with us topics you're clearly excited about. You should be telling us what 3b1b will be about and what you're working on, not the other way around. :)

Brian Michalowski

Well said!

I think producing open source software that enables other people to also make great content is at least as important as your videos, so I am completely in favor of you using your time for that, and I have no problem with my Patreon support being used for that. I'm also interested in learning more about manim; I've used python/sage to make some simple animations (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwjqkTKXb2M&amp).

On one hand, I choose to support 3b1b because I enjoy the channel's video content. My default position would be to consider developing an animation library as a separate activity. On the other hand, developing the tooling that helps produce the videos is important for the overall quality of channel's content. It's a clearly related activity, and I have no objection when your time (or my money) is thusly invested. On the gripping hand, I'm a software engineer by trade and inclination, and I totally understand the satisfaction of developing something useful. I love the "pure" feeling of building something because I enjoy solving the problem or improving the utility. My best work is done for enjoyment, not to meet a specific need. TLDR: I support manim development which facilitates the creation and high quality of new 3b1b videos, and also a reasonable amount of development for joy. However, long-term development of the library to support other creators, or which preempts video production, should probably be funded separately.

Agreed with everyone else. While I might not be a patron _solely_ for manim development — as there are many other open source packages I’d be interested to support too — I don’t mind supporting it as part of the overall 3b1b project, and wouldn’t object to paying as normal this month.

Tom Gidden

it's totally fine with me to use $/time on manim, i wasn't even aware of those other channels and i'll definitely have to check out some of those videos once I find the time! also thought your last video on the testing was great and really helped me think differently about statistics, and can totally be used to help other people understand this too. it was explained in a very 3b1b way, hell, as long as those damn cute pi creatures are there it doesn't matter what the topic is. :) good luck refactoring and bug fixing and see you soon!

The Great Quux

I consider working on manim as working on 3b1b videos in an indirect manner. So I don't see the necessity to stop billing. Also, I would love a tutorial (series?) for manim.

My support via Patreon is mostly directed towards you, Grant, because of the work you do. Secondarily, it is towards the high quality math videos - in terms of production quality and teaching quality. To the extent that manim helps you (and others) easily create videos, I'm all for it. However, my reason for support is the math videos. I'd be less interested in supporting manim tutorial videos.

Joining the crowd: I am happy to support 3b1b including any r&d or infrastructure work

Edith Dubiner

I see manim as an enabler of the awesome 3b1b videos. If the main reason to invest time on manim is to improve 3b1b videos, with a reasonable break-even period (1 year?) then I consider that investment to be part and parcel of 3b1b. I will continue to support that work both philosophically and through Patreon. However, if the main purpose of investing in manim is to help the other users of manim and/or because of the inherent joy in pursuing that side project, then it is distinct from 3b1b. I might still support it, but it should be a separate Patreon project.

Pradeep Madhavarapu

Many people have voiced their enthusiasm for seeing one or a few Manim tutorials and I agree with that! Really looking forward to more differential equation videos though 😁. I trust you to find the right balance here. I agree with Zach Bean that the Manim work is kind of distinct. However, like others have pointed out, it's the fertile soil that allows for all your other videos. Since it's open source it's impact could become much bigger still than your channel alone! In my point of view I'm not 'paying per video', I'm sponsoring you as a creator and trust you to make the right calls to make the best content you can. In my opinion you don't have to suspend payments when you are doing work on Manim.

I love your work and the shift it brings to math education! You’re doing a fantastic job and you are so much better at teaching than most people employed at universities. Also, your work scales. So I’m more than happy to continue supporting you, and trust that you know best how to spend your time. No need to pause billing. All the best!

Holger Flier

It looks like I'm in the minority here, but I'm (apparently alone ;-) in the camp that sees work on Manim as distinct from work on new videos. Which is not at all to say that it's uninteresting or unimportant or undeserving of support. As a part-time open source developer myself, I understand the challenges of funding and supporting such projects, and I'm always happy to contribute back to the development of projects I use. I also want to be super clear that I certainly don't think anyone's doing anything wrong here. But the reason I chose to support 3blue1brown was the excellent, highly approachable math videos, and while I understand that Manim is an integral part of the process for creating new videos, I think it's also reasonable to acknowledge the disappointment that would go along with seeing the videos take a back-seat position.

Zach Bean

To me, Patreon is supporting the creator. Whether videos or open source development, I am glad to keep contributing so you can keep contributing. I also liked the Bayes/medical test video. Not all of us are mathematicians.

white beard geek

So, I agree with the sentiment here. I trust your instincts in teaching which are spot on, but for viewers like me a short video to dial a new viewer in to how to think about Manim, what it can do, what it needs to be effective, just kind of how to get started for idiots if you will would be so helpful... the goal of which would be to reduce the cost of entry. Your efforts in development and ability to communicate would leave us all with no excuses...:) Thanks for asking!

