Art History/Architecture

This course provides an introduction to the basic principles of two and three-dimensional visual organization. The course focuses on graphic expression, idea development, and visual literacy. Students will be expected to master basic rendering skills, perspective drawing, concept art, and storyboarding through traditional and/or computer-based tools.

This course focuses on the methods, procedures and techniques of creating and manipulating images through electronic and digital means. Students will develop an understanding of image alteration. Topics may include color theory, displays, modeling, shading, and visual perception.

How do we understand a work of art? Through readings and the study of objects at the Worcester Art Museum, the student will survey the major developments in world art and be introduced to various critical perspectives in art history. Students will learn how art historians work with primary materials and formulate arguments. No previous knowledge of art is required. (Formerly HU 1014.)

This course will focus on making digital art functional in a video game environment. Students will learn the skills necessary to create and optimize their art assets through several creative and technical solutions that are all geared towards making high quality game art. This course will allow students to form a greater understanding of the bridge between pure art creation and interactive art implementation into a game engine. The course explores the many problems and technical restrictions one is faced with when trying to implement anything from animated characters to textures and focuses on how one can creatively apply technology to achieve high quality results. Topics covered include: creating complex character rigs, optimizing character meshes for rigging, shader creation, optimizing UV space and baking texture files and lighting. 

3D modeling is concerned with how to render created forms in a virtual environment. This course covers 3D modeling applications in video game development, film production, product design and fine art. Topics may include creating and armature, modeling organic and hard surfaces and sculpting using traditional techniques applied to a 3D model. Students will create works suitable for presentation in professional quality portfolio.

The successive phases of modern art, especially painting, are examined in light of the late-19th-century break with the 600-year old tradition of representation. Topics covered include: non-objective art and abstraction—theory and practice, primitivism in modern art, surrealism and the irrational, the impact of photography on modern painting, cubism and collage, regionalism and abstract expressionism as American art forms, Pop art and popular culture, and the problem of concept versus representation in art. (Formerly AR 2300.)

This course studies, in a non-technical way, Americas buildings and places, in the context of world architecture in modern times. The history of American architecture was shaped by the forces that shaped America, from its political emergence in the eighteenth century to the post-9/11 era. These forces include dreams of social and spiritual perfection; a tight and conflicted relation with nature; and the rise and spread of industrial capitalism. The same forces created the Modern Movement in architecture. How are modernism and American architecture interrelated? Illustrated lectures, films, and tours of Worcester architecture explore the question, while training students in the methods of architectural history and criticism. Students who have taken AR 2113, Topics in 19th- and 20th-Century Architecture, since the 2000-2001 academic year MAY NOT take AR 2114 for credit.

This course offers a detailed overview of the history of architecture between the consolidation of modern architecture in standard architectural practice and the present period of pluralism. Topics covered will include: modernism and its critique in the developing world; Louis I. Kahn’s and Robert Venturi’s critiques of modernist architecture culture; the High-Tech movement; utopian alternatives to the modernist city; the return of pre-modern urbanism; Critical Regionalism; the rise of Postmodernism 1970-80; the developer-led architectural boom of the 1980s; “Deconstructivism” and critical dissolution of rationalist form; the introduction of CAD in architectural design and its impact on the “blob architecture” of Frank Gehry and others; the development of global models of architectural practice; sustainable architecture and urbanism; global developments in other, related design fields and their consumer culture.

The focus of this course is in study of representational figure drawing. This course will cover drawing techniques, applied to study from a live model. Topics covered will be sight size measurement, study of form and light, copying from master drawings and applying these lessons to weekly sessions with a live model. Each class will feature a demonstration on the topic followed by individual critique and study.

2D Animation I teaches students how to draw, pose, breakdown and in-between characters for 2D animation, focusing on weight, balance, timing, and movement to achieve well-structured and fluid animation. Lectures and projects are conducted to train students in the twelve classical animation principles using digital 2D media. Projects and lectures are designed to practice the fundamentals of traditional frame-by-frame and hand-drawn character animation.

This course introduces design principles and their application to create effective forms of graphic communication. The students will learn the fundamentals of visual communication and will work on projects to analyze, organize, and solve design problems. Topics may include: the design process; figure/ground; shape; dynamic balance; Gestalt principles; typography; layout and composition; color; production and presentation in digital formats.

3D Animation I teaches students how to use 3D animation software to apply classical animation principles into 3D work. Lectures focus on creating organic and compelling character animation through body mechanics, weight, and dynamic posing in addition to exposing students to learning how to think about character acting and staging within a 3D environment.

This course will introduce students to concepts and techniques for live action digital filmmaking. Topics will include constructing a visual narrative, principles of cinematography, visual and audio editing, working with actors, and the stylistic elements of various genres of filmmaking.

This course covers painting techniques as applied to texturing a 3D asset or illustration/conceptual art. Topics include are color theory, study of form, lighting, applying traditional painting ideas to the digital format, character design, generation of ideas and a history of digital painting. Each class features a demonstration on the topic followed by individual critique and study. Students work towards a final project that may be suitable for an Art portfolio.

