Our second semester focuses on free and open source software, starting with the powerful yet easy-to-use program SketchUp. Developed into a powerful tool by Google so that folks all around the world could add the buildings in their city to Google Earth, the software is now upgraded and maintained by the company they sold it to, Trimble. The Sketchup Channel on YouTube is a great resource for getting started with this as it has a comprehensive collection of videos to help you master this software. We will be using the education version of "Sketchup Free" called "Sketchup for Schools", since it stores your files to your student Google Drive.

We will use SketchUp to design models for both animating and 3D printing, and there are rules to follow to be successful in both of those areas.

Our goal this unit is to first, create a simple house in Sketchup with some dimensions that are precisely correct, including paned windows, then animate it in Blender to make a fairly realistic-looking model. After that, you will create an original sculpture and animate it the same way... and maybe even have it 3D Printed!

Your First Project

Here are some houses from last year that had good lighting, a close camera angle and transparent background, just so you know where we are headed during this first phase.

Where We're Headed!

The Power of Cycles & Premiere

With a little extra effort, you can turn a 10 second video into a much longer one. You can turn colors and textures into glowing, reflecting & dramatic wonders. Explore the plus pages to make models truly memorable.