Have you ever wondered how your favorite movies or video games are made? If so, Digital 3D Modeling and Animation might be the perfect elective for you.
Digital 3D Modeling and Animation is a unique Career Technical Elective available to all grades. The elective is only offered at four schools across the peninsula. John Giambruno teaches the class, as well as Digital Communications and Filmmaking. “A lot of other schools only do a quarter of 3D modeling and animation, but not the whole year,” Giambruno said.
He described the elective as a fun class where students can step into the shoes of a real life animator. “We get through the whole process of making every little step that gets done for any Pixar or Dreamworks movie you see,” Giambruno added.
Students first design characters with basic shapes using Autodesk Maya software. “We start off learning character modeling and concepting. Right now, we are working on creating a 3D Mario. He has clean lines, so it’s easy to do for a beginner,” Giambruno said.
Students then learn how to color the model, which can be difficult due to each character’s 3D surface. “Rigging, which is when you put a skeleton into the model, is the most challenging part of the course,” Giambruno said.
Once this step is completed, students have the freedom to model and animate any character and background of their choice. “Animating is my favorite part, when you actually make the model come to life,” Giambruno said.
“I like that I can exercise technical skills along with creative ones,” senior Hannah Yee said. “Mr. G is very thorough when going through project steps, which is helpful when trying to understand the process.”
3D Modeling and Animation recently became a dual-enrolled class available at Cañada College, where Giambruno taught the course last semester. After taking level one, students have the option to take the advanced class. “The level one course gets three units next semester, which are actually units on a college transcript,” Giambruno explained. “In the advanced class, students get four and a half units. So, if they do two years, they leave this program with seven and a half units of college credit.”
Giambruno compared the course to a fun math class. “My course is artistically applied geometry. We are using ratios, degree turns, making graphs, and involving lots of shapes,” he said.
Giambruno emphasized the fun and unique art experience the class offers. “If you’re interested in how games or Pixar and Dreamworks movies get made, this class helps you appreciate and understand that,” he said. “Even if you don’t want to pursue a career in it, it’s a really fun and unique class. I think I did a good job at making the curriculum very accessible to students.”
“If you’re interested because you do 2D art, it really helps as you model because you still learn basic art fundamentals, like anatomy, to create figures,” junior Errin Larson said. “It’s also fun and satisfying to create something.”
