I start an Intro to 3D Animation Class tonight

[Pablosbrain]

Wish me luck! This is the first time I've taught 3D animation at the local community college... Its gonna be a very basic course so the students can get a taste of 3D and be more confident going on to a different school. We will be using Blender and Wings3D. I will also (if time is available) be putting together examples using different programs such as LightWave Max and Maya to corespond to what we will be doing in Blender and Wings. I currently don't have much online other than the course plan.. but after this class finishes I will try and reorganize my content and get the homework, projects and thoughts online for the Blender/Wings communities.

[dreamsgate]

Not just good luck, I wish you great luck.

I can't wait to see what you put together.

[Pablosbrain]

I forgot to post the link... http://www.pablosbrain.com/school/2003013D/
It has the Course Outline currently and will eventually have the other materials.

[ton]

Great!

[IoN_PuLse]

I will try to get some of the old resources I made for teaching Blender to high school students online again sometime, I taught an Intro to 3D animation using only blender several times when I was in Grade 11 and 12.

[dvgui]

i'm an experienced modeller animator and i've learned some interesting stuff from reading through your stuff that i didn't even know about blender. And, i've been using blender for about 2 or 3 years now! Can't wait for more info from ya! Keep up the good work!

Dave

[Pablosbrain]

Its good to hear that the info on my site is helping those out there not even in my class. I will hopefully have the energy after my class has finished to restructure the content into some type of learning path or tutorials... or maybe add more tutorials to go with the different parts of the site. Thanks for the encouragment! That kind of stuff is always good to hear!

[bobmar]

Good luck! Hell! God bless you. At the very best I'm an itermediate user, artist, gone 3D modeler. I have a couple of teenagers who want to learn (emphisis on want) and its still frustrating trying to keep their attention. If for no other reason than the only focal point that they have is what they see done in the entertainment industry (i.e. games and movies) and expect those results immediately.
Fortunately, you've chosen Blender as a platform to teach with. I've tried others (Okimo, Milkshape 3D, 3D Studio Max...ect) but each of them have formats that have a tendency to turn off new users. Between mirroring the Windows style of pull down menus and having to input values for everything, new students get frustrated. They're usually more interrested in the "Looks Right" style of modeling that Bender offers. The other advantage is that Blender functions on the use of Hot Keys which are easier and faster than having to sort through "Pull Down" menus and the keyboard interface couldn't get any simpler (left hand, left half of the keyboard; function keys, right hand, right half of the keyboard including mouse; camera functions and movement of vertices and faces).
The only drawback to teaching with Bender is that it puts users on a "Vertice Diet" and the favorite mistake of "New" users is to "draw" what they want using the extrude and scale funtions, which will innevitably get them an error message "Can't save, too many vertices."
But, because of Bender's simplicity, your students should find it a pleasurable tool to work with and maintain an interrest in in the field of 3D modeling and animation.

[jeotero]

how is the class going ?

[grado]

don't worry, you can just show your animation before you start to teach, they will think you are hero.