Game Art Certificate GES 604 » 360 hours

1. Intro to Game Development
2. Photoshop for Game Artists
3. Maya Basics
4. Tiling Textures
5. Game Lighting and Color
6. Character Animation

This program consists of six required modules. Module descriptions are as follows:

Intro to Game Development
Gain an insight into every aspect of how today’s video games are created. You’ll learn about the business model, the technology platform, the production process, and the genres that define the medium, developing an understanding of the people and processes that drive development. A major goal of the course is to help you understand the different roles in game art and design departments. You’ll explore the inner workings of the game development team, finding out how art, programming, audio, design, and QA work together to create a killer product.

Photoshop for Game Artists
Learn techniques for coloring concept art, creating tiling textures, painting environments, working with texture maps, and texturing characters. A wide range of Photoshop tools and techniques are explored, such as vector shapes, custom brushes, time-saving actions, and layer masks. You'll also learn how to apply fundamentals of art, color, and composition to your work. As you work, you'll test your Photoshop art in Maya, an industry-standard 3D modeling program (prior Maya experience not required).

Maya Basics
Unlock the mysteries of this challenging program. You'll develop a thorough understanding of the Maya toolset while learning how to create, edit, and refine polygon models, add textures, apply UV maps, and develop basic animations. Projects include working with primitives, developing complex inorganic models, character modeling, texturing, studying animations, and exporting a scene.

Tiling Textures
Focus on developing tiling textures for 3D environments. Tiling textures, the design of repeated textures for 3D environments, is an essential part of any game artist's job. You'll explore how to create tiles that are the appropriate format and resolution for game engines, removing distracting detail and testing your work as you go. You'll study how to address the specific requirements of organic and geometric textures, perspective, and lighting, and you'll learn about the different maps that game developers use to deploy tiling textures.

Game Lighting and Color
Learn the lighting standards and techniques that shape today's game environments. You'll master the basic vocabulary, tools, and controls used to produce lighting effects in 2D and 3D imaging programs. Then you'll tackle the advanced shading and texturing techniques that can bring realism or depth to surfaces. As you learn the applications of fundamental lighting and color technology in Photoshop and Maya, game art pro Jesse Brophy will keep you focused on the artistic and technical aspects of game lighting: how color and lighting shapes the emotion of a character or scene, how it affects the player's experience, and how lighting requires tradeoffs in the design process.

Character Animation
Learn how to apply the classic principles of character animation to 3D models using Autodesk Maya. In six hands-on lessons, you are guided through 14 principles of animation, ranging from squash and stretch and anticipated movement to the expression of personality and thought. Using Maya's high-level animation tools, you'll gain insight into the professional animator's approach, learning to work with hierarchical characters, create effective poses, properly time your shots, develop advanced walk cycles, and even make your characters think.