11th Grade — Specialization Intensive: Motion, UX, or 3D

⏰ Do Now — Start Here

Of motion, UX, and 3D, which one do you have the least experience in -- and is that a reason to avoid it or a reason to try it?

🎯 Today's Big Question

What can we build if we spend real, sustained time in one specialization instead of a single class period?

📈 By the End of Today, You Will Be Able To

Choose one specialization not yet covered in depth this year (motion/animation, UX wireframing, or 3D modeling).
Build a focused mini-project applying that specialization to a real or realistic brief.
Connect the finished piece to the matching career page's stated entry-level portfolio expectations.

🧰 What You'll Need

Photoshop (motion/GIF), Figma or paper (UX), or TinkerCAD (3D)
Careers in Design hub

📋 Your Plan for Today

Day 1: Choose & Plan

Do Now (5 min, above).
Research (15 min): read the matching career page's portfolio expectations.
Plan (20 min): scope a specific mini-project.

Day 2: Build

Independent production work (40 min), teacher circulating for technical support.

Day 3: Build & Refine

Independent production work (40 min), pushing past a rough first pass.

Day 4: Finish & Connect

Finish (25 min).
Write (15 min): how this piece measures up against that career's real entry-level portfolio expectations.

🖥️ Today's Slide Deck

Short, on-the-board pacing slides — project these to follow along. (The full details are in the handout above, not here.)

📚 Key Words

Motion Graphics: Design that moves -- animated type, logos, or transitions, built frame by frame or on a timeline.
Wireframe: A rough, low-detail sketch of a screen's layout, used to plan structure before visual design.
3D Modeling: Building an object in three dimensions inside software, viewable and editable from any angle.

✅ What Your Finished Work Should Include

Finished mini-project assessed for genuine effort in an unfamiliar area; reflection checked for accurate use of the career page's real requirements.

Exit Ticket: What was the hardest part of working in a specialization you had the least experience in?

📊 Before You Leave

Quick, anonymous class check-in -- takes less than a minute.

Class Check-In

📁 Portfolio Update — Once a Week

Once a week (e.g. every Friday, or your class's last meeting of the week), add your best finished or in-progress work to a running portfolio folder with a 1-2 sentence caption: what it is, what skill or standard it shows. This becomes your formal Google Sites portfolio in Unit F -- keep it current all year so you're not scrambling right before your PBAT and portfolio review.

✍️ Example description for your Google Sites portfolio (fill in YOUR blanks -- don't just copy this):

For this piece, I made ______________ (name what you made) for “Specialization Intensive: Motion, UX, or 3D.” This project asked: “What can we build if we spend real, sustained time in one specialization instead of a single class period?” I used Motion Graphics by ______________ (explain how you used it in THIS piece). The hardest part was ______________, and I solved it by ______________. I'm proud of ______________ because ______________.

🎓 ACP Exam Prep

This lesson connects to the Photoshop Adobe Certified Professional exam: Domain 4: Creating and Modifying Visual Elements

🔗 Want to Learn More?

The Motion Path (companion book) -- for the Motion lane specifically

🚀 The Extra Mile

Cross-Class Connection: Depends on the lane chosen — Physics (motion timing), Psychology (UX personas), or Geometry (3D spatial reasoning).

Career Connection: Directly ties to Animation, UI/UX, or Digital Designer, depending on your lane.

Go further -- turn this into a portfolio piece:

Build a second, different piece in the same specialization to prove your first result wasn't a fluke. Start here: reuse the exact brief or prompt from your first piece, just swap the subject, so you're testing consistency, not starting from scratch.
Write a short "why I chose this" career-fit reflection tied to the matching career page's requirements. Start here: open the matching career page's roadmap and copy its actual listed requirements before you write a word of the reflection.
If you chose the Motion lane: read the free companion book The Motion Path's exam-format chapter for whichever program (Premiere Pro, Animate, or After Effects) matches what you built, and note one real skill gap between your piece and a professional workflow. Start here: check the book's table of contents to find the chapter matching your specific software before you read anything else.