TO: Prof. Ellis
FROM: Ulises Mora
DATE: Oct 6, 2021.
SUBJECT: 500-Word Summary of Article About Animation Design
The following is a 500-word summary of a peer-reviewed article about a study of different uses, design, and techniques in 2D and 3D animation. The authors of the article explain how these animations differ between them, and the concepts in which they are related. According to Repenning et al., “Here, we discuss our experiences with the differences between 2D and 3D as they relate to three concepts connecting computer graphics to computer science education: ownership, spatial thinking, and syntonicity.” [1]
The opportunity to program in 3D environments through computer applications, allows any person, have an additional opportunity to learn, engage and see programming as something more dynamic and effective. Often, people who have more interaction with animations, are those who end up interested in programming; but when they start to study it and go in depth, they realize that programming does not meet their expectations. Because of this, the authors decided to start a new study about animations.
There is a bond between 2D and 3D animation. Regarding ownership, also known as motivation; if there is no motivation or interest, students simply will not succeed on the field. While using a 2D-drawing-editor, students were interested in programming regardless of the basic animation; since it does not exceed the resolution in 3D, students were satisfied. However, using a 3D-editor is much more complex and contains a professional interface which makes it difficult to start using it.
The authors implement a model to create a 2D-drawing editor and then inflate the drawing to convert it to 3D. Many students found motivation in creating 3D-models that were not systematic, but they were mostly basic in shapes. Instructors were unhappy about this program because students spent a lot of time creating these inflated models. Nevertheless, inflating 2D-images is not enough; students must do more to understand the three dimensions through spatial thinking. Occasionally, 3D-design can be easier to work than 2D-design due codes errors that go unnoticed. But in 2D, these errors cost a lot since they might end with lag and low performance.
Since the formulation of the codes would be complicated; through syntonicity, for people to be able to program, they must conduct themselves onto the object. The authors implemented a program in which the syntonicity was used so that the children understood in first-person-mode what the program would feel and give directions, and it would make it easier to interpret.
Beginning programmers loved this program first-person-mode program, but advanced ones disliked it because of the amount of unnecessary command voices of directions. Then, the authors decided to implement a syntonicity in their own program so that all programmers were comfortable to use it. A high resolution for the development of 3D-animation is important for the motivation of computer students. Additionally, it is also a teaching implementation that is dynamic and does not bore the student.
Reference
[1] A. Repenning et al., “Beyond Minecraft: Facilitating Computational Thinking through Modeling and Programming in 3D,” in IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, vol. 34, no. 3, pp. 68-71, May-June 2014, doi: 10.1109/MCG.2014.46.
