Video Game Design

Video game design is the focus of new courses for middle school, high school, college, and adult students throughout the country. The entertainment industry generates billions of dollars through video games. Artists and gamers of all ages seek out information about concept art, character/creature design, level design, weapons/vehicles, environments, etc. My 3D Computer Animation students have been lucky enough to partner with Game-U in Flemington, NJ to learn the basics of Unity and have used that information to complete independent projects incorporating Autodesk Maya and Adobe Photoshop. Students have created side-scroller games incorporating traditional 2D animation (pictured above), racing games with 3D cars modeled in Maya, and concept art in Zbrush. Video game design courses online are easily accessible and free versions of gaming software makes making games a reality at any age.

3D Computer Animation Careers and Classes

Learn about the careers available to you in the 3D Computer Animation industry and the Polytech class preparing you for those careers.

Polytech Alumna Creates Animated Short!

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After taking an Intro to Animation class at Polytech, Kristine Marsh went on to study Cartooning at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. She began her career as freelance artist and became the owner of her own business, Knightingale Studio. She currently heads the company that creates characters, illustrations, 2D animation and graphics for children’s media including books, apps, and advertising.

While at Polytech, Kristine learned the basics of Adobe Illustrator and created a chinchilla character that she named “Fuji”. Through the years, she further developed this character transforming it into the main character in her new project, Samurai Chinchilla! “You never know where that doodle in your high school sketchbook will lead”, says Kristine.

Kristine recently held a promotional event sponsored by Women in Animation in New York City on May 6^th. Videos, concept artwork, notes by the creator, and more can be found at the following link.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/knightingaleart/samurai-chinchilla-the-animated-short

Kristine has been a wonderful supporter of the art programs here at Polytech. She sits on the Advisory Committee, holds workshops for current students on portfolio preparation and serves as a speaker for community presentations.

“I took every art class my high school had to offer, all the way up to G & T Honors programs, but nothing prepared me quite like Polytech. Getting an early jump on using design software and learning about the process of animation before college really gave me an edge going forward.”

We wish her much luck and success with her future endeavors.

Character Design

Designing a character begins with a good back story. I encourage my students to think about the personality of a character before beginning the visual part. Students research images and information learning about their subject matter and get ideas from live video and other artists in order to create original artwork themselves. The above character is a female vulture by 3D Computer Animation student Krystina Galvez. It is a digital painting completed in Adobe Photoshop.

Animation Careers

Being an animator is just one job to have in an animation studio. You could be a concept artist, character development artist, storyboard artist, layout artist, animator, inbetweener, background artist, inker, or painter. In the 3D world you could also be a texture artist, rigger, modeler, special effects artist, or lighter, just to name a few. The above image is a character design painted in Adobe Photoshop by student Ellen Strub.