How to create a spinning logo that's
on fire in Autodesk Maya

I created this spinning logo yesterday using Autodesk Maya. I use their :

• Text
• Rotation
• And dynamics – gravity - Active objects
• And fire

My seventh-grade students will be working on spinning logos this next week to finish up our 10 weeks of school.  They have done incredible work in their 3D models and also 3D animations, and have shown that students in middle school can be learning and mastering high-end computer packages.  

They are well on their way preparing themselves for the high thing exciting jobs in 3-D animation and modeling in soon video game programming and also computer science.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXThag16rqmYchqU1FauOUA

Using Unity 3D to teach Computer Programming 

I I am starting to teach my students how do you program in C# using unity 3D video game design package.

My students will be creating 3D objects in Autodesk Maya and then bringing them in to Unity3D.  We will then on how to apply computer programming to make these objects move, rotate, scale them, and have them start to learn how to create a videogame.

So I will be using the video game itself to motivate them to learn computer programming which of course they can use for many more applications other than video game design and creation. 

This my Youtube channel where I have all of my video lessons

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXThag16rqmYchqU1FauOUA/featured

Create Comets crashing on Fire using
Autodesk Maya

This took me only a couple hours to create using Autodesk Maya and bump maps, dynamics commands such as gravity at active rigid bodies, etc. 

My seventh and eighth graders will be creating their own 3D animations following my Youtube online video lesson.  Then they can do their own project using the commands that they just learned.

This is a link to the animation and then another link to the actual video lesson on how to create it.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXThag16rqmYchqU1FauOUA

My classes are now starting to program in C# using Unity video game engine 

This last week we wrote our first two lines of code using the Unity video game engine to make a cube rotate.  I hope to really expand this over the rest of the semester, and through the full next semester in 2015.

By having them build a 3-D model in Maya, and then bring it into Unity 3D program and then program the different features you want to apply to the model will be excellent way to teach my students computer programming.

Microsoft, Minecraft and Mojang: Here's How to Make Sense of Microsoft's $2.5B Purchase

Janine "I

ris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style


After some speculation, it's official: Microsoft has purchased voxel-based sandbox game Minecraft for $2.5 billion. Maybe that makes perfect sense to you and maybe it doesn't. This past weekend as we discussed the massive purchase, my mother asked my why on earth Microsoft would want to buy Minecraft for anything approaching that much money. My answer? That it might be better to think of it in terms of why a company might want to buy Barbie or Lego. They're monolithic brands; highly recognizable, widely available and beloved by huge swathes of customers, both young and old. There are already teenagers who look at Minecraft with nostalgia right alongside people experiencing it for the very first time. It's a cultural touchstone.


But there's more to it than that. If you break this purchase down into its most basic economic terms, as analyst Michael Pachter did at GamesBeat 2014, it makes perfect sense. Polygon's Owen Good has picked the juiciest bits out of Pachter's comments on Microsoft's acquisition of Minecraft, and summarizes the issue succinctly:







Essentially, Microsoft expects to make more money from Minecraft than it would make if that $2.5 billion sat in the bank for a year and generated $25 million in interest. And yes, given the sales of the game — which just launched on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 — not to mention the merchandise licensing that Minecraft has seen to date, $25 million sounds like a very, very doable number.


For more, be sure to read Good's full piece on Polygon, or go straight to the source andwatch the archive of Pachter's GamesBeat talk over on Twitch.

B-Schools Finally Acknowledge: Companies Want MBAs Who Can Code

By Cory Weinberg  July 11, 2014

---

     

Companies want to hire technically skilled MBAs, and business schools are finally starting to get it. MBA programs equip students with management techniques, accounting skills, and increasingly, entrepreneurship chops. Some top programs, however, believe MBA should learn to code.

Harvard Business School is planning to offer a computer programming elective within a couple of years, says Paul Gompers, who chairs the MBA elective curriculum. Students  have formed coding clubs, and dozens go “across the river” to take the introductory computer science class at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. But professors need to tailor a course specifically to business students in Boston, says Gompers.