Love Manim, it is a large factor in the beauty of your videos and open sourcing it is such a gift. Happy to continue sponsoring its development via this Patreon network

I also agree that it is not necessary to suspend Pateron billing while working on the software that is helpful to you and the overall community.

+1 on manim support =)

Leonardo Taglialegne

1) I think manim tutorials would be great 2) I think your are too hard with yourself re the Bayes/medical test video. I twas awesome and great for people interested in the topic of medical tests (a wide population) but not very fluent in maths

I'd love to support development of manim. I've even used it once for making a presentation about raytracing. It was really nice the things you could do with it (even though I only had 2 evenings to learn manim and make the presentation :p).

If you think this investment of time in the software will increase the output of the channel, then you can expect people like me to support your channel more than ever when that happens. I'm not interested in making a capital investment in 3Blue1Brown. I just want to feel like I'm putting in money and getting out quality videos. When I saw that I was getting fewer of those in 2020, I reduced my support. When I see more quality content, I'll increase it. I hope this is helpful. I just wanted to give you information about the subset of your patreon base that I represent.

Jacob Mirra

Fine with me Grant. Making Manim better is good for all.

I also add one more voice to support manim development. I am also interested in that I could support the tutorial by helping the development of the tutorial itself if it doesn't steal your development enjoyment.

Hitoshi Yamauchi

I would love to see manim tutorials!

Completely happy to support Open Source development in this way, also videos on using it would be great.

Grant I support your channel to a large degree because I love and value mathematics and science, and I want as many people as possible to feel the same because scientific thinking benefits humanity. But you're only one (skilled and inspiring) person, and Manim facilitates dramatically scaling up this enterprise of inspiring people by giving other skilled, inspiring people great tools. For this reason, I strongly support tutorials on Manim and even supporting its development financially.

I support absolutely any work you do even if it’s not something I’ll ever “see”.

I up the idea of a manim tutorial. I think it's a very good tool and I think developing it further has a larger impact on society than your math series. This comes from how I appreciate your video in terms of the medium (read, the visualisations), not just the content. I'm not in anyway saying that your math series is any less worthy (it's very inspiring and and fruitful), but I can see manim as a longer-lasting contribution to convey your message and legacy as an evangelist of better education tools.

I would be more than happy to even increase my contribution if that money is dedicated to the development of the tools and putting out a series to how to use it. For me this is about scaling, if 1% of teachers in the world would do 1 high quality video with it per year - humanity would be so much better off.

Echoing the support for manim here; it's a vital part of what you do, and enabling others to make amazing content is well worth the Pattern donations, as far as I'm concerned!

Matt Godbolt

I support continuing donations for work on Manim. It's the keel that holds the boat together. And, as it spreads into the world it will extend your influence to many others. I bet Manim becomes the next LaTeX for thesis work!

Manim is an important part of what makes your videos awesome, so it's absolutely worth developing, and I am happy to support that. But then, I'm a programmer myself, so I know the value of good libraries!

Rosuav

Thanks for the update. You know, I don't feel like you need to produce a certain number of videos to 'earn' my Patreon support. I want to support whatever you are doing.

Doug Fort

I'll second that sentiment.

Randy LeJeune

I personally would't mind if my Patreon pledge would support the development of manim. I never considered it as "bindingly dedicated" to video content, but your work in general.

A few videos on Manim use would be nice as the visualizations you use to demonstrate topics I find extremely helpful.

Randy LeJeune

I didn't even know you personally made the library you used. Having learned that, it feels like I'm still "getting my money's worth" from a month where you worked on the library but didn't release videos.

Megan Lovett

I have always viewed your videos and the underlying library work as a package deal. So I’d be happy to fund both separately or together. Your work on the library is a force multiplier for the math education community.

A manim tutorial would be fantastic! Thanks for endeavoring to bring top-notch educational content to the world, be it directly or indirectly.

I'm personally really happy to support manim development; it's an invaluable tool I hope to be able to learn how to use soon, and supporting it is as important (if not *more* important) than me as supporting the videos themselves. Looking forward to the matrix exponentiation video!

_ericBG

TBH would be completely fine with you not pausing Patreon billing while you work on this, it's an investment in your own content and also a great tool for the creator community at large. Some under-the-hood videos on Manim would be very welcome as well. Cheers!

FYI, the video on Medical Testing was very enjoyable and some friends I forwarded the URL to were really happy to see it.

Thanks for the update. I'm really looking forward to seeing the projects you and James are going to make later this year :)

A tutorial series from you on Manim would be greatly appreciated! Keep up the good work Grant! I look forward to your next video!

Christian A. Jacobsen

Thank you so much for the update and open sourcing manim. My roommate recently used it for his NeurIPS submission last year and it looked very good.