Animation   

This course offers a deep dive into digital animation and interactive media, teaching you how to create engaging animations and interactive content using Adobe Animate. You will also prepare for the Animate certification exam and a career in animation and multimedia design.

This Adobe Animate course is a thorough exploration into the vibrant world of digital animation and interactive media, catering to both novices and seasoned animators. It covers everything from basic interface navigation to advanced animation techniques. You will learn to craft compelling animations, design detailed characters, and incorporate sound and video, all while utilizing Animate's robust toolset. Furthermore, the course introduces scripting, enabling the addition of interactivity to animations.

This online animation course guides you through creating and managing symbols, mastering a spectrum of animation techniques from frame-by-frame animation to tweening and motion edits, and perfecting character design. Advanced topics such as rotoscoping, rigging with the Bone Tool, and adding interactivity with ActionScript or JavaScript will also be covered by learning Adobe Animate. This educational journey ensures the acquisition of skills necessary for integrating audio and video into animations, applying filters, and producing content for HTML5 Canvas and WebGL, thereby broadening the scope of web animation capabilities.

By the end of the course, you will be well-prepared to pass the Animate certification exam and for a career in the animation industry, equipped with a deep understanding of animation principles and best practices. Your curriculum is structured to offer a step-by-step guide through the animation process, from basic drawing and animation techniques to complex character design and interactivity scripting. Hands-on exercises and practical applications reinforce learning, enabling you to apply concepts in real-world settings and open up new opportunities in the fields of animation and multimedia design.

Requirements:

Hardware Requirements:

• This course can be taken on either a PC or Mac.

Software Requirements:

• PC: Windows 10 or later.
• Mac: macOS 11.6 or later.
• Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox are preferred. Microsoft Edge and Safari are also compatible.
• Adobe Animate (not included in enrollment).
• Adobe Acrobat Reader.
• Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.

Other:

• Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.

Instructional Material Requirements:

The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online.

This Adobe Animate course offers a comprehensive journey into the world of digital animation and interactive media. Designed for both beginners and experienced users, it covers all aspects of Adobe Animate, from the basics of the interface to advanced animation techniques. You will learn how to create engaging animations, design characters, and integrate sound and video, utilizing Animate's powerful tools. This online animation course also covers scripting with ActionScript and JavaScript to add interactivity to animations.

Through practical exercises and real-world applications, animation training ensures that you not only understand the software's capabilities but also how to apply these skills in your creative projects. The course encompasses all topics covered in the Animate certification exam and much more. Whether your goal is to work in the animation industry or to enhance your animation skills, this course provides the knowledge and hands-on experience needed to excel in the field of digital animation.

