Tinkercad Vs. Pic Collage

 

One of the parts of Tinkercad that our students find to be fantastic is its ability to be combined with other iPads on the students iPads to help with their projects and learning.

As we noted we recently began the process of putting together some worked themed around festive season (which is primarily based around Christmas as it is the major celebration in New Zealand).   

Our students first step in this process was to use Tinkercad to design a festive themed design.  We deliberately left this open at the start, although we asked the students to remember our focus from Market Day of creativity, innovation and personalisation.   This allowed the class the freedom to create a range of designs.   Some students opted for figures, some for 'scenes' by concentrating on buildings or other features such as trees.    We did allow students to use freely available material that they could download by finding the .stl files however we have made it clear in this instance the students need to acknowledge where it is from and also adapt or modify it to ensure that they are involved in some form of creative process (as we do not allow students as a general rule to print stuff they find online).

This figure on the left was created using that rule.   The student made a number of changes before this was completed - the initial version had two hands that were up in the air, which gave the impression of the figure putting their hands up, so that was modified.

The student used the main Tinkercad interface for the details and the different aspects of the print.    We explored the possibility of the print being able to be processed as it stood - however we received a warning from Bambu studio that the print had non conformed edges and therefore was a potential issue when printing.    We have started the process of printing some of the prints in this series, and updating our master slideshow but as we constantly state on this site we are essentially running one Bambu printer for our school of 200 students and three Snapmakers so printing everything can be problematic.

Hence we have a slideshow (above in the guide/special projects tab) that details using Tinkercad but not printing in 3D.

This version shown left is the student using their iPad to project the Tinkercad design and VR/AR into the classroom setting.   The student was able to take their iPad and take it to a variety of locations around school where the figure looked like it might work and then project it into different locations.

You can project it to interact with others around school (such as in the library or outside the office, by a sign or drinking fountain etc.   You can also supersize your design so that it appears to be gigantic- bigger than a building for instance, or small and miniature so that students have to spend time searching for it - as we did with our #tinkercadhunt activity.

The students also use this opportunity to rotate their design and look for ways that they might be able to subtly improve it.   When it is projected on a larger scale details that would appear to be insignificant can take on more of a focus.

The final version of this print is shown left when it has been put through a filter on the iPad using the Pic collage app.   This has taken the original Tinkercad design and applied another AR/VR feature in this example the 'magic camera' and 'silent night 2' filter.   This has taken the image in the classroom and added detail to the figure in the form of Christmas decorations.  If you look at the background in the new image it has taken the various classroom background items and shapes and converted them into other features on display.   For instance the whiteboard has been transformed in a frosty Christmas window.   

The duration to complete the transformation was in the region of thirty seconds.   There are a wide range of filers available for different themes, a mix of freely available filters and ones that have an additional charge for their use.    

We are now going to take the final image and use it as part of a students design for a Christmas card with this scene being the front cover.  The entire process from start to finish was completed by a student over two afternoon blocks including refining and improving the design a total of ninety minutes completed by a eight year old independently.

You can view additional projects following this process by clicking on this link here or by using 'pic collage' as the search topic in the search bar.