Motivated by a lifetime love of art, ETSU student Andrew Lawson took an opportunity of a lifetime and taught a 3D modeling course at Princeton University this past summer.
Lawson is in his final year at ETSU studying digital media and animation. At an early age, Lawson spent countless hours drawing and gathering inspiration for his art from Tim Burton films, Disney and Nintendo. Lawson eventually chose to turn this dream into a career.
“When I got into high school, I realized I could bring my art to life through animation,” said Lawson. “I followed down that path to see where it would lead me, which turned out to be East Tennessee State University.”
Lawson discovered this unique opportunity through ID Tech at their annual meet-and-greet with the students on ETSU’s campus.
“I hadn’t realized opportunities like that were open to me,” said Lawson. “I decided to push my luck, and so I applied thinking nothing else would come of it.”
After his interview, he was offered the experience of teaching a class, sharing his knowledge and growing in his career through Princeton’s 3D modeling course.
3D modeling is a construction of a virtual three-dimensional representation of real-world objects. This type of programming can be used in various artistic industries such as film, animation, gaming and architecture. On the other end of the spectrum, it can be used to support scientific and medical uses, such as interactive representations of anatomy.
Lawson’s class focused on 3D modeling and printing using a program called Autodesk Maya. Lawson’s class used Autodesk Maya to model objects to then print through the use of a 3D printer.
The experience also helped Lawson discover more about his future career goals.
“Animation is a beautiful process that requires less technical skills with a pencil and more fundamental knowledge,” said Lawson. “I learned that I [would] rather be the person who could create the character rather than animate it.”
