It’s here that students first become familiar with the history and various types of 2D animation, along with the principles of animation used by every working animator today. This includes screening examples in anticipation of what teens will soon be creating. In this level, students get to know the industry standard Toon Boom program and eventually create movement with a character of their own design.

It’s during Level II that TUMOians discover and learn to utilize additional principles of animation. The student becomes an animator and learns to communicate his or her character’s thoughts through their walking style.

This level is all about developing skills as both an animator and a director. Using what they’ve learned about the animation process and its principles, students create 10-second animated shorts. Each student develops their own storyboard, plans their short’s individual shots and decides on the overall style of the animation.

Students in level 1 build Lego robots from kits. While every team uses the same kit to build the robot, each student interprets the learning experience differently. Students solve the problems required to get their robot up and running while learning the basics of programming, working with sensors and motors to scratch the surface of AI to create robots that move themselves and make decisions – because a robot isn’t just a machine.

Now it’s time for some creativity. Teams are formed around ideas for original robots and then students design, build, and program their robots. No idea is too big or too small. What’s great about robotics is that it doesn’t only encompass the STEM fields, but also incorporates art and design. Using different engineering solutions and programming structures, teens create, build, test and present a new LEGO robot model by the end of their second level.

By now, students know how to engineer robots that can follow commands and make decisions, but in level III, students build robots that can work with other robots. By the end of the workshop, students present their robots that can communicate over wifi in order to carry out tasks.

The first level of drawing at TUMO is primarily skills-based. That means that though they do spend some time exploring the many Photoshop tools that will later make their lives easier, they still do everything by hand so they can gain a solid footing in the area. By the workshop’s culmination, the student will have drawn a character, in black and white, from the front, back and sides. Part of this level is also spent on understanding the difference between drawing characters for video games vs. animations.

(Example of a Level 1 workshop result. This one is from TUMOian Milena Beknazaryan.)

Level II brings a lot of color to the TUMOians’ lives, both literally and figuratively. Here they begin to learn there is more to green than just green and it would behoove them to know the difference between yellow green, lime green, lime and lawn green, for example. During Level II, the teens continue using Photoshop and color in the characters they created during Level I.

(Example of a Level 2 workshop result. This one is from TUMOian Ani Davidyan.)

Everything comes together by the third level of drawing at TUMO. During this magical four-week period, the teens learn about images and composition within the frame. All this goes into finishing the final comic.

(Example of a Level 3 workshop result. This one is from TUMOian Siranush Nazaryan.)

Really, it’s more than just drawing – it’s about telling a story. According to workshop leader Kajal Malakzadeh, “drawing is a language everyone understands. Even if you can’t speak well, you can communicate through images.” Drawing and creating visual stories are things that captivate everyone from childhood, but it takes more than childhood interest to cultivate the necessary skills to be a good comics artist. “Students come in thinking it’ll just be a fun workshop and they can spend the day drawing butterflies and simple images and don’t realize how much work it takes to build something. Luckily, the process is so much fun they don’t notice,” says Khoren.

“Drawing has always been the best way for me to communicate myself. I love it; I feel it’s mine,” explains workshop leader Mikael Martirosyan. Now it’s time for a new group of teens to make it their own in their own ways, using the full color spectrum at their disposal.

This level is a full introduction to the world of new media and the web. Students learn to combine various content formats around a singular topic. Along the way, they gain an understanding of copywriting and working with various online tools resulting in their own media-rich,dynamic content.

Here students dive right into the world of social media. They advance their skills in copywriting as they work to create content for various social media platforms and content formats. One of the most important skills they discover is the ability to adapt their content for various platforms while working with a range of popular social media management apps.

With a sound foundation, students work in teams and expand their knowledge to include skills necessary for a digital landscape: management skills, communication skills, organization and ethics. Their focus is on text-based content creation, audio & podcasts, and video content. They then apply that same focus to understanding the needs of social media promotion of a product and adaptation of content for different platforms. In short, a full product presentation.

The very first photography workshop is dedicated to discovering how to capture lasting images. It begins with an understanding of exposure through hands-on work with a camera that includes practical assignments in both indoor and outdoor settings. Students then discover the art of photography post-production and how to edit their own images.

This level of the workshop is dedicated to understanding the many genres of photography, composition and framing, along with more editing. The practical assignments are based on composition elements and are implemented by shooting in the street photography style.

By this level, students are ready to dedicate themselves to the art of storytelling through photography. Students discover visual storytelling, how to pick a story and how to capture it with their camera. In the end, they have their own photo story ready to share with the world.

