What’s Cooking in CAM:
3-D design students final frontier and beyond
By Charray Reilly
College of Arts & Media
When students enter 3-Dimensional Design programs, few of them think of the applications of their art beyond the gaming or broadcasting worlds. Even fewer enter the classroom with the idea that their skills could be used in the advancement of scientific exploration and understanding—in medical, aerospace, or anthropological fields—virtually any industry requiring in-depth visual analysis or explanation. Students usually aren’t aware of these opportunities because they aren’t exposed to them. College of Arts & Media faculty member Howard Cook, however, is doing everything he can to inform students and foster their curiosity regarding the expansive career possibilities their education can lead to.
Cook’s mix of education and professional experience might be the underlying explanation for this insight: in addition to his studies at the International Space University in Strasbourg, France, his studies in printmaking and painting at Auburn University, and his creative design experience at Paramount Pictures and LucasFilm Ltd., Cook was Chief Technologist at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science for six years. He was responsible for the design and development of the technology and content for one of the world’s most sophisticated immersive planetariums, from day-to-day management of staff to the production of the world’s first fully immersive dramatic film for a domed theater. It’s a little known fact that the 4th largest museum in the nation is housed right here in Denver, and Cook was one of the most important people in regards to the Gates Planetarium’s construction and functions.
Cook recently hosted a behind the scenes tour of his developmental and design work at the Gates Planetarium, giving his students a first-hand look at the software programs, hardware, and footage used to entertain and educate the nearly 1.7 million visitors of the museum each year. During the tour, museum employees broke down the complicated software programs for the students, showing different media clips and digital environments on the dome that can be manipulated and navigated at the touch of the button. The functions of these programs can be used to not only visually explore space and nature for educational purposes, but also to explore archeological landscapes and works of art (to name a few) without treading upon or handling the relics, Cook explained. These programs have the potential to become the driving force behind historical simulation and preservation. They can also be applied in medical settings to explore the inner-workings of the human body with a dimensionality unheard of before.
While students from other schools flood Hollywood after graduation, those lucky enough to learn their craft under the guidance of Cook will be increasing the demand for their skills to every industry, every art, every science and discipline imaginable.