Sounds like a lot of fun!
I have given a ton of live presentations over the years, demonstrating software and animation concepts in front of audiences ranging from 10 to 7,000. They are a blast! Especially when they go well.
Here is an example of a Ted-X presentation I gave a few years back… took me a few months to put together and a LOT of practice!
[video]https://youtu.be/7LLpxRnPlRE[/video]
The key to a great presentation is to really understanding what it is that you want them to learn during the presentation. Figure out the one concept the audience doesn’t know before you start presenting that they will know by the time you are done. Then figure out the narrative to get there.
here is my process:
1 - identify your audience. Who are they? What knowledge do they bring to the presentation? Are they 3d artists? Beginners? Producers? Film makers? Generalists? College students? Magicians? Clergy? Understanding who your audience is will help you taylor the information to them, and also make sure you are focusing in the right areas.
2 - what is the core thing you want them to learn? If they are students and you want to teach them how to turn a concept into a final 3d model - the core thing may be modeling … It may be tweaking render settings… It may be composition. What’s the key? And then what are secondary things? Rendering may be core, then posing may be secondary.
3 - what is a simple narrative that takes me from where they start to where they leave the course? I usually do this with post its… One post it at the top of a page that says who they are, one post it at the bottom with the knowledge they leave. Then I work my way backwards from bottom to top with the concepts they must learn.
Example (bottom to top).
Final render. Learned how to get a beautiful rendered pose.
tweaking render
render settings
lighting
posing character
camera composition
setting the scene
Finding reference
clarifying idea
3d generalist - knows some 3d, wants to know how to create a beauty shot.
by doing this, you are creating a flow and narrative through your presentation that makes it easy to follow and helps clarify how much time you need to spend in each section.
I then open keynote and start fleshing out each section - adding descriptions of imagery or demo content before creating it.
I work through this flow a while before I start the ‘creative’ part… that way I don’t spend time on things I don’t need!
Once I have a clear flow, and clear content ideas… THEN I begin creating my content.
Hopefully this is helpful!! -jason