Full-time (Day): 1 term | Part-time (Night): 2 terms

Game Art + Character Animation Certificate students will learn how to create a fully interactive experience for PC gaming, as we learn the principal tools to create assets, animations and interactive stories. Using multiple applications such as Maya, Flash and the game engine, to gain insight into working with an interactive multimedia tool for game development. Students will practice real word techniques as we cover topics include a general workflow, asset management, organization and optimization for games.

Modules

IA101 Game Fundamentals

In this module students explore the Game Industry from role playing, first person games to MMO Massive multiplayer online games and casual gaming. Breakdown the processes that go into creating a game from a technical aspect, a production workflow, and in terms of the audiences experience. Other topics will include story and game play dynamics.

IA102 Mapping and Planning

This course will cover different techniques and tools that an artist can use to plan the overall look and theme of the game. Students will begin conceptualizing their game, designing characters and environments and concepts for story and game play dynamics. Students begin to build a technical strategy for an efficient pipeline.

IA103 Game Engine Interface and Tools

This module focuses on the brains of the game: the engine. The game engine is where all of the assets and game play come together. Students will learn how to navigate the menus, shortcuts and tools that will be used to create their game. The engine’s powerful game objects, live testing tools, physics and prefab components will also be explored.

IA104 Asset Creation for Game Engine

Students will learn different techniques to ensure optimal quality and optimization while making 3D objects for their game. Starting with simple props, the instructor will demonstrate how to create multiple models for different levels of detail. Students start to prioritize assets in order of importance and technical build process.

IA105 Building Game Objects – Character

Building a character for games can be quite challenging, you need to have enough detail to portray the character design, without going overboard. Students will learn how to build models with a high level of detail and with minimal cost to the games memory while maintaining the ability to deform and animate to the desired actions for game play. Software such as Maya and Zbrush will be utilized to produce studio quality models for use in the game engine.

IA106 Building Game Objects – Environment

Environments or levels are an integral part of the game story and need to be created with just as much thought as the characters themselves. Level Designers spend countless hours constructing and placing every piece of interactive game furniture into a scene and defining its purpose so that they have a certain look and feel. This module will help students create amazing 3D worlds, using the game engines built in terrain editor to build exteriors with mountains, trees and lakes. External applications will be utilized to create man made objects such as buildings, roads and interiors.

IA107 Texture Mapping

The Texture Artist paints and models textures for characters, environments and other game assets. In this module the instructor discusses different approaches to creating textures for games assets. Students will create shaders, color and normal maps using various tools and software applications, such as Adobe Photoshop. Students will then import and apply our texture maps to our models in the game engine.

IA108 Technical Direction

In this module students will learn how to build internal systems for animating characters and environment objects, discuss the limitations of rigging for games, and look at tools and tricks to overcome these limitations. Students will also build joints and controls for their characters.

IA109 Animating for Games

This module is an introduction to animation as it relates to video games and interactive media. Class lectures and demonstrations will cover the tools and tricks for creating believable motion that can be cycled and blended for game play. Students will also be learning how to create UV animation, and animation clips that can be importing into the game engine.

IA110 Scripting for Engine I

A Game Programmer is a different animal altogether. They have to create thousands of lines of code in many different languages such as C++ and JavaScript, which the game engine uses to run the entire game. This module introduces students to the concepts and thought process involved in coding for games.

IA111 Scripting for Engine II

Continuing on skills acquired in the previous module, lectures and demonstrations on scripting and implementation will be provided as students learn how to add user input to the game by creating a first-person player control. Students will also modify existing source code for use in their own games.

IA112 Creating a GUI

A fundamental part of game development is the user interface. In this module students will design and create a simple Graphic User Interface and Head Up Display (HUD) for their games. Using external software applications students will learn how to build, import and layout the graphic assets for a game.

IA113 Game Testing

Building on the previous module, students will beta test, debug and learn how to use the engines error checking system to catch, find and fix problem area with their games.

IA114 Game Lighting and Effects

Games use particle and lighting effects to achieve a vast range of effects from fog and smoke to sparks, lasers and simple patterns. In this module students will light their levels and experiment with the game engine and effects tools. Basic Particle Systems and audio effects will be among the topics as the class looks at techniques for baking lighting, importing audio and animating effects, such as fire and lens flare.

IA115 Exporting and Output

This module is a continuation of Game Lighting and Effects. Students will learn how to publish their games utilizing the engines compression and web settings.

IA116 Game Final

Students will create presentation material such as packaging and web-page layouts for their games. Discussions will include alternative exporters and how they can be implemented for each student’s game creations. The final student games will be presented and more importantly played!