New approach to camerawork skills education for 3D/S3D computer graphics animation

Many vocational schools and universities offer lectures on non-stereoscopic 3D computer graphics (3DCG) animation production, as well as practical 3DCG software operation, modeling, and animation production. However, relatively few of these educational institutions provide lectures on stereoscopic 3D (S3D). To address this gap, we developed two 15-week syllabuses with educational materials, which focused on both knowledge based and skills-based education about 3DCG animation and S3D computer graphics (S3DCG) animation production, considering the potential employment of students in animation studios. Our investigation confirmed that the knowledge and skills of the subjects improved in this study, so we presented a report on the effectiveness of the educational materials for S3DCG animation production education at the Education Symposium of SIGGRAPH Asia 2015. By developing these educational materials, we reaffirmed the importance of camerawork skills education, which may be regarded as the cornerstone of 3DCG animation and S3DCG animation production. However, camerawork skills education in 3DCG animation classes remains limited in vocational schools and universities at present. We hypothesized that one of the reasons for the paucity of camerawork skills education is the lack of suitable educational materials for practical classes in the use of 3DCG software. Indeed, educational materials that allow teachers to begin camerawork skills education for 3DCG and S3DCG animation production without preparation are greatly lacking. Furthermore, modeling and character animation are regarded as essential before camerawork practice. Camerawork practice can be started immediately if sufficient educational materials are provided. The educational materials that we developed are suitable for S3DCG but also for 3DCG camerawork practice. In this study, we present the camerawork skills education and evaluation methods involved in the educational materials developed for the S3D lectures and for camerawork practical classes in S3DCG animation. We then discuss the experimental classes in which we used the educational materials and we report the results of S3D knowledge tests and camerawork practical tests, which were conducted in order to measure the learning/education outcomes for the participating subjects, as well as the results of a survey that focused on their subjective experiences. The experimental results clearly demonstrated improvements in both the knowledge and skills of subjects, thereby confirming the effectiveness of the camerawork educational materials. We suggest that if students with knowledge of S3D and 3DCG animation are well-practiced in the use of these educational materials, their skills in S3DCG camerawork would improve markedly. 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.