This program consists of seven courses in the game art. Four courses are required, and students choose three electives in game art, digital imaging, design, or digital photography/video. Course descriptions are as follows:
-
Required
- Maya Basics:
Unlock the mysteries of this challenging program. You’ll develop a thorough understanding of the Maya toolset, learning how to create, edit, and refine polygon models, add textures, apply UV maps, and develop basic animations. Class projects include working with primitives, complex inorganic models, character modeling, texturing, studying animations, and exporting a scene.
- Tiling Textures: Focus on developing tiling textures for 3D environments. Tiling textures, the design of repeated textures for 3D environments, is an essential part of any game artist’s job. In this class, you’ll focus exclusively on developing tiling textures for 3D environments. You’ll explore how to create tiles that are the appropriate format and resolution for game engines, removing distracting detail and testing your work as you go. You’ll study how to address the specific requirements of organic and geometric textures, perspective, and lighting, and learn about the different maps that game developers use to deploy tiling textures.
- Game Lighting and Color: Learn the lighting standards and techniques that shape today’s game environments. You’ll master the basic vocabulary, tools, and controls used to produce lighting effects in 2D and 3D imaging programs. Then you’ll tackle the advanced shading and texturing techniques that can bring realism or depth to surfaces. As you learn the applications of fundamental lighting and color technology in Photoshop and Maya, game art pro Jesse Brophy will keep you focused on the artistic, and technical aspects of game lighting: how color and lighting shapes the emotion of a character or scene, how it affects the player’s experience, and how lighting requires tradeoffs in the design process.
- Character Animation: Learn how to apply the classic principles of character animation to 3D models using Autodesk Maya. In six hands-on lessons, character animation phenom Cristin McKee guides you through 14 principles of animation ranging from squash and stretch and anticipated movement to the expression of personality and thought. Using Maya’s high-level animation tools, you’ll gain insight into the professional animator’s approach, learning to work with hierarchical characters, create effective poses, properly time your shots, develop advanced walk cycles, and even make your characters think.
Electives include: Game Art Portfolio and Reel, Game Analysis and Criticism, Intro to Game Development, Game Design Documents, Character Setup and Rigging, History of Video Games, Photoshop for Game Artists, and more.
Game Art Certificate
GES 604 -- 420 hours
Course Outline
- Maya Basics:
Unlock the mysteries of this challenging program. You’ll develop a thorough understanding of the Maya toolset, learning how to create, edit, and refine polygon models, add textures, apply UV maps, and develop basic animations. Class projects include working with primitives, complex inorganic models, character modeling, texturing, studying animations, and exporting a scene.
- Tiling Textures: Focus on developing tiling textures for 3D environments. Tiling textures, the design of repeated textures for 3D environments, is an essential part of any game artist’s job. In this class, you’ll focus exclusively on developing tiling textures for 3D environments. You’ll explore how to create tiles that are the appropriate format and resolution for game engines, removing distracting detail and testing your work as you go. You’ll study how to address the specific requirements of organic and geometric textures, perspective, and lighting, and learn about the different maps that game developers use to deploy tiling textures.
- Game Lighting and Color: Learn the lighting standards and techniques that shape today’s game environments. You’ll master the basic vocabulary, tools, and controls used to produce lighting effects in 2D and 3D imaging programs. Then you’ll tackle the advanced shading and texturing techniques that can bring realism or depth to surfaces. As you learn the applications of fundamental lighting and color technology in Photoshop and Maya, game art pro Jesse Brophy will keep you focused on the artistic, and technical aspects of game lighting: how color and lighting shapes the emotion of a character or scene, how it affects the player’s experience, and how lighting requires tradeoffs in the design process.
- Character Animation: Learn how to apply the classic principles of character animation to 3D models using Autodesk Maya. In six hands-on lessons, character animation phenom Cristin McKee guides you through 14 principles of animation ranging from squash and stretch and anticipated movement to the expression of personality and thought. Using Maya’s high-level animation tools, you’ll gain insight into the professional animator’s approach, learning to work with hierarchical characters, create effective poses, properly time your shots, develop advanced walk cycles, and even make your characters think.
Electives include: Game Art Portfolio and Reel, Game Analysis and Criticism, Intro to Game Development, Game Design Documents, Character Setup and Rigging, History of Video Games, Photoshop for Game Artists, and more.
This program consists of seven courses in the game art. Four courses are required, and students choose three electives in game art, digital imaging, design, or digital photography/video. Course descriptions are as follows:
-
Required
