The Syllabus - Year 3

Year 3

Advanced Art

• Line of action
• Essentials of character designing
• Developing BG
• Walk cycle drawings

Advanced Modeling, Lighting & Texturing

• Advanced modeling techniques
• Advanced Texturing
• Natural & studio lighting
• Set creation

Advanced Animation & Rigging

• Character rigging
• Character Animation
• Facial animation & lip sync
• Human walk cycle using non linear animation

Matte painting, Advanced Compositing & Dynamics

• Digital matte painting
• Chroma keying
• Wire removal
• Rotoscoping
• Color correction
• Morphs & transition
• Advanced rendering techniques
• Output to various media formats

Portfolio Development

The Syllabus - Year 2

Year 2

Foundation Art

• Essentials of figure drawing
• Proportion & gestures
• Construction of human body using basic shapes
• Positioning of features proportionately on the face
• Figure drawing with costumes
• Cartooning
• Understanding Storyboard

2D Animation

• Creating animatics
• Principles of animation
• Scriptwriting
• Basic cartoon phonetics and vocalization
• Creating walk cycles
• Special effects in Flash

3D Design

• Introduction to 3D Graphics
• Modifying and deforming geometry
• Texturing and lighting basics
• Rendering techniques

Cinematography & non linear editing

• Shooting techniques
• Movie titling
• Multimedia presentation
• Rendering techniques

Communication Skills

• Introduction to communication
• Time management
• Motivation
• Body language
• Interview techniques

The Syllabus - Year 1

Following is the degree course content for Year 1. But we will be reaching form more tutorials and learn more than the following as my aim is to master the animation in 3 years not just a degree.

Year 1

English Prose and Composition
French
Visual Design

• Elements of design
• Principles of design
• Color Theory
• Typography
• Composition & layout
• Perspective drawing

Graphic Design

• Digital painting
• Collage making
• Restoration & retouching techniques
• Color & contrast correction
• Logo Designing
• Digital Illustration
• Advertisement designing
• Brochure designing
• Package designing
• Preparing artwork for print

Web Design

• Web page designing
• Optimizing images
• Coding in HTML
• Cascading style sheets
• Site management
• Animation using Flash
• Action script fundamentals
• Sound editing & processing

Tools & Prerequisites

To learn and master animation you need to have one basic qualification. A creative mind and some drawing/sketching skills.

Following are the tool set I already have with me. Nothing big, just basic stuff.

The System:

Core 2 Quad Core with a 1 GB DDR3 GeForce GT 240 Graphics card.

Not particularly a good graphics card to render 3D and Animation. But that will do for now. And we will get a new Nvidia Quadro card once we get to the meaty part of the course.

Drawing Tools:

• Sketch Book. It's good to have a sketch book to brush up the drawings skills.
• Pencils of different points, I mainly use HB & 2B pencils. I use pencils of brand Koh-i-noor.

Digital Drawing/Sculpting Tool:

Wacom Intuos4 Large - Pen Tablet

Ok. This one is optional. But I would highly recommend a digital tablet, when we do digital sculpting.

The Syllabus

I will be posting the Syllabus of the course soon. But our journey is not limited to the degree course syllabus, we will be doing more than that is in the syllabus. Will get back to you soon.

The Journey Begins

Welcome artists and enthusiast to share a 3 year journey to become a master in animation and visual effects.

A little about me! I am currently working and is already in the IT industry for around 9 years now, but my job was focused on Web Industry primarily related to coding and management level. But the artist in me always wanted to study animation and visual effects. After 9 years of busy schedule finally I have decided to take action on my goal and joined a degree course in animation as part time.

So why this blog?

This blog is the journey of me from the start of the course to getting certified degree after 3 years. And I want some motivation from you and also want to share what I learn on a daily basis to get to the animation master level. I will be posting photos of sketches, links to the articles I read and what I learn each day. And if you want you can follow along too.

The course I joined is expected to start on July 15th, I am yet to receive a final confirmation on the date from the university. But I do have some preparations to make before the classes start, and so do you.

Join me and we can work together to be do what we love, Art - Animation - Visual Effects