Course Description and Policies
IDS 352: Advanced 3D Animation Independent Study, Fall 2013

This course is an in depth study of computer animation production. It extends and expands on skills learned in IDS252. Emphasis is on story, character modeling & development, directing, and cinematography. Students work together in a group to produce an animated short with original music. A component of this course is interactive work with students in music. Prerequisite: IDS252

This semester, IDS-352 is being offered as an independent, self directed course.

Students are required to meet as a group on MWF 4pm-5pm in Ford 202
This time will be used for:

• Animation group coordination, planning, and discussion.
• Progress reports on assignments.
• Demonstations and feedback.
• Group critiques.
• Self directed work on current assignment.

At a minimum, students are expected to work an additional 6 hours per week outside of this scheduled meeting time.

1. Students will extend their technical knowledge of animation, lighting, texturing modeling, and lighting.
2. Students will demonstrate an understanding character development and cinematography.
3. Students will demonstrate a deep understanding and appreciation for process in creative expression in the context of visual story telling.
4. Students will negotiate between conceptual ideas and spontaneous opportunity/discovery in the process of creating original work.
5. Students will demonstrate the ability to communicate effectively through class particiation, critiques, and collaborative teams.

Character modeling (geometry, texturing, rigging, etc) is an essential part of the course. The textbooks we will mostly use for learning the process of character modeling is

First half of the semester: We begin with the development of a single simple story centered around the interaction of multiple characters. Each student will then work through tutorials on character design and modeling to create a character (i.e. design, model,texture, rig) of their choosing which will fit into the story.

Second half of the semester: The story will be developed in more detail. Everyone will work together to animate this story which is based on the characters modeled in the first half of the course.

Assignment Deadlines: Each week, assignment deliverables are identified on the course schedule. Critiques will take place on Fridays. It is important that students complete work on time.

Blog It!: At the end of each week, students are to summarize their accomplishments in their blog on WISE. Where appropriate, e.g. if work is accomplished in Maya, a few sample images should be included.

There are no written exams in this course. Evaluation will be based on the following:

• Presentation and organization of your work.
• Participation in review process.
• Were the specific goals of the assignment met?
• Overall technical quality of the work.
• Overall esthetic quality of the work.
• Ability to complete work on time.
• Ability to work effectively with team members. Each student will be graded on their individual work as well as on the final completed joint project.

Credit Distribution

It is critical that you backup your work after every work session. Keep extra copies in multiple places e.g., on your H drive, your home computer, a thumb drive, and/or 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. Work lost due to your failure to back up files will have to be redone if credit is to be received.

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)