When Savage originally launched its Learn with Procreate initiative, the desire was to help educators fire up their student’s imaginations through creative learning. With a handful of Lesson Ideas and a Beginner’s Series of guides to help get to grips with the basics of Procreate, Learn with Procreate set out to show that creativity can be applied across the entire curriculum. Just under a year later, there are now over 20 Lesson Ideas covering subjects as diverse as Architecture, Anatomy, Geology, and now there is an exciting new direction combining creativity with code.
Procreate teamed up with Jarom Vogel, an illustrator who also has an interesting in coding, to develop ‘Layers of Reality’. This Lesson Idea starts with students creating a layered artwork in Procreate, then uses basic coding principles in Swift Playgrounds to turn their art into an Augmented Reality experience. Because the Learn with Procreate resources have been all been developed to be worked on and completed entirely on iPad, this has opened up exciting new ways to learn using advanced technology such as LIDAR and AR.
Combining art with code lets students expand their creativity in directions they aren’t able to through more traditional art-based learning. The Layers of Reality lesson idea turns student’s flat 2D layered artworks into an impressive and exciting visual AR experience. For those wanting to push the boundaries, adding animation and experimenting with blend modes can really help bring student’s art to life.
While Layers of Reality is designed to expose students to what is possible when you combine a third dimension to their artworks, they are also gaining an entry-level understanding of coding in an easy to understand, general-purpose programming language. The lesson encourages students to enjoy tinkering with code, and explore more creatively with code in the future. It’s a unique learning approach that appeals to both artistic and mathematically inclined students all in the one lesson. With no student left behind, the opportunity is here for students to help each other achieve a final result that can only be described as wonderful.
Like all of the Learn with Procreate material, once the fundamentals are grasped the student’s imagination becomes the only limit on what can be achieved. Just like a good movie or book, lesson ideas can be revisited. This helps students to not only learn more, but also helps them become inspired to push their creative ideas further. The opportunity for teachers to adapt these fundamentals to their specific curriculum also means that all of the lesson ideas are more of a launch pad for all sorts of lessons, than a standard rigid lesson plan to be taught by repeating each and every step.
While Savage’s Learn with Procreate program is primarily aimed at teachers and students, there is nothing stopping anyone accessing the material and taking part at Learn with Procreate. It’s a fun and informative way to get to grips with Procreate and its many features. If you would like to try your hand at transforming your art into an AR experience download the lesson. Learn with Procreate is regularly adding new lesson ideas and guides, to keep up with all the latest Procreate education content follow @ProcreateEDU on Twitter.