makezine.com: Up there with being an astronaut, comic book artist, or the President, there’s one job that your average kid would probably love to snag: Working at Pixar. Animation and Pixar enthusiasts of all ages, take note! Pixar in A Box (or PIAB) is a collaboration between Khan Academy and Pixar Animation Studios that focuses on real-Pixar-world applications of concepts you might usually encounter in the classroom.
5 comments:
This is really incredible. In high school I used Khan Academy a lot because it has really good videos on the topics some bad high school math teachers cannot explain well. I think Pixar partnering with them is a really good thing for both companies. I think that a lot of people will be curious and watch the videos not necessarily because they want to be come animators, but because it is an interesting skill. It also benefits Pixar because it will help inspiring younger people to learn new computer animation technology. At first I was surprised because it seemed like these videos may expose some of Pixars secrets to how they make the incredible movies they do, however they are just teaching how to use the technology through some examples of what they did. Which is just like teaching any other subject, they are giving you the tools but if you want to be good enough at it for a career you need to use it in a better way.
This is really awesome. I think this is another great example about how art and engineering can come together to get kids excited about both. Kids these days have this opportunity to learn skills that get them more excited about the possibilities technology like this can create. I want to see how these courses really work and I'm also interested in learning how they put the courses together. The courses are not as hard as the real process so I wonder how they went about explaining the extensive process and how they made it so kids can create as well. It is really cool how these courses are not only for kids, but can be utilized and learned from by people of all ages. No matter what age you are, I think that skills and understanding of this type of process can be really beneficial to everyone and can even give everyone new found respect to all that goes into the process of making their favorite animated movies.
Good for Pixar! I’m glad they created and released a free software like this! In the digital age that we’re in, people say everything is at your fingertips. But that isn’t always the case. Creative software is expensive, and finding quality, free tutorials is almost impossible. By releasing a free course on animation, Pixar is ensuring the next generation of brilliant animators and illustrators. The freedom of the information gives everyone a chance to learn, and maybe even give some people the skills they need to make it in the world of animation. Free education like this is something that should be more widespread. I know some companies have ‘student’ versions of their software, which is a great step in the right direction (shout-out to the student version of AutoCAD). But making educational tools free as well, that would be the ultimate goal. By doing this, you give people the tools and knowledge to really create something amazing.
This app sounds amazing. Accessibility is so important - no matter how much potential someone has for something, if they can't access it, then their potential interest and passion will never be found. Even softwares that are necessary like Microsoft office are very expensive, my high school had them for free but once I switched to my new laptop for college and tried to transfer these programs to my new laptop, they can't be opened because I didn't "buy them" on my new laptop. The fact that Pixar created a free online course that actually delves into the details and more complicated things like rendering lessons all free (instead of just having a the first lesson free and charge the rest) is very inspiring and encouraging. On a side note, kids these days have so much access to technology, most of which are iphones/ipads/gaming devices, which I don't necessarily think is good, but this is definitely a positive use of technology and I kind of wish they had it when I was little.
I have always been fascinated with animation, as many people are seeing how competitive the animation job market is. It's one of the hardest fields to break into and for obvious reasons - with big companies like Pixar having a clutch on the industry, getting a job there is the dream. Smaller animation companies often go under within a few years simply because of the sheer expense of being in the industry, as well as the huge workforce needed to produce maybe an hour of film, and the incredibly stiff competition.
Despite all of this, seeing Pixar making an effort to interest people and children in how these movies are made makes me feel happy. The most important thing to spark interest and creativity in kids is exposure. Using the Internet to open up Puxars academy to people who would otherwise never be able to access it is a great idea, in my opinion.
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