Obsessive Compulsive Resistance
My students who are learning to design objects with Computer
Aided Design (or CAD) software are, of course, focused on cars. Right now – and it
does bother me – the only kids who seem to be attracted to getting into this kind
of really technical mathematical and engineering type of subject are boys.
I can’t get very many girls to take up the challenge. But that’s only temporary, I believe. When it comes to the 2D digital Art, the
girls are just as good, or better than many of the boys. So eventually it will not be matter according
to gender. It’s just that right now, in
the beginning of this course, all they want to do are cars.
Teen age boys think about two things generally – girls … and
CARS. Now this software is complex and
functions in two complexes of x,y & z and Δx,Δy & Δz. In brief, this means that everything a
designer does, exists as far as the computer is concerned in full 3D. It is very real to the computer. We’re
talking Tron here. Xbox
worlds. It is totally safe, but it is not flat and finger painting – to me, like PhotoShop.
It’s fairly easy to put together primitive blocks and carve
them, in CAD, like soap. That’s what I
call it – carving soap. Once they get done carving the outside as a primitive glop of shapes. I require them to hollow it out and work out
the interior.
When you can dig into your brain and get enough of the skills with this programming to take
root, something else begins to happen.
The world of 3D design and
creation becomes almost godlike. Soon enough you are making, what your brain
thinks, is real.
The whole involvement becomes nearly an addiction. It’s worse, I think, than video games or social networking websites (FaceBook,
etc.) For the young men (boys), they can
create their total fantasy car. A chick
magnet they could, and most likely never will, be able to build and if they
could, they could never afford it. But there in the world of 3D CAD, they can
have it. They can be the creator and the owner of a famous actor’s ride,
in their fantasies.
The next step is to put their fantasy creations into some kind of 3D world. In their worlds, this always seems to mean some
kind of Startrek world. Never
like downtown Detroit or St. Louis, but Planet
56_Y in the Whamfargle Nebulae. Floating islands and highways. Compared to a video game, which they love,
being the god and creator of your own
unique fantasy, this world evolves. They don’t just get better at beating a game that never changes, they
get better at creating more and more stuff in their fantasies, plus at making
them more and more realistic.
I have taught both young men and young women with ADD and
ADHD, and other learning differentials. The main difference is that young men tend to
be far more physically expressive. They
have a very hard time sitting still and NOT breaking things. A very hard time, NOT being discipline
problems in a classroom setting.
I let them chew gum and listen to their own choice of music
on their own earphones, when they are actually working on assigned CAD
projects.
Their focus is
intense. A good teacher is gauged on the
per centage of time students are involved
in class. 75% is a good rating – or, the
kids are engaged with the class
material at least 75% of the time. I
have students who come into class, politely say hello, go to their assigned
computer and remain absolutely glued to their work for 85 minutes at a
stretch. (We have extended studio classes at my
school).
And I mean glued! There could be pole dancers and strippers
in the room and they wouldn’t even look up.
Or at least, they wouldn’t look up for very long.
For my own part, I also get completely sucked in. I don’t care much about flashy concept cars, but I do really
get into designing tables, lamps (furniture) and building rooms around my
designs and playing with the lighting and so on. I get so obsessively
compulsive about it, I have worked
for 24 and 48 hours straight some times.
Not a healthy thing to do – especially at my age. Not eating, just caffeine and sugar is
all. It can be horrible to come down from that.
So I have to practice Obsessive
Compulsive Resistance. I now truly
give myself eight hours in any one work
session and then I force my self to “put down the
needle”. Jeez, it’s hard. Such power,
such omnipotence.
“Friends don’t let friends learn 3D CAD.”
dalepeterson.us
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