Digital Illustration
This course is an introduction to digital painting, character design, sequential arts, and color composition for illustration, film, and animation. This course covers the study of illustration as visual interpretation and helps students develop strategies for communicating content through pictorial narrative. Students will also learn basic software skills to develop digital drawing abilities.
Digital Illustration I
Character Design and Learning the Program
Digital Illustration I introduces students to basic digital software skills while developing drawing abilities in a digital environment. By the end of the term, students will have used all they learned to create their own personal and professional character concepts through the learning animation and illustration pipeline.
Software: Adobe Photoshop
Hardware: Wacom Intuos Drawing Tablet
Digital Illustration II
Background / Scene Design
Digital Illustration II will show students how to create a scene, design a character for a scene, develop scene layouts, and position characters within a scene. Students will draw from references and imagination to design backgrounds, character designs, and finished products from concepts. By the end of the term, students will have used everything they have learned to complete a scene that tells a functional story as well as multiple step-by-step concept thumbnails.
Prerequisite: Digital Illustration I
Software: Adobe Photoshop
Hardware: Wacom Intuos Drawing Tablet
Digital Illustration III
Comic Storyboard / Storytelling
Digital Illustration III takes what was learned in Digital Illustration I and II and explores the concepts of creating a sequential story. Depending on the student’s primary interest, whether it is storyboarding, concepting, or creating comics/graphic novels, students will develop the knowledge for their specific category and focus on repetitive character design, layout development in comic panels, storyboards, and character/item positioning in a scene. By the end of the term, students will have a finished four-panel comic, multiple comic pages that tell a functional story, or five professional keyframes that also tell a sequential story.
Prerequisite: Digital Illustration I, II
Software: Adobe Photoshop
Hardware: Wacom Intuos Drawing Tablet
Digital Illustration IV
Conceptual Digital Painting Introduction
Digital Illustration IV will learn how to approach a more realistic character design and progress from concept to finished designs by focusing on basic anatomy, photo bashing, lighting, and concept art development through 3D models and matte painting techniques. Students will draw heavily from reference and imagination as they design a character for 3D modeling. By the end of the term, students will have a finished realistic character bust that showcases everything they have learned.
Prerequisite: Digital Illustration I - III
Software: Adobe Photoshop
Hardware: Wacom Intuos Drawing Tablet
Digital Portfolio
The Digital Portfolio course is a class that allows students to have a primarily focused, one on one lesson plan based on their artistic endeavors. Within the course, each student will explain to the instructor what they are most interested in and what they want to pursue. The instructor will then focus on building a professional-level portfolio and an online presence for the students' work. Students can focus on comics, animation, character design, background design, and Visual Development.
Prerequisite: Digital Illustration I - IV
Software: Adobe Photoshop
Hardware: Wacom Intuos Drawing Tablet
