Teaching 3d? Your opinions?

#1

Hello,
I teach 3D and I am having a difficult time getting students to meet their deadlines. From this, I can think of 2 reasons-

  1. Students are not spending enough time on their projects.
  2. I am not giving them enough time on their projects.

For example, I am teaching a character development class this semester and students had to model their own base mesh. They had 14 days to finish the assignment. They had a real problem modeling a simple head. I showed them how to do it 3 times in a demo. None of them had it done on time. It was their first humanoid mesh.
For the second half of the semester they will have to do another character and they will have roughly 5 weeks to go from concept to final posed character. They will be posing with transpose and/or using biped rigs and guides in xsi.
Does this seem like too short of a time frame to you?

#2

Hey Matt,

I started teaching 2 years ago in a university as a part time gig.
I don’t think you are not giving them time, 14 days is a lot of time if the students actually work on it for 14 full days, that only if they don’t have any other class work to at that time.

In my very short experience of teaching I can tell you that not all your students will get what you are trying to teach, must of will not. you will I hope find 2-3 which are very into the subject which will do well and do the course work.

My 2 cents,

Cheers,

Asa

#3

Asa,
Thanks for your reply. Luckily, there are a couple that are getting it.

#4

Hi Flux,

How many of your students have an art or sculpture background? I’m wondering if some might be from technical majors rather than fine art. If they’re new to the experience of translating what the eye sees onto a sketchpad/computer/clay/etc it might take a while to get into the swing of things. Also, I’ve known a few wonderful illustrators who still have a hard time creating CG because they’re clumbsy with a mouse but do just fine with a tablet. Also, I’ve met a few artists that work with flat media so much its hard to get the brain into 3D mode, where you have to be able to think of things in terms of space and form- sculpture definately helps with this mode of thinking :slight_smile:

Good to hear you’ve got a couple “live ones” in your class!

#5

I teach computer related courses at tertiary level and find that students have a hard time with extended deadlines. If it’s due tomorrow they think about it, if it’s next week or next month, they don’t. Perhaps setting intermediate milestones would work better. I tend to break projects up into sections and check progress at each stage.

I must add that of all the computer application I have learned, 3d is the hardest, mostly due to the complexity. I’m using Blender, but I think the same applies to other apps. I would definitely teach modelling something simpler than a character first, just to get students up to speed with the interface.

#6

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I added intermediate milestones through the whole process. The students in Character class have had an intro class that i taught where they model simple objects like a still life, interior space and an insect too.

Students are doing better. I have been doing extra tutoring outside of class to help them gain a better understanding. I also make my own video tuts for them and point them to other video training on the web.

None of them have a background in sculpture, unfortunately. They are students that play video games and think that is would be neat to make them. However, they are required to take sculpture, drawing and painting courses.

We also have a CG club where we meet once a week and do different mini projects for those who are interested. Teaching 3d is definitely a challenge because learning it is so difficult. As long as the students are willing and ambitious, I will keep plugging away. I am also starting training to become an Autodesk certified instructor, so hopefully that will lend some insight.

thanks for your comments, thoughts and suggestions.
keep 'em coming!

#7

What is the overall context in which you are teaching? Is it at a college/university or in a different setting?

Edit: Actually I can probably guess from your profile;)

As overall advice, reasons for non-submission could be down to numerous factors, and it’s often difficult to figure out which one is to blame (and often it’s a combination)

What is the consequences of them not handing in work on time? In my experience students often spend more time figuring out what they can get away with not doing than they do actually putting work in towards completing a set assignment.

What other work is due, and how close together is it to what you have set? You might want to ask some of them of their reasons for non-submission to see what they say.

With regards to how much time should be given to complete an assignment, as was previously pointed out students are generally very good at leaving things to the last minute, but in my faculty, there is a general “4 weeks to complete assignments meant to take 12 hours”.

I could continue with other ones, but it’s difficult to offer advice without knowing the setting and consequences for non-submission, as different settings will breed different students.

Edit: Okay, so can guess at setting, but what are the consequences for non-submission, and how does it affect their overall grades?

#8

I taught IT for 6 years and found the same thing to be true. You have the students that are there because they love it, some because they think it will be a good job others because they have to. (In some cases ordered by a judge to go to school or prison) Because of that mix you always end up with a breakdown like the bell curve shown below. Seems like no matter how hard you try or how easy you think something is it still pans out like this. The milestones are probably the best bet. In a long term project students lose track of their time and before you know it they are cramming, pulling all nighters or in your case I’m guessing creating thrown together work.

You sound enthusiastic and that you really want them all to succeed. That’s probably the best thing to prod them along. Plus you being prepared and giving them very specific guidelines will also help. Think of a school project like you would think of a business project. You probably wouldn’t deliver the entire product all at once if you are making it. Instead the customer would want incremental milestones so they can check where the project is and so they know you aren’t screwing around.

Good luck fluxist, sounds like you are approaching it the right way.

#9

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