Syllabus for 3D Animation Track

 

Syllabus for 3D Animation Track Day 1: Meet Blender Hour 1: Hour 2: Hour 3: Day 2: Getting Advanced Hour 1: Hour 2: Hour 3: Day 3: Starting Final Projects Hour 1: Hours 2 & 3: Day 4: Home Stretch Hour 1: Hours 2 & 3: Day 5: Crunch Time Hours 1 & 2: Hours 3:

 

Day 1: Meet Blender

Hour 1:

• Intro the class (Who are you? Why are you here?)
• This is Blender (A minor exhibition of things produced in Blender)
• Explain final project ("Start thinking now")

 

Hour 2:

• Hard Body Modeling (Dog House Tutorial, dining room, simple vehicle)
• Primary focus:
  • Navigating the interface
  • Mouse control
  • Main Hotkeys: Spacebar, G, R, S, E, Numpad

 

Hour 3:

• Materials and Rendering (provided file or, ideally, the students' dog house model)
• Primary focus:
  • Materials window
  • Basic 3-point lighting
  • Positioning the camera
  • Ambient occlusion
  • Render formats

 

Day 2: Getting Advanced

Hour 1:

• Organic Modeling (dog, human face, simple creature)
• Primary focus:
  • Mirror modifier
  • Subsurface division modifiers
  • Topology/Edgeflow
  • Sculpt mode

 

Hour 2:

• Simple animation (object animation, pre-built character rig)
• Primary focus:
  • Keyframes
  • IPO window
  • Timeline window
  • Editing curves
  • Armatures (using, not building)
  • Rendering animation

 

Hour 3:

• Individual work time (work on developing project ideas, playing with Blender, individual question & answer)

 

Day 3: Starting Final Projects

Hour 1:

• Idea show n' tell
• Students present their project ideas to instructors and other students for review and advice

 

Hours 2 & 3:

• Individual work time (Same as Day 2... focus on projects. Students should be well into their projects by the end of this day)

 

Day 4: Home Stretch

Hour 1:

• Tips and tricks
• Address specific issues from the previous day

 

Hours 2 & 3:

• Individual work time (Students should be nearing the end of their projects with lighting and rendering being the main steps remaining)

 

Day 5: Crunch Time

Hours 1 & 2:

• Individual work time (crunch time... finalizing and rendering)

 

Hours 3:

• Show and tell. Students show their work to the rest of the class.
• Next steps:
  • BlenderArtists.org
  • IRC (#blenderchat)