1. Introduction to Animate
1. Animate Home Screen
2. Creating New Documents
3. Drawing Basic Shapes
4. Animate Interface
5. Tools
6. Properties
7. Libraries
8. The Timeline
9. Navigating a Document
10. Rulers, Guides, and Grids
11. Setting Preferences
2. Animation Basics
1. Symbols
2. Types of Symbols: Graphic, Button, and Movie Clip
3. Creating Symbols
4. Creating Symbols and Adding Them to the Library (Exercise)
5. Editing Symbols
6. Edit a Symbol and Observe the Changes (Exercise)
7. Overview of Animation
8. Onion Skinning
9. Use Onion Skinning to Create a Smooth, Frame-by-Frame Animation (Exercise)
10. Introduction to Basic Movement: Timing, Weight, And Movement
11. Overview of Tweening
12. Shape Tween
13. Create a Shape Tween with a Symbol (Exercise)
14. Motion Tween
15. Create a Motion Tween with a Symbol (Exercise)
16. Understanding the Motion Editor Panel
17. Use the Motion Editor Panel to Modify a Tween (Exercise)
18. Apply Easing to Animation
19. Apply Easing to Animation to Create Natural Movement (Exercise)
20. Previewing an Animation
21. Preview and Test Your Animation (Exercise)
22. Saving and Exporting an Animation
23. Exporting Options
24. Export the Animation in Different Formats (Exercise)
3. Drawing Tools
1. Selection Tools
2. Brush Tools
3. Experimenting with Brush Tools on a Blank Canvas (Exercise)
4. The Pen Tool
5. Experimenting with the Pen Tool on a Blank Canvas (Exercise)
6. Shape Tools
7. Experimenting with the Shape Tools on a Blank Canvas (Exercise)
8. Color Tools
9. Modifying and Transforming Shapes
10. Draw Basic Shapes and Modify them using Transformation Tools (Exercise)
11. Layers and Symbols
12. Drawing a Simple Illustration (Exercise)
4. Character Design
1. Basic Illustration Principles
2. Introduction to Character Design
3. Drawing the Head
4. Draw the Character's Head (Exercise)
5. Drawing the Facial Features
6. Draw the Character's Facial Features (Exercise)
7. Drawing the Body
8. Draw the Character's Body (Exercise)
9. Arms and Hands
10. Draw the Character's Arms And Hands (Exercise)
11. Drawing the Legs and Feet
12. Draw the Character's Legs And Feet (Exercise)
13. Saving and Exporting Your Character
14. Save and Export Your Character (Exercise)
5. Advanced Techniques
1. Rotoscoping
2. Rotoscope a Short Video Clip (Exercise)
3. Utilizing Camera and Layer Depth Tools
4. Create a Scene with Depth using Camera and Layer Tools (Exercise)
5. ActionScript and JavaScript in Animate
6. Add Interactivity to an Animation with ActionScript or JavaScript (Exercise)
7. Sound and Video Integration in Animate
8. Incorporate Sound into an Animation (Exercise)
9. Sound Mixing and Scape Creation
10. Create a Basic Sound Mix and Scape for an Animation (Exercise)
11. Using the Bone Tool for Rigging
12. Rig a Character using the Bone Tool (Exercise)
13. Working with Motion Presets
14. Animate an Object using Motion Presets (Exercise)
15. Applying Filters and Blend Modes
16. Add Effects to an Animation with Filters and Blend Modes (Exercise)
17. The Art of Masking
18. Create an Animation with Masking Effects (Exercise)
19. Understanding HTML5 Canvas and WebGL Document Types
20. Create an Interactive Web Content with HTML5 Canvas (Exercise)
21. Publishing and Export Options in Animate
22. Publish an Animation in Various Formats (Exercise)
6. Working In The Animation Industry
1. Purpose, Audience, and Audience Needs
2. Communicating about Design Plans
3. Copyright, Permissions, and Licensing
4. Animation and Interactive Media Key Terminology
5. Basic Design Principles and Industry Best Practices
6. Animation and Interactive Media Principles

What you will learn

• Understand the basics of Adobe Animate's interface and tools for creating animations and interactive media
• Comprehend how to design characters and animate them effectively for various projects
• Discover techniques for integrating sound and video into your animations
• Perfect your scripting with ActionScript and JavaScript to add interactivity to your animations
• Grasp the scope of the Animate certification exam and how to prepare for it

How you will benefit

• Develop a solid understanding of the Adobe Animate interface and its functionalities
• Learn to create and manage different types of symbols for efficient animation workflows
• Master various animation techniques, including frame-by-frame animation, tweening, and motion editing
• Gain proficiency in character design, from basic sketching to detailed character creation
• Explore advanced animation techniques such as rotoscoping and rigging with the Bone Tool
• Understand how to add interactivity to animations using ActionScript or JavaScript
• Learn to integrate audio and video elements into animations for a richer experience
• Discover the art of masking and applying filters and blend modes to enhance animations
• Acquire skills in creating content for HTML5 Canvas and WebGL, expanding web animation capabilities
• Prepare for a career in the animation industry with an understanding of key principles and best practices

This online Digital Game Artist Certificate course will train you to become a professional video game artist by developing core skills for jobs related to Digital Art, 3D Art, Modeling, Character Design, and Environmental Art Design.