“This is the changing nature of the workforce, and this is what our graduates are going on to be doing in the next five to 10 to 20 years.”

STORY: A Marketing Summit, a Meeting of LGBT MBAs, and Everything Else Happening at B-Schools This Week

Elite MBA programs have been slow to adapt, even though plenty of schools started specialized master’s programs in big data and analytics. A pair of springtime reports by the Graduate Management Admission Council revealed a disconnect between the skills MBA programs give students and what employers want. While recent graduates (PDF) said they learned the least about “technology, design, etc.” and “managing tools and technology” out of any other skills in B-schools, U.S. employers said they coveted (PDF) “technical and quantitative skills” third out of 10 criteria.

“We’ve got a lot of MBAs graduating and going off to be high-tech product managers. If you look at that world, there are a bunch of big tech companies that insist that anyone in that role be technical—understand code well enough to read it and write it,” says Thomas Eisenmann, an HBS professor who teaches a course on product management.

Companies don’t want an army of programmers from B-schools—they can recruit from computer science programs for that—but they need managers who know the basics of code to work with technical staff. To be a product manager at Amazon(AMZN), for instance, MBAs need to “dive into data and be technically conversant,” says Miriam Park, director of university programs at the company.

BLOG: Be Ready When That Job Opens Up

At New York University’s Stern School of Business, economics professor David Backus plans to start a course that will teach students how to visualize data and use the programming language, Python. “I’ve talked to people I know at other B-schools and they haven’t heard of anything really like this. It’s surprising,” he says.

Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, a B-school with a reputation as a tech powerhouse, has no coding classes. Students have been able to take computer science courses at the university since fall 2012; Madhav Rajan, the business school’s senior associate dean for academic affairs, says this obviates the need for a focus on coding. Last year, the B-school and the School of Engineering launched ajoint degree that confers an MBA and an MS in computer science.

One downside of learning to code at B-school: Coding is hard. HBS students who took the university’s introductory computer science course said that they spent 16.3 hours a week on the course, which is “2-3 [times] more time than they would spend on an MBA elective that yielded equivalent academic credit,” wrote Eisenmann in a Harvard Business Review blog post last fall.

STORY: Peter Thiel on Creativity: Asperger’s Promotes It, Business School Crushes It

Backus says schools should make coding electives available but avoid requiring them so that MBAs don’t feel burdened. “Students could get annoyed at you and think it’s too hard.”

Record Breaking Number of students enroll in Harvards Computer Science Class 

This why I am teaching C# programming using the Unity3D program to get my students started in computer programming

Nearly 12 percent of Harvard College is enrolled in a single course, according to data released by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Registrar’s Office on Wednesday.

The course, Computer Science 50: “Introduction to Computer Science I,” attracted a record-breaking 818 undergraduates this semester, marking the largest number in the course’s 30-year history and the largest class offered at the College in the last five years, according to the Registrar’s website. Including non-College students, the enrollment number totals 875.


http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2014/9/11/cs50-breaks-enrollment-records/

My New Website Using Autodesk Maya

http://www.computergraphics.com/

3D Models Created by my 7th - 8th grade class using Autodesk Maya

We are still Using computers with only two gigs of RAM where is we should have at least four GB.  But even with just two gigs my students are creating some amazing animations and models.

There are collaborating together, helping each other out, and they are working from the start of the bell to the end and many are doing work at home also.  We are using and Edmodo so that the class can talk to each other, post files and images, and show what they are doing as they work on their projects, 

We are only about four weeks in my class is creating some amazing models and now starting to do the same with their animations.

Microsoft pays $2.5bn for Minecraft maker Mojang

This is why I am teaching 3D Animation and Video Game Design starting in Middle School 

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-29204518

Unity Video Games

Using Autodesk Maya to create 3D animations in grades sixth through eighth

I started my summer camp last week at my middle school. We had two class sessions for an hour went over the basics, the software to download and then the second session we went through some of the programs and they had about 15 minutes to experiment and use the computer

I had to take 10 minutes to get them out of the classroom they were so engaged in the software program they were not paying attention to anything else.  This is one of the first times I've ever seen this happen.

