10:05 Attendance / Introduction
Welcome all to Step Up Day for the GAWD class of 2027!
Our expectations for the day:
- Drinks / food / bathrooms / lunch
- Interview day / we are interviewing each other
- Today you will practice the roles of:
- Traditional Artist
- 3D Asset Creator / Animator
- Game Level Designer
- Web Developer
- Staying on task
- Getting a photo of you for our admissions meetings tomorrow
- Afternoon writing, math, and language survey
- At the end of the day you are going going to have time to work in Blender or Unreal and “impress us” by creating. You will leave your machine ON when you leave for the day (with Blender open) so we can see what you created.
- Assets to be saved on the Desktop in the “Step Up Day” folder.
In general think of it as a day where we can do a quick intro on lots of different topics, and tinker in a low stakes environment.
10:10 Traditional Art Exercise: “The Curve” and getting a photo of you (15 minutes)
- No wrong way to do this, we just want to see how well you think outside the box, can be creative without be hand held through everything 100%.
- Just create and sign your name. We have markers, pencils, pens, etc.
10:25 Intro to Blender (40 minutes)
This morning we are going to work in Blender, one of 3D tools. Blender allows you to create / animate 3D content like animations, game assets, etc.
We are going to start out our day by working on a Mushroom asset. This mushroom is going to be used for both our Animation and Level Design Workshops later on today.
- Model
- Texture Paint
- Export for game engines
11:05 Morning Break (5 minutes)
- Quick bathroom / water break
11:10 Intro to Unreal Engine / Level Design (50 minutes)
This morning we are going to create a game environment. We will use Unreal Engine level creation tools, as well as incorporate our Mushroom asset.
In addition I have placed a couple additional assets in the Step Up Day folder for us to use.
12:00 Lunch (30 minutes)
- No food in the room / eat in the Cafe.
- You are welcome to return to the room when you have finished eating and work / hang out.
12:30 Attendance
12:35 Intro to Animation (45 minutes)
- Animating our Mushroom asset – giving it personality
1:20 Intro to Web Development (35 minutes)
1:55 Afternoon Bathroom Break (5 minutes)
2:00 Reading Comprehension / Writing Sample / Math Problems
Clear & effective communication is import to our industries. To wrap up our Step Up Day experience we are going to all receive a packet to get a bit more information about you.
We are going to be looking at your Reading Comprehension and Math ability.
- Reading Comprehension Questions
- Can be done on paper or digitally
- Math Problems
- Language survey
When you have completed all 3 deliverables please raise your hand and give everything at us at the same time.
Move onto the Blender / Unreal Challenge when complete.
2:20 Blender / Unreal Challenge
We want to test your motivation, your able to problem solve, your creativity. Create anything in Blender or Unreal Engine! Practice, try, tinker, and ask questions.
What are some achievable goals in the time available?
Blender
- Ice Cream Cone? Use spheres for the ice cream, and a cone for the … cone.
- Spaceship? Think Kerbal Space Program, using basic shapes?
- Lighthouse?
- Really anything… we want to watch you work and create and problem solve.
Unreal
- Continue to create your game world we started this AM?
- Explore a different Game Type that we didn’t try out?
- Setup your player start and models with alignment to the light to create a pretty level start?
- Explore some of the terrain tools?
- Try to go from Blender -> Unreal Engine on your own. Can you get Suzanne’s head from Blender to Unreal through exporting the FBX by yourself? What else could you create / export / import?
When complete just get up and walk away, leaving Blender on with your work. We are going to come around and look at what you have created.
2:40 Dismissal / Walk to the bus
We are going to walk you to where you need to be picked up if a bus student, thank you and we look forward you seeing you in the fall! Have a great summer!