October 2007 — News
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Quakertown Animates Students with 3D
The 10th through 12th grade students who take Don Mease's 3D Animation classes at Quakertown High School in Quakertown, PA don't necessarily expect to get jobs on the next Shrek, but, said Mease, they "see a definite correlation between what they're doing and what's out there."
In his 36 years at the 1,200-student school, Mease has moved from teaching what was called "industrial arts" back in the '70s to what is now called "technological studies." Along the way, the classes eliminated drafting tables, moved in the computers, and cranked up the "cool" factor.
Now, twice a day every day, a group of between 22 and 24 students tackle 90-minute 3D animation classes. Mease also teaches architectural design and mechanical engineering as well as woodshop. What all of those classes--with the exception of the last one--have in common is the use of Autodesk software on the student machines, including Animation Academy and Design Academy.
Autodesk software was first introduced to the school six or seven years ago to replace the outdated CAD software it had been using, which wasn't industry standard. Quakertown sent Mease to a couple of week-long training programs in the beginning, but to keep up on the annual updates, he said, he's been "self-taught."
How Animation Got Moving at Quakertown
Offered for the last four years, the animation class actually grew out of the design and engineering courses that Mease was teaching. "When Autodesk Design Academy came out, Autodesk's 3ds Max was part of that," said Mease. "I told students finished with work related to Design Academy to look at this program and see what they could do with it.... As kids were finishing, they'd get into that and really take to it. I thought, this is something to explore. We implemented it, and it seems to have taken off quite well."
The first year it was offered, Mease taught three semester-long classes for beginners. He eventually added a second level, which had two classes each day. Since the initial wave of interest, it has dropped back a bit. This semester he has two entry-level and one second-level course.
The animation class, which has no prerequisites, starts off with basic geometry, which gets animated. "They create a simple revolution of a sphere and render that out," said Mease. "Then we make the transition from there to incorporating lighting and materials, different camera views. Then we begin to combine different drawings to bring in things they did prior, a different scene, combining one scene with another. All the time we're doing this, the work is becoming more complex."
