DIG 2930 Special Topics: Foundations of Digital Culture
Credits: 3
In-depth examination of the technological and cultural underpinnings that shape current electronic media including video games, the internet, computer-animated movies, and virtual reality.
Credits: 1-3; Prereq: instructor permission.
Special topics course to address contemporary digital arts and sciences issues. This flexible pedagogic mechanism provides DAS a dimension of vitality that compliments theory-based offerings with an up-to-the-minute examination of emergent cultural and technological events and developments.
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Credits: 3; Prereq: DAR or DAS major or instructor permission.
An interdisciplinary overview of the technological and cultural developments that continue to shape the modern world. Student research covers topics including telecommunications, digital and analog technologies, video games, computer-generated entertainment and the rise of social media. (WR)
Credits: 3; Prereq: DAR major and DIG 3313C with minimum grade of C or instructor permission.
Practical and design techniques for the implementation of three-dimensional digital animations. Basic principles of 3D vector transformations, virtual camera calibration, modeling and 3D rendering. Work on interaction event handling, graphical interface design and key-framing using both industry-standard tools and also open-source tools to perform a frame-by-frame study of traditional and contemporary motion picture animation.
Credits: 3; Prereq: DAR or DAS major or instructor permission.
Practical principles and techniques of 2D software environments for animation. Includes keyframe-based techniques for web and other interactive environments, and vector-valued image processing, representation and major file formats, user-driven interactive animations and algorithm-driven digital animation for game design.
Credits: 3; Prereq: DAS major or instructor permission.
Develops a framework for integrating participation and storytelling as the foundation of interactivity. Explores how story is incorporated into contemporary interactive platforms such as games and other digital media, including virtual worlds, video blogs and social networks.
DIG 3506 Interdisciplinary Design Methods for Digital Arts and Sciences
Credits: 2; Prereq: DAS major or instructor permission.
Comprehensive overview of industry and academy standard design methods and processes. Interdisciplinary design practices from process-focused fields like interaction design, human-centered design, design research and computer-supported collaborative work. Construction and delivery of needs analyses, audience analyses, and design documents, and iterative design practices including rapid prototyping, user-testing, real-time research, conceptual design and agile development. Students will use one of these design frameworks to take a DAS design prototype from conceptualization to user-testing.
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Credits: 3; Prereq: DAS major or instructor permission.
An interdisciplinary design and production studio environment exploring linear narrative techniques found in both traditional and emergent media forms. Collaborative teams will create a major digital media artifact incorporating diverse and effective narrative devices and techniques to persuasively tell a complex story.
Credits: 3; Prereq: DAR or DAS major and DIG 3525C with minimum grade of C or instructor permission.
Working within an interdisciplinary digital arts and sciences (DAS) design and production studio environment, students will focus on network and Internet-based technologies, delivery systems and content generation. Students will participate in the creation of two major collaborative group projects or one major semester-long project.
Credits: 1 to 3; Prereq: junior standing or above.
Provides technical and design skills for the creation of a digital portfolio with interactive media suitable for distribution, including DVD and a portfolio website. Also covers techniques for using and linking social media, digital branding and personal marketing.
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Credits: 3; Prereq: DAS major or instructor permission.
Fundamentals and core practices of traditional game design. Course includes theories and organizing frameworks of game design and the “how to” of the technical and organizational process of creating a game. Students build technical skills in conceptualization, visualization, prototyping and user-testing of digital games. While game design is primary, the skills and knowledge acquired will apply to design-centric activities and constructs in the digital arts and sciences.
DIG 3873 Theory of Digital Media Protocols
Credits: 3; Prereq: junior standing.
Covers the theory behind the design of digital media systems, data-flow logic, binary data structures and pseudo-code description of computational algorithms. The students will be exposed to fundamental principles of computer coding and scripting and protocols of communication between digital systems.
DIG 3878 Applied Digital Media Protocols
Credits: 3; Prereq: DIG 3873.
Introduces contemporary protocols for mobile application development. Topics include procedural and object-oriented programming, mobile software development practices, design and implementation of natural human-computer interaction for mobile and wearable platforms. Students will develop skills in programming their own applications with graphical user interfaces for portable digital media systems.
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Credits: 3; Prereq: senior standing.
Focuses on developing creative and business skills that are applicable to new media startups. Uses an interdisciplinary approach to introduce the students to basic techniques of idea generation, innovation, Internet startups, video games, mobile applications, promotion and branding, company boot strapping and business plan creation.
Credits: 3; Prereq: DAR major.
Provides in-depth analysis and opportunity to hone writing skills needed in the creation and development of interactive digital media. Students will investigate approaches for generating high-quality writing and the blend between development, planning, technical and creative writing through writing the documents to support a digital media project's development and production.
DIG 4255C Audio Design for Digital Production
Credits: 3; Prereq: junior-level DAS major or instructor permission.
Professional techniques for the creation of audio content for variety of applications in the digital arts and sciences. Software tools for conversion, storing, processing and retrieval of sound in a variety of digital formats. Fundamentals of loop-based audio design, sampling and work with an industry standard software with linear and interactive digital media.
DIG 4283 Music and Sound Design for Digital Media
Credits: 3.
Investigates techniques, tools and current research in music and sound design for digital media for DAR and DAS non-music majors.
DIG 4306C Advanced Digital Animation Techniques
Credits: 3; Prereq: DAR major and DIG 3305C with minimum grade of C or instructor permission.
Practical principles and techniques of 3D software environments for animation. Includes triangular mesh design and editing, splines (NURBS), shading techniques and lighting, different camera projection models, rendering techniques, and efficient use of GPU for photo realistic real-time 3D animation.
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Credits: 3; Prereq: DAR or DAS major and DIG 3526C with minimum grade of C or instructor permission.
Conceptual design and production of content and technologies for mobile and ubiquitous digital delivery systems. Emphasis on rapid prototyping, agile design, interdisciplinary collaboration and project management in a relatively short development cycle.
Credits: 3; Prereq: DAR or DAS major and DIG 4527C with minimum grade of C or instructor permission.
As the capstone academic experience resulting from work within the interdisciplinary DAS environment, students will choose their own semester-long project that solves a problem or presents a new technical or cultural capability via enhanced human-computer interaction.
Credits: 3; Prereq: DAR or DAS major and DIG 3713C with minimum grade of C or instructor permission.
Elaborates on the game design concepts, processes and technical practices introduced in Game Design Practices 1. Students learn how to use their understanding of game design fundamentals to craft effective digital games. Built around the detailed examination of conceptual techniques in game design and their use in DAS design practice; a comparative introduction of different frameworks for game design; and introduces the technical components of 2D and 3D game design.
Credits: 2; Prereq: junior-level DAS major or instructor permission.
A coordinated undergraduate seminar working with faculty from the digital arts and sciences program on collaborative interdisciplinary research projects. Centers on a collaborative interdisciplinary end-of-class project in which students present their research projects and experiences from that semester.
Credits: 1 to 4; can be repeated with change in content up to 6 credits. Prereq: consent of faculty member supervising the study.
Independent study of special or individual DIG projects and issues, under faculty supervision.
Credits: 1 to 3. Prereq: DAR major.
Internship encourages reflection on position, company, industry, and experience. After completing the assignments, students should be able to articulate the role internship had in their career development.
Credits: 2 to 3. Prereq: senior status enrolled in the BA in DAS program.
Successful completion of this capstone experience demonstrates mastery of requisite knowledge, technical acumen, and problem solving skills in the digital arts and sciences. May be either an individual or team-based project.
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