Getting the young interested in 3D art
Garstor
Posts: 1,411
This has been on my mind lately. It has been about a year since I bought Carrara to expand on 3D as a hobby - I have since rolled past 40 on my personal odometer. I wonder what things might be like if I had dove this deep many years earlier (of course the tech has changed over the last couple of decades and that is a big factor).
I recently sent an email about 3D art to some family of mine (indirectly related, but let's keep it simple and say this is about my "cousin"). My 10 year old cousin apparently has an artistic lean and my mother was showing off some of my renders. This made my aunt and uncle curious about how I create this art. So I tried to explain it...and I think I blew it completely.
Part of the first email mentioned that it was possible to produce scenes with nudity. I felt it fair to mention that. Well, the aunt and uncle went off the rails about that -- no way the 10 year old was going to be exposed to such degenerate filth (I'm exaggerating here a bit).
So I tried a follow-up email to better explain modeling and surfaces. The intent was to show that at the geometry level, all 3D models are invisible...they're just cartesian points. It is only the surfaces that allow the rendering to calculate how light behaves and thus produce an image. Thus, V4 and M4 don't have visible "naughty bits" unless the appropriate surfaces are applied. This went shooting way over their heads.
I suspect my assurances that no matter which 3D software the boy learns on, it won't instantly expose him to breasts and other "naughty" things were lost on them since I failed to adequately explain modeling/texturing/rendering. I was aiming for the old analogy that every tool has a good and a bad use and shouldn't be blamed for its bad uses...the tool holder has that responsibility.
I figure someone who starts young and makes the mistakes that I made before hitting puberty will have an excellent skillset for a rewarding career...if he is truly into 3D art.
Was my approach wrong? Should I have held back on the fact that nudity is possible? Heck, Michaelangelo's David is hanging out in all his glory! Would these parents want to shield their son from marble sculptures because of this one?
How would you approach this topic?
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Comments
(Barbie dolls are naked and I don't see folks getting up in arms about that.. )
well if Bryce was still Free I would have pointed them in that direction, as it is orientated towards landscapes and not people, its a good program to get started and you can do basic boolean operations to get a start on modeling.. (I think Bryce is going for 19.95 u.s. currently)
If they decide they want to pursue this, then would point them towards Blender as its free (also not people oriented), has a ton of support from users, but that depends on how open minded the parents are about having their young spawn roaming the internet..
I have learnt to really dumb things down for the non-initiated but I agree not an easy one when people has preconceptions about nudity. It is shame that they reacted that way as I agree with you...wish I had found this years ago....I know I have it in me and I think I missed my calling to be honest...but that is another issue. Like everything starting early when young makes a huge difference.
We have a few vendors that are not that old in comparison so anything is possible.
I do applaud you for trying though as for ideas well I am no help there...not good with other people and these days I don't bother trying to explain what I do. I just say I make digital art on a computer...many find that enough of an explanation unless the ask me more.
I actually have something valid to say on that topic. I worked in an after-schools program which had Poser. The instructors were far more concerned abut nudity than the kids. What the boys liked was monsters and fighting. None of them were really interested in the human figures.
That is a tough one. One of my nephews who is 13 is beginning to ask me about how I do my renders.
My personal opinion is that a ten year old may be curious about the boy and girl parts, but they're not yet sexual creatures. The parents would be the ones projecting their own hang-ups onto the child. If they act like it's a big deal, then the child will pick up on that. If the parents act like it's no big thing, and expose their kids to paintings, sculpture and other works of art, then the child may be nonchalant about it, because at best it's been demystified and at the least it won't be a taboo subject.
Of course that can all change with puberty! The ten year old becomes a thirteen year old, and discovers there are other uses for his parts besides making weewee. :snake: ;-)
My brothers and I were fortunate, in that our mother didn't rely on the schools to give us our sex ed. We had age appropriate books that explained what the various parts did and how they went together. Plus, I'm the oldest of eight boys (I do have an identical twin, but I was born first). When my mom was preggers it provided opportunities for plenty of questions and discussions. I probably ended potty training knowing the real place where babies came from. Her philosophy was that if we were old enough to ask questions, we were old enough to get (age appropriate) answers. There can be some awkward situations of course, as evidenced by some of the stories my mom tells me of when my twin and I were three or four. Mostly it was asking each other and answering each other as to what genitalia we thought grandma or the mailman had (usually in front of grandma or the mailman). :lol:
The simple solution would be to install Carrara, but not M4, V4, etc. and instead invest in some of the dragon, dinosaur and animal models that DAZ sells. There's plenty to learn to get started, such as terrains, trees, lights, modeling, etc. I can tell you, at that age I was more interested in drawing dinosaurs in the margins of my school papers than I was drawing naked people.
