Posts Tagged camp
Apple, Can You Give my new iMac a Battery Pack?
Digital Media Academy News + Events | February 20th, 2009 by Philip Harding
I love the new black and aluminum Apple iMac. It looks great, and it works great. Awesome design. At Digital Media Academy our courses are always taught with the latest technology (software and hardware – Mac or PC). We used a hundreds of the latest Intel iMacs in our summer courses this year. We ran a lot of Macs as PC’s running Bootcamp in many of our Video Game Design courses across the country.
I am amazed whenever I see an older, white G5 iMac. The old iMacs look gigantic compared to the new, sleek model. The new iMac is small enough that I have actually taken it with me across the country on plane flights and road trips, to coffee shops and hotels. Yes, I love my 15″ Apple MacBook Pro, but sometimes the iMac becomes my mobile computer of choice. I have been stopped by airport security and stared at by fellow Starbucks drinkers.
The iMac has become so sleek that it fits into this odd category. It’s not really a full desktop computer (as we’ve known them) size, and it’s a little too big to be considered laptop size… but it’s getting close! Sometimes I just have to take it with me. Until I can get my 8″ iPhone… (cough, cough Mr. Steve Jobs) I guess I just have one request…
Can someone make a battery pack for my iMac?
No, this isn’t my black iMac. This is the birthday cake my wife Rachelle made for my party last year. She made an iPhone cake this year. Oh yes. Stay tuned for that!
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Film Camp for Teens : Create, Write, Act, Produce, and Edit
Digital Media Academy News + Events | February 20th, 2009 by Philip Harding
Make a movie at Digital Media Academy Film Camp for Teens!
I have had the pleasure of being able to attend, direct, assist, and co-instruct all levels of DMA’s filmmaking programs, but I just wanted to talk about the youth film camp programs for a moment. We’ve seen a lot of girls very interested in the film industry and these film camps. Both guys and girls get the chance to work in a real world film set and get a taste of the movie making action. Teen and youth students get the opportunity to create their own movie from scratch during the 5 day summer camp. The class starts with brainstorming creative story ideas and actually writing a movie script. Throughout the week-long bootcamp style filmmaking course students are able to write the script, act in the scenes, scout out shooting locations, shoot the film, edit the video with a pro level app like Apple’s Final Cut Pro, and produce their own DVD to take home. What a week!
DMA students get to act as a producer, screenwriter, actor / actress, director, scout, art director, digital video editor, and more! This is a truly amazing experience.
I have a lot of great memories across many of our university campuses with a green screen, mic boom, or extra camera trying to get in one last video shoot for the film camp. These film courses are always fun and creative. The learning experience is hands-on and directly duplicates being on the set making, acting, and directing a Hollywood picture. The camera equipment, audio equipment, lighting kits, and computer & software technology is always the best available.
Digital Media Academy also offers similar Film Camps for Kids and Filmmaking Courses for Pro Adults in addition to the Teen Film Camps.
Make Music Videos like the Pros
Digital Media Academy News + Events | February 19th, 2009 by Philip Harding
Written by Tyler Winick of the John Lennon Tour Bus
If you know anything about the John Lennon bus you’ll know that we travel the country 10 months out of the year making music and video projects with students around the country. We’ve recently teamed up with the Digital Media Academy to bring week long, hands on music video production courses to campuses across the nation this summer. The course is called “Come Together” and will offer in depth instruction on the creation of music videos all the way from droppin’ beats like a clumsy farmer to editing like Spielberg, that’s Mr. Spielberg to you buddy.
I’ll be co-instructing the Music Video course with an experienced member of the DMA team, Travis Schlaffman, who has led teen summer camps from DMA now for six years and has a lot to teach and some pretty cool tattoos!! I’m looking forward to it and It should be a great collision of Bus style projects fused with DMA’s critical hands on learning. For more info visit:digitalmediaacademy.org. See you this summer!
View the Music Video Course page here.
3d Video Game Design Experience at DMA Summer Camp
Digital Media Academy News + Events | February 19th, 2009 by Philip Harding
Watch an actual student talk about his experience at DMA’s Teen 3d Video Game Design Program. He used 3ds Max to create a 3d Mario World and 3d characters to match.
Learn more at http://www.digitalmediaacademy.org/teen
Become a Video Game Designer at Digital Media Academy!
3D Game Design at a Digital Art & Technology Computer Camp!
Digital Media Academy News + Events | February 19th, 2009 by Philip Harding
What an amazing 3d video game design experience! Digital Media Academy offers creative 3d Video Game Design courses for adult professionals, teens, and kids. All 3d Game Design courses are taught using the latest software, applications and game engines currently being used in the video game industry. Autodesk Maya and 3ds Max are two of the most popular software programs available that allow students to create realistic, 3d character models and animation movies.
In the teen 3d game design course programs, students create a full 3d game level. An entire virtual world is created for their video game. The students then create a fully customizable 3d character model to enter and play with in their 3d world! Many teens who stay for the overnight camp experience get involved in network LAN party to play against all the other students’ 3d characters. This is more than just a summer camp experience. This is the full digital art and technology computer camp experience you can only find at Digital Media Academy. You can see an actual student’s experience in this video. Below is an outline of the 3d Game Design and Video Game Creation courses offered this summer…
3d Video Game Courses offered at DMA:
3d Game Design Courses and Summer Camp Experiences for Teens:
Professional Level 3d Game Design Computer Training:
3d Game Design Computer Camps for Kids:
California Computer Camp Locations for Kids and Teens!
