Each 3Dami event is run over 7 working days – Wednesday to Friday in the first week, then Monday through to Thursday in the second. Students work in teams of ~9, to create an animated film from scratch. We only accept students who have proved their interest, and also have a basic grasp of the software used (Blender). Regardless, students with a wide variety of skill levels attend, and when selecting students for each team we endeavour to include a wide variety of skills, so each student brings unique talents to their team. We judge their skills in the same way as industry – via a portfolio, which students have to create and submit (they can use pre-existing work).
The event is structured as follows (its usually some variation of this):
Wednesday – Lecture on film theory, followed by script writing and storyboarding. By the end of the day the students will have planned their entire film. We keep our meddling to a minimum – it really is their own script, their own ideas and their own story.
Thursday – Lecture on working in teams with Blender. They vote in a director and producer, create an animatic and start work on all the assets required for their production.
Friday – At this point the sets start to come together. A visit to witness current graphics research may occur.
Weekend – Whilst the weekend is officially a break many students continue to work on either sharpening their skills or on their film.
Monday – By the end of the day all of the characters should be usable.
Tuesday – Character animation becomes the key focus. An industry visit usually occurs, so the students can go and see a real film studio or game studio at work on a commercial production.
Wednesday – By the end of the day all of the shots are done, so they can be sent to the render farm overnight and be available the following day.
Thursday – The day is spent compositing and creating the final film, and then polishing until they are out of time. In the evening they have a première, where they show off their finished work to an audience. Friends and family are welcome.
In attending an event the students gain valuable experience, in team work, film production, computational thinking and many other areas. Not only is the event highly educational, but students universally find it to be an enormously fun event to be involved in.
Descriptions of previous years are available on this website, including the short films that our students created, so feel free to browse them to get a further feel for how the event occurs.