Requirements:

Hardware Requirements:

• This course can be taken on either a PC or Mac.
• 3 Button Mouse (with wheel)
• These supplementary materials are recommended but not required:
  • Pressure sensitive tablet (e.g., Wacom)
  • Quixel Mixer
  • Various thickness black markers
  • Sketching pencils
  • 12 color pack of pens

Software Requirements:

• PC: Windows 8 or later.
• Mac: macOS 10.6 or later.
• Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox are preferred. Microsoft Edge and Safari are also compatible.
• Blender 2015 or later
• Adobe Photoshop CS6+ (not included in enrollment) or GIMP/Paint.NET (free)
• Unreal Engine 4
• Unity 5+
• Adobe Acrobat Reader.
• Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.

Other:

• Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.

Instructional Material Requirements:

The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online.

Become a professional video game artist with this online game artist training course, designed to equip you with the necessary skills and knowledge to succeed in this creative and lucrative industry. Focus on developing core competencies in areas such as digital art, 3D art, modeling, character design, and environmental art design. You will learn essential techniques for jobs related to game art, including modeling game props and characters, importing elements into game-specific software, and animating game assets.

Apply the concepts learned in the course by working with popular game development platforms such as Unreal Engine 4 and Unity 5+. These platforms are widely used in the video game industry and will provide you with hands-on experience in translating your artistic skills into practical game design.

In addition to software and game-related techniques, this game art course also covers broader topics that can help boost your career such as general design principles and concept art. You will learn the fundamental principles that distinguish good art from great art and the key social aspects necessary for ongoing growth and professional development in the field. By the end of the game artist course, you will have acquired a diverse set of employable skills and a solid understanding of the key components of 3D art and environmental art.

