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San Jose High School Students Explore their Imaginations with COOL 3D Production Studio

Kevin McMahon was looking to challenge his students at Bellarmine College Preparatory high school in San Jose, California. After a year of learning basic illustration and photography manipulation, Kevin sought to up the ante and introduce his students to the world of three-dimensional graphic design. He researched many products and concluded that Ulead’s COOL 3D Production Studio would be a perfect fit.

According to Kevin, COOL 3D provided the highest quality animation in the limited price range that the high school could afford. He was also impressed by the ease of use:

“3D modeling programs can be pretty daunting, but the COOL 3D Production Studio platform speaks a language that high school kids can immediately understand."

Kevin claimed that 95% of his students had never worked with 3D models, and the initial challenge was moving away from doing everything on a flat plane. However, in a matter of weeks the students harnessed the possibilities and began rotating, morphing, warping, and animating objects.

They created and animated realistic, professional looking 3D models such as a frying pan flipping an egg, NHL team logos clashing, a 3D version of Pong, and a motorcycle with fire coming out of the tailpipes and smoke from the tires. The students marveled at all the effects and especially enjoyed the ability to render fire, smoke and explosions.

Students became so engaged with their projects and the program that they began to come into the classroom during lunch breaks and after school to do more work.

"COOL 3D Production Studio offered enough challenges that were doable, and the projects were a perfect fit for education,” states Kevin. "The students come in having great ideas for quick and impressive 3D animations. With this program at their fingertips, they can do almost everything they imagine (make and animate models, put in sound effects, export video overlays) and in a remarkably fast amount of time."