Question From a New Lecturer: What Makes a 3D Course Excellent?

ArdyOlt

I am structuring a new approach to the 3D side of a BTEC Level 3 Games course. I would love to hear from the community: hobbyists, students, those in industry, other lecturers and so forth, as to what they believe is the best method to learning 3D from scratch in a classroom - or their experiences in doing so.

Alex_J

this is what i found works best for me

• describe a goal to achieve
• show the finished product. Don't explain anything technical.
• Begin work by describing mini goals working towards. Explain process and why's after having shown it first. Don't explain solutions before showing the actual problem directly. Only focus on one problem at a time and as they naturally come up in the development process. 
• So it's "Okay, the first thing I'll try to do is get the big shapes." "Uh oh, I have no more vertices to move to get the shape. How can I get more?" "Multicut tool." Show the tool in action - no words, no explanation. Then summarize. 
• If explain something with words before student has seen problem directly, it sounds like rocket science and all but the geniuses will learn to just tune out until the actual work is shown. So it's wasted time.
• if person understands work as a physical, concrete process, they can solve new problems using their own intuition. If its abstract, only the geniuses are going to even be able to guess what to do.

In general, if the course introduces me to problems and shows me what different tools can be used to tackle problems, that's more valuable then explaining common solutions. In other words if I go to culinary school don't teach me a recipe, teach me the properties of salt and pepper and how people feel when they are hungry.