Animation and Digital Arts(ADA)_动画与数字艺术 - Lingnan University, Hong Kong

Animation and Digital Arts(ADA)_动画与数字艺术

——Faculty of Arts, Lingnan University‌, Hong Kong

Programme Overview

Introduction

Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Animation and Digital Arts (ADA) offers a comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach to creative arts education that fosters innovative thinking and creativity. It will add an extra dimension to the liberal arts curriculum, the core value of Lingnan’s mission in higher education. Students of this new programme will learn fundamental knowledge and professional skills in animation and digital arts.

The major comprises three categories: Lingnan’s liberal arts core curriculum; subjects on the history of fine arts and moving images; and skill courses on animation and digital media. ADA students are expected to develop their expertise in digital media with a solid liberal arts foundation. Furthermore, to prepare students for a professional pathway of their own choice, a string of electives is made available in animation, digital art installation and other fields in creative media.

Aims

ADA prepares graduates for a competitive employment market and work field. Students will be guided to create cutting-edge digital artworks. Striking a balance between technology and creativity, the Programme allows students to learn a wide range of essential knowledge from art history, film art, design to 2D and 3D animation as well as concepts and application of virtual reality. Students will receive comprehensive historical and technical training of animation and digital arts through hands-on learning and rigorous mentorship.

Programme Learning Outcomes (PLOs)

Students who complete the Animation and Digital Arts Programme will be able to:

Create cutting-edge work with artistic vision, combining essential specialized technical skills with original concepts;

Apply practical knowledge to real world production, and recognizing the strength of individual software and developing a tailored skillset;

Use critical thinking skills to identify problems and develop innovative solutions with resourceful mind;

Embrace new ideas and adapt to changing technology and environment.

Major Required Courses

ADA1001 2D Animation (3 credits)

This course is an introduction to the various elements of 2D traditional and digital animation. Through individual and group assignments, students will explore various tools and techniques while developing their skills of styles, concepts and have better understanding of the possibilities of animation. This course will also experiment with the use of interactive text, vector and bitmap graphics, photography, sound and video as it relates to 2D animation.

ADA1003 Computer Graphics (3 credits)

This course is designed to introduce the production of computer graphics as they apply to arts and design from studio perspective. Both technical and aesthetic issues will be addressed. Aesthetic issues will encompass concepts, composition, appreciation and historical context. Technical topics will include raster and vector imaging, scanning, retouching, printing, animated graphics, and other related topics. The Adobe CC software package will be used to illustrate the principles and techniques, and to produce the projects.

FVA2107 Arts of Europe (3 credits)

This course introduces the basic concepts, genres, famous works and some of the most significant eras in Western art from the Renaissance period to the Modern Age. It examines elements and principles of design and style of the visual arts, encompassing pictorial art, applied art, decorative arts and architecture.

FVA2105 Film Art and Storytelling (3 credits)

In this introductory course, emphasis is placed on cognitive and analytic approaches to the study of film. Attention will be given to “practitioner’s agency,” film form, film policy, and the institutions that support the making and viewing of films. Students are introduced to concepts and terms needed to articulate well-reasoned assessments of the aesthetic, ethical, and social merits and demerits of films.

ADA2001 History of Animation (3 credits) [Required course for Digital Animation Concentration]

This course introduces students to the history of animation, and to the ways animation forms and styles have developed over time. The course covers animation from its prehistory, before the invention of film, to the present day, including both traditional hand-drawn animation and digital animation.

ADA2002 3D Animation Workshop (3 credits) [Required course for Digital Animation Concentration]

This course will present the fundamental concepts, issues and techniques of three-dimensional computer animation. Students are required to not only be able to navigate the software interface to create animated sequence, but also to create expressive motion. In the course, students will observe and analyze motion and explore different animation techniques in order to create believable, expressive motion. Animation, because of its time consuming nature, requires planning and organization. The course will explore the world of 3D computer animation from initial concept to final production. It introduces the language, principles, aesthetics and 3D tools used in the creation of animation within the context of art and design. The Autodesk Maya software package will be used to illustrate the principles and techniques dealt with.

