gistfile1.txt

Virtual Sculpture
Instructor: Jake Elliott
TA: Amanda Vanvalkenburg
Mondays 9-4, Michigan 714

This course is about using "virtual sculpture" as an organizing concept when figuring out your Experimental 3D practice(s). We will use a poetically broadened definition of "sculpture" that includes traditional sculpture, conceptual art, performance, installation, and software art. All of these categories of practice can be understood as "manipulations of form within space which can be viewed from different angles."

We will be working with several different technologies, but primarily we'll be using Maya and ZBrush for modeling, and Unity3D for creating environments and simulations.

Assignments:
  There are three assignments due in this course. Each assignment can be a new project or multiple views onto a single work-in-progress.

  - Assignments
    1. Object (due Week 3)
       - Deliverable: A 3D model.
       - Defense: What is this thing, and why are we looking at it?
    2. Process (due Week 7)
       - Deliverable: A still image.
       - Defense: How did this happen, and why did it happen that way?
    3. Context (final project) (due Week 14)
       - Deliverable: Open-ended (could be a 3D model, game, video, image, etc.)
       - Defense: What is the context of what you're showing us -- are you creating a context? Are you placing something you've created into an existing context? Is it a "real" context or a simulation/simulacrum?

Individual Meetings:
  You'll have one individual meeting with the instructor at some point during the course, to check in on your progress and address any specific technical/artistic concerns directly. You can sign up for a meeting in week 4, 5, 6 or 8. You may want to sign up earlier in the semester if you need some more basic guidance for developing a project/practice in the class, or later in the semester if you're looking for more help troubleshooting a large project.

Class breakdown:

Week 1 - Sept 10 - Intro
  Discussion: Intro to the course
  Workshop: Maya interface refresher
  
Week 2 - Sept 17 - Readymade / Open Source
  Discussion: Readymade and Open Source
  Workshop: Workflow and considerations for importing found 3D models into Maya.

Week 3 - Sept 24 - Design
  Due: Assignment #1, "Object"
  Discussion: Design
  Workshop: Approaching a 3D model as a design - workflow, edgeflow, structural considerations.

Week 4 - Oct 1 - Code
  Discussion: Code
  Workshop: Approaching a 3D model as an encoded description. Hand-coding, databending.
  Individual Meetings
  
Week 5 - Oct 8 - Sculpture
  Discussion: Sculpture
  Workshop: Using the sculpting metaphors employed by ZBrush.
  Individual meetings

Week 6 - Oct 15 - Sculpture #2
  Workshop: Using the sculpting metaphors employed by ZBrush.
  Individual meetings

Week 7 - Oct 22 - Environment
  Discussion: Environment
  Workshop: Working with light, space, distance, and scale. Rendering in Maya.
  Individual meetings
  
Week 8 - Oct 29 - Midterm Critiques
  Due: Assignment #2, "Process"

Week 9 - Nov 5 - Simulation
  Discussion: Simulation
  Workshop: Loading 3D models into Unity. Rigging basic physics and camera preset to create a simulation

Week 10 - Nov 12 - Performance
  Discussion: Performance
  Workshop: Unity scripting
  
Week 11 - Nov 19 - Open lab / troubleshooting
  Workshop: Open lab / troubleshooting

Week 12 - Nov 26 - Open lab / troubleshooting
  Workshop: Open lab / troubleshooting

Week 13 - Dec 3 - No class (Critique Week)

Week 14 - Dec 10 - Final critique
Week 15 - Dec 17 - Final critique