2020 Art and Design: Games and Playable Media Summer Courses
ARTG 80I
Session 2
Understanding the foundations of play through reading influential texts; in-class lectures and activities; designing and playtesting games; and the ethnographies of players in the physical world. Students are billed a materials fee. (Formerly Art 80I.) (General Education Code(s): PE-H.)
Proposed Instructor - Tad Leckman
ARTG 91
Session 2
Online only class.
Project-centered studio-lecture hybrid course that introduces the process of world-building and interaction design from the standpoint of the art director. Each project addresses a milestone in the art direction development pipeline, and demonstrates corresponding entry-level technical and conceptual skills and strategies. Utilizing this split methodology, the "big-picture" game development process is presented in tandem with related fundamental digital art and design skills at an achievable scale for an introductory course. (General Education Code(s): PR-C.)
This course will be hosted online in Canvas at canvas.ucsc.edu. It will be available the Friday before class starts. Be sure to check your UCSC email for specific instructions!
Proposed Instructor - Kristen Gillette
ARTG 120
Session 1
Teaches the concrete skills associated with making a digital game, from start to finish. Activities include establishing a team, concepting, storyboarding, prototyping, producing, and testing a game for release. Students are organized into groups and work together to create and produce a playable game. Students are billed a materials fee. (General Education Code(s): PR-E.)
Prerequisite(s): ARTG 80H or ARTG 80I; and CSE 15 and CSE 15L and CMPM 80K and FILM 80V. Concurrent enrollment in CMPM 120 is required.
Students can request an exception to the prerequisites in summer. Contact the ARTG Adviser Juan Morales-Rocha at julmoral@ucsc.edu. Include which of the specific prerequisites you would like waived.
Proposed Instructor - Elizabeth Swensen
ARTG 131
10-Week
Online only class.
Students will learn the highly technical and fundamental skills in the production of 3D art assets for video games. The course will cover the essential steps in the 3D art pipeline, starting with basic 3D modeling, UV unwrapping, the creation of texture maps, and finally, game engine implementation. This course will focus on developing an understanding of the processes and creative thinking necessary to produce industry-level artwork rather than specific software. Students will be provided with video lectures and demos, and can expect to produce weekly assignment to practice basic skills and concepts covered.
This course will be hosted online in Canvas at canvas.ucsc.edu. It will be available the Friday before class starts. Be sure to check your UCSC email for specific instructions!
Proposed Instructor - Marcelo Viana Neto
ARTG 132
10-Week
Online only class.
This course is intended to give students an in depth understanding of the techniques of 3D Character Rigging and Animation for Video Games. Through this course, students will understand and develop the skills necessary to be an effective technical artist and animator with a focus on industry standard methods for animating characters to be implemented into a game engine. The course will provide students with video and written lectures, video demonstrations, assignments and discussion boards aimed at giving them historicalunderstanding of game animation, the evolution of these techniques, hands-on work to become proficient, as well as the ability to communicate online with other students and the instructor. (General Education Code(s): PR-C)
This course will be hosted online in Canvas at canvas.ucsc.edu. It will be available the week before the class starts. Be sure to check your UCSC email for specific instructions!
Proposed Instructor - Ed Gregor
ARTG 140
Session 1
Discusses a variety of aspects of writing found in videogames and other interactive forms of media. Using a mix of creative writing projects and in class discussions, students will practice and critique existing work as well as their own.
Proposed Instructor - Nick Junius
ARTG 141
Session 2
Introduction to Virtual Reality is an introductory course with a combination of theory and practice. Students will be exposed to the history of Virtual Reality and hands-on experience in making VR and developing their own VR project. By introducing broad topics around VR, such as immersive spectacle, virtual embodiment, sonic immersiveness, and so on, students will gain knowledge about cultural, historical, and practical perspectives of VR. Each week, one topic will be introduced to students with relevant readings. Students will also learn technical skills in developing VR in Unity 3D. 3D modeling experience is not required in this class. This class is an integration of the production of 3D and 360 degree VR experience. Photogrammetry, 360 degree video production and editing, and other expressive media will also be introduced for advancing the development of VR.
In this class, by looking at past and current artists’ practices utilizing virtual reality, experiencing recent VR works, reading relevant papers, and making Virtual Reality, we will explore the question of what is the significance of VR now. Do we need to use VR to construct another dimension of “reality”? How VR can change the mode of storytelling? What is the meaning of immersiveness promised by this new technology?
Proposed Instructor - Haoran Chang
Foundations of Play (5 credits)
Introduction to Game Art Production (online) (5 credits)
Game Design Experience (5 credits)
3D Game Art Production (online) (5 credits)
3D Character Rigging and Animation for Video Games (online) (5 credits)
Writing for Interactive Narrative (5 credits)
Introduction to Virtual Reality (5 credits)
