Topics to cover in a Blender starter class.

General Forums Blender and CG Discussions
#1

If you were putting together a 6 week class (meets once or twice a week)

What topics in Blender do you think would be best to go over?

(by topic i mean - modeling, animation, compositing, texturing, rendering, rigging, etc.)

If the class was small would you try to see what the class was interested going over?

Would you format the class to a project?.. like everybody in the class makes a character, rigs it, and makes a 10 second animation… or builds a character, textures, then sculpts it… etc etc

anyways interested in seeing people’s thoughts.

#2

If they are new to Blender, I would start with a (rather short) introduction of Blender and Open Source, and the basics behind 3D. Starting with modeling would be obvious, than texturing and so on…

If you are planning a group project, make something that can be done individual as well so you don’t depent on others. Let’s say everyone models and animates a character walking in a street, it doesn’t matter if there are a few less or more in the end result. Some people might not finish their tasks on time while others will have time over, you could give them some extra work moddeling buildings or laterns or whatever for that street.

Just an example, could be everything. As long as the project wouldn’t fail for everyone if 1 guy doesn’t do a thing.

#3

I would definitely recommend basing the class off of a project. The best way to learn is to actually do something (or teach it yourself). If all you do is read a textbook or listen to a teacher, then you will forget that stuff shortly. But applying the knowledge will help you to understand it better and retain it longer.

I would also recommend providing the blend files at the beginning of each step. For example, if you break up your class into 10 steps, then provide a blend file at the beginning of each step. This way, if a person wasn’t able to complete the prior step before you go onto the next step, they will having something to work off of.

Finally, you mentioned working on a character a few times, and I thought that I would remind you that not all people are artistic. Some people are mechanical (left-brain) and some are artistic (right-brain). In other words, some people can draw, model in clay, paint, etc., but others can’t do that to save their lives. I can model almost anything mechanically, but ask me to create a character and it would probably look like an unrecognizable blob. So if you create a curriculum that is almost all artistic, then you will lose your rational thinkers (and vice versa). Just try to keep that in mind as you create your curriculum.

#4

ask someone who has already been doing it for years. [email protected] he’ll even give you special download links to all his stuff. http://gryllus.net/Blender/3D.html

#5

definitely. well it’s a possible class at an art college for teenagers (continuing education department), so it’s for people interested in art application, but I definitely agree that character is not the only application of interest for many people. the reason i put “etc etc” after i mentioned the character stuff was that those were two random examples of projects an elective class might be based on. a lot of my work is non character based cut-out stuff so I definitely appreciate different applications of animation and art.

another example might be, make an object and setting/texture scene/composite focal blur… blah blah etc etc

@rdo3

  • actually i was already planning to use that site as a good out-of-class guide. (and notify him about it). The first class would first cover blender examples, resources, and community and the second part of the class would go over the interface and modeling to get them ready to explore and prepare for the next class.