|
|
||
 | ||
       | ||
INVITATION How do we move students into a heightened sense of creativity by using technical tools and exploring 3D art and animation? How can we engage students in communicating ideas for audiences inside and outside the classroom using multimedia authoring tools? How do we motivate them to explore and create in a fictional world and bring the creation to symbolize the real world? |
 |
|
|
TASKS Students use technology to create a short 3D animation that focuses on a social problem. |
||
|
TOOLS Computers; the Internet (optional); Sherlock (optional). Cinema 4D XL. Director Academic (optional). |
||
|
INTERACTIONS As a class, students and the teacher discuss social issues. Following the discussion, students work individually thinking of ideas, creating drawings, and making inferences concerning social issues. The class comes back together during Phase 2 to discuss which social problems do and do not affect them. Students then take knowledge from the discussion and work individually with the teacher to try and establish an ethos connection to the social problem they have chosen. Students work individually with Cinema 4D XL to create a symbolic representation of the social problem they have chosen. Once the project is finished, students come together with the teacher and the class for presentations. |
||
|
STANDARDS To identify the curriculum standards for your state that correlate to this student project, select the state in the popup menu below and then click the Go button. View Detailed Standards in |
||
|
SITUATIONS Students work in the classroom, computer lab, media center, and community. The project, including discussions, will take about three weeks to complete allowing for presentation time. If students decide to animate their symbols or if this becomes a requirement, the project will take approximately four to five weeks to complete. Prior student knowledge of Cinema 4D XL will significantly reduce project time. |
||
|
ASSESSMENT The teacher assesses the project based on the connection of social issues, research, and development and its application to the animation. Assessment may also focus on individual understanding of both social issues and application along with technical application. A rubric should be created before the project begins so all students know grading expectations. |
||
 |
||
|
Students choose a social issue and use 3D animation to create a "Living Problem." The presentation should take the form of an individual, animated object, or if time allows, a short animated sequence. This task requires that the students study the problem in depth, attach physical characteristics to it, and then bring it to life. The teacher helps students formulate ideas of what constitutes a social issue. Students might want to choose a social problem that directly affects them to increase the level of empathy and involve schema activation. When this begins to occur, the realism of the problem may spark enhanced creativity and creation. Possible suggestions include illiteracy, abuse, struggles for peace, foreign policy, health care, homelessness, and inflation. |
||
|
Phase 1: Defining the issues Begin this project by leading students in an organized discussion concerning our society and the social illnesses that plague it. The approach to this discussion can vary: you can serve as facilitator; re-create scenes involving the drama club or students in the class; show videos to spark the separation we sometimes feel as members in our own society; or stage debates where students affirm or negate the issues or cite cases that support both the positive and negative sides. Students should engage in follow-up discussions concerning these issues before moving on to Phase 2. |
|
|
|
Phase 2: Not in my backyard Ask students to create a top ten list of the social issues that they feel affect them the most and the least. This activity will give you an idea of where the students see themselves in relation to the world around them. Once the lists have been created, have the students choose the topic that affects them the least. Ask each student to explain to the class why he or she feels this particular topic does not affect their lives and allow for classroom discussion. Be prepared for a lively and sometimes aggressive discussion; serve as facilitator, pointing out good argumentative strategies. |
|
|
|
Phase 3: Attaching ethos to the issue Following class discussion from the earlier phase, ask students to begin thinking about their number one choice concerning the issue that affects them the least, and challenge them to begin thinking about human characteristics and emotions (ethos) that may represent or symbolize the particular issue chosen. Students may have a difficult time associating human characteristics and emotions to issues that don’t significantly affect them. Continue to let students struggle with this concept, but then turn the corner and have them apply the same strategy with the issue that affects them the most. |
|
|
|
Phase 4: Roundtable discussions Once students are able to begin attaching characteristics and emotions to the social problems that do affect them, allow the class to discuss how they feel about each other's responses. Again, the discussion may turn lively so prepare to be a strong facilitator. Designate recorders during the discussions, as many of the emotions will develop through conversation; by the end of this activity, you should have a large list of emotions and characteristics attached to the issues. |
|
|
|
Phase 5: Object representations Using the list of emotions and characteristics that apply to various social issues, students choose five (or more) and begin "scratch" animation and development, trying to draw rough ideas of what form the issues may take. Prompt the students with questions to help them with visualization. If an issue such as homelessness would take the form of an object, what would it be? If the struggle for peace were to have a face, how would it appear? If war was created as an animated cartoon, what would its physical attributes look like? Once students have finished representing the issues as objects, ask them to analyze the images they developed and explain why they chose to represent the issues the way they did. |
|
|
|
Phase 6: Using the tools (The last phase depends on students' familiarity with Cinema 4D XL. If students are not knowledgeable about the program, suggest that they attempt simpler images or characterizations; the more familiar a student is with the program, the more complex their drawings can be. You may need to reach a decision individually with students as to the complexity of the project. The assignment may grow during the course of the class, as students become more familiar with the program.) The first step is for students to try and re-create their drawings from Phase 5 into Cinema 4D XL. This is a good time to remind students about the importance of backing up files. Students who are more familiar with the program may want to take the project further and attach movement or animation to their 4D XL drawing. The ultimate goal or objective is for students to create a 3D object that includes animation and, through a short message, points out the severity of the social problem. |
|
|
|
PREPARATION
Prepare students, as much as possible, on using Cinema 4D XL. Consider showing videos that focus on the emotional side of many of the world's social problems. Formulate class discussions concerning social issues and allow the students the freedom of expression concerning these particular topics. Prepare students for proper etiquette involved in controversy and debate. Emphasize the difference between the emotional side of confrontation (ethos) and the logical side (logos). Invite speakers who have had firsthand experience with specific social issues to speak to the class and spark student interest. |
|
|
|
OPTIONS AND EXTENSION ACTIVITIES
These projects would be strong candidates for local and national technology competitions and conventions. Students may want to work together in a group and formulate the animation or graphic development into other software programs. For example, students may want to create a full interactive CD that focuses on illiteracy and develop the overall project using Director Academic. This project can include many of the other applications included with Secondary Multimedia and may serve as a semester or year final. Consider showing students' work on local television stations or submitting short commercials to local television broadcasting. |
|
|
 BOOKS Animating Facial Features and Expressions by Bill Fleming Character Animation in Depth by Doug Kelly 3D Creature Workshop by Bill Fleming 3D Graphics and Animation: From Starting Up to Standing Out by Mark Giambruno 3-D Human Modeling and Animation by Peter Ratner 3D Photorealism Toolkit by Bill Fleming Getting Started with 3D by Janet Ashford and John Odam The Macintosh 3D Handbook (Third Edition) by Craig Lyn and Ben Long |
||
|
INTERNET RESOURCES
Cinema 4D Links
Cinema 4D XL Gallery
Cinema 4D XL by Magic Pictures
3D Animation Workshop
Computer Animation Books
|
||