Comments on: Blending Ahead: Rui Campos and Education

By: PeterC

PeterC — Fri, 08 May 2009 09:06:00 +0000

Im new to blender but I have an hnc in cad using max If I can assist in any way on letting more people know about blender let me know

By: bri

bri — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 22:27:34 +0000

this was so boring really I mean I could fall asleep

By: Jason Bayne

Jason Bayne — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 23:26:29 +0000

I have been waiting for something like this for quite some time. I use slow speed internet so, opening up html pages loaded with graphics can be quite tedious. Finding a tutorial that teaches me very little can be frustrating to say the least. I have watched the "Greybeard" series of tutorials and was amazed at how much I could learn just by watching and hearing someone vs. reading and jumping between windows on my computer.

I have been wanting to make video tutorials ever since, but have always lacked the "schooling" necessary to create them. I have watched some video tutorials that was a waste of time because you were only shown some basics and nothing was fully explained. I love to learn from someone who knows the ins and outs of a certain tool, and even shows you a few tricks to them. Once you learn the rules then you know how to break them.

If I can be of help to creating some video stuff please let me know. I am signing up for the educaction mailing list as I type this.

Thank you so much guys for starting this side of blender.

Jason
(manonfireproductions@yahoo.com)

By: Giovanni Gallo

Giovanni Gallo — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 21:53:27 +0000

Teaching Blender is rewarding. I teach, among other classes, a class to train teacher for high school. These are people with a strong education (4 to 5) years in Math and Computer Science and are required to attend classes about teaching metodology and so. This year I decided to teach them CG using Blender. Well it's going slowly but you see that "spark" that every Blender lover gets after the first learning thresholds have been passed. Will these colleagues use Blender in their teaching activities in high school? Who knows but I am optimistic.
I am also looking forward to teach in the coming weeks a Blender class in Catania, (Sicily) School of Fine Arts. I convinced the faculty to let me try Blender instead of Maya. I am sure that beatiful images will come out of this….

By: Gerhard

Gerhard — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 18:27:13 +0000

Here is the web address for the online blender education center.
http://www.onlineblendereducation.com
I still have a lot of content to add but you will get the generall idea and you can sign up to the forums already.

By: Miguel

Miguel — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 17:50:42 +0000

Eu começei a trabalhar com o Blender há 1ano e pouco, por volta de Setembro. Tenho estado a evoluir bastante e aprendi baseando-me em tutorials e fazendo experiências. Tentei dar aulas de Blender a amigos e senti-me fustrado pois eles aprenderam em menos de duas horas o que eu demorei meses a descobrir… Abrir-se um site em qualquer lingua, que se dedicasse unica e exclusivamente a ensinar novos "Blenders" era o melhor que nos podia acontecer :)
E se se organizasse um site em Português?
Eu abri um blog que por sinal ainda não é frequentado e por isso está um pouco "vazio". Quem quiser contribuir para o seu desenvolvimento é bem vindo.
Thnks Blender team!

By: Bmud

Bmud — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 16:54:31 +0000

Sound in video is something that often confuses people that aren't familiar with how the whole mess of it works. Even experienced people get lost… Here's the low-down so you know for future reference, and I'm sure this will help others on this subject too:

|Capturing raw video and sound with something like Camtasia|
This method works well. In camtasia's case, video is captured in a special capturing codec called TSCC. This is no good for others to play back unless you provide them the playback codec, which is perfectly acceptable since this codec was designed to do screencapture. Sound on the other hand, is almost always best captured as a wav to make the capturing process go smoothly. After your video tutorial is complete, download a copy of VirtualDub and compress the sound to a 128 mp3, prefferably mono, at 44.1kHz using {Audio > Full Compression} then {Audio > Codec} or something thereof. I'm going from memory.

VNC2swf looks very clean and usable. I'm excited aobut using it :D

By: JimC

JimC — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 16:51:35 +0000

Hi Mike!

If it helps with the "others", take a look at what we do in Central Dauphin High School in Harrisburg, PA. We teach tech ed and do not get any resistance. In fact, we get lots of support with what we do. Two of us will be presenting next week in Baltimore and have a website set up as a portal to our district's site, my manual, Blender, and of course, here.

The site is: http://www.blenderanimation.com

Hope it helps

By: mike

mike — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 15:37:38 +0000

Teaching Blender, like any good teaching, requires hefty amounts of courage and a thick skin. I teach a multimedia couse in a public high school in Colorado. I looked at entrance requirements for art schools and trends in media, and decided to include a decent (1 quarter ) section on Blender. The rewards are amazing – when the Blender bug bites, a lot of students will start coming to class and telling me about how they've spent their entire weekends and evenings blending.

I'm also a math teacher. Watching student math skills grow is profoundly rewarding – there are so many opportunities to teach geometry, pre-calculus, algebra, …. It's amazing. At some point, I'd like to write a text on teaching math with Blender.

The only downside of Blender teaching in a public school is the nonstop barrage of cheapshots from other teachers. Other teachers have torn into me for teaching "fun" stuff (apparently kids should only learn subjects they dislike), teachers have worked to get Blender uninstalled (it's either a virus or a chat program, depending on who you talk to), I continually have to justify my curriculum to administrators, certification boards, etc. The rewards of what students do in Blender far outweigh the slings and arrows of public education, but I would warn other prospective Blender teachers to get ready for a rough ride.

I truly believe that Blender will reach "critical mass". Each year, I get more students who are already Blenderheads and are desperate for a course to even get credit for what they already know. I think when there are Blender certifications available, it will greatly help the cause. Public school administrators seem to thrive on paperwork and certificates.

In the meantime, I'd advise any teacher thinking about teaching Blender to dive in and do it. Start with an after school club, or a short unit. Document the successes you have. When you build your unit plans, explicitly lay out how Blender will support academic subjects (english, math, physics), and if possible, collect some data about student achievement. Most of all, be prepared to change your role as a teacher: Rather than being the ultimate expert on Blender, you'll have to change your role to "chief learner". It's a reality that you will get kids that are more proficient in some aspects of Blender than you are.

By: Emil

Emil — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 15:13:35 +0000

Hi,

I'm new Dutch user to Blender (just about one and a half month). So there is still a lot to learn for me. I recognize myself a bit in the Rui story. (3DS Max, Truespace, Caligari)
I found Blender by accident, but I'm enthusiastic. So much possibilities for free. I allready told you I'm Dutch.
I try to write a Blender Lessonplan (in Dutch) for first grade students of secondary education.
Two reasons:
1/ I think it is great for students to work with Blender because of the price.
2/ By 'teaching/explaining' I learn a lot myself.

So far I do have 4 lessons ready. More or less based on the old traditional "block-system box".
The name for my tutorial/lessonplan will be: "Playing, learning and working with Blender".