Gatlin International

Description

All of our computer game design courses are 100% online and instructor-supported to provide you with the flexibility to learn at your own pace.

Lighting and color help give compter games their overall mood and feel. As a lighting artist, you decide whether that mood is upbeat or ominous. A thorough understanding of lighting and color is what separates a novice from a true game art professional.

Lighting can be used to create the dark, mysterious mood in a dungeon, to help a gamer see a hidden power-up, or make characters appear menacing.

Our computer design courses in lighting and color are comprised of six hands-on lesson, designed to teach you widely-accepted lighting standards and techniques that help define today's game environments.

You'll master the basic vocabulary of game design as well as the tools and controls and imaging programs used to produce both 2D and 3D lighting effects.

Next, you'll learn the advanced shading and texturing techniques that bring realistic depths to surfaces.

You'll also learn the fundamentals of Photoshop and Maya. Computer game designer and art pro Jesse Brophy will help keep you focused on the artistic, and technical aspects of game lighting.

Our computer game design courses will teach you how color and lighting can be used to create the emotion of a character or scene and how the game player's experience can be affected by your choices of color and lighting design.

You'll complete six challenging exercises that will test your skills and your creativity.

As with all of our computer game design courses, your work will be critiqued by an expert instructor who will help you add develop well-executed game art pieces for your portfolio or reel.

Click on the registration button on this page and take your skills to the next level with the computer game design courses from Gatlin International.

Outline

LESSON 1 The Purpose of Lighting The many uses of light and color are explored in this introductory lesson. You'll learn how lighting can be applied and manipulated to define the shape and structure of objects in a game environment, and the techniques that help indicate time of day in outdoor scenes. Direction and intensity are introduced as methods for shaping the emotion of characters. In the exercise, you will build up your lighting resources and analyze the use of light in various 3D art pieces and photos.
 
LESSON 2 Components of a Light The range of lighting types you'll find in Maya and other 3D tools can be overwhelming. Lesson Two helps you make sense of ambient, directional, spot, and point lighting, as well as many of the controls that accompany each type. Working hands-on in Maya, you'll apply color, shadow, intensity and other attributes to modify the mood and depth of objects. After experimenting in the lesson, you'll choose and creatively apply lighting types in the exercise.
 
LESSON 3 The Power of Color Light and color go hand in hand in 3D video games, and color makes a powerful impact on the gameplay experience. This lesson begins with an overview of color as it applies to light and 3D environments, and how to select harmonious colors for your game scenes. The effects of warm and cool colors and other mood-defining color schemes are explored, and you'll apply them in the exercise, lighting and coloring a model.

LESSON 4 Shaders and Light At this stage, you'll have a good feel for controlling the color and light of a scene, so Lesson Four will take it to the next level of realism with the introduction of shaders. Shaders define how an object interacts with the lighting, and are critical to a life-like game environment. You'll explore the many ways light interacts with materials (such as through reflection, gloss, and falloff) and try them in Maya. You'll create and manipulate shaders in the exercise, developing renderings of a variety of materials.
 
LESSON 5 Using Textures to Manipulate Shaders Shaders alone do a lot to give a realistic feel to various materials, and adding textures to the mix gives them even more impact. You'll learn to create interesting texture tiles in this lesson and apply them to your shaders to create glossy surfaces, wrinkly skin, transparent areas, and more. You'll also learn about the size and quality compromise that is often encountered in texture design. In the exercise, you will develop creative texturing and shading for a variety of materials.
 
LESSON 6 A Look Behind the Curtain The world of video game lighting is not without its limitations, and you'll learn in this lesson how the pros approach constraints like memory limits and older platforms. A variety of techniques will be explored so you can work around these hurdles, and you'll look at new technologies that will shape the future of game lighting. Your final project will take you to a dungeon where you'll create two complete lighting set-ups using everything you've learned in the course.

Additional Info

Languages

English

Course Length

60.00 hours

Duration of Access

Enrolled students have access to the class for six months. During this period, questions or assignments may be submitted at any time to the instructor. Each course lesson requires an average of 10 hours of study time.

Instructor

Jesse Brophy is a 3d artist who has worked at a range of game design companies, including THQ, Atari, Breakaway Games, and Sony.  Throughout his career he has worked on numerous titles in various capacities including character, environmental, and technical art positions.  Jesse currently works at his dream job as an artist for Blizzard Entertainment. Jesse has a BFA in drawing and visual communication from the University of Arizona.

Prerequisites/Audience

Courses are designed for adult learners interested in building skills and portfolio for a design career. To take the course, students simply require a computer (PC or Mac), an Internet connection (56 Kbps modem or faster), and any required software. For courses with software requirements, computers must meet software manufacturers' system requirements.

Requirements/Materials Included

To take this course you'll need Autodesk Maya and basic experience in Maya, Adobe Photoshop and basic experience in Photoshop, and a computer that meets the Autodesk Maya system requirements. Three button mouse required for PC users, recommended for Mac users.

Certification

3 CEU's

Sessions College is accredited by the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC). Certificate programs are accredited by the Middle States Commission on Secondary Schools.