The objective of this course is to teach students how to create 3D environments and props for use in digital models, simulations, games, or animation. The course will examine different types of architecture used in 3D spaces. The students will learn how to create historical and fictional interior and exterior environments; to design, model, texture, and render in high details; and to import their creation into an engine for testing. Topics may include space, human scale, set design, surface texturing, and basic camera animation. Students may not receive credit for IMGD/AR 2740 and IMGD/AR 205X. This course will be offered in 2022-23, and in alternating years thereafter.

Specialty subjects are offered using the research and creative expertise of the department faculty. Content and format varies to suit the interest and needs of the faculty and students. Courses are defined through the registrar and may be repeated for different topics covered. Students may not receive additional credit for taking this course more than once with the same title.

This course will build upon the skills learned in 3D MODELING with studies in life drawing/anatomy study and application towards completed character models. Students will create high resolution sculpts for real time game environments and animation. Topics covered will be character design as it applies to 3D MODELING, creating realistic design sculpts and incorporating them into a game environment as well as the study of anatomy as it applies to organic modeling.

What is the role of art to be in the modern world? Can art be a vehicle for social change, or should art be a self-critical discipline that pursues primarily aesthetic ends? What is the relationship between art and mass culture? Using primary sources, this course focuses on some of the theorists and artistic trends since the mid-nineteenth century that have sought to resolve this dilemma. These include: Ruskin, Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement; Art for Art’s Sake; the German Werkbund and the Bauhaus; American industrial design.

By using material from the sciences and the humanities, this course examines the ways in which ideas of knowledge and of human nature have been fashioned. The specific topics include physical theories about light, biological and psychological theories of visual perception, and artistic theories and practices concerned with representation. The mixing of material from different academic disciplines is deliberate, and meant to counter the notion that human pursuits are “naturally” arranged in the neat packages found in the modern university. The course draws upon the physical and social sciences, and the humanities, to examine how those fields relate to one another, and how they produce knowledge and self-knowledge. Cultural as well as disciplinary factors are assessed in this process. Light, Vision and Understanding is conducted as a seminar. The diverse collection of reading materials includes a number of primary texts in different fields. In addition, the students keep a journal in which they record the results of numerous individual observations and experiments concerning light and visual perception. The course can fit into several Humanities and Arts topic areas as well as serve as a starting point for an IQP. There are no specific requirements for this course, although some knowledge of college-level physics, as well an acquaintance with the visual arts, is helpful. This course will be offered in 2022-23, and in alternating years thereafter.

This course introduces students to techniques and processes for the creation of real-time, interactive works of art. Students learn to use electronic sensors and other tools for audio, graphics, and video processing, as well as design customized software interfaces to create interactive artworks that respond to users and their environment. The course also introduces students to the work of significant contemporary arts practitioners as well as their historical precedents, with a special emphasis on inter-media works that bridge visual art, music composition, and the performing arts. Topics may include electronic musical instruments and performance interfaces, computer vision, VJing, electronically-augmented dance, controller hacking, wired clothing, networked collaboration and mobile media, and algorithmic and generative art.

This course offers in-depth analysis of the human figure in action. Motion is analyzed and studied through drawing and sketching of live models, video clips, performance and pantomime, studying not only the physical exterior but also how thoughts and emotion are expressed through gesture. Students will develop skill in figure posing and staging for applications in animation, storyboards, comics, and illustration.
This course will be offered in 2021-22, and in alternating years thereafter.

This course will build upon the techniques learned in AR 2222/IMGD 2222. Students will learn to apply the animation principles to character animation. Students are taught how to tell a compelling, character-driven story through a focus on character acting techniques such as body language, lip syncing, facial animation, and micro expressions. Additional topics covered may include sprites for games, biped and quadruped animation, and 2D animation pipelines. Students will create animated sequences that are intended to serve a narrative structure for games and other media.

This course will build upon the techniques learned in IMGD/AR 2333. Students will learn to apply the animation principles with a focus on character acting and cinematic animation. Students are taught how to tell a compelling, character-driven story through a focus on acting techniques such as body language, lip syncing, facial animation, and micro expressions whilst incorporating digital cinematography techniques. Additional topics covered may include creating 3D simulations for hair and cloth, biped and quadruped animation, and 3D animation pipelines. Students will create animated sequences that are intended to serve a narrative structure for games and other media.

This course covers drawing as it applies to concept art and illustration. The course begins with study of a human model and representational drawing. Following this, students work on drawing from the mind and applying the lessons learned from the figure drawing to creating concept art and illustration. Topics covered are shape recognition and recalling, inventing from the mind, creative starters, study of form and light, visual composition and developing a personal approach, working with individual strengths to create a compelling visual design. Students create a series of concept art exercises and apply these skills towards a personal project of their own.