Become a 3D Content Creator with Yahoo XR Producer Beginner Course
The Yahoo XR Producer Beginner Course is a 9-part video program to help beginners get started in the world of 3D content creation. These tutorials walk creators step by step through the process of planning and executing immersive storytelling projects. Yahoo Director of XR Editorial Henry Keyser introduces key 3D vocabulary, XR storytelling concepts and the minimum skills required to use software and platforms like Blender and Sketchfab.
Follow along with the videos below by downloading the lesson files.
The first episode gets you started out with thinking in XR. It introduces key terms like AR, VR, and XR as well as how to plan an XR production by breaking it into 3D storytelling layers and verbs.
The second episode is about planning a new project. It includes ideation questions, holistic story planning, and how to codify ideas from your brain into asset lists, mock-ups and planning documents.
The third episode focuses on how content creators can acquire assets. It covers what to expect when working with a 3D artist and how to wisely select 3D models from libraries like Sketchfab.
The fourth episode is a beginner’s tutorial on using the free 3D editing software Blender to compose a 3D scene from acquired 3D models.
The fifth episode is about adding context to a 3D scene with title cards, audio and design elements to help nudge your audience to learn and engage.
The sixth episode takes your project and gets it packaged and hosted. It introduces uploading to Sketchfab and embedding on your websites, and touches on using other platforms like SparkAR for Instagram and Facebook.
With your first draft in hand, how do you make your project smaller for platforms that have file-size restraints, or perform better on older devices? We show you some beginner optimization and troubleshooting techniques in Episode 7.
The series doesn’t expect you to become a 3D artist, but understands that sometimes you want a real object in your scene. In Episode 8 we introduce the technique of Photogrammetry to produce 3D models from smartphone photos.
The wide world of XR is impossible to cover in this series alone, so this ninth and final video recaps what you have learned and does a lightning round of what you should look into learning as you grow into an intermediate and advanced XR content creator.
The XR Producer Beginner Course was made by Henry Keyser and Laura Hertzfeld with a grant from the Online News Association Journalism 360 program and the Knight Foundation. You can see more XR work from Yahoo at Yahoo.com/immersive.
