Harvard Summer School
Class Info
SummerTerm 2017
Tuesdays and Thursdays
6:30PM-9:30PM
July 20-Thursday August 3
4 Credits
Instructor Info
Jason Wiser, MFA

Available daily by email.
Estimated Homework:
10+ Hours/week to pass, including weekly 2D and 3D assignments. / DGMD S-71 Character Design for Animation and Games
Description: The design of a character connects us to the story. So much of the meaning and expressive capability of a character depends on choices of proportion, color, silhouette, and rendering style. This course explores principles of character design and development pipelines for creating expressive animation-ready characters in multiple styles.
Learning Outcomes:Upon successful completion of this course students will gain an understanding of how to design characters for animation and games. Students will develop tools for solving visual problems, create a portfolio of character art in diverse styles, and take their strongest designs from 2D concepts to 3D digital models. The course will be delivered in the form of studio projects, individual and class critiques, lectures, discussions, workshops and readings.
Intended Audience
This is a college level course, with weekly 2D design assignments and a longer 3D project, includingin-class and at-home design, reading, research, and writing work. No previous experience in 2D or 3D art software tools is required, but student are expected to be excited to learn both, and a passion for drawing and storytelling is expected in all participants.

Assessment Methods: Weekly 2D design assignments and longer 3D projects. In-class and at-home design, reading, research, and writing, and teacher and peer critique.

These learning objectives will be accomplished by: Weekly team projects in game design and production. in-class and at-hometeam design, planning,production, reading, research, writing, including individual and group work. Lecture Laboratory.

REQUIRED TECHNOLOGY: Students are expected to bring to class every week: Laptop with 2D painting software (Photoshop, free older CS2: bit.ly/1P5cU8g), and 3D software (Autodesk Maya and Mudbox, free with .EDU email: students.autodesk.com), and a Digital Drawing Tablet (small Wacom Intuos recommended), all of which will be taught in this course.

RECOMMENDED TEXTS: Hand-outs supplied by teacher and the following two books:

Digital Sculpting with Mudbox by Mike de la Flor and Bridgette Mongeon

Creating Lifelike Figures in Polymer Clayby Katherine Dewey

REQUIRED MATERIALS: Notes/Drawing (pencils/sketchpad). Data Drive.

GRADING POLICY

30%Twice Weekly Class Participation and Attendance.

40%Six Weekly Character Designs and Paintings (including prep materials, like Silhouettes)

30%One 3D Character Model, unwrapped with full detail painted textures, & Ortho Diagrams

Extra Credit on the 3D Character: multiple texture maps for bump, specular, opacity, and glow.

Using joints to rig and pose your character. Rendering your character display as a sequence.

EXPECTATIONS:

WORK:

  1. Homework:assignments are due every class. They are needed for the next lesson or homework, so finish early! Late work gets less credit: -20%/week. TIME MANAGEMENT: Work 1-3 hours EVERY DAY instead of 10 hours the day before due for better results. Minimum homework hours per week: 10
  2. Attendance: Every class contains critical information. In case of emergency, email teacher, and make up material. As class participation counts for 30% of the grade, significant absences, tardiness, or leaving early will result in significant grade reduction, and in combination with poor/incomplete work can result in failing the course.
  3. SAVE FREQUENTLY! Do NOT open files directly from or save files directly to a portable drive. Copy (move them) to/from the computer “Thaw” drive and open there, or risk corruption and slowdown. Please save a copy of all work in an online repository (dropbox.com, cubby, etc) every day.
  4. Note Taking: Bring your sketchpad to class! Write down all concepts, tools, and procedures. Please ask teacher to further explain or repeat concepts during or after the class.
  5. Academic Integrity: All work you submit to this class must be original created by you. Any referencing should be documented, and no copying is allowed for submitted projects. You are also responsible for understanding Harvard Summer School policies on academic integrity: ( and how to use sources responsibly. Not knowing the rules, misunderstanding the rules, running out of time, submitting "the wrong draft", or being overwhelmed with multiple demands are not acceptable excuses. There are no excuses for failure to uphold academic integrity. To support your learning about academic citation rules, please visit the Harvard Extension School Tips to Avoid Plagiarism ( where you'll find links to the Harvard Guide to Using Sources and two, free, online 15-minute tutorials to test your knowledge of academic citation policy. The tutorials are anonymous open-learning tools.

LAB/CLASS:

  1. Students must treat one another with respect in their behavior, critique, and project content.
  2. Avoid Distractions: Please turn off all websites, turn off sound on all devices, and avoid using any media not directly related to course material.
  3. Help Each Other: You are encouraged to help each other both during and after class. Please pause and listen when teacher is speaking. Credit those who give you support!

