Required Submissions for the 48 Credit Point course:
Assigned Projects (COSC1002) and their percentage value are as follows:

Script Writing Assignments 15%
Assigned Production Exercises 35%
Collaborative Group Project (Invisible Cities) 15%
Minor Project 35%

Minor Project Pitch schedule:
http://aim.adc.rmit.edu.au/kcawley/sch_index.html

Notes: Written
Due date:
Assigned by: Matthew Riley
matthew.riley@rmit.edu.au

Interactive Piece (optional)
Develop an interactive flash piece based on one or more of the principles of interactivity - feedback, input/output, randomness, time, participation, adaptivity etc This is an open project, the content largely driven by you with consideration of the theme. An engaging and challenging idea is the only pre-requisite. The piece should invite user participation and modification. Interactivity should be used to convey an idea that would be impossible to articulate within a linear narrative sequence. Explore the possibilities and subtleties of mixing, interacting and combining text, sound, movement, animation and image. Use flash and submit/upload the project online, you can use the space available on the AIM server. Email the URL when completed.
Theme: Re-Order, Re-Combine, Re-Constitute
Keywords: Non-linear, reactive, dynamic, responsive, temporal, transitional, juxtaposition

Notes: Written
Due date:
Assigned by: Matthew Riley
matthew.riley@rmit.edu.au

Animation:

Cut-Out Animation (compulsory)
Design a paper cut-out character or object consisting of at least one articulated part. Try not to be too figurative. Symbolic or stylised characters have greater potential for play as the audience has fewer expectations as to how they should move. The cut-outs will be 'back-lit' to produce silhouettes. This form of abstraction and the speed and immediacy of the cut-out technique will help you better focus on the aims and objectives of this exercise which are: to gain an understanding of the frame by frame animation process; to discover through play and experimentation, how you can use small packets of time to make things move in different ways; to use and put into practice some of the basic principles of animation; to attempt some characterisation and story-telling; to become familiar with the advantages and disadvantages of the 'straight-ahead' animation method.

Notes: Online
Cut Outs
Due date: 5 pm Friday 25 February
Assigned by: David Atkinson
david.atkinson@rmit.edu.au

Metamorphosis - hand drawn animation - (compulsory)
Design a monogram of your initials. This will be the starting point of your sequence. Now design some object or creature that you associate with your personality. These two drawings will become your 'key-drawings' which map out the start and end points of your sequence. Create a magical transformation between these drawings using about 10-15 drawings. This exercise will give you practice in the use of traditional animator's tools - pegs bars, punched paper and field guides. This project will be completed on paper.

Notes: Online
Metamorphosis
Due date: 5 pm Friday 4 March
Assigned by: David Atkinson
david.atkinson@rmit.edu.au

Key Pose Exercise - (compulsory)


Notes: Online
Key Poses
Pose to Pose Animation Technique
Due date: 9 am Thursday 10 March
Assigned by: David Atkinson
david.atkinson@rmit.edu.au

Walk / Locomotion Cycle - (compulsory)
Design a character or lifeform in profile facing to the right and walk it on the spot as though on the continuously moving belt of a treadmill exercise machine. This means that the feet of your character will slide smoothly underneath its body. Use pencil and punched paper for this exercise. Think about your character's personality and the way it is feeling and see if you can capture this not only by the way it looks, but also through the way it moves. Reflect upon the 'save-time, save-work' advantages offered through using a repeating sequences of drawings over and over again. Create a locomotion cycle that is rich and interesting to look at.

Notes: Online
Walk Cycle
Cyclic Animation
Due date: 9 am Thursday 10 March
Assigned by: David Atkinson
david.atkinson@rmit.edu.au

Choose 1 or 2 of the optional assignments below:

Lip Synchronisation Animation - (optional)
Script a single amusing, weird or dark line of dialogue and make your character deliver this in a memorable fashion which takes into account the performance encoded within the recording of your voice talent. Audition and direct your voice talent to get the kind of qualities you are looking for. Use a head and shoulders or head to waist view of your character. Think very carefully about the design of your character and the way facial expressions can tell us something about its personality and its mood. Try and work at least three different poses into your animation which expressively use body language, hand gestures and eyes to convey the meaning of the dialogue.