1. 3D Modeling I
   1. Getting Started
   2. Basic Blender Interface
   3. Viewport Configuration and Layout
   4. Display Settings and Menu Rollouts
   5. Select, Undo/Redo, and Space Search
   6. Rendering an Image
   7. Viewport Controls and Settings
   8. Transforms and User Preferences
   9. Select and Deselect
   10. Primitives
   11. Append
   12. Primitive Properties
   13. 3D Cursor and Object Position
   14. Edit and Object Mode
   15. Grease Pencil
   16. Pivots and Object Origin
   17. 3D Cursor
   18. Transform Orientation and Duplicate
   19. Polygon, Vertex, and Edge
   20. Object Mode Keys
   21. Edit Mode Keys
   22. Limit Selection to Visible
   23. Viewport Shading and Smoothing
   24. Insert, Delete, Dissolve Edge
   25. Edge Split and Create Edge
   26. Merge
   27. User Preferences and Key Commands
   28. Outliner
   29. Modifiers
   30. Piling Modifiers
   31. Snaps (Edit and Object Mode)
   32. Snap to Grid
   33. Splines
   34. Rendering Splines
   35. Splines in Edit Mode
   36. Curve Modifier
   37. Path Deform Process
   38. Bevel with Contour Controls
   39. Lathe
   40. Mirror and Symmetrize
   41. Insert
   42. Intersect Tool
   43. Fill, Bridge, and Grid Fill
   44. Bend
   45. Pivot Positioning
   46. Fill
   47. Grease Pencil Revisited
   48. Duplicate and Linked Duplicate
   49. Appending and Saving Selected
   50. Layers
   51. Boolean
   52. Smooth Shading
   53. Arrays
   54. Solidify
   55. Subdivide
   56. Proportional Editing
   57. Mesh Deform
   58. Basic Light Settings
   59. Basic Edge Placement for Sub D Surfaces
   60. Final Practical
2. Elements of Visual Design
   1. Getting Started
   2. Balance
   3. Unity
   4. Gradation
   5. Harmony
   6. Dominance
   7. Repetition
   8. Contrast
   9. Gestalt
   10. Space
   11. Symmetry and Asymmetry
   12. Gathering and Filtering
   13. Style Guides
   14. Form and Structure
   15. Silhouette and Visual Reference
   16. Tonal Studies
   17. Light
   18. Ball Study
   19. Visual Depth
   20. Tactile Texture / Visual Texture / Pattern
   21. Volume
   22. Visual Narrative I
   23. Visual Narrative II
   24. Final Practical
3. Texture Maps and Digital Painting
   1. Getting Started
   2. Photoshop Texture Maps
   3. Custom Brushes
   4. Style Sheets and Ortho Concepts
   5. Creature Design
   6. DDO, NDO, and 3DO in Photoshop
   7. Quixel
   8. Map Types
   9. What is Physically Based Rendering?
   10. Ambient Occlusion (AO) Maps
   11. ID Maps
   12. Using the Quixel Suite
   13. Using NDO I
   14. Using 3DO I
   15. NDO Practical
   16. Accessing Material ID Links
   17. Using DDO I
   18. Saving DDO Smart Materials
   19. Using DDO II
   20. Using DDO III
   21. Create Base (Albedo / Specular / Reflection / AO / Normal)
   22. Lowering Preview Resolution and Viewing IDs in Real-Time
   23. Combining Normal Information
   24. Layers and Blending Modes in DDO
   25. The Mask Editor and Mask Paint
   26. Brush Combining in Photoshop and Blender
   27. Grouping Layers
   28. Final Practical
4. 3D Modeling II
   1. Getting Started
   2. Basic Photoshop
   3. Tile Texture
   4. Wacom Tablet Properties
   5. Layers
   6. Lights
   7. Sizing and Saving Texture Maps
   8. Texel Density
   9. Basic UV Unwrap
   10. The UV Editor
   11. Adding Maps to Objects
   12. Auto and Smart Unwrap
   13. To Sphere
   14. Unwrap Follow Active Quads
   15. Setting Seams for UVW Unwrap
   16. Smoothing and UV Elements
   17. Element Selection
   18. Positioning of Unwrap Elements
   19. Weld, Stitch, and Breaking UV Elements
   20. Relaxing UV Vertices and Elements
   21. Packing UV Elements
   22. Mesh Smooth and Edge Crease
   23. Cycles in Blender
   24. Texture Paint
   25. Basic Sculpt
   26. Baking ID Maps
   27. Baked Textures
   28. Creating Normal Maps
   29. Sub-D Modeling Intro
   30. Final Practical
5. Elements of Digital Design
   1. Getting Started
   2. Stylized 3d Character
   3. Man Made Prop
   4. 3d Tree
   5. Underwater Vehicle
6. 3D Modeling III
   1. Getting Started
   2. Anatomy (Hands)
   3. Anatomy (Feet)
   4. Anatomy (Head)
   5. Anatomy (Arm, Leg)
   6. Anatomy (Chest, Back)
   7. Anatomy (Creature - Cat)
   8. Anatomy (Creature - Horse)
   9. Anatomy (Bird)
   10. Anatomy (Creature - Dinosaur)
   11. Anatomy (Structural Design - Wings)
   12. Edge Flow, Relaxed Edge Flow
   13. Anatomy and Edge Flow
   14. Supporting Edges (Structural)
   15. Supporting Edges (Curved Mesh)
   16. Mirror and Edge Flow
   17. Weighted Vertices
   18. Armature in 3d (Skin Modifier)
   19. Edge Flow for Animated Meshes
   20. Fixing Texture Seams
   21. Digital Sculpting
   22. Solidify to Set Up Clothing
   23. Script UV Squares Master
   24. Script Mesh Align to G Pencil
   25. Final Practical
7. 3D Sculpture
   1. Getting Started
   2. Orthographic Planes
   3. Alpha Settings and Transparency
   4. X-Ray
   5. Blocking Out the Leg
   6. Adding the Mirror Modifier
   7. Defining the Back of the Neck
   8. Creating the Feet
   9. Creating the Head I
   10. Creating the Head II
   11. Creating the Hands I
   12. Creating the Hands II
   13. Creating the Arms
   14. Creating the Toes
   15. Eyes and Teeth
   16. Final Base Mesh (Ready for Sculpt)
   17. The Multiresolution Modifier
   18. Setting Up the Sculpt Menu
   19. Laying Down Clay Strips
   20. Refining the Sculpt
   21. Sculpting Details
   22. Duplicate Mesh, Create Low and High Variation
   23. Spaced (Relax) Vertices and Tight Mesh Areas
   24. Texture Projections
   25. Projection Snaps and Retopo
   26. Final Practical
8. Sub-D Modeling
   1. Getting Started
   2. Add/Delete Edge Loops to Define Volumes
   3. Unwrapping Separate Objects (Sub-Objects)
   4. Baking Normal Maps (Blender)
   5. Baking Normal Maps (XNormal)
   6. Apply Normal Maps to Mesh
   7. Texture Paint Mode and Brushes
   8. Mirror in Paint Mode
   9. Stencils
   10. UV Unwrap Guidelines
   11. Normal Map Errors and Extreme Stretching
   12. Normal Map Elements (XYZ, Color, Designation)
   13. Additional Projects
   14. Final Practical
9. Digital Lighting and Game Engines
   1. Getting Started
   2. New Project and UI Overview
   3. Viewport Navigation
   4. View Modes and Show Flags
   5. Placing Objects in a Level
   6. Content Browser
   7. Material Creation I
   8. Material Creation II
   9. Basic Lighting
   10. Basic Blueprints
   11. Lights and Settings
   12. Shadows
   13. Light Behavior I
   14. Light Behavior II
   15. Three Point Lighting
   16. Time of Day Lighting
   17. Translucency and Projections
   18. Game Engine Lighting I
   19. Game Engine Lighting II
   20. Final Practical
10. Character Design and Animation
    1. Getting Started
    2. Modeling the Base Mesh
    3. Sculpting the Character
    4. Retopology
    5. UV Mapping and Texture Baking
    6. Texture Painting
    7. Rigging the Character
    8. Creating Animation Cycles
    9. Setting Up in Unity
    10. Final Practical
11. (CAPSTONE) Final Practical and Portfolio
    1. Final Practical and Essay
    2. Portfolio Development
    3. Career/Next Steps Consultation

