VR Christmas Animation

For this project I created a Christmas animation because I thought it would be fun. I also thought it would give a good message. In my animation, a little girl notices a family that doesn't have very much, an her family invites the other family to join them on Christmas.

During this project, I learned how to build things as part of a world in CoSpaces. I build the house in the first scene. I used items from the building section to create the second scene. I also learned how to adjust the camera angle and position so that it felt like a video.

This project ties to a few of the MITECS standards. One of these standards is Empowered Learner. This project is tied to Empowered Learner because I had to choose what I wanted to do, and then figure out how to do it. Since this was a choice project, I had to choose what tool to use. Then I had to decide what I wanted to do with that tool. This project is also tied to the Knowledge Constructor standard. On the MITECS website, under Knowledge Constructor, it says that students "Plan and employ effective research strategies to locate information and other resources for their intellectual or creative pursuits." I had to do this when I was writing the List of 25. I searched for project ideas to see what other people have done. I also looked at the things that my classmates have created to give me ideas. A third standard that this project tied to is Innovative Designer. This standard is all about the design process. I had to use the design process while I was writing my code. I tried out a set of commands, and revised them until I got something that worked. I also had to do this to figure out how to get the camera in the right place.

One challenge I ran into was the camera. I wanted to get some different angles to help improve my animation. However, the camera always fell to the ground when I played my code. I figured out that the camera would also rest on other objects. To get the angles I wanted, I put an object under the camera and set its opacity to 0% so that it was invisible, but would still hold the camera where I wanted it.

While I was creating this project, I thought it would be cool if I could make it snow to add to the Christmas feeling. I figured out how to code it, and added a few flakes. However, I didn't have enough time to do this with all the snowflakes I would need. I ended up deleting the flakes that I had and the code that went with them. If I could do this project again with more time, I would like to make it snow.

This project would be useful if I wanted to become an animator. I had to create animated objects to support my story. I also had to code characters in a way that portrayed the story I wanted to tell. These things would be useful if I chose this career.