Posing and Illustrating “Quarked” Characters in Maya Software and AdobeFlash

Student Researchers: Kaustubh Nimkar, Lawrence High School, Lawrence KS

Research Teacher Mentor: James Deane, Ottawa High School, Ottawa KS

Research Mentors: Alice Bean, University of Kansas, Lawrence KS

Phil Baringer, University of Kansas, Lawrence KS

Dave Besson, University of Kansas, Lawrence KS

Purpose

The purpose of the research was to pose and illustrate characters for games, videos, cartoons, and other use in the “Quarked” particle physics educational website.

Methods

We used the Maya 3D computer graphics software to pose the characters. The posed characters were then exported as a Photoshop data file and imported into Adobe Flash.

Results

One character was illustrated in Adobe Flash. Four characters were posed, for a total of 17 poses. The characters will be used in games, videos, and other resources on the Quarked! website (www.quarked.org) once the materials are ready for deployment.

Meaning and Further Study

For future work sixteen additional characters need to be illustrated for use in the activities and supporting material on the website. Additional work may be needed as the games are ported to work with future platforms such as HTML5.