What you will learn

• How to improve your game art abilities
• Prop, environment, and character art/animation
• Proficiency in popular 2D and 3D modeling software
• Modeling and texturing techniques to effectively bring your designs to life
• The fundamental principles of creating exceptional art

How you will benefit

• Identify the specific skills needed for your professional game art projects
• Engage in hands-on development to practice and improve your new animation skills
• Assess your artistic ability and identify areas for improvement
• Evaluate the effectiveness of your new skills in real-world projects

Christian Bradley

Christian Bradley is the Director of Curriculum Development for Digital Media at the Art Institute of California, Orange County campus. He was as an instructor and Academic Director of Game Art and Design at the Art Institute of California, San Diego from 2003 to 2015. For more than twenty years, Bradley was an environment artist and texture artist with more than 35 commercial video game titles for PC, and Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo consoles in his portfolio. He has worked at Interplay, the Dreamers Guild Studios, and the Collective Studios. Some previous clients include Activision, Digital Extremes, and Legend Entertainment.

Take steps toward a new career in game development by building a foundation to design games in a wide variety of genres for different audiences and platforms.

There has never been a better time to start a career in the game development industry. Games can be found on computers, the web, gaming consoles, and virtually every mobile tablet and phone. Industry forecasts indicate that gaming will be worth close to $100 billion dollars in the next two years. Talented, creative, and enthusiastic people are in great demand in this industry. Whether you want to start your own independent game project in your basement or work with a small creative team or for a large game development studio, this course will prepare you to start developing your own games.

You will start by learning the fundamentals of game development and get and overview of game genres, platforms, and audiences. Next, you will learn tools and techniques to help you make better design decisions and achieve greater efficiencies as you develop your own games. You will learn why many games fail and how to ensure your games are positioned from success. During the course, you will gain hands-on experience in many of the game development processes. By the end of the course, you will have the experience and confidence to start developing your own games.

