Workshops: 7^th - 9^th Grade Workshops

1. Circuits, Codes and Controllers

Are you fascinated by circuits? Bridge the gap between circuits and code to create your own electronic gizmo! Using an Arduino, an affordable and user-friendly microcontroller, and a computer, you will design gadgets that blink, beep, move and respond to a wide range of inputs. Create a new and unique kind of musical instrument, an interactive work of art, or a field of flowers that will dance along with you. Imagine the possibilities! In this course you will learn about electrical circuits and how to use the Processing programming language to control them. Join us for this hands-on workshop and build something awesome!
There is a $25 lab fee for this course.

2. Flash Crash

Ever find yourself watching your favorite animations and thinking, "I want to do that!" Do you sketch and doodle, create characters or worlds you have imagined, wishing they can move and talk to you? Here's your chance! Learn the basics of Adobe Flash — drawing, motion, tweens, and timeline animation — make your character fly into outer space, fight a space alien or find buried treasure. If you can imagine it, you can animate your character to do it. This introduction to Flash will prepare you for the Game Development from Smart to Finish workshop.

3. Game Development: From Smart to Finish! (Flash)

Have you ever wondered what goes into making a Flash game? Develop a video game from the concept stage up to the finished product. Learn how to program keyboard and mouse control, point systems, high score, power ups and sound, then tie it all together into a working Flash game. Imagine the cast, create the characters, and learn how to bring them to life in your own vibrant game world of super racecars, witches and wizards, or alien invasions — the possibilities are endless. By the end of this workshop, your game will be playable online for the entire world to see! This course will focus on the programming side of game development.

4. Animate your own 3D Avatar!

The Maya 3D animation package is used by industry pros to make the exciting characters you see in movies like Avatar and today's hottest video game come alive. Here's your chance to use this intuitive and high-powered tool to create your own short animated webisode — choose a character, put YOUR face on it, write a script and start animating. Record it, post it and show your family and friends. Get animated with a 3D movie starring YOU!

5. Building Virtual 3D Models: Designing Game Levels, Virtual Theatre Sets and Imaginary Worlds (1st Session only)

Interested in computer graphics? Would you like to design your own game level, imaginary world, or virtual stage? Investigate the fusion of art and technology as you create your own 3D space. References from photographs, paintings, or movies will help you lay the foundation for your design. Then develop techniques to model, light and texture what you have made, as you become skilled at using the Maya 3D computer graphics and modeling software package. Once your setting is built, textured, and lit, you will render images to exhibit in the RIT Digital Studio Gallery or load your world into a game engine and navigate through it.

6. Digital Comics Dojo

Earn your black belt as a master of Webcomics! From the white-belt basics of characters and story, to mastery of layout and digital coloring, you will hone your skills and create an online comic for the whole world to see. Watch as your ideas transform from paper and ink to the digital world, and unlock the powers of Photoshop and Dreamweaver to make your creativity kick! This workshop is for you if you like drawing and writing, and want to see your creativity come alive online.

7. Photoshop Fakery

You can't always trust the pictures you see. Digital artists everywhere use Photoshop tools to alter our perceptions of the world. Manipulated photographs have fooled even the famous Reuters news agency! Unleash your imagination, and learn the tricks cunning artists use to bend reality and create powerful, unreal effects. Want to document an alien invasion, Photoshop yourself hanging out with superstars or turn your pet into a super hero? Just a wave of your magic tools and you will become a digital wizard!