ADA2003 Digital Modeling and Rendering (3 credits)

This course will present the fundamental concepts, issues and techniques of three-dimensional computer modeling and rendering. Both technical and aesthetic issues will be addressed throughout the course. Aesthetic issues will encompass concept, composition, light and color, framing and historical context. Technical topics will include: coordinate systems, transformations, primitives, patches, polygons, NURBS surfaces, hierarchical grouping, lighting, rendering, and texture mapping. The Autodesk Maya software package will be used to illustrate the principles and techniques, and to produce the projects.

ADA2006 Storytelling and Storyboarding (3 credits) [Required course for Digital Animation Concentration]

Storytelling and Storyboarding is an essential part of new media production. This course introduces to students characteristics and techniques of creative storytelling, helps students to gain hands-on experience in producing multimedia artifacts, and develop different formats of storyboards that will best serve the intended media. Students will learn to translate concepts such as shot types, continuity, pacing, transitions and sequencing into a visual narrative. Exploration of cinematic vocabulary and storyboard technique in the creation of both personal and professional expression are emphasized.

ADA2008 An Introduction to Arts and Technology (3 Credits) [Required course for Arts and Technology Concentration]

Artists have always used technology as new ways to express themselves and art and technology have become more and more intertwined over time. Since 1900, many contemporary artists adopted new types of media and technology to create their works. The growing influence of technology is a creative force.

This course will explore the relationship of art and technology through the study of art history from modern art to mixed-media art, net art, digital art, computer animation, computer- generated imagery (CGI), interactive installation, robotic art and so forth.

Different artists and their applications of different technologies will be studied to explore their relationship to transforming culture and society. Students will gain broader understanding and critical awareness of different concepts and developments of art and technology from early experiments by futurists and constructivists to most recent practices like interactive games and expanded reality experiments with wearable and portable media.

ADA3001 3D Character Animation Workshop (3 credits) [Required course for Digital Animation Concentration]

This course deals with advanced issues of 3-D computer animation. The subject will stress professional techniques and workflow methodology to maximize students’ realization of their ideas and concepts. Students will develop highly accurate timing, to achieve their individual style of animation. The subject should improve students’ insight into what makes an animation succeed, whether it is computer generated or not. It should also improve students’ abilities to themselves produce successful 3-D computer animation. The Autodesk Maya, Adobe CC software packages and Advanced Skeleton Plugin will be used as an example and to produce the project.

In the workshop, students are expected to consider themselves as professionals. Moreover, they are expected to be considerate and helpful peers to their classmates, to share knowledge, to be attentive and to provide thoughtful commentary during critiques, to participate heart and soul, to present work in progress professionally, and to turn in the project on time and in a professional manner.

ADA3002 Concepts of Expanded Reality (3 credits)

This course offers an introduction to some of the main theoretical issues occasioned by the technologies of virtual and augmented reality. Issues to be addressed include: What is virtual reality? How does one engage with such a reality? What technologies are used in ‘building’ a virtual or augmented reality? And what are the ethical questions that such "worlds" pose?

ADA3004 Interactive Art (3 Credits) [Required course for Arts and Technology Concentration]

This course introduces students to the concept, history, and techniques of interactivity in art and design, with an emphasis on interactive designs in computer animations. The course will explore the participatory and performative nature of interactive art and designs from various perspectives, including media studies and human-computer interaction studies.

ADA3009 Visual Programming (3 Credits) [Required course for Arts and Technology Concentration]

This course aims at exposing students to the possibility of interacting within digital arts by exploring both history, practice of generative art, and computational creativity. It starts with an overview of programming interactive computer graphics and drawing algorithms. A goal of this course is to enhance students to understand and develop practical skills in producing artworks by using programming as an artistic medium.

