After a slow start getting in touch with teachers, my Animations With Kids project is on a roll. I think. It needs a better title, though. I almost have finished up with the first classroom at Irvin Elementary, and am already started with the second. Next week, I'm going to begin with 3 new classrooms… Continue reading Animations With Kids – Butterflies
Tag: animation
New school project
Not too long ago, I grumbled on here about how no teacher wanted me to come to their class and do a free project with them. I am adept at grumbling, so why hold back if you're good at something? And besides, I can't just write about when I'm full of hopes and everything is… Continue reading New school project
Making an apple in Blender
Not a kitchen blender, mind you, but a 3D apple. This was a nice tutorial for it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3INXsREoYk0 There were two others I found, but they just seemed weird. I like this one. At the end, I think the coloring of the apple to make it red got a little mixed up, but as far… Continue reading Making an apple in Blender
more fun stuff in Blender
I already wrote about easy panning and zooming in Blender, and now I've learned how to shorten the image on the screen so you can, for example, put a black bar of captions at the bottom. And I just now realized I can even rotate photos! In this miserable time of hopelessness and evil, this… Continue reading more fun stuff in Blender
How to pan and zoom in Blender
When you're making an animation, you actually have to "render" each frame of the film. So for example, this little snippet .... is actually composed of lots of images like this, all strung together and flipped through: It's a super nice way of getting things done, but the process of getting your computer to "render"… Continue reading How to pan and zoom in Blender
Parchment scroll in Blender 3D
I wanted to make something that looked like a constitution: That was what I came up with. I like it. However, while making an animation, the thing mysteriously unraveled and I couldn't figure out how to stop it. I thought, no biggie, I'll delete it and make another. Well! I was using this tutorial and… Continue reading Parchment scroll in Blender 3D
Failures
Failure #1. I have a PhD in science, tons of skills both technical and creative, and tons of experience, but I was rejected from a 3-month internship. Yes, that stung. They contacted me for an interview, and because of the time difference, I was dragged out of bed before dawn to prepare for it. I… Continue reading Failures
People and their word
During our wrap-up in Washington DC, we had several interesting panels. One of them was about science videos. I asked two of them afterwards (a person from NPR and a person from PBS) if I could send them some of my science animations to get their feedback. There was a third person there, a lady… Continue reading People and their word
Behind-the-scenes: animation
In June or July, I finished up an animation called "The tale of the Bristlecone pine." It's three minutes long, and it's about drought and tree rings. Someone asked, 'how do you make all the 3D landscapes?" So I thought I'd give a behind-the-scenes tour! First, I use a free, open-source software called Blender3D, which… Continue reading Behind-the-scenes: animation
Third article for WIRED
This article was going to be a triumph for me, for many different reasons. First, because it was about Sweden, pretty much. Second, because all the instagram/twitter/blog/facebook stalking I've done over the years came into handy. No one can say all of that was a waste of time any more. I went from a random… Continue reading Third article for WIRED