A Transcendental Learning Experience: Cartoon Animation at MUM
Jun 22nd 2015
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Recently, CG Cookie had an opportunity to work with the Maharishi University of Management. From daily meditation to a dining hall serving organic vegetarian meals, MUM is unique in more ways than one and we were thrilled that MUM’s Associate Professor Gurdy Leete selected CG Cookie as a learning resource for his 3D Cartoon Animation course which focused on non-photorealistic rendering.
Gurdy used CG Cookie tutorials to introduce students to Blender's VSE[/caption]
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CG Cookie is great in the range of topics it covers and we were able to find resources for any area - the students loved using it!An industry veteran with several graphic engineering awards under his belt, Gurdy’s focus is on web design, 3D animation and video. His software of choice is - you guessed it! - Blender. “This was an easy choice; non-photorealistic rendering is not as common and Blender has some pretty leading-edge tools for this. I’m a fan of realism as well, so I love that Blender makes it so easy to do either.” explains Gurdy.
All of our students and faculty staff meditate two times a day. This is an incredibly powerful technique which allows you to recharge, sharpens your intellect and boosts your knowledge retention.
Meditation on Campus
So what makes the Maharishi University of Management so special? Taking its name after an Indian yogi who developed a meditation technique focusing on pure consciousness, MUM too puts focus on self-knowledge and consciousness-based education that demonstrably leads to integrated brain functioning, high levels of creativity and overall academic success. In fact, all students and faculty staff meditate twice a day and Gurdy stresses how beneficial this practice is for creativity: “This is a technique which lets you recharge within a matter of minutes, sharpen your intellect and refocus on your creative work; it benefits problem solving and creative thinking which are abilities that are incredibly important for Blender.”One-Course-Per-Month Approach
In addition to using meditation to boost learning, MUM has integrated a specific teaching style called one-course-per-month, allowing students to focus on one subject at a time. This approach fully enables students to embark on their learning journey with a single focus without having to juggle multiple classes and stressing about a marathon of finals at the end of the term. Instead, students immerse themselves in one subject each day, followed by light homework assignments. Gurdy is a big fan of this approach when it comes to teaching digital art and fosters his students’ independent learning, so essential for exploring Blender. “It is impossible for me to teach my students everything there is to know in Blender! So rather than weighing them down with theoretical information, I encourage students to figure out what they actually want to learn and set their own goals for the class based on what area resonates with them.” Then, Gurdy assists them in achieving these goals by coaching rather than teaching. [caption id="attachment_159318" align="aligncenter" width="715"]