COMMUNICATION:

  1. Communication: Talk with the teacher! Going to be late or absent? Having trouble with a concept, or anything else that may interfere with your success in the class? Ask for help! Teacher can be reached by email every day: or in person after class. Teacher typically responds to emails within 24 hours. Please do not send large attachments – email links to screenshots.
  2. Accommodations:The Harvard Summer School is committed to providing an accessible academic community. The Accessibility Services Office offers a variety of accommodations and services to students with documented disabilities. For more information please contact 617-998-9640 nd visit:

Character Design for Animation and GamesWEEKLY BREAKDOWN:

All assignments should be posted to the course Piazza site by noon the day they are due.

WEEK 1: June 20 and 22: Introduction to Concepting and 2D and 3D tools:

TUES: Intro to course and projects. Character design principles.

Digital Painting #1: Shapes and Brushes.

HOMEWORK 1:Concept #1:Shape Monsters and Installing Maya.

THURS:Maya #1: Introduction to interface and modeling.

HOMEWORK 2:Concept #2:High-Contrast Villains + Henches, read article.

WEEK 2: June 27 and 29:Introduction to Digital Painting and Character Modeling

TUES:Digital Painting #2: Light and Color, Areas of Detail, Contrast, and Edge Types

HOMEWORK 3:Concept #3:Heroic Figures

THURS:Maya Character Modeling #1:Image planes and rough body modeling.

HOMEWORK 4:Concept #4:Heroic Team, revisepractice 3D body, watch video.

WEEK 3: July 6:More Painting and Character modeling:

TUES:No class for July 4th holiday

THURS:Digital Painting #3: Specularity For Varied Material Surfaces.

Maya Character Modeling #2:Rough head modeling

HW 5:Concept #5:.Animal Professionals, revisepractice 3D head, watch video.

WEEK 4: 3D Character Unwrapping and Texturing:

TUES:Maya Character Modeling #3:Unwrapping/ Painting textures, Orthographics.

HOMEWORK 7:Create/scan/process ortho diagrams of best character: 2048, 72ppi

THURS:Maya Character Modeling #4:Final character body and head modeling.

HOMEWORK 8:Modelyour final character: rough body and head

Concept #6: Kids Media/Working in Other Styles

WEEK 5: Intro to High Definition Sculpting and Texturing

TUES:Maya Unwrapping, bump/specular/opacity maps.

HOMEWORK 9: Revise character model details

THURS:Mudbox:Navigation, Sculpting and Texturing tools.

HOMEWORK 10:Revise character, start UVW Unwrap and color textures.

Concept #7:Symbiosis.

WEEK 6: More High Definition Sculpting and Texturing, and Rendering:

TUES:Maya Animation, Rigging and Lighting.

HOMEWORK 11: Revise Maya model, unwrap, textures: Specularity, Bump, Opacity.

THURS:Maya Display Rendering.

HOMEWORK 12: Revise Mayamodel/texture, concept paintings, and head clay sculpt.

WEEK 7: Final Critiques:

TUES:Project feedback and support lab

HOMEWORK 13: Complete all projects/presentations

THURS:Final Presentations

Schedule subject to change per class needs.

Please coordinate with teammates AND instructor if absent to confirm assignments.

Character Design for Animation and GameASSIGNMENTS

BIG BREAKDOWN:

  1. For the first 3 weeks Tuesdays will cover 2D tools and concepts and Thursdays will be 3D.
  1. There are 6 Character Design topic exercises, spread over 5 weeks.
  1. There is 1 3D character project: model your favorite bipedal character from your concepts, with base mesh and unwrapping in Maya and high detail modeling and texturing in Mudbox.
  1. At the end of the term, you are expected to present your full set of revised concepts and a turn-around of your completed 3D character.

FINAL PROJECTS: Collection of concept paintings, 3D Maya / Mudbox Character.

2D WORK:

  • CHARACTER DESIGNS: Multiple drafts to produce characters on a provided theme, including silhouettes, full concepts, and paintings. These will be critiqued in class for quality and improvement, but the grade will be primarily for quantity, as developing these skills and achieving quality results requires large amounts of drafting.
  • DIGITAL PAINTING:Threeclasses of painting topics including Shapes, Light, Color choices, contrast and level of detail for Areas of Focus, and varied material Specularity.
  • OPTIONAL LIFE DRAWING SKETCHBOOK: If you would like to impove your drawing skills, take time each week to draw from life.Please get a sketchbook: Minimum 1 page a week, at least two figures per page (about 20-40 minutes): on the train, at home, on campus, etc. Scan and post to the Piazza page for this class along with your weekly digital homework.

