ShauwnDré
There are about ten people in the Motion Capture class. Most of them are silent all the time, as if trying to avoid notice. However, one of them-- a tall black man who I will call ShauwnDré for purposes of a public blog-- takes an interest in everyone and engages them with great enthusiasm as often as possible. Sometimes it is necessary to disengage and explain to him that I need to go to the financial aid office or my next class.
There is one downside to this tendency. During lectures, he repeats "right", about once every twenty seconds. I was so distracted that I started timing it. It is as if he is in church and must say "amen". But I can overlook it.
ShauwnDré is a performer and told me skill with computing environments is mostly outside his experience so far, and he would like to be my partner for the computer aspect of the course. I thought that was a good idea.
When we had an assignment to correct the computer's incorrect auto-labeled markers on a figure, I finished in about half an hour. I spent the rest of the class helping other students.
I spent the entirety of the following class instructing ShauwnDré in how to operate the label marking interface. No matter what your skill level, this is going to be pretty arcane. But I started from first principles. First I tried to explain why the folder he's looking for is called root, due to the tree-shape of the file system, so he knows how to get around. Then I explained the windows and pallettes in the software we're using, and how to hide/open/pin them. Then, how to navigate the mocapped volume through three dimensions, plus the dimension of time. His music career came in handy and the concept of scrubbing through the time slider came as second nature. Then we got to the actual labeling process, selecting a marker and looking up its code on a very arcane chart of the body. The more I explained it, the more I realized just how byzantine it all is.
He struggled, but was on his way to getting it. Unfortunately he had another appointment after class and couldn't continue. The teacher told us it was due at the beginning of next class, on Tuesday. I wondered how ShauwnDré, at his current training level, would get it done, but figured if he didn't, I'd just help him on Tuesday afternoon or thereafter.
In both the Tuesday and Thursday classes last week, ShauwnDré was scheduled to wear the suit and be the MoCap performer, which is his forte. He was not there. I had to be the performer for my own project. Fortunately the stuntman who performed the centaurs for Chronicles of Narnia was in attendance as adjunct instructor. He gave me a lot of excellent pointers, which I am sure were squandered for a lack of talent on my part. ;) But I tried my best.
I hope (A) nothing bad happened to ShauwnDré and (B) he did not decide to drop the class. I am confident that with enough repetition, the software would click for him. I just wish I had taken the chance to tell him that I'm willing to help him outside of class.
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