Tuesday was the first day of the second-semester after school graphics class at Training for
Success (TFS). This class is a continuation of the fall graphics class, with the same
students and teachers.
Today, we jumped right into the action, starting our unit on mapping and 3D modeling. We
downloaded and installed
Google Earth (free from earth.google.com) and
Google Sketchup (free from sketchup.google.com). These two programs work together: Earth lets you view the
world in three dimensions; Sketchup lets you model things (most often buildings) and place
them on the world in Earth.
We started by drawing some basic shapes in Google Sketchup. The interface is intuitive, so
students caught on immediately. They drew rectangles, pulled them up into rectangular
prisms, and then turned them into houses by adding peaked roofs, columns, doors, and
windows.
For most of the class, Ismael and Jonathan led the students in creating these specific
shapes. At the end of the class, students were given some free time to create whatever they
wanted.