Course Outline

Hi everyone, here's a quick summary of the class. Please note that there might be minor changes as I will be tweaking the course's content and flow as we go. See you all soon!

Week 1 – Form and Light
Basic properties of light and matte surfaces. How to effectively render a matte surface.

Week 2 – Lighting a Scene
Lighting a three-dimensional space built with primitive forms. Learn how to estimate believable cast shadows.

Week 3 – Materials I: Primer
Intro to materials.

Week 4 – Suggesting Organic Details

Techniques for representing and simplifying vegetation and other complex organic elements.

Week 5 – Materials II: Metallic & Glossy Surfaces

How to suggest realistic metallic and glossy materials.

Week 6 – Materials III: Interiors
How materials react in an interior setting.

Week 7 – Portrait Rendering (Midterm)
Polish in rendering, and how to bring your work to a high level of fidelity. Using references effectively.

Week 8 – Character Rendering Process

Rendering a character in a streamlined rendering pipeline. Optimizing the presentation and impact of your design.

Week 9 & Week 10 – Photo Integration & Polish

Photo integration for both character and environment concept art. How to unifying lighting and polish in photobashing techniques.

Workshops
Tentative dates: TBD
Redesigning high fidelity versions of an existing character or of an environment, with pre-established constraints.