I put up five new lessons on my website so the students can practice on their own.  Because these are students in middle school I made my own video lessons starting with the basics. I kept the video short, only dealt with water to commands, and had them build something while learning the commands. I believe this is the formula for success with younger children

I've been received the image above from one of those students on Friday of that week. He had downloaded the newest version of the Maya software so it took me a few times to get it in on my version. 

He stated that my video lessons and help him to create his 3-D model, butI had not show them how to paint on projects so he learned this on his own. Plus he stated he was not going to really start animating. So in other words I need to speed up my lessons to keep up with him

Oh we are off to a great start. I will be adding more complex lessons this week for both my and unity therefore my students cannot only learning class you can learn on their own

Here is the link to my online video lessons that they are using.

http://computergraphics.com/online%20video%20lessons.htm

Pixar Revamps RenderMan, Offers Free Non-Commercial License - 

By Bryant Frazer   /   May 30, 2014

Pixar Animation Studios has announced a "generational shift" in RenderMan, which will debut a new framework, the RenderMan Integrator System (RIS), in the latest version scheduled for release at SIGGRAPH. Pixar described RIS as a "modular rendering architecture" that optimizes lighting simulation and allows new rendering technology to be deployed as Disney develops it — such as the Principled BRDF shader, a physically based shading technique that will be included in the new RenderMan.

Other features to be included in the forthcoming RenderMan release include an advanced Unidirectional Path Tracer and a Bidirectional Path Tracer with Progressive Photon Mapping (sometimes referred to as vertex connection and merging, or VCM), meaning RenderMan will offer the ability to switch rendering modes for different scenes in a single system, the company said.

"For certain types of shots such as exteriors, the unidirectional path tracer excels," Pixar said in an FAQ detailing some of the additions. "However, while [it is] a common method of light transport, path tracing suffers limitations when rendering other types of scenes, such as dimly lit interiors and caustic effects. For cases like this, RenderMan provides another more advanced method of light transport called VCM, which is able to integrate bidirectional path tracing with photon techniques to produce results of higher quality than either method can alone. With RIS, you can choose the most appropriate method of light transport for any given scene."

In addition, Pixar said that, with the next release, RenderMan licenses will be free for non-commercial use by students, institutions, researchers, developers, and other individuals. (Interested users can register in advance on the RenderMan website to receive a free license when the new version is released.) Pixar also dropped the price of the current version of RenderMan to $495 per license for commercial use, with customized "peak render" packages available. The new release will combine RenderMan Pro Server and RenderMan Studio in a single "flexible license," Pixar said, suggesting those licenses will be easily scalable to fit different stages of production.

In a prepared statement, MPC's global head of lighting, David Hirst, offered a testimonial to the capabilities of the new version of RenderMan. "We … were completely blown away by the speed and how interactively we could preview and render these assets," he said. "The RIS based integrator is going to change the way we work with more scalable rendering and faster results."

Pixar RenderMan: renderman.pixar.com

PDF: Physically Based Shading at Disney

- See more at: http://www.studiodaily.com/2014/05/pixar-revamps-renderman-offers-free-non-commercial-license/?hq_e=el&hq_m=2890733&hq_l=5&hq_v=c0e95a667f#sthash.yiXReuMp.dpuf

Autodesk will now be providing schools and colleges free access to their incredible software! And as you read the article you will see my school and I got a great plug in their press release 

Autodesk Transforms Education Business Model to Help Advance 21st Century Skills in the United States and Canada

3D Design Software Leader Delivers on Commitment to Prepare an Industry-ready Workforce by Removing Barriers to Software Access

Category:

Autodesk Consumer Group and Education

Wednesday, May 7, 2014 9:00 am EDT

Dateline:

SAN FRANCISCO

EmailPDFPrintRSS

Public Company Information:

NASDAQ:

ADSK

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADSK), a leader in 3D design, engineering, and entertainment software, today announced that it will offer schools in the United States and Canada free access to its professional 3D design software and creativity applications.