Digital Media Academy News + Events | February 18th, 2009 by Philip Harding
Computer Camps and Technology Training Courses in California!
Digital Media Academy offers summer computer camp experiences for kids and teens at locations across the United States and in Canada. DMA offers six great locations to choose from in California alone. DMA has a lot of history in California. DMA was originally founded at Stanford University in Palo Alto as an adult only technology training program. Technology courses for adults and teens are accredited by Stanford Continuing Studies. The high standard and excellence in training has continued through to DMA’s summer programs for kids and teens.
Digital Media Academy offers day tech camps and overnight tech camps for kids and teens on the West Coast at any of the following university locations:
- Stanford University in Palo Alto in the Bay Area – Northern California
- University of California, Berkeley or UC Berkeley
- University of California, Los Angeles or UCLA
- University of California, San Diego or UCSD
- University of California, Irvine or UC Irvine
Kids Learning Pro Web Design at Age 10! Technology Classes + Computer Camp for Kids
Digital Media Academy News + Events | February 18th, 2009 by Philip Harding
“Wow! That animation looks great! Ok. Now we’re going to take the animated Flash movie you just created and you are going to import it into Dreamweaver on your web page. Let’s all do this together! Ready?”
I am right in the middle of another great Digital Media Adventures course for kids at Stanford: Web Design and Flash. We are taking an in depth look at the Adobe Creative Suite applications: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Dreamweaver, and Adobe Flash. We are on the third day of the five-day course at Stanford University. My class just got back into the classroom from playing a crazy game of Slaughter Ball. It sounds scary, but it’s a lot of fun. Sort of like Dodge Ball. The kids in my class are a little out of breath from playing ball, but that’s to be expected at a summer camp. They came running in and jumped (literally) in their seats excited about their Flash movies they created just before the break.
While the kids are experiencing all the fun of a summer camp, they are also getting an unbelievable learning experience. That’s what makes this the full summer computer camp experience. They are learning the same pro applications we are teaching across the Stanford campus in our adult web design courses. The professional Adobe applications like Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and Flash are the real deal! The kids pick up the technology so fast. That makes it really fun to teach. It’s interesting how much better kids interact with technology they have grown up with their whole life.
Earlier in the week, the kids in my class had already designed and created their own logo and company business card design. Their custom business card had their picture from a photograph taken in the class. The graphics and effects they created turned out amazing. They had learned the ins and outs of the Adobe software and were creating a matching website to go with their cards and logo. They were now adding an animated movie they created in Flash to spice up their website design.
In the next three classrooms I can faintly hear the other Adventures classes. The kids in 3d video Game Design course are screaming about some new level they created trying to destroy their enemy. From the Robotics and Programming class I can hear cheers of two robots racing. I see the Film, Digital Movie Making and Effects class go by with all their cameras, mics, lights, and scripts to go act, film, and direct their next scene. I wish I’d been exposed to this when I was this age! This computer camp is the real deal.
Girls and Technology … and DMA
Digital Media Academy News + Events | February 10th, 2009 by Margaret Lim
When I was an engineering student over ten years ago at the University of Illinois, I was often one of a few girls in classes of 50 to 100 students. I knew every girl in each graduating class of my engineering program. We rallied around each other, aware that the low representation of girls in our engineering classes was possibly, though unintentionally, discouraging young girls from pursuing technical fields of study.
Now that I am working for a company focusing on providing creative, computer-based experiences for kids and teens, I am grateful to see that my experience as an engineering college student is no longer the norm. Increasingly, girls are exploring new areas of interest. Last summer, we had over 300 girls take classes here at the Digital Media Academy, in areas like filmmaking, web design, video game creation, robotics and animation.
The most popular courses taken by girls, both in our Teen program and in our Adventures program, were filmmaking courses. In fact, across all of our locations, Hands-on Filmmaking for Teens averaged 42% girls and 58% boys at both beginning and advanced levels. In some weeks, the number of girls actually exceeded the number of boys! At a younger age, our Adventures in Movie Making and Special Effects course, for kids ages 9-13, averaged 32% girls and 68% boys. The most popular class for girls in our Adventures program was Adventures in Web Design and Flash, which averaged 47% girls and 53% boys.
Taking a closer look at what courses girls are choosing, there are some common themes. Both filmmaking and web design, while deeply technical, are also very relational and creative areas of exploration. Our filmmaking courses are designed to have students work in groups, from creating a storyboard to post-production editing. The experience is very relational, and the end product is a film that communicates and expresses the group’s creativity. Our web design courses also serve a similar purpose. While the work itself is less group based, the end product is an individual web site that distinctively communicates each student’s creative expression to the world.
Perhaps these common themes can help make some of our other classes more popular to girls. Historically in our summer camp program, the ratio of boys to girls in classes like video game creation and robotics is 10 to 1. What can be done to make these classes more attractive to girls?
Are the topics, inherently less a vehicle for communication, less attractive to girls by nature? Or, in video game creation, are there different types of games that may be more appealing to girls? Or, like my engineering classes in college, are these classes less attractive simply because of the historically lower representation of girls?
Whatever the answers to these questions, we will continue exploring and will certainly do our best to make all of our DMA experiences meaningful to boys and girls alike!
