Teaching 3D Animation to Middle School Students using Autodesk Maya 2016

My seventh and they could teach students have been doing some amazing work this semester and we have been using the new Autodesk Maya 2016. 

This is the third year for my 3-D animation program and this year I have my laptops plugged in when I don't have to use a cart.   So my students can be working as soon as they had to the classroom. We also have extra memory is some of our laptops.

We are starting to create 3D animations from of our models and some of the students are working on a traffic safety animation for our school district.  This is a great opportunity for the students to be given a project and then using their own vision and design create their own 3D animation that will meet the specifications of what the district needs,

These are the tasks they till be doing when they get a job so it is great practice to start with it now.   They are getting practice with creating and bringing in models, setting up the correct lighting, and then creating a smooth animation to show the correct way to cross the street

Using Oculus Rift Virtual Reality Headset 

I just got the Oculus Rift Headset Installed on my MacBook ProAnd working for my class!  It is absolutely amazing. It virtually lets you walk into the game as if you were inside the game.

The students were blown away and they all lined up to try once or twice.  Now this will further motivate them to learn to computer program so that they can build their own their own unity base video game.

We are using Autodesk Maya to build 3-D models, and then bring them into Unity3D to build video games.  We will be using the C# programming to get started and to develop our skills.

Help me bring 3D Animation and Video Game Design to all students worldwide

Please fund my kickstarter project to bring 3D Animation and Video Game Design and programming to all students and classrooms worldwide.  

Read more at

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2096879612/bring-3d-animation-video-game-design-to-students-w?ref=email

Create my own to terrain in Unity3D-  for my middle school students two now do the same

We are now going to start using Unity3D to create our own video games.   it is incredibly easy and powerful as you can see from the pictures. It only took about 12 minutes to create this island with mountains, trees, grass.

I have also figured out how to bring our 3D models made in Maya so we can really start to design and build I would video games

USC has added  "Game Development" track within their computer science program

The last year and a half I have been blessed to have a student come in from GCC and work with me and my middle school students at Roosevelt middle school in Glendale. His name is Richard Dean

He originally came in to help with math but he was also an expert in 3D animation and Maya. In addition he was the one who got me to go into video game design and see the unlimited job opportunities for doing that as a career.

He just told me this week that he is trying to get into the USC computer science program and their new video game development track. This is one of the hottest tracks in the world today and look at some of the classes that are required.

I'm hoping that other school districts are making plans for putting in AP computer science and animation tracks.

I have included the classes required from USC for that track below, and you can see they also require Advanced math skills


MAJOR REQUIREMENTS (84 UNITS)

UNITS


CSCI 103L

Introduction to Programming 3


CSCI 104L

Data Structures and Object-Oriented Design 4


CSCI 109

Introduction to Computing 3


CSCI 170

Discrete Methods in Computer Science 4


CSCI 201L

Principles of Software Development 4


CSCI 270

Introduction to Algorithms and Theory of Computing 4


CSCI 350

Introduction to Operating Systems 4


CSCI 353

Introduction to Internetworking 4


CSCI 360

Introduction to Artificial Intelligence4


CSCI 420

Computer Graphics 4

CSCI 423

Native Console Multiplayer Game Development 4


CSCI 424

Game Engine Tool Development 4


CSCI 425

Immersive Game Design 4


EE 352L

Computer Organization and Architecture 4


GAME DEVELOPMENT (31 UNITS)

UNITS


CTIN 190

Introduction to Interactive Entertainment 4


CSCI 281

Pipelines for Games and Interactives 3


CSCI 491abL

Final Game Project (4-2) 6


CTAN 452

Introduction to 3-D Computer Animation 2


CTIN 484L

Intermediate Game Development 2


CTIN 488

Game Design Workshop 4


CTIN 489

Intermediate Game Design Workshop 3


ITP 380

Video Game Programming 4


ITP 485

Programming Game Engine 4


Total units 128

Eighth grade middle school 3D animation models

This is Kimberly's work on a futuristic outerspace planet

Great Review of my 3D Animation Class in Digital Media World 

Autodesk put me in touch with the reporter from Australia about doing a online article about my class.   My program is really growing and I'm having to turn students away this last quarter

http://www.digitalmedia-world.com/Training/growing-up-smarter-with-3d-computer-graphics-animation-maya

Teaching computer programming using Unity 3-D video game software

I am now starting to teach my seventh grade and eighth grade students how to program in C sharp.  We are going to be using the unity 3D program to do so.

This is an excellent way to get students motivated to learn computer programming.   They are able to apply their program to a model in the Unity3D software and then watch as the model does what their program says. And if they make a mistake it will give them an error message and they must go back and analyze their Code

Unity3d comes with its own compiler- Monodevelop  which makes for an excellent software program do you use to teach programming.  They can use Maya to create and bring in 3D models and objects, and then going to the Monodevelop program and write the code to manipulate them,  and then come back to Unity3D program to see what happens

Plus they're getting invaluable skills and designing a 3D video game. This is a huge market and a great opportunity to develop future job skills . Plus designing a video game requires them to sketch out and visualize how the game will look, how they will put it together, line of sight, etc. It's a project-based project for them to work on

All of these exercises will provide invaluable experience for the future job skills they will need to be successful in a highly technical world . Plus the video game market is one the fastest growing in the world. and so to be acquiring skills in designing, modeling and programming for 3D games is a great opportunity.

The students of today have been born into and are in the midst of the the computer age. They do not get frustrated when dealing with new hardware software, they have the patience and ability to solve and conquer almost any problem.