3D WORK:

  • 3D MODELING, AUTODESK MAYA:

A full 3D character from concept work, surfaced with at least painted diffuse color, specular, bump, and opacity maps.

  • AUTODESK MUDBOX SCULPTING:

Real clay heads and Mudbox sketches from Maya templates.

ATTEND A NETWORKING EVENT:You are encouraged to go to at least one of these events this term and submit typed write-up about the speaker content, the people you met, and your thoughts about the experience:

Character Design for Animation and GamesCOURSE SUPPLIES / RESOURCES:

RECOMMENDED COURSE TEXTS:

Digital Sculpting with Mudbox by Mike de la Flor and Bridgette Mongeon

Creating Lifelike Figures in Polymer Clayby Katherine Dewey

NOTE: Please have at least one of these books ready for Week #2: They are not only our sculpting texts for the second month, they are our anatomy texts for the first month.

Anatomy Pages in Katherine Dewey’s text:

p12: Full Bodyp21: Head and Facep26: Facial Angle

p47 &64: Torso Front Muscles in Detailp49 & 64: Torso Back Muscles in Detail

p71: Leg Muscles in Detailp87: Arm Muscles in Detail

TOOLS:

  • WACCOM TABLET AND PEN: (bamboo is the cheapest): the first month of this course focuses on character painting, and we will continue to paint throughout the term. Waccom tabletsare industry standard tools, important to learn. Our classroom has 20 Intuos tablets for you to work at school, but you will need your own tablet at home for homework.
  • AUTODESK MAYA MUDBOX CHARACTER SCULPTING:free with .edu email: students.autodesk.com.We will use rapid-modeling precision unwrapping tutorials for this course.
  • ADOBE PHOTOSHOP: Monthly subscription available here:

CHARACTER DESIGN: Articles by Aaron Diaz: (1) (2)

FASHION: collection of fashion sites. Go every day and get inspired!

CONCEPT PAINTING TUTORIALS:

  • Top Industry Primer on Digital Painting:
  • Essay on use of color:
  • Great 50:
  • "JealousBodyguard":
  • Collection of useful Tutorials and Lessons:
  • Great explanation of histograms:
  • Good tutorials for character concepting:
  • Hands:
  • Painting Clouds: Trees: Rocks:

TEXTURE PAINTING DISCUSSIONS:

  • Aaron Blaise Photoshop textures:
  • Modeling/texturing buildings:

INSPIRATIONAL CONCEPT ARTISTS and OTHER SITES:

Character Design for Animation and GamePHOTOSHOP KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS

Create a New file (sized to clipboard): [ Ctrl ]+[ n ]Open existing file: [ Ctrl ]+[ o ]

Save a file as a .PSD: [ Ctrl ]+[ s ]Save a file as another type: [ Ctrl ]+[ Shift ]+[ s ]

Select All: [ Ctrl ]+[ a ]Copy:[ Ctrl ]+[ c ]Paste:[ Ctrl ]+[ v ]

Duplicate Layer or selection: [Ctrl]+[ j ]Copy-Move: Marquee select, [ Alt ]+LeftClick/drag

Undo(step backmultiple changes): [ Ctrl ] + [ z ] or [ Ctrl ]+[ Alt ]+[ z ]

Paint Brush: [ b ]Eraser:[ e ]Change Brush or Eraser size: [ [ ] or [ ]]

In Brush or Paintbucket tools, hold [Alt] to color-pick from a palette.

Switch colors between background and foreground: [ x ]

Tool Opacity (increments of 10% opacity): top numbers between [ 1 ] - [ 0 ]

Free Transform (selection or layer): [ Ctrl ]+[ t ]Move tool: [ v ]

Marquee Selection tools: [ m ]Lasso Selection tools: [ l ]Magic Wand:[ w ]

Select the shape of layer content:[ Ctrl ]+LeftClick on a layer icon

Paint Bucket / Gradient tools: [ g ]Clone tool (hold [alt ] to choose target): [ s ]

Rotate the Screen: [r]Hide/Show Palettes: [ tab ]

Zoom tool: [ Z ], click or [Alt]+clickHand tool (explore zoomed-area):[ h ]

Fit on Screen (show extents): [ Ctrl ]+[ 0 ] (zero)

View all keyboard command shortcuts: [ Ctrl ] + [ Alt ] + [ Shift ] + [ k ]

NOTE: Hover over any button in Photoshop to see the keyboard shortcut.

COLOR BASICS

  • Hue = color. Increase saturation to make color richer, desaturate for duller results
  • Value=shade: how much black (0) or white (255) is in the color.
  • Use Adjustments (Hue/Saturation, Brightness/Contrast, Levels) to change layers or selections.
  • Use Blending Modes in Layersfor Multiply (darker), Screen (brighter), Overlay (richer) results.