Can you tell a story in a GIF? By the end of this workshop, TUMO students can. They learn the foundation of working in Adobe After Effects and develop their own animated short stories. Students focus on stories with a clear beginning, middle and end that is then storyboarded before working with a set of ready assets to create a fun-filled, colorful, narrative GIF.

Already armed with a beginner’s understanding of what’s possible with motion graphics, teens are given the chance to flex their creative muscles. Students pick any theme or topic and create a short informative video about it, but this time they need to create their own assets and visuals. Unlike level one, nothing is ready-made for them because by level two, they have the skills and know-how to do it all from scratch.

Working either in groups or individually, teens create an infographic video on any topic of their choosing. This project requires skills in not only After Effects, but also in research. As they’re working on infographics, students must make sure all the facts they gather are informative and present the topic accurately. The project is especially complex when working in groups as the teens have to create a uniform style that each team member must adhere to.

Teens in level 1 kick off their programming education by developing their analytical thinking, the most important skill for programming. Students are introduced to JavaScript, the basis for learning other, more complex languages like C++, Java and SQL.

Moving on to the second level, students complete practical assignments aimed at familiarizing them with object-oriented programming, a programming approach that comes closest to human thinking. Rounding out their tech skills, students become acquainted with HTML canvas and the concept of libraries, learn how to use documentation, and are introduced to the basic functions of the p5 library. Using all this new knowledge, teens finish off the level by creating “The Game Of Life,” an artificial intelligence game fully developed by students at this level. What objects and characters end up in the game depends solely on the limits of students’ imaginations!

In this workshop, students level up their programming skills. Students are introduced to the concept of inheritance in object-based programming and utilize it in their work. Learning to work with a server, students will be introduced to node.js and work with a variety of modules, for example, express and socket.io. They also learn to work with GitHub and the terminal to build programs ready to be run and viewed on servers. 

The first level challenges students to work with new tools, but once they understand the basics of 3D, learning the rest gets a whole lot easier. You could say it’s a lot like riding a bike. A 3D bike that they design and develop themselves, that is. Because in level one, teens learn the ins and outs of Maya and work with quads (a mesh used in modeling) to create a 3D mini bike.

Students in level two get to bring their mini-bike models to life by painting on skins through a process called texturing. The best part is that students not only have the creative freedom to texture their bikes any way they choose, but also have the necessary skill set to do so. Workshop leaders are on hand to recommend color palettes and textures, helping students achieve their best results.

With this workshop, students complement what they learn in the field, like the important art of digital sculpting, with in-depth exploration of industry standards in order to fully understand all aspects of the world of 3D modeling. Starting with a collection of reference materials, students utilize time management skills and uncover new techniques in the production cycle that leads to the creation of full 3D model characters born from their imagination.

The seeds of curiosity related to graphic design are first planted here. In level I, students learn how to use Illustrator and explore 2D graphics, becoming familiar with the field’s jargon as well as how to interpret reality through graphics.

Students in level 2, already armed with a basic understanding of graphic design, dive right into the world of app and interface design. Working in grids and layouts, students start to understand what impact the right typeface or image can have on the overall product while experimenting with different styles to communicate their ideas.

Each student plays the role of a graphic designer by designing a business logo. Starting with a design brief that they create, students research the business and develop a visual concept and sketch for the logo. Using industry-standard software, students turn that concept into a refined final design. At the end of the workshop, each logo is accompanied by a logo presentation, highlighting the logo, the business and its identity alongside the typography, color and other elements used in the design process.

The first level of drawing at TUMO is primarily skill-based. That means that though students do spend some time exploring the many Photoshop tools that will later streamline their process, they still do everything by hand in order to gain a solid footing in the area. By the end of the workshop, students draw a character, in black and white, from the front, back and sides.

Level II brings a lot of color into the TUMOians’ lives, both literally and figuratively. Here, they begin to learn that there’s more to green than just green, exploring the differences between yellow-green, lime green, and lawn green, for example. During Level II, teens continue to develop, adding details and color to the characters they created during Level I.

With their previously created characters in tow, students discover what makes illustrations and comics unique. They are introduced to various compositional methods to develop their own illustrations or comics, but it’s up to them to decide which method they implement. Throughout the workshop, they learn the process of collecting reference materials and using them as inspiration in turning their ideas into reality. Along the way, workshop participants understand how to combine storytelling with their illustrations and comics.