Interactive 3D virtual environments are proving increasingly useful in a wide variety of fields and contexts: these include training, commerce, architectural design, digital games, online museums and art. This module will explore such interactive media systems, and equip the learners with the critical, design and technical skills necessary to produce high-quality work in this field.
Context
History and applications of interactive 3D environments; influences and applications (film, animation, architecture, games, virtual and augmented reality), use of 3D in Digital Media; the 3D production process.
3D Basics
3D coordinate systems, transformations, polygonal meshes and other representation techniques, texturing and materials, virtual cameras, perspective and orthographic projections, shading algorithms, the 3D pipeline.
Modelling
3D primitives, polygon mesh editing, box modelling, subdivision surfaces, modelling curved objects, sculpting, mesh optimisation.
Textures and Materials
Images and textures, procedural textures, UV editing.
Rendering
Nature of light and colour, colour representation and colour models, light reflection and refraction, lighting models, surface shading and rendering, lighting the scene, compositing and effects, normal maps and environment maps, path tracing, realism
Design Processes and Documentation
Treatments, scoping the game/environment, game design documentation, functional and technical design, interface design, level and asset design, documentation standards.
Building Interactive Environments
Scripting for interaction; forms of 3D interactions; mouse and keyboard interaction; collision detection and event logic.
Audio for Virtual Environments
Audio clips and encoding choices, audio sources and listeners in 3D environments, audio events and messages.
3D Animation
Key framing and path animation, inverse and forward kinematics, hierarchical models, constraints, character representation and skeletons, rigging and skinning, character animation techniques
Testing and Evaluation
Quality aspects of computer games and interactive multimedia systems. Quality criteria for interactive systems. Alpha and Beta Testing. User testing.
| Module Content & Assessment | |
|---|---|
| Assessment Breakdown | % |
| Other Assessment(s) | 100 |