This represents the next step in the continued transformation of Autodesk’s education business model in order to fulfill its mission of helping students and educators imagine, design and create a better world. Autodesk’s pledge is valued at over $460 million, and empowers educators at more than 35,000 middle schools, high schools, and higher education institutions in the United States and Canada.

“Advances in accessible 3D design and fabrication technology are disrupting design, engineering and entertainment professions as we know them. The rise in mobile and cloud technology also means that it is possible to design anywhere, at any time. Nearly anyone with an idea can turn concepts into reality overnight, and we believe that today’s students will shape tomorrow’s industries,” said Tom Joseph, senior director of education, Autodesk.

“This is the second pledge we have made in North America in less than six months, and we are not stopping here. There is still work that lies ahead of us as we join forces with governments, institutions, and partners to prepare an industry-ready workforce around the world by removing the barriers to software access,” Joseph added.

Autodesk’s 3D design software, creativity applications, and learning resources are being used across the education continuum to advance learning outcomes, including:

• Building proficiency with young learners from middle schools and up to support science, technology, engineering, digital arts, or mathematics (STEAM) related subjects to solve real world challenges.
• Imparting industry-relevant knowledge and 3D design skills to give students a competitive edge to achieve their personal goals today, and career success in the future.
• Helping educators to inspire creativity and innovation through a project-based curriculum and a multidisciplinary approach to education; facilitating collaboration and hands-on problem-solving skills that reflect today’s business realities.

“At RIT, we are grooming our students for successful careers in industrial design, and teaching them to leverage advanced technologies to address global design challenges is integral. Having free access to advanced, professional design tools like Autodesk Fusion 360™ has empowered our students and taught them how to navigate changes in a fast paced industry. The cloud component of the product also teaches them how to collaborate with one another and communicate their ideas with other disciplines, which are critical skills that they will need when they graduate,” said Alex Lobos, assistant professor of Industrial Design, Rochester Institute of Technology.

In February, Autodesk pledged support for President Obama’s ConnectEd initiative by expanding its Design the Future program in the U.S. to advance STEAM education and support the demand for related careers. Students and educators have also had free access to individual licenses of Autodesk software via the Autodesk Education Community since 2006.

“We have seen firsthand how students have become more engaged in core subjects like math and science when they can experiment, model and animate in 3D with Autodesk^® 123D^® Design and Autodesk^® Maya^®. The new focus of the national Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards are based on getting our students both college and career ready. By teaching them skills like 3D modeling and 3D animation using professional Autodesk products, we are giving both students and educators a real advantage," said Kent Ganevsky, an educator at Theodore Roosevelt Middle School and Design the Future program adopter.

To request free access to Autodesk software for schools, please visit www.autodesk.com/academic.

About Autodesk

Autodesk helps people imagine, design and create a better world. Everyone—from design professionals, engineers and architects to digital artists, students and hobbyists—uses Autodesk software to unlock their creativity and solve important challenges. For more information visit autodesk.com or follow @autodesk.

Autodesk, Fusion 360, 123D, and Maya are registered trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product and services offerings, and specifications and pricing at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document.

© 2014 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.

Free Autodesk software and/or cloud-based services may only be used for educational purposes and are subject to acceptance of and compliance with the terms and conditions of the software license agreement or terms of service. Details and restrictions available at http://usa.autodesk.com/legal-notices-trademarks.

