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No s'mores at this summer camp--it's high tech

By Cyrus Hedayati

Computer screens at Stanford University display the latest in high-tech software, from 3D modeling and animation to web design and video game development. Students make their own movies, websites, comic books and even robots.

But these students aren't old enough to be in college, and most of them are too young to obtain a driver's license. They're attending iD Tech Camp, a nationwide summer program that teaches children ages 7 to 17 how to use industry-level software.

This camp doesn't stick young people in front of a computer screen all day. They learn how to use the programs--from Flash Animation to Final Cut Pro--in small groups of five or six, led by a camp counselor. In between, they eat meals together in the cafeteria and play team-building activities and games, just like any other summer camp.

"It gets them to think about how much time it takes to do animation. They learn that it takes a team to get it done. It's not just, 'Hey, I can do this all by myself,' " said counselor Bryan Woods--or as he's known to his group of kids, "Maverick."

Woods is one of the few counselors who are also alumni of the camp, entering when he was 17. Too old to continue the program, he decided to continue learning by teaching.

"I've had a lot of kids who are just so excited to be learning this stuff," said Woods, a counselor for the special effects program. "It teaches them to think outside the box. When you get into high school, you start to lose that creative drive."

One of Woods' students this week, Savan Patel, began his education in animation with a video editing class at Redwood Middle School. Now going into his sophomore year at Saratoga High School, Savan is working on a short animation from footage he shot himself.

"The whole movie is that I walk down the street, and I see a car, and I don't like that it's there, so I erase it," he said, pointing to his super-imposed hand using an eraser to wipe the vehicle from the screen. "Then [the car owner] wonders where his car is."

Savan is interested in a potential career in computer graphics, though he said he might be a little too young to think that far ahead.

"It's so fun to see the final product and say, 'Oh, I did that,' " he said. "Any ad that anybody sees [these days] has animation."

Based in Campbell, iD Tech Camps was founded by two Los Gatos High School graduates--Pete and Alexa Ingram-Cauchi--who envisioned a new kind of summer camp at prestigious universities across the country. But if most summer camps teach young people to brave the great outdoors, tech camps teach them to brave the ever-changing high-tech marketplace.

"We live in such a media-packed culture. We take that, break it down in sections and let the kids hold onto it," said Tricia George (aka "Sunshine"), who teaches Fusion, a drag-and-drop game-making program. "A lot of these things, because we're bombarded with them every day, they seem untouchable."

Kevin Pan, going into eighth grade at Redwood, is using Fusion to make a game about a space marine trying to destroy his enemy's nuclear power supply. He's not sure what to call it, though he's considering "Bob Super Soldier."

"They're like sponges; they soak up so much," said George.

At the rate many of her campers are progressing, they could move on to advanced game development within a year, said George. Learning at iD Tech Camps is modular-based, so each camper uses programs according to their level of experience and advances at their own pace.

"It's really amazing that kids this age are using 3ds Max, because it's really industry-standard software," said John Conelea (aka "Yani"), who teaches the 3D character-modeling program.

Several of Conelea's students are designing 3D versions of Kirby, the popular pink Nintendo character, whose pictures are taped above the students' computer screens.

"I asked [the students], 'What's on your mind?' And they said Kirby, so I had them download some reference images," said Conelea.

Three of Conelea's students, Nate Morrison, Vincent Wu and Kevin Benzing, are also going into their sophomore years at Saratoga, and said the camp is way easier than trying to learn the software on their own.

"It's fun making 2D things into 3D things," said Kevin, who is modeling a 3D robot complete with tank treads, a jetpack, a spiked mace and a dinosaur head. He's had fun playing around with 3ds Max, and even found a glitch in the program that allows him to give his robot spikes that never end.

"[Yani] taught me how to chamfer something," said Kevin, referring to the process of rounding off the edges of a 3D image. "I said, 'What happens if I do it again, and again, and again?' "

Though most of the youngsters are too young to know if they want to pursue high-tech careers, some, such as Savan, said they want to work with computers. While he is leaning more toward designing logos, he is also impressed by the animators behind this summer's big budget Hollywood movies.

"I saw the new movies, Pirates of the Caribbean and Transformers, and it's just amazing what animation can do these days," he said.

Each subject is taught in a weeklong course, and many still have availability for this summer.

For more information, visit internaldrive.com.