PROD241-24S1 (C) Semester One 2024

Character Design

15 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 19 February 2024
End Date: Sunday, 23 June 2024
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Sunday, 3 March 2024
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Sunday, 12 May 2024

Description

In this course, students will learn about designing and developing multi-dimensional and engaging characters and creatures, ranging from animals to humans to completely alien, for games and other forms of media. The development of character begins with history, backstories and narratives, to provide context to a character’s motives, behaviours and actions. This narrative leads to the design of the visual aesthetics of a character, from their physical forms and distinguishing characteristics, to how this impacts their dynamic movements and animation, and the clothes that they wear and the accessories that they use. Students will bring these characters to life in 2D and 3D, building on the tools and techniques they have learned in PROD142, and expanding into motion and movement through rigging, animation, and motion capture. Throughout the course, students will look at famous examples of character and creature design for Maori and other cultures in both modern media portrayals as well as history and mythology.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

1. Create back stories and narratives which give their characters meaning and motive
2. Explore reference material, and use sketching and other techniques to design the visual appearance of their characters, both in their physical form, but also their clothes and accessories
3. Explore making, rigging and animating characters using industry standard tools such as Blender, Maya Animate, ToonBoom, Meta Humans, and using Motion Capture setups
4. Critique examples of existing character design in modern media
5. Translate characters from history and mythology into modern incarnations.

Prerequisites

Timetable 2024

Students must attend one activity from each section.

Lecture A
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Monday 09:00 - 10:00 Otakaro 236 L2 Lecture Theatre
19 Feb - 31 Mar
22 Apr - 2 Jun
Lecture B
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Wednesday 08:00 - 09:00 Otakaro 236 L2 Lecture Theatre
19 Feb - 31 Mar
22 Apr - 2 Jun
Workshop A
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Monday 10:00 - 12:00 Otakaro 205 Computer Lab
19 Feb - 31 Mar
22 Apr - 2 Jun
02 Monday 16:00 - 18:00 Otakaro 205 Computer Lab
19 Feb - 31 Mar
22 Apr - 2 Jun
03 Wednesday 09:00 - 11:00 Otakaro 205 Computer Lab
19 Feb - 31 Mar
22 Apr - 2 Jun
Workshop B
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Wednesday 13:00 - 15:00 Otakaro 205 Computer Lab
19 Feb - 31 Mar
22 Apr - 2 Jun
02 Friday 09:00 - 11:00 Otakaro 205 Computer Lab
19 Feb - 24 Mar
22 Apr - 2 Jun
03 Friday 11:00 - 13:00 Otakaro 205 Computer Lab
19 Feb - 24 Mar
22 Apr - 2 Jun

Course Coordinator

Hilary Tapper

Course Administrator

Alison Lowery

Additional Course Outline Information

Assessment and grading system

Assessment Weights
Sketchbook 1 20%
Rigging 30%
Quiz 5%
Sketchbook 2 20%
Character Design Concept 25%
Total 100%

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $1,059.00

International fee $6,000.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

For further information see School of Product Design .

All PROD241 Occurrences

  • PROD241-24S1 (C) Semester One 2024