Contact:

Autodesk, Inc.
Noah Cole, +1 415-580-3535
noah.cole@autodesk.com
Rebecca Wong, +65 9841 9766
rebecca.wong@autodesk.com

- See more at: http://news.autodesk.com/press-release/autodesk-consumer-group-and-education/autodesk-transforms-education-business-model-hel#sthash.oR1IRr83.dpuf

Teaching Autodesk Maya in the classroom

I was one of the first Autodesk 3D Studio Max dealers in the world about 20 years ago.  There were a group of three of us who either flu or drove up to Sausalito California to go through training and becoming authorized dealer.

It was a pivotal part of my life for it put me in the direction into computer graphics and digital editing.   I started my teaching career about 10 years ago. And for the last for five years I've been trying to bring this product's into my classroom and into my school. 

I started my own digital arts – computer science club this year. We have been working with Autodesk one 123-D design, Maya, and now Fusion 360,  and it looks like I will not be teaching my first Computer graphics - Digital arts class starting in September, 

We now have our Maker bot replicator to printer going and we have printed over 40 students designs in our classroom.  

The key to teaching your students Autodesk Maya is to start an early age as possible for them to acquire the basics.  Do not get hung up on how hard the product looks or how hard the interface appears to be. Just like math we do not start students at calculus,  it takes them five years and five different subjects to get to calculus.

That is the same philosophy to teach Maya or any other high-end computer graphics software package. And I guarantee you since I have doing this for almost 30 years younger students will pick up this package much faster than any adults will.

The key to this, but any other task in life, is the take the first step and get started. The first few steps may be hard but it will get easier as you keep pushing forward

3D modeling and printing in my 

seventh grade class

We have got our new Makerbot 3D printer up and running like a champ.

My Students are now creating 3D models ausing Autodesk 123 design we are printing them each day.  We have tried a wide variety of shapes and patterns in our models and then printed them to see how they turn out

The picture is of model of the 3D vase  which could hold flowers or be used as a drinking cup.  It was created by A eighth grade student. 

We are going to start with Autodesk Inventor soon because I want my students to start  using mathematical calculations in the models they design.  This will start them to acquire the skills they need for career and 3D modeling and design.

That is my interpretation of the new focus on common core. The focus is on college and career ready. Teach my students specific skills they can then be applied to the workplace.  I have a Masters degree in business from USC and over 30 years in private industry experience I intend to apply that to my teaching to get my students ready for the career marketplace.

I have over 20 years experience selling 3D animation hardware and software. I'm going to apply that to my teaching for my new Digital Arts program. 

Next year I intend to hit the ground running with my new program. We are going to start with Autodesk 123Dapp, Inventor and then working our way up to Maya. We will be working on 3D animation, 3D modeling and then on to computer programming.

Using 3D Animation -3D modeling in the classroom with Autodesk 123 D Design and MakerBot printer

These are examples of what my students have done using other does one to 3D design.  They virtually taught themselves how to use this software package and the laptops we used only had two gigs of RAM and we're not really built for 3D applications. Plus often they had to wait for school systems network to allow them to access the images they had on the cloud.

Yet they were able to create some really incredible 3-D models. The thing about the younger generation is they are not intimidated or get frustrated by using computers to to create things. They have been using computers, cell phones etc. since a very young age and so they can easily adapt to any program there given.

We are now going to print these models on our makerbot 3D printer. This was an application we did not have we started using one to 3-D design at the start of the school year.  With this application hasn't created some incredible desire to learn how to use the 3-D modeling with any of the Autodesk software packages we are now using.

This will allow me to now incorporate higher and 3D packages such as Autodesk Maya into my classroom for the interest is already been generated by using the one to 3-D applications. I want to incorporate STEAM into all of my classes and also use common core applications to get my students college ready and job ready.

By mastering 3-D modeling and animation this will give my students a possible career path as they go through both high school and college. The job applications in business for these two subjects will be endless

3D Printer Used to Save a Baby's Life

This is just one example of the many uses for the new 3D printers. The applications for these 3D printers is endless. Anything that can be designed on the computer using the CAD or 3D modeling programs can now be printed on one of these printers at a fraction of the cost of traditional machine shop printers.

