Session 1: Welcome
Introduction
A little bit about who is teaching you: I used to make books for young people. Now I write code.
Over the next two days, you are going to learn how to use 3D software, and create your own character.
We are going to start off with a big question.
What is engineering?
Engineering is working out how to make things. Engineers make things, by breaking down big problems into small pieces.
Any time you are trying to solve a problem, you are engineering.
- Television engineering might be creating the perfect lighting set up or experimenting with how a camera works to capture just the right moment
- Sports engineering might be calculating the perfect angle to hit the ball or building a more accessible stadium
- and, indeed, art needs engineering. Movies like Frozen and Avenger’s End Game use engineering for visual effects and stunts
So, here’s a problem that a lot of people have thought about: How do you make a cute character? Or a scary character?
In the same way you build a building, or a Lego model, you build the way a character looks. And you do that with geometry.
Character design uses geometry
Art uses a lot of different types of engineering. The first engineering element that we are going to explore is shapes and shape theory. Shape theory is the idea that your character’s shape has a huge part to play in how people will perceive it: cute, scary or something else.
We are going to experiment with square heads. On your paper, you’ll have more than one square, and I want you to draw different shapes for the facial features, to see what you can create.
A square head with all round features. Or triangle and angled features. Or try a mix of shapes and positiong, and see what character emerges.
Think about exaggerating, bold shapes. Big round eyes, or tiny triangle eyes. Throughout this course you’re going to want to think in bold shapes, because that’s what we’re going to use in the 3D software.
- 5 minutes for drawing