This course introduces students to the process of animation production. Students learn about story development, story boarding, layout, 3D modeling and animation, character development, cinematography, lighting, and shading using Maya, a state-of-the art 3D rendering software package. Students collaborate in teams with their classmates as well as students in either MUSC 339 Digital Music Techniques, MUSC 121 Creating Music with Technology or MUSC 425 Advanced Digital Music Production to produce a complete animation with original music. This semester, collaboration will be with MUSC 339. Team work and collaboration are critical components of this course.
For a listing of topics, click here
Students are expected to be comfortable using a computer and learning new software. No experience with programming or computer graphics is required. However, please anticipate a very heavy workload, particularly in the second half of the semester, so budget your time accordingly.
Lecture: MWF 11:30am-12:30pm in Ford 202
Lab: MW 2:30-4:00pm in Ford 202
Additional help: Office hours are listed at
course schedule. In addition, Prof Orr is often in her office and
students are encouraged to stop by any time if they have questions.
Alternatively, feel free to email Prof Orr (gorr) to set up a specific meeting time.
Class and lab time are critical for discussion of material, class critiques, and
coordination of work.
It is also the only time in which you are guaranteed of being able to
meet
with all of your team mates. If you are absent you will be unable to participate in this process and so your absence
will pose significant problems for your individual success and the
success of your team. For these reasons:
Attendance at lectures and labs is mandatory.
More than 4 unexcused absences (class or lab) may severely hurt your final grade.
Headphones: If you do not already own a set of headphones, then you will need to purchase a set. They do not need to be high quality; any set will do.
Backup Storage: If you do not already have some kind of external storage, you will need to purchase something (e.g. a thumb drive, minimum 1G). This is discussed more below under the Backup section.
Textbook: The required textbooks are
There are also many excellent books on computer animation that may be borrowed from the instructor or from our library. Several books that maybe of particular value are
Software: You will primarily be using the 3D rendering and animation software Autodesk Maya 2012. Maya is installed in a number of labs on campus, including Ford 202. As a student (if you have a decent computer), you can also get a full version for free from here.
Other software you will be using includes:
Lecture time will be used as follows:
First half of the semester: You will work intensively with
Maya to learn the basic techniques of modeling, shading, lighting,
and animation. Labs will be assigned approximately weekly and
instructions
will be available on the class web site. There will be several
assignments working with students in music.
Second half of the semester: You will work entirely on the team animation project. During this time, lecture time will be largely, but not entirely, devoted to review of student work and progress. Lab time will be used for group meetings and coordination - it is very important that you are present for these.
Disk Space: Your H drive will not be sufficient for storing your work. Instead, a separate network server (\\home\enfuzion) will be provided. It has the additional advantage that it can be accessed by others in the class (important for team projects) and it is accessible to the renderfarm (important for speeding up your rendering). At the end of the semester, you will be asked to submit all of your work on a DVD, so don't lose or delete your work!
Back-ups: You should be neurotic about backing up your work. Keep extra copies in multiple places including, your H drive, your home computer, on a thumb drive, and/or on a CD/DVD. When copying to a backup device, make sure your copied Maya files are still readable. If you have not organized your files well it is possible that misc files will be stored in distant locations. Losing a file will rarely be an acceptable excuse for incomplete work.
Critiques and late policy: Assignments will be reviewed and critiqued by the class on the day the assignment is due. As a result, late assignments will be heavily penalized. If you are ill and cannot attend class, then the work you were able to complete should still be available for review on the network server. If you are so ill that you can't get your work on the network, then a written note from the doctor is required. If you are unable to complete the assignment, then turn in whatever you have been able to do. Something is always better than nothing.
If you must miss class due to things such as sports, job interviews, family demands, etc, you are still expected to have your work on the network by the due date of the assignment. In such cases, you will not be penalized if these absences are infrequent.
There are no written exams in this course. Evaluation will be based on the following:
Credit Distribution
Notes: More than 4 absences will severely hurt your grade. Late assignments are penalized by 50%.
|
20% |
lab & lecture attendance, participation in critiques |
|
35% |
non-project labs (first half of semester) |
|
30% |
individual work on the final project including status reports and completing work on time. |
|
15% |
group work on the final project, i.e. overall organization, collaboration, resulting animation. |
It is critical that you backup your work after every work session. Work lost due to your failure to back up files will have to be redone if credit is to be received. If you do not own a thumb drive or other similar backup device then you are required to purchase one. It should be at least 1 Gigabyte in size. Thumb drives are available in the Willamette Bookstore. You will also need several blank DVDs at the end of class in order to turn in your final work.
If you do a search on the web, you will find a significant amount of material on Maya, including already created models and scenes. You are not to use this material without authorization from the instructor. The purpose of this class is to create your own work.
In the context of this class, plagiarism is defined as representing someone else's work as your own. Cheating is defined as violating stated rules for an exam or an assignment. Plagiarized work will receive a grade of 0 as will any assignment in which cheating occurred Generally, you will be encouraged to cooperate on lab assignments. The rules and limitations of this cooperation will be defined in class. (Also see student handbook and college catalogue for more details)
