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From microscopic worlds to entire universes, ancient history to the far future, earth-like to fantastical alien worlds, the setting in which a story takes place in is as important as the characters who are described. In this course, students will learn about creating real and fictional worlds for games and film using environment design concepts and techniques, considering aspects as diverse as geology, geography, plant and animal life forms, history, culture and religion. Students will learn about how to visually design a world which ties into narrative or gameplay design, and which fits and compliments different styles of narrative and non-narrative media. Students will need to understand the technical limitations of the projects they are working on, and how the environments they build can meet those restrictions, but also help hide the limitations from the audience. Students will learn how lighting and set dressing can be used to great advantage in increasing the immersiveness of worlds.
On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:1. Understand the Foundations of World-Building2. Design Environments and Settings3. Craft Cultural and Historical Context4. Integrate World-Building with Narrative5. Develop Cohesive Aesthetics6. Player-Centric World Design7. Apply Practical Design Skills - Create design documents that specify key aspects of a world to support a project’s overall vision. - Use industry-standard tools to visually represent and prototype world elements. - Understand the limitations of real-time and offline rendering technologies and develop strategies to optimize workflows and maintain visual quality. - Design and build props, furniture, set dressing, and lighting to bring environments to life and create believable, compelling scenes.
PROD341
Students must attend one activity from each section.
Nikki Dunsire
Domestic fee $1,122.00
International fee $6,238.00
* 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 on the departments and faculties page .