I know in my seventh grade classroom this coming week we will be using Autodesk software to start our modeling skills.  We have actually had success and printing our  3D models from autodesk 123Ddesign from the school year on our new Makerbot 3D printer.

We will continue to print those models for the next 2-3 weeks and then make a major effort to go into Maya and start to design and print 3D models.  

As you will read in the link to the article below these 3D printers can do amazing things to help a wide variety of occupations do their jobs that much better.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/03/17/289042381/doctors-use-3-d-printing-to-help-a-baby-breathe

Autodesk Maya

Options for this story

Check out this female portrait, created by Korean artist Minjeong Shin (aka Migon) using Maya and rendered with V-Ray. Minjeong has been working with 3D since 2010, modeling 3D characters for an animated short. She is now a freelance artist and has created this image for an online learning resource.

AREA link: http://autode.sk/1kXfEZs

Autodesk Will Discontinue Softimage


Last week, the 3D community was shaken to learn that Autodesk will discontinue Softimage, one of its many 3D software packages. The last release, Softimage 2015, is due to ship in April, and Autodesk will support the software to subscription customers only until 30 April 2016.


http://www.autodesk.com/products/autodesk-softimage/overview

http://www.creativebloq.com/3d/rip-softimage-reaction-autodesks-decision-kill-3d-software-31410967

Computer Designed 3D Printing of a 

Train Engine 

This is the 3D train that one of my 7th graders designed and I printed on my new 3D printer today! This printer is going to bring tons of Kids to my 3d modeing and animation class. It is going revolutionize the way we manufacture products,

This is the start of the printing process for the train

This is what the train looked like after about 1 hour and 1/2 hours

Finished train engine - 2 1/2 hours - 7th grader - look at the detail and design printed. We are going to start selling these in our class.

Makerbot 3D Printer 

Well we spent all day re-leveling the printer, trying different  plastics etc.  But once we set the plate up to a higher level we were then able to get the printer to work correctly

So next we are going to start to print 3D models that we will design using

123design

123make

3D Studio Max

Maya

And see what my students can do   They all now want to design and make different 3D models and everyone is super excited.

This 3D printer will motivate Middle School, Junior High School, and High School students to study 3D modeling,  engineering and math related subjects to be able to design and print 3D models

If you need to contact via email you can do so via email at 

kentjamesganevsky@gmail.com

or 

kentg@earthlink.net

Also you can contact me via my website:

computergraphics.com

BIO

Name: Kent Ganevsky

School: Roosevelt Middle School, Glendale, California

Subject: 7th Grade Math- Computer Science ( 3D Animation, 3D game development, website creation, computer programming)

Classroom: 5107

Bio:  I have been teaching math and now a computer science class for 10 years.  I taught Algebra, Geometry at the high school in the Hart District for two years.  I then came to Roosevelt five years ago and taught 8th grade Intro to Algebra, and for the last two years I have taught 7th grade math.

I now teach a class and run the new Computer Science club at Roosevelt Middle School and we will now be using our math skills to create 3D animations and 3D models with our new 3D printer,. We will put our works up on my website for the studios to see.k.  Our goal is to get our scrub members to challenge themselves, to strive to improve, and to start on a path to a successful career in computer science.

I have a BA in Business Management from the University of Idaho, and a MBA from USC in finance and statistics.  I worked in the corporate world for 10 years as a telecommunications manager ( AT@T and Transamerica). I then started and ran my own business for 20 years selling 3D animation software and hardware from Autodesk, nonlinear digital editing systems, and also building and managing websites.

I believe that hard work and constant improvement leads to success in math.  I do not care at what level of math a student enters my class,  but I do care about what level they leave at.  I expect to see improvement each day. Every student can be successful at math if they push themselves and practice.  Some will simply require more time to succeed.

I run my own website and all of my lesson plans,  tutorials, practice problems, tests, and our  computer science projects are on it.  My website is

http://www.computergraphics.com

my email is 

kentg@earthlink.net