Vincennes University holiday greeting showcases students’ talents - External Relations
Vincennes University holiday greeting showcases students’ talents
VINCENNES, Ind. - Pumpkin spice season was in full swing, fall colors
hadn’t peaked yet, and Halloween was weeks away. However, Vincennes
University information technology students Kyle Lutz and Christian
Swinford already had visions of snow globes and winter dancing in
their heads.
Challenged in October with the task of creating a unique
holiday video greeting on behalf of VU President Chuck Johnson, the
two student designers and directors were immersed in all things
holiday well before the calendar turned to December.
Lutz and Swinford were joined by Jaci Lederman, IT department
chair, and instructor Newton Lee in developing the concept of taking
Johnson on a virtual reality experience. In the greeting, Johnson
enjoys a fully immersive VR journey via Snow Globe Travel set to the
song “Carol of the Bells.” At the start, Johnson is instructed to put
on the VR headset and shake the snow globe, which takes him on a
virtual visit to several VU locations. The greeting ends with Johnson
stepping into a crowd of well-wishers in front of Jefferson Union (in
actuality he was in front of a green screen background during the production).
“It was a fun and interesting experience,” Johnson said. “The
students had done a lot of preparation and work. They were very
professional. They were good about giving me directions and they were
patient with me because the technology was a little bit awkward to get
used to in the beginning. I was really impressed with their creative
vision along with their technical capabilities. It made me very proud
to have them work on this.”
Watch VU’s 2018 Holiday Greeting HERE.
If you were wearing special VR equipment, you could experience
the greeting from the same perspective as Johnson.
“The president being in the virtual reality environment…it was
certainly a VR greeting card,” Swinford said. “For everyone else it’s
more of just like a regular video greeting card.”
The student-produced video showing Johnson in a wintry VR world
takes a little more than three minutes to watch, but it took countless
hours of planning and creating. Lederman is proud of the recognition
that developing and producing the greeting brings for the
students.
“We have great students in the IT department,” she
said. “They make a lot of stuff happen here. The President’s office
came to us and I think they knew we could do it. I’m honored that
they think that way of us.”
Swinford, an Indianapolis native, and Lutz of Vincennes have
earned associate degrees in programming and video game development.
Both are currently working toward baccalaureate degrees in technology
with a concentration in information technology. Putting together a
holiday message for Johnson provided the two students with an amazing
opportunity to not only work with the University President, but to
help craft a celebratory greeting viewed by many.
“There’s a lot that goes into this and there’s a lot that came
together to make it work,” Swinford said. “There were a lot of small
components. Just having everything come together like that is nice,
but the nerves were there because there’s so much that could have not
happened that we needed to.”
The project required many hours of detailed work. Creating a VR
world means creating the objects in it. That demands a “million
details,” according to Lederman.
“We had to simultaneously think of two different perspectives
while doing it because we had the President’s perspective - which was
in the VR - and then we had everyone else looking into his VR
experience,” Lutz said. “It was a lot of good practice. I learned a lot.”
This isn’t the first time students have produced a holiday
greeting for a VU president. “We have so many students that we are
preparing to go into the workforce and the next phase of their career,
and we pride ourselves on having students who are hands-on and can do
things,” Johnson said. “Why not take advantage of those great skills
and give our students something that can help build their portfolios
or their resumes.”
Swinford is most proud of student involvement in the project.
“I hope the one thing that people understand is that students worked
on this,” he said. “We care very dearly about the work that we’ve done
here. A lot of time and effort has been put into it. I think that
reflects back, but I really hope people can see and understand that.”
LINK to VU Online Newsroom, click HERE
MARCIA MARTINEZ, University Life Reporter & Sports
Information Director
812-888-4164 office, 314-599-1519 cell,
VUNews@vinu.edu, mmartinez@vinu.edu
VICKIE PUFFER,
Communications Coordinator & Online Newsroom Manager
812-888-4162 office, 812-887-4635 cell, VUNews@vinu.edu,
vpuffer@vinu.edu
VINCENNES UNIVERSITY, Department of University
Relations, www.vinu.edu/newsroom