Puppetman Education

Our latest educational, hare-brained scheme is a fantastic bit of computer fun - Digital Sculpting.

Even though most people have not yet heard about digital sculpture, unless you've been living in a cave you will probably have seen some. Gollum from The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit films is one of the most common examples, but there were plenty of creatures in the Harry Potter films and other sci-fi and fantasy productions that would have been realised using these techniques.

Until recently, these creation techniques were limited to wealthy companies that could afford the very expensive software it requires. Now, however things have changed.

Now digital sculpting is available in Blender, a fantastic modelling and animation package which is completely free.

The workshop requires the school or college to give Puppetman Education access to some of their computers, on which we install Blender. The students are then whisked through the navigation of the interface and within twenty minutes of starting with Blender, they are sculpting with digital clay.

To give you some idea of what that looks like, here's a speeded up video of the process:

The workshop has already been enjoyed by some of the students at three of our biggest supporters: Greetland Academy and Brooksbank School in Halifax and Bowling Park Primary in Bradford. Needless to say it went down a storm with pupils and teachers alike.

Puppetman's Matt Howarth intructs a Greetland Academy Pupil on board their "Learning Bus"

This workshop concentrates upon creating a character head. We begin with a very simple "manikin head" which allows the children to get straight into the sculpting process. We encourage them to think about the character of the creature that they are creating. Who are they? Are they good or evil? What has made them the person they are today? What is their "back story"?

This can, of course lead to the characters being written about and explored further after the workshop has finished.

We show the children some examples that we have created from this very basic manikin head, explaining how they don't have to look like a human:

We bring into school some examples of 3D printing and explain the process. Within the cost of the workshop, we provide one 3D printed head created by one of the pupils for the school to keep. The winning sculpt is decided by the school, though Puppetman can provide guidance if necessary.

Here is a time lapse video of a head being printed:

We also show what can be done with the sculpt afterwards, including how it can be used for illustration in another free package called GIMP. We only touch on this area briefly, but if the school would like us to install GIMP on their machines, we will be happy to do so.

Here is an example of illustration using a sculpted head:

And the same sculpted head after 3D printing:

Finally we show them what can be done to the 3D printed head in this speeded up video of illustrator Chris Mould expertly painting one of our creations.

The digital sculpting and 3D printing workshop hits numerous cross-curricular points, such as maths, art and design, English and creative writing, biology (facial anatomy), computing etc.

Below are some kind words from two of the schools in which we've produced this workshop so far:

Greetland Academy

"Matt Howarth's digital sculpting workshop for our Year 5 pupils was an important first step for the Greetland Academy in an area of Digital Technology and Design which looks set to change the way we work, communicate and collaborate in the near future.
Matt clearly explained the real-world context of 3D design and printing and structured the workshop to give the children (and staff) an understanding both of its relevance, emerging importance and accessibility. Each participant enjoyed producing a 3D design, having keenly discussed the development processes involved. The pupils now looks forward to seeing the group's chosen favourite printed as a tangible 3D printed sculpture. For some children the content and outcomes of this workshop may well represent a 'spark' of inspiration that makes Design Technology an aspirational focus for their futures."

Mr Jonathan Pascall
Year 6 Teacher & Director of ICT
The Greetland Academy

Bowling Park Primary School

Our school prides itself on providing innovative and exciting learning experiences for our children. Over the past several years we have been fortunate to work with Puppetman Productions on a series of exciting projects: animated history films with year three, an animated film about the life and times of Frankenstein, and more recently they introduced us to the new world of 3d printing.

On each occasion they have been a pleasure to work with. They have listened very carefully to the often complex needs of school and tailored their approach and activities accordingly. They have consistently delivered projects that have included and engaged all of our pupils, often introducing totally new technologies and concepts to create excellent outcomes.

Matthew Langley

Deputy Headteacher – Curriculum

Bowling Park Primary

Bradford

We've been back to spend some more time with the lovely pupils and staff at Bowling Park Primary School in Bradford. This time we hosted a workshop with class 4. The children had great fun creating their own bees and butterflies, which they assisted in photographing. Their artwork was then used to create a bespoke computer game.

Mr Akhtar - Teacher of 4ia had this to say about the workshops:

"The atmosphere in class was great, the children and staff working with Matt all had a real buzz.

The children were fully engaged at all times and kids could all be successful in the task. Therefore all children enjoyed the morning and produced an excellent final product.

The morning was well planned and resources were accessible to children so they could be creative and expressive in their ideas."

Click on the images below, to have a look at Year 4's brilliant work.......