Super Wu-Man, a BlenderArtists Phenomenon

Bart · November 7, 2006

Have you been wondering what the faux super-hero with the goatee and bad teeth is doing in the header of BlenderNation? Check out the letter on his forehead: this is Wu-Man, a creation of Eric (who seems to go without a last name) and Sacha Goedegebure.

Wu-Man has become a one-man cult on the BlenderArtists forum. When Sacha drew one of his caricatures of Wu and dubbed him Wu-Man, he gave him a superhero outfit. It started with this picture of Eric:

Sacha worked his magic and produced these images:

After that, things really got rolling. To give you a taste, here’s a pick of some of them:

Modron:

Eric:

Interview with Sacha Gooberstein, Super Wu-Man’s Father/Creator

AndyD:

3D-still
Illustration
“I can’t stand to fly” video – Cut and paste the URL in a new browser window to download: http://www.geocities.com/ajr650/SuperWu2.avi

M.h.p.e.:

Things have even gone further out of hand now that Eric and Sacha have started producing Wu-Man merchandise! Check out their store; all Profit from November 1st to December 31st will be donated to the Blender Foundation. The fundraiser thermometer will tell the current state of sales; around $20 at the time of writing:

I’ve set my eyes on the ‘Super Wu-Man Black Manga Shirt of Inviciblity!’. You can buy me one if you want! Oh, AND support the Blender Foundation at the same time. Not a bad deal!

I was laughing out loud all the time while checking out the artwork for this article. My wife even came upstairs to see what was happening :) It would seem that Super Wu-Man is bringing out the best in many Blender Artists and his silliness trumps Suzanne. I think she should watch out for her place in Blender!

Author Bart

I have a LONG history with Blender - I wrote some of the earliest Blender tutorials, worked for Not a Number and helped run the crowdfunding campaign that open sourced Blender (the first one on the internet!). I founded BlenderNation in 2006 and have been editing it every single day since then ;-) I also run the Blender Artists forum and I'm Community Lead at n8n.

22 responses

kit89

7 November 2006 at 08:19

I so want one of those T-shirts!

Watch out Suzzane, they’ll soon be a standard Super Wu-man head built into Blender. ;)

Alex_G

7 November 2006 at 08:34

Eric’s “unknown” last name is Millen by the way, I think it’s on a thread somewhere

GBOI

7 November 2006 at 08:56

Wu man, dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun Wu man!
all I can say is woooh!
man :D

Morris

7 November 2006 at 10:22

my favorite is the animation with the song- good work. However, In general, I don’t think SW should be on the blendernation header. Its a cool Inside thing, but I think it should stay inside on the forums. Just my opinion, but its a little embarassing to have super wu’s cartoon drawings be the big thing when this is a blender site. If you put a shot from that animation in the header, I guess that probably would be ok

konrad8ha

7 November 2006 at 11:51

I like the merchandise, especially the black manga shirt.

But I agree with Morris, unless Wu-Man is a real 3D-thing he probably isn’t the best suited to be on the blendernation header.

Mathias

7 November 2006 at 12:13

Finally! Wu-man is a public phenomenon! :)

//Mathias

Martinv

7 November 2006 at 13:11

When will the movie come out?
Hehe :D

idunnoreally000

7 November 2006 at 14:05

Yeah, it\’s kind of funny. But do we really want this character (who promotes womanizing if you check Super-Wu\’s videos) to be the (unofficial) mascot of Blender, the face of Blender Artists, the face of the Blender foundation? We have kids using Blender. Keep that in mind. Super-Wu is not a kids-friendly creation. Not everyone likes this type of humor. I think the community has to be careful with this. Seriously. We\’re all for fun and good times, but we worked so hard so long to get some respect from the 3d world. Finally that\’s happening. Please let\’s not screw that up. It\’s probably not too clear what\’s going on with Super-Wu to outsiders who don\’t understand what\’s up with this. This article could help, but still. I agree with the poster suggesting keeping this in the community. Sago did well with the illustration. Same goes for the other artists. And Super-Wu is funny sometimes. It\’s good to laugh and help Blender, but please let\’s not lose our heads completely and make a jackass out of Blender\’s community. That would not be right. I know that\’s not your intention but it could happen. Please don\’t turn us into the laughingstock of the 3d world.

krizu

7 November 2006 at 14:08

Any Questions about Orange2? “Super Wu Man Returns” IÂ´d suggest.

Mal Duffin

7 November 2006 at 14:56

Don’t forget WuMan : THE GAME ( using Blender GE) !!!

You can read about it’s progress here…
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=80192

Brian

7 November 2006 at 15:08

Come on guys. This isn’t going to ruin the community. I see it as a mini fund drive. Get a neatly illustrated t-shirt…lol or thong. And donate money to Blender.

net_chaos

7 November 2006 at 15:56

Sorry, this GeoCities site is currently unavailable.
The GeoCities web site you were trying to view has temporarily exceeded its data transfer limit. Please try again later.

GeoCities Sucks !!!!!

Sago

7 November 2006 at 17:20

Cool!

We know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but there’s no need to make a fuss about it. It’s all for good fun, and this article illustrates well what effect it has on the BlenderArtists forum. Nothing more, nothing less. So just buy yourself a cool Super Wu-Man magnet or Super Wu-Man thong and support the Blender Foundation.

Btw, his name is Wu-Man. I don’t mind about the ‘Super’, but don’t go calling him Super Wu, cause there’s no joke in that. It’s Wu-Man, as in woman, right? So either Super Wu-Man or just Wu-Man… not Super Wu. Got it? Yeah… haha… what?

Derrick van Niekerk

7 November 2006 at 20:39

hie hie hie hie,

LOVE THE VIDEO CLIP INTERVIEW, it is hillarious!

– Derrick

Kent Mein (Sirdude)

7 November 2006 at 21:16

Who wants to chip in to buy Ton one of these?
http://www.cafepress.com/superwuman.83831318

;)

Alden

7 November 2006 at 21:55

It’s great that we’re able to use a character to bring funds to the Blender foundation. I’m getting me one of those t-shirts………. and a thong :-p

CubOfJudahsLion

8 November 2006 at 00:30

Superheroes, we’ve got too many. But comedic antiheroes — why, I can’t get enough of them!

Maybe it’s just that I grew up watching the ChapulÃn Colorado (“Crimson Grasshopper”): think of The Tick, remove the muscles, powers, and all traces of competency — that’s the grasshopper. He had his moments, but of course the fun was in seeing him screw things up, REALLY BAD, all the time.

super wu-man

8 November 2006 at 03:39

the greatest artical of all time,

Bart, thanks so much man

Sago, awsome stuff dude, we have made the big time, haha

guess what dance move i’m doing right now!!

you all knew it was right!!

super greatness!!

Peregrine

8 November 2006 at 06:10

ahhhh where can I find these ‘animations’ cause alls I see are a couple 3d stills, one good voice over animation, and a crapy slightly disturbing ‘interview’