Hi,<div>I just thought I'd chip in as well. I teach Blender with ZBrush as part of a 3D for illustration course in the Illustration department of Rhode Island School of Design. I'd previously taught the course with Cinema 4D, but got tired of students asking me if they could get a cracked copy somewhere. Some students could afford the software, others couldn't, and it seemed unfair to me. With the extensive Blender toolset, it also seemed unnecessary.</div>
<div><br></div><div>The school has licenses of Maya, the complete Adobe CS5 suite and a lot of other software, so expense wasn't the only factor in my decision. I know that many companies want their hires to have experience with Maya or 3DS, but this course is not specifically about employment Rather, it's about the artistic side of 3D, as for a self-employed artist or small studio. I also teach a course designed as an introduction to the creation of assets for 3D games, using Maya, ZBrush and the Unreal Development Kit, and we use Maya specifically and only because a great many local game studios use the software (38Studios, Harmonix, and Turbine, among others).</div>
<div><br></div><div>I'd been using Blender in my own work, so felt comfortable teaching it, and the students took to it quite well and enthusiastically. They loved being able to download it and show their parents at home what they were doing in school.</div>
<div><br></div><div>I've never used texts, since even with commercial software they get out of date so very rapidly. Additionally, we have long classes (five hours) and the students, being artists, are all far from methodical in their learning styles. I rely on demonstrating the major principles of each part of a 3D project--modeling, textures, rendering, some animation, compositing, particles, physics etc.--as they would apply to an illustration assignment. I refer them to some of the many Blender information sites for deeper explanations, but we also have courseware that allows the students to email me 24 hours a day if they're stumped on an issue. I insist that they have tried to solve their problem at least three ways before they contact me, so this has never been abused, and I've always been able to resolve their questions within 12 hours.</div>
<div><br></div><div>When I switched the class to Blender 2.53, I had limited experience with the program. I explained to the students that I would likely make mistakes with it by virtue of reflexes that applied to the older version, but that this was actually a good thing for them since I would also demonstrate how to get out of or solve problems that inevitably occur even with software that you are thoroughly familiar with. There were no major revisions of importance to our subject matter during the course of the class, but I did make plenty of errors--sometimes corrected by some of the students who had run into the same difficulty earlier, sometimes quickly looked up and solved on screen during demonstration time. </div>
<div><br></div><div>The thing is, the class isn't strictly about teaching software competence. Rather, it's a course in how to make absorbing images using 3D as your medium. I'm more interested in whether they're using lighting well for emotional effect than choosing the perfect resolution shadow map or trying some expensive plugin. Sometimes simplicity and charm trumps detail or photorealism, sometimes the other way around but the kids have always been able to acquire the skills they need to make the images they want to make whether directly through me or through resources I point them to. Quite a few have gone on to work for the above-mentioned companies, as well as many others, but it's really just a secondary result of the class.</div>
<div><br></div><div><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Apr 7, 2011 at 8:27 PM, Juan Dario Rodas M. <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:jdrodas@yahoo.com">jdrodas@yahoo.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0"><tbody><tr><td valign="top" style="font:inherit">Hello everyone, hope you're well.<br><br>I'd like to share my experience as a teacher using Blender, the documentation used in the course and the work opportunities for my students.<br>
<br>Last year when the alpha version was at the oven's door, I had the same concern expressed in this thread: Will I use 2.49 or 2.5x version? Ton offered me the vision of a relatively stable beta version by the end of spring term. Teaching CG with an alpha version is a real headache, especially when the options change their behavior or disappear altogether ("Add to toolshelf", we miss you!), no to mention the endless times it crashed. A big part of the class material and documentation had to be rewritten, so we encouraged our students to use video tutorials like BlenderCookie. The good thing is that by the time we started to see fluids and rigid bodies, the beta version allowed
us to finish the topics of the course. One year later, the doubts have gone and the 2.5x version stayed.<br><br>In terms of career opportunities in my city, the major initiative proposed around this issue is to use the tools from Autodesk, which has agreements with almost all educational institutions in the area. A big portion of the Local Studios require specific expertise in tools like Maya, 3ds Max or Nuke. The problem is that the average student doesn't have the computer needed to run Maya or 3ds Max in a productive way; so they were very grateful we tought them the initial courses in Blender. Some of my students still use Blender as part of their professional skills and try to share the passion for the product in their workplaces, but they recognize that still there is much work to do in marketing of the open source alternatives.<br>
<br>Greetings from Colombia!<br><br>Juan Dario Rodas (JuanD)<br><br>--- On <b>Tue, 4/5/11, Jessica Cortes
<i><<a href="mailto:lou.jessica.cortes@gmail.com" target="_blank">lou.jessica.cortes@gmail.com</a>></i></b> wrote:<br><blockquote style="border-left:2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255);margin-left:5px;padding-left:5px"><br>
From: Jessica Cortes <<a href="mailto:lou.jessica.cortes@gmail.com" target="_blank">lou.jessica.cortes@gmail.com</a>><br>Subject: Re: [Bf-education] 2.49 or 2.5 this academic year<br>To: "Blender Educators and Trainers" <<a href="mailto:bf-education@blender.org" target="_blank">bf-education@blender.org</a>><br>
Date: Tuesday, April 5, 2011, 5:37 AM<div><div></div><div class="h5"><br><br><div>Hi everyone !<br><br>I am following your discussion with great interest and I would like to ask a question.<br>If you teach Blender in school, do you know company that can already take this student to wook with Blender ? In France for exemple ?<br>
<br>Thank you and have a nice day !<br><br><br><div>2011/4/5 Doug Ollivier <span dir="ltr"><<a rel="nofollow" href="http://mc/compose?to=doug@flipdesign.co.nz" target="_blank">doug@flipdesign.co.nz</a>></span><br><blockquote style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
I get a lot of confused people (students, management, teachers, IT<br>
department etc...) about the following:<br>
<br>
[*] sing the beta versions over the stable versions (although they were<br>
convinced after i just said i was doing it, and told them i can teach<br>
30% more in the same time simply due to 2.5x being so much mroe logical)<br>
<br>
[*] When to write a new book. i.e. they were waiting for a new version<br>
before writing another book, not realizing that the blender naming<br>
scheme is totally $#*(%ed. I managed to convince them it is an entirely<br>
new package now.<br>
<br>
[*] When to stop distributing the old book. i.e. they are still handing<br>
out 2.45 version books thinking it will be fine for the whole 2<br>
series..... Uh-Oh, wrong!<br>
<br>
This is a serious serious problem, and only gets me flack every time i<br>
have a new class etc.... I've simply stopped defending Blender on it,<br>
and say that it is great software with poor version numbering.<br>
<br>
I wish Ton would understand the headaches the current numbering system<br>
causes, It is a tangible issue that is holding Blender Back no-matter<br>
how much it improves technically.<br>
<div><div></div><div><br>
<br>
On 5/04/2011 11:41 a.m., Graham Hall wrote:<br>
> Hey I teach @ FE college in UK<br>
><br>
> Getting some stick from management for using 2.5 beta rather than 2.49<br>
> - anyone else getting any?<br>
><br>
> thanks<br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
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