ADA4001 Capstone Project (6 credits)

The Capstone Project requires the planning and execution of an animation or digital arts project; for example, a short animation film, a simple video game, or an installation that makes use of new media (for example, video). The precise nature of the project will be determined by the student in consultation with his or her supervisor(s).

ADA4005 VR/AR Workshop (3 Credits) [Required course for Arts and Technology Concentration]

This course offers a production-based introduction to the principles of virtual and augmented reality. The course is a combination of lectures and lab-based exercises, where the fundamentals of VR /AR technology is described and practiced. During the course, students will, as a project, design a basic Virtual Reality application.

Major Elective Courses

ADA2004 Motion Graphics (3 credits)

This course will explore the design requirements for professional quality broadcast graphics and title design for animation and multimedia projects. Using combinations of still images, graphics, video footages and audio sound tracks, we will examine the relationships of motion, pacing, textures, transitions, design and composition in space and time. Emphasis will be placed on compositing techniques, design concepts, art direction, aesthetics and the overall style of professional motion graphics productions. Asset management, aspect ratios, resolutions, interpolation algorithms, colour depth and image stabilization techniques are also addressed. The Adobe CC software package will be used to illustrate the principles and techniques, and to produce the projects.

ADA2005 New Media Storytelling (3 credits)

Storytelling is an essential part of new media cultural production. This course introduces students to characteristics and techniques of new media storytelling, helps them to gain hands-on experience in producing multimedia artifacts, and investigates social and ethical issues involved in new media storytelling.

ADA2007 Experimental Animation (3 credits)

This course approaches animation from an artistic, individualized point of view. It offers an opportunity for students to experiment with different styles and techniques of animation while addressing fundamental problems such as rhythm, timing, and sound. Emphasis is on conceptual idea and development, abstract and material processes, and encourage students to discover and explore methods of visual expression in animation.

ADA3004 Interactive Art (3 credits)

This course introduces students to the concept, history, and techniques of interactivity in art and design, with an emphasis on interactive designs in computer animations. The course will explore the participatory and performative nature of interactive art and designs from various perspectives, including media studies and human-computer interaction studies.

ADA3006 Sound Design (3 credits)

Animation means "giving life to" which is augmented by sound design and its integration with images. This course will enlighten students to discover the power acoustics have on human experience and creative process. Students will learn how to imagine, create and notate soundscapes.

ADA3008 Gamers and Game Market

Video games were a niche entertainment genre three decades ago. It rapidly grew into an enormous popular cultural and media market that is only rivaled by a few established ones such as television. While current observers recognize the business, cultural, and social significance of game markets, few except scholars specializing in game studies have a holistic understanding of them. At first glance, games may look like other creative media products. However, their industries, product content, and users considerably differ from the counterparts of most creative media markets. Examples include the thoroughly interactive product-user relations, strange and varied (but lucrative) derivative markets such as gold farming and game-streaming, and the sociality among users. This course will offer students specialized knowledge of the game markets while also approaching them in a holistic, critical, global, interdisciplinary, and historically informed manner.

ADA3009 Visual Programming

This course aims at exposing students to the possibility of interacting within digital arts by exploring both history, practice of generative art, and computational creativity. It starts with an overview of programming interactive computer graphics and drawing algorithms. A goal of this course is to enhance students to understand and develop practical skills in producing artworks by using programming as an artistic medium.

ADA4002 Digital Art Installation (3 credits)

This course is an introduction to the history, concepts, and issues of installation of digital art. It will explore the uses of digital art in a variety of contexts, including theatres, musical, exhibition spaces such as museums, trade fairs, and various types of entertainment centres. Students will explore various modes of human-machinery interaction, including input-systems (e.g., sensors, motion capture, etc.), output-systems (projection, sounds, etc.), and hybrid reality where live actions of humans are mixed with digital elements.

ADA4003 Game Design (3 credits)

This course is designed to teach students the process of computer game design. It will focus on the practical aspects of game design, but will also introduce students to the history of games, especially board and card games, and the theoretical basis for gameplay in general. Students will learn to develop game ideas, create design documents, create basic computer games using popular design tools, collect player feedback, and revise their game designs.

