By Sammy Shrestha ’25

As a student with a keen interest in product design, I spent this semester working as a 3D Lab Manager at Kenyon College’s Visual Resources Center. My role as a 3D modeler and artist allowed me to delve into the world where art meets technology, paving a path towards my career goals. This year, my goals revolved around 3D animation and experimenting with extended reality (XR), namely augmented reality (AR). Using advanced software tools such as Blender and Unity, I learned to sculpt, texture, and animate virtual objects. This hands-on experience was more than just about mastering the software; it was about bringing imagination to life in a digital format. Each project was a step closer to understanding the development of visual aesthetics.

A particularly exciting part of my semester was exploring animation in Blender. Blender, with its comprehensive suite of tools for modeling, animation, and rendering, opened up new horizons for my creative expression. I learned to animate characters and objects, bringing dynamism to my 3D models. As shown below, the “Synthwave Animation Loop” was a mixture of learning how to form terrain, and use arrays to loop camera movement across a finite set of the mirrored terrain.

The exploration of augmented reality using Unity was another highlight. This skill was further enhanced by my recent summer research at The Ohio State University, titled “Quantitative Approaches for the Design and Evaluation of Virtual Reality Experiences.” There, I gained valuable insights into creating virtual and augmented environments, insights I was keen to explore at the Kenyon 3D lab. Moreover, AR is revolutionizing how we interact with digital content, and learning to create AR experiences was very exciting. From conceptualizing the ideas to implementing them in Unity, every step was a learning curve. I am currently in the process of developing interactive AR applications, with its implementation in mobile devices.

What I accomplished: I was able to master animation techniques in Blender which was a way for me to use complex software tools for creative expression. I was also able to learn the basics of augmented reality, which will be foundational for my projects going forward.

Overall, I am very grateful to the Professors in the Art History Department, and my mentor Professor Yan Zhou for their continued support and the opportunity to have worked another year as a 3D Lab Manager at the VRC.

Sammy Shrestha ’25 is a double major in Statistics and Computer Science.