Schedule of Classes

Process of design for projects relating to animation, game design and development, and user experience design. Focus on technical instruction, design aesthetics, and production using a wide variety of software and delivery methods.

Introduction to the aspects of development required in multimedia environments. Introduction to fundamentals of life-cycle development, including design, implementation, usability, interactivity, and testing using digital text, image, and sound.

Principles of interactive design for digital devices. Emphasis is on user interfaces and experiences.

Game industry terminology, culture, and history. Current employee roles and responsibilities in the game industry, including programmers, artists, marketing, and sales. Required skills and knowledge for these roles. Game development and distribution models. Publisher/developer relationships.

Presentations by faculty, alumni, and other professionals in the field allow students to make connections serving their academic and professional pursuits. Students will also engage in additional career development activities including portfolio creation, resum authoring, career research, networking, and engagement in public festivals and presentations of their works. Repeatable for up to a maximum of 8 credit hours. Crosslisted with IM 426.

Art and techniques of computer-based 2D animation, motion graphics, and compositing. Study of various digital animation techniques using multiple applications.

Extracts and recombines fundamental aspects of art, communication, rhetorical, and computer theories to describe, explain, and understand new Interactive Media interaction environments.

Quality assurance in games. Testing process including the importance of testing and test plan development and implementation.

Fundamental principles and practices of professional video cameras, microphones, and lights for multimedia production. Interviewing procedures plus aesthetics and visuals. Non-linear editing.

Interactive game production using advanced development tools. Game production lifecycle and workflow pipeline. Group dynamics and communication skills. Integration and Design and development documentation.

Measurement and optimization of Web site performance. Monetary models supported by Web metrics. Concept of semantic design and its relationship to search engine optimization. Focus on methods to design Web spaces to maximize desired impacts and outcomes.

Reviews the creative, social, cultural, and legal contexts and challenges surrounding the protection of intellectual property, intellectual creativity, and creative environments in the commons. Promotes increased appreciation of interrelationships among the roles of law, public policy, economic development, and creativity in interactive media activities.

Examines scholarly concepts, theories, and practices about human communication, mass media, and computational digital technologies. Develops conceptual foundations derived from the cultural and commercial dimensions of media histories, technological innovation, professional practice, and contemporary/everyday phenomena. Provides increased and improved technical vocabularies and develops students' critical examinations of taken-for-granted media phenomena. Posits informed speculations concerning the future of media with particular attention to the roles of citizens, consumers, and producers. Applies intensive writing skills combining reading, study, and discussion with analysis and thinking via diverse written assignments.

A studio course exploring typography and visual layout principles of interactive website design. Survey of theory, history, and methods of web design solutions. Discussion of transitional strategies in response to developing technologies. Cross-listed as ART 365.

Capstone course for students in Animation and Visual Effects and Web and Application Design concentrations. Experiential, project-based course focusing on problems and solutions of interactive authoring and human interface design.

Course is repeatable for up to a maximum of 8 credit hours. Crosslisted with IM 226.

Topics course, with varying subjects, examining contemporary issues and problems in new media theory and the interactive media environment. Current topic/title in current schedule of classes. May be repeated three times under different topics.

Gameplay, storytelling, challenges, interface and information design, and world interaction. Construction of experiences, including rule design, play mechanics, game balancing, social game interaction, and the integration of interactive media. Playtesting and game design documentation. Cross-listed with CIS 451, CIS 551.

Software development and programming aspects of computer games, game engine modification, and virtual reality simulations, including event loops, execution threads, collision detection, multi-threading, performance analysis, multi-user games and networking. Cross-listed with IM 552, CIS 452, CIS 552.

A studio course exploring computer modeling and animation. Survey of the theory, history, and practice involved with creating quality modeling for print media, and also modeling and animation for time-based audiovisual media. Cross-listed as CIS 457, CIS 557.

Game development, including advanced game design, software development, and game production concepts. Integration of audio, visual, storytelling, programming, and design. Project build within multi-disciplinary teams. Cross-listed with IM 559, CIS 459, CIS 559.

A studio course exploring advanced and experimental web design strategies, with an emphasis on extended or applied projects. Discussion focused on the future of the web media and improved human-computer interactions. Topics to include: motion graphics, user response, audio, video, and virtual-reality technologies.

Individual scholarly research or advanced creative production investigating aspects of interactive media. May be repeated under different topics for a maximum of six hours. Requires application available from department chair or faculty.

Topics of special interest which may vary each time course is offered. May be repeated under different topics for a maximum of 9 hours credit. Topic and prerequisites stated in current Schedule of Classes. Only three hours may be applied toward IM specialization requirement.