Each 3Dami event is run over 7 working days. Students work in teams of ~9, to create an animated film from scratch. We only accept students who have proven their interest, and also have a basic grasp of the software used (Blender). Regardless, students with a wide variety of skill levels attend, and when selecting students for each team we endeavour to include a wide variety of skills, so each student brings unique talents to their team. We judge their skills in the same way as industry – via a portfolio, which students have to create and submit (they can use pre-existing work).
The event is structured as follows:
| Day | Activity |
| Day 1 | Group exercises to get them working as a team. An intense scriptwriting and storyboarding session occurs, where they plan out the entire animation they are going to make. Any technical setup that hasn’t already been put in place can be actioned during the story creation time. |
| Day 2 | They start to work together, and start on making the required assets. Directors are voted in; Producers are assigned. The Asset management system is used to map out tasks. The entire short film is roughed out, so they can watch it end to end (Using the scanned in storyboard.). |
| Day 3 | The real work starts – set layouts should be known by the end of Day 3. |
| Day 4 | By this point characters should be completed, so animation can start. Industry visits are best done on this day |
| Breather | The students are given a breather from the hectic schedule. Optionally this could be a day for acting classes or something similar, so that students start to understand the fundamental concepts behind animation. |
| Day 5 | At this point shots must be reaching completion so they can be rendered. An industry visitor could attend here to give feedback to students on their work. |
| Day 6 | All prop, set, character and animation work must be done by the end of the day, so it can render in time. |
| Day 7 | The shots are put together, compositing is done and a soundtrack created. A credit role is added and the short declared finished. In the evening an event is held where the students give a presentation and show their short to an audience of family, industry and anyone else who wants to turn up. |
In attending an event the students gain valuable experience, in team work, film production, computational thinking and many other areas. Not only is the event highly educational, but students universally find it to be an enormously fun event to be involved in.
Descriptions of previous years are available on this website, including the short films that our students created, so feel free to browse them to get a further feel for how the event occurs.