Technical Concepts of Visual Effects I
CSE 40655 / CDT 40430
Fall Semester
3 Credits
Technical Concepts of Visual Effects I serves to introduce students to the fundamentals that lead to Visual Effects, but also serve as a foundation to many types of 3D animation, game models and resources, as well as effects that lend themselves to both film and games. The course is divided into 6 primary sections:
3D Modeling
This course assumes no prior knowledge of 3D modeling, so we begin at the building blocks of 3D objects using polygons, edges, and vertices. We then cover placement in world space, adding scene lighting and material creation, fundamental component modeling tools, and various light sources.
Texture Painting
Once students have a solid grasp on modeling, we move into painting our own texture maps using Adobe Substance Painter to focus on different types of textures liek color, roughness, metalness, as well as normal and height maps.
3D Animation
The animation section focuses on the concepts of interpolation as the basis of 3D animation. Students learn about keyframing objects, rigging objects and characters, drivers and driven objects, and using constraints as drivers of animation. We also explore the concept of local space animation using Blend Shapes.
Scripting and Automation
As a technical concepts course, emphasis is placed on how scripting and automation are essential tools for 3D production pipelines. Students are introduced to the Maya Embedded Language (MEL) and the Maya Python interface for Python 3 scripting.
Motion Capture and Animation
In this section we will focus on retargeting existing animation, such as motion capture data, to character rigs. We then identify issues with the retargetting amd use Animation layers to correct any intersecting geometry.
Dynamic Animation
The dynamics section focuses on the effects of usings fields and solvers, and how to use them effectively to achieve realistic results. We focus on the gravity solver, but expand into effect fields, and then onto the Bifrost fluid dynamics solver in Maya.