PHOTOSHOP PAINTING BASIC STEPS

  1. Draw, scan, and bring into a new Photoshop file 12”x12”, 300ppi
  2. Set line art layer to 40% opacity, blending mode= multiply.
  3. Add 4 layers below: Palette, Shadows, Painting, and Basecolors.
  4. Find a reference image for colors (photo, painting, frame of a movie or game), and color-pick 5-12 colors in various shades to paint swatches in the palette layer.
  5. Basecolor Layer:With the Paintbucket, fill with a mid-value color.
  6. Painting Layer:With a big brush, quickly paint the main colors to fill the areas of the line art. Use a solid brush, 100% opacity.
  7. Shadows Layer:With a solid brush, 30% opacity, draw layers of shadows with dark colors. Consider primary and secondary light sources. Do the same for highlights using lighter colors. Use a 20% opacity eraser as much as the 30% brush, to paint and erase repeatedly

Character Design for Animation and GamesMAYA MODELING AND TEXTURING

Body Modeling: Head Modeling:

Unwrapping: Rigging:

MAYA INTERFACE AND MODELING:

SHELVES: Near top: Polygons to create primitive geo, Rendering for lights, Deformers for Bend, Twist, etc.

CHANNEL BOX: Right: set Transforms, Inputs, Name, Deformer values. Can switch to Attribute Editor.

LAYERS: Bottom of Channel Box, create new layers, RightClick to Add Selected Objects.

TRANSFORMS: Change objects or components: [Q] = select, [W] = move, [E] = rotate, [R] = scale

MODELING TOOLKIT:Alt right panel, includes primary modeling tools (MultiCut, Extrude, Bevel, Connect etc)

ATTRIBUTE EDITOR: Alt right panel, with Camera selected set Background=white for rendering.

SELECTION: [Shift] = hold to add to a selection, [Cmd] = hold to remove from a selection.

DISPLAY MODES: [4] = Wireframe, [5] = Surface, [6] = Textures, [7] = Lighting

COMPONENT MODES:RightClick selected object, choose Vertex, Face, or Edge. Exit component: RightClick/ Object Mode. DoubleClick an Edge to select its loop. Select face, [Shift]+DoubleClick neighbor to select face ring. [Shift]+[>] = grow component selection, [Shift]+[] = shrink selection.

VIEWS: Tap [Space] to toggle from four views to one, hold [space] for main menus.

[Shift]+RightClick = context tools.[Cmd]+RightClick = Component Mode Conversion

Render in Perspective view, work in Ortographic views (right side, top, front)!

VIEW MENUS: View/Camera Settings, Camera Attribute Editor: Background. Shading/Xray, Show/Grid.

Delete: delete key to remove selected faces. Hit [Cmd]+[Backspace] to remove edges but keep faces.

COPY: [Cmd]+[d] = simple duplicate. Edit/Duplicate Special to set Instance and -1 scale [x] for a mirror.

MODULES: In upper left-corner choose module. For modeling and UV editing, choose “Modeling”

Menus: At top, changes per Module. Open and hit top dotted line to break off.

Tools ([Y] to end/repeat) and Functions ([G] to end/repeat):

  • Extrude: select 1 or more faces and tap to create new geometry. Pull out directly or use Thickness/Offset settings. Select 1 or more edges to pull out a face.
  • Insert Edge Loop: Click to add a tessellation line around that area of the geometry.
  • Connect: Select 2 or more parallel lines or adjacent faces and hit for a new perpendicular line.
  • Bridge: select edges on sides of a gap and hit to create polys them. OptionBox for tessellation.
  • Bevel: select 1 or more edges, hit to split into doubled edges. Open OptionBox for split distance.
  • Chamfer Vertex: split vertices along their terminal edges. Use to cut a circle into a square.
  • Merge: hold [v] to snap a vertex to neighbor, select around and hit Merge to become 1 vertex.
  • Collapse: select 1 or more edges and hit to collapse into vertices.
  • Create Poly = Draw a 2d form for extrusion into a volume .
  • Combine = Select two forms to attach into one form. New pivot point will be at (0/0/0).
  • Extract = Select faces to detach from a form. After Extracting, deselect before transforming.
  • Fill Hole = select a hole by doubleClicking an edge and hit to fill.
  • Soften Edge = apply to edges for light to move smoothly between adjacent faces.
  • Harden Edge = apply to edges to form a hard line between make adjacent faces.
  • Reverse = select face and flip the Normal (direction it faces)
  • Conform =select around all faces to make all Normals face the same direction

CLEAN UP: Always Edit/Delete By Type/ History & Modify/Freeze Transforms before saving your work.