That's true. The high-school students did not do things in Poser. It was a peer pressure thing. The high-school girls didn't like it. They mostly wanted the biys to pretend to be doing homework and send them chat messages about how attractive the girl's photos were. The middle school students enjoyed it, mostly to twiddle dials and make funny morphs. They weren't interested in rendering.
Good point! I recall my email stating that M4 by default was as anatomically correct as a Ken doll... :) Bryce is an excellent suggestion and I am sure that $20 would be a worthy investment.
@ep: Carrara without M4/V4 installed is also a good idea.
I have not heard back from my aunt or uncle on this - my poor mother seems stuck being the telegraph pole between me and them. (What they don't get about clicking the "reply" button escapes me) :lol:
We'll see where this goes; if my cousin does have an apptitude for both art and computers then I have to say that I am a bit jealous.
Both of these points were probably my biggest mistakes. I dove too deep, too quickly describing 3D and brought up an all-too-often taboo subject along the way.
There is no CTRL+Z on life though! :shut:
It is probably because you are passionate about it and buzz when talking about what you and others can do and what it can do you as a person with releasing the creative self. Well it does with me.:)
What the after-school administrator did was have them draw things like ducks in a pond. He could make the young ones do it. The old ones he left alone. Then after they liked to draw things like skulls, vampires, etc.
Providing a theme is definitely a good way to focus a young mind. If, as ep suggested, the animals/nature Poser content is there then the ability to create something "naughty" is diminished.
(Okay, okay, I re-read that and realized that could be taken in a very twisted direction...please don't... :red: )
Heh! In school you could show me how to draw something, but if you told me what to draw, you were in for a disappointment.
Both my 11 and 14 year old are interested in creating 3D art. My youngest plays around with my modeling app all the time.
I'm curious if they discovered this on their own or if this is parental copying. Both approaches are cool. Bonding over UV maps? :)
Parental. They've seen it for the last 10 yrs so they developed an interest
I am a little bitter about this so time to get it off my chest.
My granddaughter who lives next door, yep next door got an interest in 3D artwork when she stayed here two days a week for a number of years. But ever since our assistance is no longer required and also because in the weekends my granddaughter stays with her father and plus she is now 14 we hardly ever see her. An oppotunity missed. What really erks me is that she wants to do Graphic art and she has a resource on her door step that she can't use due to adults behaving like children. If she stayed home in the weekends I know she would love to get a start on learning more. Come summer though, friends or granddad...no brainer. :)
Breathe...chillax...I am ok now.
My oldest son is getting to that point. Why hang out with the parents when I have my friends.
It's a part of growing up. Doesn't make it any easier, I'm sure.
We still try our hardest to make him spend time with us. But, there is a big difference between wanting and making them spend time with you.
Well I did finally manage to get my youngest interested in 3d art. Trouble was it took me till he was in his mid to late 20s
I am not bitter that she is growing up and has other interests. What annoys me is that the parents can't think of the chidren over ther egos with using their children as weapons. It is mainly one sided do one side being a control freak and becuase I am granddad by marraige I have no say in their lives. All 3 step children don't like me much. Nothing personal I am just not their dad and no one has been acceptable for them. What annoys me is that I have been there myself with my dad commiting suicide when I was 16. And then saw my mum get boyfriends...she had been separated for some years prior to my dad popping off like that. But I never put obstacles in the way and I treat them as they treated me. I got on with all her boyfriends barring one, mind you there wasn't that many.
But 17 years latter I am still here so now they just leave me be. :) But they did make my life hell for a good ten years solid.
Just get ( who ever ) a graphic program to use - there are a lot of good free ones .
why do they need to start with DS or Poser .
Google Sketchup!
cannot get any tamer than THAT making buildings mostly!
lots of plugins at Sketchucation too.
http://sketchucation.com/resources