Notes: Online
Lip Sync
Due date: 5 pm Friday 13 May
Assigned by: David Atkinson
david.atkinson@rmit.edu.au

Experimental (Alternative) Animation - (optional)

Notes: Online
Paint-on-Glass
Due date: 5 pm Friday 13 May
Assigned by: David Atkinson
david.atkinson@rmit.edu.au

Claymation / Tabletop Animation - (optional)

Notes: Online
Table-top Animation
Due date: 5 pm Friday 13 May
Assigned by: David Atkinson
david.atkinson@rmit.edu.au

The Digital Image:

Screen Exercise - (compulsory)
Screen Ink Simulates the additive effects of light. The point of this exercise is to get you to concentrate on building an image from a black background by 'screening' successive layers of simulated light onto one another.

Create a Photoshop file (pixel dimensions are unimportant, but 800 * 600 is sufficient).

Use a number of layers of varying degrees of transparency (as you see fit).

EVERY layer MUST use SCREEN "INK" (also referred to in After Effects as SCREEN "Transfer Mode").

You are encouraged to use only grey scale image elements, so that you can focus on what you are doing with the "additive" effects.

Notes: As above
Due date:
Assigned by: John Power
john.power@rmit.edu.au

Multiply Exercise - (compulsory)
Multiply Ink Simulates the subtractive effects of filters (like tinted glass, plastic, ink, stains, other coloured liquids or slide film). The point of this exercise is to get you to concentrate on building an image from a white background by placing successive layers of simulated filters onto one another.

Create a Photoshop file (pixel dimensions are unimportant, but 800 * 600 is sufficient).

Use a number of layers of varying degrees of transparency (as you see fit).

EVERY layer MUST use MULITPLY "INK" (also referred to in After Effects as MULTIPLY "Transfer Mode").

You are encouraged to use only grey scale image elements, so that you can focus on what you are doing with the "subtractive" effects.

Notes: As above
Due date:
Assigned by: John Power
john.power@rmit.edu.au

Notes: As above
Due date:
Assigned by: John Power
john.power@rmit.edu.au

Aim

The goal of this project is to create a virtual room/space using a commercial First Person Shooter game engine. It is to introduce you to the concept of 3D based game engines and how they can be modified to almost any purpose. It should reveal the basic workflow needed to produce such spaces, and how it is the combination of both 3D geometry and 2D textures that create the sense of place in these virtual worlds.

Details

The room/space you produce should demonstrate that you understand and can perform the following:

• create simple BSP geometries using brushes to subtract and add "space"
• create textures then import and place them,
• place various lights within the space and adjust their brightness and colour.

All textures should be created from outside of the Unreal package, then imported. They can made from scratch or sourced from photographs, drawing etc.

All geometry should come from BSP cutting (ie subtracting and adding with brushes) within the Unreal Editor itself - not by importing meshes from another 3D software package.

The scope of the space could be as simple as one "room", or a series of room. Ideally your time should be spent considering the space(1/4 time), developing textures in Photoshop (1/2 time), creating geometries, texturing, lighting etc in Unreal Editor (1/4 time).

Consider such things as mood, novelty, architectural narratives, ideal player's response etc. as much as you tinker with the technology.

If you are curious or comfortable with the basics, you may wish to explore the addition of other elements, such as sound, shaders, emitters, movers, triggers, but these are not required elements.

Submission

Complete and test drive your "space", then email, or write down where your Map file (.ut2), Texture Package (.utx), and any other resouce files (like sound) are located. Note their name, and on which machine, and which drive and folder they are to be found. Or you may choose to submit all these files burnt to a CD (clearly labeled CD at that) - just makes sure that if you do this you have all the seperate resource files required to run your space.

email or hand pieces of paper or CDs to Jeremy.

Information

60 hours of Unreal Editor Tutorials (quicktime movies using DivX compression) are located on Sleepy and Bashful computers, on Sleepy HD and Bashful HD respectively. Also become very familiar with these two sites:

The Unreal Editing Wiki

http://wiki.beyondunreal.com/
Use the search function to discovers specific details on nearly all topics.

The Unreal Developer Network.

http://udn.epicgames.com/
Go to the Unreal Engine 2 link. Here you will find details and tutorials about the major areas involved in editing these space. (Note the links in Red are not available to the general public, but only to licenced developers. This is information produced by the creators of the game engine themselves.)

There are many, many other sites that offer all sorts of detailed information about various area of editing these games engines.