Contextualising Art: An Introduction to Art Theory

A study of theories of art through central texts, from the 18th century to the present day.

15 points

ARTT101

Digital Modelling for Design

The goal of this course is to provide students with an opportunity to develop their digital design, 3D modelling, and prototyping skills. Students will be introduced to multiple methods for digital creation, including production of prototypes, technical drawings, and visual renderings for concept presentation. Students will experience design software and design techniques used in industry, giving insight into the digital design processes they may employ in their future career.

15 points

Introduction to Computer Programming

An introduction to imperative computer programming using Python. Topics include: expressions, assignment, selection and iteration, structured data (lists, dictionaries, tuples, arrays), functional decomposition, file processing, using library code, and an introduction to object-oriented programming.

15 points

COSC131

Editing and postproduction

Editing is a conceptual and creative process as much as it is a technical skill. What happens when two film images are brought together on the editing bench? How are they cut to advance the story, to establish or undermine point of view, to bring different spatial and temporal locations into relation or opposition, to enhance or frustrate the spectators’ expectations? This course teaches conceptual and practical aspects of editing. Students acquire hands-on experience of the techniques and aesthetics of film editing and related post-production processes including compositing, colour grading and sound mixing. Additional emphasis is placed on workflow, file management and the latest software tools. Students will study scenes and sequences from exemplary film models and complete a series of hands-on exercises and workshops that reflect the established industry practice.

15 points

DISC211 or DISC241

Animation Project I

In this project course, students will produce a creative animation output, with scaffolded support from an academic supervisor. Students will work to develop a showpiece project that applies the knowledge they have acquired through a deep dive into a specialisation in an animation pipeline. They will use techniques from areas of 2D animation, 3D animation and pre/post production processes to expand their knowledge in their chosen specialist area. Finally, the students will bring together all these aspects into a 1 hour masterclass for their peers. At each stage of the process, students will be required to discuss, critique, reflect, and iterate on their own work and the work of others.

15 points

DISC241

Foundations of Animation

In this course, students will learn about the history of animation, from the hand animated short films of the early 20th century, through to modern day 3D computer rendered films with budgets in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Students will explore the nature and themes of animation across cultures, from Japanese Anime to Western Animation. Students will develop their own animation skills and understanding through studying reference material and drawing, exploring topics such as structure, motion, physics and timing, and how the interplay of these various aspects are used to bring to life both animate and inanimate objects as their own characters. Concepts borrowed from film making such as staging, framing, blocking, posing and composition will be explored in both animation as well as static mediums such as graphic novels. At the end of the course, students will produce their own hand animated scene, demonstrating their ability to use their understanding of the principles of animation and the skills they have developed, to realise a visual narrative.

15 points

PROD142 and DISC102

Character Design

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.

15 points

PROD142

Lighting and Rendering

To create visually interesting and believable art assets for animation, film and games, it is important for artists to understand the underlying theory and techniques to interpret light and materials from the real world into assets for production pipelines. In this course, students will learn about lighting and rendering techniques and technologies which make visuals possible in modern day digital screen outputs, what their limitations are, and what tools and techniques can be used to make the best looking graphics while optimising for performance. This course covers surface and lighting techniques, including interpretation of real objects using techniques such as photogrammetry to capture existing 3D objects and environments. Students will also learn the theory of illumination models and rendering pipelines, and how these things can be used to create believable renders. Students will be shown how to texture 3D models, what shaders are and how they work, and time will be spent looking at how these can be optimised to maximum rendering performance. Finally, students will learn how to use industry standard tools such as parts of the Adobe suite to create the most aesthetically interesting renderings possible.

15 points

PROD142

Interactive Computer Graphics and Animation

In this paper, students will learn about the technical aspects of how moving images are generated for use in video games. This includes topics such as geometric modeling, the rendering pipeline, the use of various texturing techniques, and programmable shaders. In addition, students will learn various techniques for making objects move, such as forward and inverse kinematics, behavioural animation, and physically-based animation.

15 points

PROD223

Cinematics and Visual Effects

With the increasing influence of cinema on the design and narrative common in modern day games, and the rising use of game technology in cinema - including new technologies such as Virtual Production - the worlds of game and film are becoming increasingly intertwined. In this course, students will learn about the tools and techniques of film production as they apply to gaming. From pre-production to sound and lighting techniques, camera tracking, compositing, editing and VFX, students will learn how to turn their games into cinematic masterpieces. Students will also apply these skills to the newest technology at the intersection of film and gaming, Virtual Production, and how game engines can be used to create digital environments that replace green screens for modern day filming.

15 points

PROD243

Digital Sculpting

There has been a recent movement away from traditional 3D modelling tools, where users work with paradigms based on computer graphics such as vertices and polygons, to 3D modelling tools which mimic more traditional forms of art creation such as carving from wood or sculpting from clay, as in the popular tool ZBrush. Likewise, the increasing affordability and availability of technologies such as Virtual Reality and Haptics have brought other art forms, such as painting in the case of Google’s Tilt Brush, into 3D and allowed for new forms of digital expression. In this course, students will learn about the latest methods and technologies for creating 3D art works through digital sculpting. This course covers digital sculpting through to texture mapping, retopologising into traditional polygonal models, and rigging and integration into games. Students will also learn about cutting edge technologies in VR and Haptics for creating 3D art works, and future directions and research trends in the area.

15 points

PROD241

World Building

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.

15 points

PROD341