 | | | Re: Carrara 3D Basics for Middle School | Re: Carrara 3D Basics for Middle School 2005-10-17 - By ccoles_avengers
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--- In Carrara@(protected), Harvey White <madyn@(protected)> wrote:
>
> On Sun, 16 Oct 2005 21:47:47 -0000, you wrote:
> >
> >Should I be using a different software package. Should I not try to
> >introduce this complex technology to 7th Graders?
>
> The average video game is of equal complexity, try Dark Cloud 2 on for
> size. I'd say let them handle it, you'll get more out of them if they
> are challenged than given an easy slot.
I agree 100% with Harvey. Challenge them...they can handle it. :) I
taught a robotics workshop for my youth group kids for a few years (we
met on weekends, holidays, and during school break) and the kids
ranged from ages 10-16, girls and boys. If anything could galvanized
their varying ages together [ and help keep them quiet and engaged ;)
] it was meeting challenges during our sessions.
Perhaps you can come up with a scene and have the students animate
different parts of that scene. And since you are using CSB, then
perhaps you can simply limit your animations to things that rely on
rotations, repositioning, etc., rather than thing such as boning (I
don't think CSB has this anyway).
The key thing, however, is getting the students to start "Thinking in
3D". If you can have one to three days dedicated to this approach,
this will really help the process along IMO. Basically, give them
assignments during school and at home for homework where they look at
and study objects they see in every day life and then translate them
into 3D using primitives. Such as:
1) A table = 4 vertical long cylinders and 1 large flattened cylinder
2) A camera = a cube with a large cylinder for a lens and small
cylinder in the back for an eyepiece, with other primitives expressing
other bits of detail.
3) A laptop = a series of cube primitives and a couple of cylinders
arranged in such a way to resemble a laptop. Here is a laptop I did
just with primitives. The only thing I borrowed (because of time) were
some freeware cube primitves that were already laid out in a basic
keyboard fashion [ this would be a great exercise, though, for one or
two students to learn patience ;) ]. But then I simply duplicated and
resized some of the keyboard key cubes to make things like the CD-ROM
drive as well as the mousepad keys. Texturing is another part of the
3D process and if you can assign some students to do research for some
free textures, you can yield some satisfactory results.
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Carrara/files/Selocic/laptop_primitives_001.jpg>
Actually, this type of model would be fairly simple to animate. You
could have the kids learn how to move the hotpoint so they can open
and close the lid with the rotation tool. They can learn how to
animate buttons pressing up and down (simple repositioning movements)
to simulate some invisible person typing on the keyboard. You can
also find some free animation on the web and stick it into the screen
cube primitve's shader to simulate an animation or live video running
on the laptop; that would help them learn about the shader tree. And
for a extra credit, see which student would want to assign the key
text onto each key. ;) Challenging, but that would also get them to
learn how to take a simple bitmap withone letter of the alphabet on
it, and map it to each key primitive (using flatmapping), to have the
key primitives look like keys [ like I said, this would have to be
*extra* credit ;) ]
If you would like, I can ZIP up the file with all the textures for you
to review and/or share with your class. Just let me know.
Well, the laptop is just one simple example of what the kids could
build and animate. There are many others objects that work well with
primitives and animation (a chess set, a game of checkers, etc.). If
you need any help with this as far as coming up with ideas, etc., just
let me know.
Well, wish you the best on your project with your kids.
Claudia
"Selocic"
- 3D: when 'Flat' just isn't good enough! -
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