SketchUp 7: Hands On

I teach a short unit on SketchUp in my freshman Multimedia class. It's a survey course so we don't spend a lot of time on any one program but I always try to work a unit on SketchUp into the mix. I've struggled a bit in the past as to what I should teach the kids about SketchUp. I love the program. I love that it's free and the kids can download it at home if they want. But, those first few steps into three dimensional drawing can be daunting for my kids. I feel that my inexperience and lack of background is part of the reason I can't get most of the class excited about the program.

Last year I decided I needed to improve my SketchUp skills in order to better teach it. Searched for all the books available and many of the websites. Stumbled on a review of SketchUp7: Hands On by Bonnie Roskes and tracked down the website where it's sold, 3DVinci. It's an expensive book but I convinced my department chair to buy a copy for me and spent part of my summer working through some of the exercises. I have to say, my SketchUp skills are better and I now have a better idea what to include in my lessons. I originally thought it might be a book we could buy for the kids to use but it is pretty comprehensive and weighs in at 502 pages. It would be overkill for a three week unit. I could see using this with high school class dedicated to the program. The publisher says it could be used with "advanced middle school" students but I think it's a little too advanced. Not that they couldn't do it, I've seen middle schoolers use SketchUp before and do some amazing things.

Still, this is a great resource for any middle school and high school teacher who uses SketchUp to have on their bookshelf. It also would be a useful book to have in the high school library and I'lll be making this suggestion to our librarian. The author, Bonnie Roskes has a blog that I just discovered today. Looking around her site I found this useful little explanation on how to better use the Push/Pull tool. The 3dVinci website also has a subscription service that will give you a 3 new lessons every month. (I've not tried this but looks promising.) There are some other resources availabe at the site. The website and the book are both worth looking at.

[Image captured from 3Dvinci: http://www.3dvinci.net/]

My Friend: Music Video Created using SketchUp

Here is a creative use of Google SketchUp. The author made most of the visuals for a music video using the software. Watch the video and then check out the interview with Dave Righton on how he created this video for $12. He initially was using the program to storyboard out a project when he came up with the idea of using it as the basis for his music video.





[Image captured from the music video for "My Friend Ship"]

Google SketchUp 3D Challenge

Google SketchUp 3d Challenge

I loved creating new challenges to give my students when I was teaching in a technology lab. Once they had a handle on the basics of a piece of software or hardware I made them stretch a little by throwing down a personal challenge.

"OK Johnny and Susie, now that you think you know Photoshop. I want you to take a picture of your selves, load it into Photoshop and switch your heads on to each other's bodies. It's got to look real. You've got till the end of the hour. Go!"

This motivated my kids to use the skills they had and maybe explore a little deeper just to accomplish the task.

The Google Sketchup 3d Challenge does a similar thing. Every week they present a new challenge to create a 3d picture using the free modeling software put out by Google [Google Sketchup] . You can post your efforts online for everyone to see and the results are as varied as the skill levels of the folks posting. A couple of the previous challenges were a wooden toy and a Mars rover.

It's a lot of fun. Also, it pushes me a learn a little more about the program with every new challenge.

[image is from the Google Sketchup 3D Challenge site. Created by Don East]