10:05 Attendance
10:10 Welcome and Introduction
Welcome all to Step Up Day for the CAWD class of 2026!
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.
10:15 Traditional Art Exercise: “The Curve” and getting a photo of you (20 minutes)
- No right or wrong way to do this, just be creative
- Make sure to sign your name in the corner so we know who is who’s
10:35 Intro to Blender / Texture Painting Game Asset / Inflatable Sky Dancer (55 minutes)
This morning we are going to work in Blender (free to download – you own full commercial rights to anything you create).
We are first going to work on texture painting a 3D Mushroom for a low poly video game level we will build later this morning. We will export and prep to go in the game engine.
- Texture paint
- Export
- Render (create still frame to use in the afternoon)
Then we will use wind to create a simulation animation of an inflatable sky dancer.
- Animate
- Render (create animation to use in the afternoon)
11:30 Morning Bathroom Break (5 minutes)
11:35 Intro to Unreal Engine / Level Design
We are now going to work in Unreal Engine 5 (free to download) to:
- Build a micro outdoor level with some game assets including our Mushroom.
- Choose an interesting vista and establish the sunset lighting for our scene – we want a golden hour motif
- Build the level, deciding what goes where, let your creativity run wild. Create.
- Create screen cap of a pretty view of your work to go in a Web Development projects after lunch.
12:25 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.
12:55 Attendance
1:00 Web Design
What is Web Design: Web design is essentially the act of working with a creative team or creative people to combine writing and graphical elements to create a compelling message online.
We know this better as a web page!
Web Pages are created using code. Specifically, HTML, CSS and JavaScript
- HTML forms the structure of webpages
- CSS creates the style, look and graphical elements that make the page appealing to look at
- JS (know as JavaScript) creates the interactivity of a webpage
Let’s check out a webpage together to get a better idea. Sample Page
Today we’ll create our own Profile Web Page and learn a bit about web coding.
To write code, we’ll use a code editor. CAWD’s code editor of choice is free – Visual Studio Code
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.
The first sheet will evaluate your abilities in:
- Reading Comprehension Questions
- Writing Sample
- Math Problems
The second sheet is a quick language survey.
When you have completed both please raise your hand and give both to us at the same time. Move onto the Blender 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. This is to be done quietly as an individual.
Unreal
- Continue to create your game world we started this AM?
- 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!