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Bringing your robot to Life

In my 3D modeling and animation class students model a robot they designed.   They then take their robot and animated by creating a compelling story they developed.    By the end of the class,  the student will have learned the entire 3D computer animation process from creating their own story, designing their robot, modeling, texturing, character setup,  animation, rendering, and editing.  Their mastery of the software is demonstrated by their final project which is completed entirely by themselves.


Through incorporating design thinking, story structure and animation students are encouraged to be creative and solve both creative and technical problems.    The class implements new and experimental methods of delivering education through hands-on learning that leads to "flow".  Some experience 'a-ha' moments which increase their creative confidence.   That creative confidence can help them develop more innovative solutions to solving problems in the future. 


Below are the works created by a multidisciplinary class comprised of students with various majors from Art, Communication,  Finance, Physic, and Computer Science in a modeling and animation class.   Most of these students had no prior animation or experience with the 3D animation software used to create their projects.   By implementing design thinking into the class structure students were able to not only learn a 3D animation modeling software,  but showcased what they learned by creating entertaining prototypes within only 10 weeks.

Please click on the link for their movie.

  Finance/Design Think major Final prototype movie   



 Computer Science/Studio Art/Design Thinking  major prototype movie 



Computer Science major  prototype movie 

Physics/Values Science Technology major prototype movie

Computer Science/  The digital age major prototype movie 


 Electrical/Computer Science/The digital Age major prototype movie 



Computer Science/Web Design/Design Thinking major final prototype 



Communication/Studio Art/Cinema studies final prototype 




Communications/Studio Art/Design Thinking major prototype movie 




Computer Science/ Design Thinking major prototype movie


    Computer Science/ The digital age major  prototype movie  

More advanced student work is should below produced at other universities AAU and other universities. .



An interesting observation from the multidisciplinary class was that the  STEM students did just as well as compared to with more creative background.     Base on the end of class surveys,  what was most dramatic was the amount of creative confidence gained from these STEM students.   This finding has implication in training STEM majors to become more creative and innovative problem solvers by integrating Design thinking, Storytelling and Animation in classes.    Some of these students will be taking their projects into more ambitious projects in  Virtual Reality in the future.

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Developing creative confidence through design thinking, storytelling and animation

In my multidisciplinary class,   I was surprised to discover how successful students took to not just learning a complex 3D modeling and animation software, but also their ability to create creative, and interesting projects.  At the end of the class, most of the STEM students experience a dramatic increase in creative confidence that they were able to accomplish with their project.   This increase in creative confidence potentially can have far-reaching impact as self-efficacy contributes to student persistent, and achievement. Below are the works created by a multidisciplinary class comprised of students from Art, Communication,  Finance, Physic, Engineer, and Computer Science.   Most of these students had no prior animation or experience with the complex 3D animation software used.     By implementing design thinking into the class structure,  students were able to not only able to learn complex 3D animation modeling software but showcased what they learned by creating an enterta