ADA4004 Production Design (3 credits)

Production design translates written words for the screen, creating visual effects for narratives. This course introduces students to basic elements of production design and train students on how to use appropriate techniques to design.

ADA4005 VR/AR Workshop (3 credits)

This course offers a production-based introduction to the principles of virtual and augmented reality. The course is a combination of lectures and lab-based exercises, where the fundamentals of VR /AR technology is described and practiced. During the course, students will, as a project, design a basic Virtual Reality application.

ADA4006 Visual Effects Workshop (3 credits)

This course focuses on the overall workflow of digital visual effects productions, explores different visual effects and dynamics systems, and introduces the basic principles behind each process among the spectrum of digital visual effects that are being practiced in the current animation and digital arts industry. Hands-on experience is provided in the workshops in order to assist students in expanding their visual vocabularies. An industrial standard 3D software package will be used to illustrate the principles and techniques dealt with.

ADA4007 Advanced Interactive Art

This course delves into the advanced theories and practices of interactive arts, exploring the intersection of technology, creativity, and user experience. Students will engage with cutting-edge interactive technologies and methodologies to create dynamic art installations, performances, and digital experiences.

CMI3003 Producing Digital Media (3 credits)

This course teaches students the theoretical, practical, and experiential dimensions in digital media production with the context of the creative media industry. Students will learn how to analyze and produce digital media campaign for events in the industry. The course covers principles and techniques in producing both graphic and time-based media. Through successful cases’ studies, students will be accustomed to high level industry standards in digital media production. Students will also be exposed to the latest development in both artistic and commercial applications in the field. This enables students’ readiness in exploring their creative expression through innovative channels.

CMI4004 Media and Digital Management (3 credits)

The course begins with an introduction of the development of media and digital management in contemporary society. Then, students will be guided to study a variety of topics regarding media and digital industries, including regulation and law, business economics, product design, and human resource management. Lectures and interactive application of managerial knowledge will equip the students with administrative, marketing, and communication skills for management of media firms. In addition, the students will be introduced to the organic function of non-for-profit organizations and emerging smart cities worldwide, as well as an in-depth examination of local and national digital media entrepreneurship. A site visit to Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company will be organized and two guest speakers will also visit to share their managerial experiences in the creative media industries.

VIS2106 Understanding Drawing (3 credits)

This course teaches students the theoretical, historical and experiential dimensions of the visual medium of drawing. Students will learn how to interpret artworks and assess claims made on the nature, function and value of drawing. In addition to the understanding of the theoretical and historical issues of drawing, students will learn to conceive and execute a drawing project by applying the knowledge and techniques they learn from the course.

VIS3006 Cinematography (3 credits)

This course will provide training focused on managing a complete video project for students intermediate level, from conceptual development, project planning, camera operation, video editing, and audio manipulation through to the completion of a video work. Several cinematographic theories and techniques of storytelling will be further introduced and explored in the studio setting. The video project also serves as a creative platform for intellectual sharing, with students being invited to further investigate their academic interests while making a video based on them. A screening of students’ final work with peer critique session will be arranged for feedbacks and discussions on the creative, aesthetic, affective impacts of the videos.

VIS3298 Studio Practice with Artist-in-Residence (3 credits)

This course will be taught by visiting artists associated with the Visual Studies Artist-in Residence Programme. The course, which is studio-based, will have a maximum enrolment of 15 students. The exact content of this course will vary from term to term, depending on the expertise of the visiting artists. Possible foci for the course include: painting, drawing, photography, web design, sculpture, printmaking, ceramics, and multimedia. The course will allow students to deepen their historical and theoretical understanding of visual phenomena through practical engagement with relevant techniques. The artists will introduce students to relevant techniques through a series of case studies and selected readings; help students to design manageable projects; provide basic instruction about materials, techniques, goals and strategies; and oversee the execution of student projects in the art studio. The aim is to enhance students' understanding of the visual arts through practical engagement with specific artistic techniques.