Requirements:

Hardware Requirements:

• This course can be taken on either a PC, Mac, or Chromebook.

Software Requirements:

• PC: Windows 8 or later.
• Mac: macOS 10.6 or later.
• Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox are preferred. Microsoft Edge and Safari are also compatible.
• Adobe Acrobat Reader.
• Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.

Other:

• Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.

Instructional Material Requirements:

The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online.

Prepare to start developing your own games. This course provides the fundamentals of game development, tools and techniques for better game design decisions, and ways to position your games for success.

Getting Started With Game Development

In this first lesson, you'll get an overview of the game-development industry. You'll find out where the industry is headed and where it came from. You'll also discover what it takes to be a game developer and the wide range of opportunities available—from large development studios to a corporate training office. By the end of this lesson, you'll have a sense of whether this exciting and challenging career is right for you!

Game Genres, Platforms, and Audiences

In this second lesson, you'll get an overview of game genres, platforms, and audiences. You'll find out information on how to leverage specific game-genre techniques to ensure your game is fun. You will also discover the differences between game platforms and how they have an impact on you and the games you develop. By the end of this lesson, you'll have an idea of what game genre you want to develop, what platform or platforms you want to develop for, and what audience segment you'll target.

Game Interface Design

In this lesson, you'll get an overview of game interface design. You'll learn the importance of interface design decisions to your game's success. You'll also find out information about the differences between interfaces based on game genre and gaming platform. By the end of this lesson, you'll have an idea of what interface components to include in your game and how to optimize user experiences.

Immersive and Fun Games

In this lesson, you'll get an overview of why people play games and what makes them fun. You'll discover key elements to include in games you develop, so they'll be fun to play. You'll also learn the concept of game immersion, what makes games immersive, and how to create immersive game worlds.

Production Planning

In this lesson, you'll learn about finding talented people and how to create a team to develop your game. You'll also discover the hardware and software requirements of game development. You will also learn about the budgetary requirements associated with developing your game as well as some insight into sources of funding.

Working With Development Tools

In this lesson, you'll explore game engines and how you can use them to develop your game. You'll also learn about several professional development environments and how they can be leveraged to your advantage. You'll also have the opportunity to experiment with a few mobile-application development environments.

Game-Development Processes: Part 1

How do you work with and lead game-development teams both in person and remotely? In this lesson, you'll learn how! You'll also discover the benefits and pitfalls of outsourcing portions of your game-development project and how to use consultants to your advantage. Last, you'll explore the game-development cycle and how to apply the cycle to your game-development project.

Game-Development Processes: Part 2

You'll continue your exploration of game-development processes in this lesson. First, you'll examine several practices and processes that will help you with your game-development project. Then, you'll discover the importance of testing your game's functions and features. You'll also learn how to manage the testing process. Finally, you'll learn how to create your own game-release schema including alpha, beta, and public game releases.

Developing Games as Mobile Apps

In this lesson, you'll explore the mobile application market to help you decide which mobile platforms you want to develop your game for. You'll discover tools and techniques that you can use to develop games for mobile devices including tablets, smartphones, and other devices. You'll also learn how to distribute your mobile app to Apple's App Store, Google Play, Windows Phone Store, and BlackBerry's App World.

Postproduction

In this lesson, you'll examine how to prepare your game for postproduction and how to continue working on your game after it has been distributed. You'll discover how to make your game marketable, including the developing of pricing and marketing strategies. You'll learn how to get people to play and talk about your game as part of your postproduction efforts. Last, you'll learn how to upgrade and support your game.

Preparing for a Career in Game Development

In this lesson, you'll explore the game-development industry and decide where you want to fit in. You'll learn about several career fields and explore the knowledge and skills each one requires and where to get the proper education and experience. You'll also gain the necessary information to develop your own path toward a career in game development.

Putting It All Together

In the last lesson, you'll discover the opportunities and challenges in game development—and how to capitalize on the first and overcome the second! You'll learn how to develop a game project to include designing, developing, and publishing your game. You'll also learn how to move beyond the basics of game development.