Hooky the monster was created by Marya and animated by UW-Stout student Kayla Nyre

Recently, a Stout classroom in their Child and Family Study Center was overrun with monsters. Monsters that were running, flying, and shooting lizards out of their arms like it was nothing unusual. I suppose one should mention that all the monsters were 3D animations on a screen.

-Stout student Megan Richardson works with Eleanor during the brainstorming session.

A new Stout project has partnered 4th grade students with college students taking an intermediate 3D animation class. The 15 animation students were told that they’d be working with a client one-on-one, but it wasn’t until they met the 4- to 5-year-olds that they understood the true nature of their assignment.

Each 4th grader conjured up a monster and drew a picture to give to their college partner as reference. Details of diet, voice, habits and other personality quirks were discussed before the animated students got to work bringing the monster to life. After a month, the college students were able to present the finished video product to their clients –  along with a poster of their monster to take home.  

Perhaps it wasn’t the usual collaboration, but it was certainly a win-win all around, even for the monsters. Check out the results!

UW-Stout student Eric Seidl shows Aiden how to use a tablet software device to make adjustments to Aiden’s monster, Goopy.