NOT YOUR AVERAGE NATURE DOC
Syllabus
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Course Number: VS 2811
SCI-Arc Semester: Fall 2024
Instructors: Breanna Browning (breanna_browning@sciarc.edu)
Course Meetings: Friday, 9 am – 11:50 am*, Room 160
* I will be available for 1 on 1 help at 9:00 am in Room 160. Talks/Tutorials start at 9:30 sharp. Course Abstract
The initial design lab supports the design studio with technical skills related to the design of virtual environments. Students develop experimental workflows for producing representations of landscapes incorporating game engines and AI-based imaging techniques.
Course Description
This seminar explores strategies for representing landscapes in relation to the increasingly ambiguous definition of “nature.” As it is now impossible to separate the artificial from the natural, traditional methods of depicting ecological conditions fail to capture the nuance and inherent messiness of contemporary landscapes. This course asks students to rethink conventional representational approaches through the use—and deliberate subversion—of generative design tools, game engines, AI-based imaging techniques, and storytelling methods. By coaxing typically rigid and tidy technological tools towards entanglement and complexity, students create virtual environments that embrace and represent the messy coexistence of the human and nonhuman.
Course Organization
The course will be organized into sections for research, prototyping and modeling, virtual environment creation, refinement, and final project/presentation. Students will work on projects individually (unless otherwise approved), with the final presentation being a collaborative effort of the class to create a film in which each student will submit one animated segment. All course materials will be uploaded to the class website.
Material Needs
Hardware (required):
- Computer capable of running Blender and Unreal Engine. Please contact the instructor directly with questions about the appropriate hardware.
- A mouse
Software (required):
• Unreal Engine (w/ plugins - to be installed as needed during tutorial sessions)
• Blender
• Various generative tools (to be installed as needed during tutorial sessions)
• Adobe CC
Note: The exact software versions required will be provided during class. Students are expected to have the correct version installed for the group tutorials. Links will be provided on the Resources page.
Project Overview
The course will have several components:
- Talks: Presentations framing the
critical use of digital tools and conceptual basis for the course project.
- Tutorials: In-class technical tutorials that support project development and skill acquisition. Students are expected to follow along and complete each tutorial. In most cases, pdf guides will also be provided. If we do not finish the tutorial during class, students are expected to complete the remaining steps on their own, as each week’s skills build upon the last.
- Readings: Short essays or excerpts. All
readings will be provided in pdf format.
- Weekly Assignments: Homework
assignments that build incrementally towards the final animation project.
- Final project: Each student is expected to produce (1) digital animation that will be included in the final video for the course. Exact technical specifications and expectations will be given with the project brief.
The semester’s work will culminate in a digital “nature documentary” composed of individual student segments. Each segment will reflect their research into nonhuman perspectives, modeled in Blender and rendered in Unreal Engine, with procedural tools, animations, and narrative elements.
Components of Grading
PERCENTAGE DESCRIPTION
50% Weekly Assignments
25% Tutorial Participation
25% Final Project
=100% Total Percentage Possible
- Weekly Assignments will be graded for quality and completion.
- Tutorial Participation means the student is in class, has their computer and mouse, has appropriate software and tools installed, is following along/completing the tutorial steps, and asking questions as needed.
- The Final Project will be graded for quality and completion. More details will be given on the project brief, which will be posted on the course website.
Course Schedule
To ensure the course aligns with the needs of the class and progression of technical skill development, the schedule is subject to change. Please refer to the schedule page of the course website for the most updated information, including assignment and project deadlines.
Week 1 (Friday, September 6) Introduction
- Introduction and syllabus overview
- Introduction to course project and framing
- Begin research phase
Week 2 (Friday, September 13) Research (Continued), Intro to Blender
- Continue research phase
- Generative images for concept design
- Blender basics: UI, fundamentals of 3D modeling
Week 3 (Friday, September 20) Prototyping and Modeling
- Introduction to advanced modeling techniques in Blender
Week 4 (Friday, September 27) Prototyping and Modeling 2
- Experimental modeling techniques in Blender
- AI + Blender
- Generative 3D
Week 5 (Friday, October 4) Intro to Virtual Environments
- Fundamentals of Unreal Engine: UI and navigating
- Importing Blender models and models from the internet
- Quixel basics
Week 6 (Friday, October 11) Virtual Environments 2
- Techniques for virtual environmental modeling
Week 7 (Friday, October 18) Midterm
- Group crit of progress on assignments / work towards final project
Week 8 (Friday, October 25) Virtual Environments 3
- Procedural environment development in Unreal Engine
Week 9 (Friday, November 1) Virtual Environments 4
- Weather and lighting
- Experimental approaches in Unreal Engine
Week 10 (Friday, November 8) