3D Character Art
In these courses, students will create their own characters that will eventually be ready for integration into a game following the 3D character art pipeline from the video game industry. Students will gain an understanding of sculpting, retopology, UV mapping, texturing, and finally, posing and lighting characters in a game engine for display.
Introduction to Character Arts
3D Character Arts I
Intro to Zbrush teaches students the basics of digital sculpting within the industry standard 3D sculpting tool. Students will learn about three-dimensional shape and form as well as the essential tools as they dive into character sculpting. By the end of the term, students will have created their own character busts.
Prerequisite: Fundamentals in Character Design (Digital Illustration 1)
Software: Zbrush
Hardware: Wacom Intuos Drawing Tablet
Character Sculpture
3D Character Art II
Character Sculpting is a course centered on creating a full-bodied character using the previously made character bust in Intro to Zbrush. Students will focus on developing appropriate anatomy for the character, as well as how to sculpt clothing, hair, and accessories. By the end of the term, students will have made a finished character sculpt.
Prerequisite: Introduction to Zbrush
Software: Zbrush
Hardware: Wacom Intuos Drawing Tablet
Character Development
3D Character Art III
Game-Ready Characters covers the technical aspects of turning a character sculpt into a game-ready character. We will focus on creating deformable topology, optimized UV layouts, and baking basic texture maps. By the end of the term, students will have an intigretable, game-ready character for the next course.
Prerequisite: Character Sculpting
Software: Zbrush
Hardware: Wacom Intuos Drawing Tablet
Texture in Character Arts
3D Character Art IV
Character Texturing teaches students the fundamental methods for texturing a character using Substance Painter and Photoshop. Students will learn the fundamentals of color and tone for games, as well as both PBR (Physically Based Rendering) and Handpainted workflows for texturing their characters. By the end of the term, students will have textured their game-ready character from the previous course.
Prerequisite: Game-Ready Characters
Software: Zbrush, Substance Painter, Adobe Photoshop
Hardware: Wacom Intuos Drawing Tablet
Character Design for Entertainments
3D Character Art V
Character Presentation finalizes all of the previous coursework in the four other 3D Character Art classes. Students will create a rig to pose the character, set up lights to showcase textures, and render the characters in order to get high quality images and turnarounds. By the end of term, students will have a high-quality and professional presentation of their completed character.
Prerequisite: Character Texturing
Software: Zbrush
Hardware: Wacom Intuos Drawing Tablet
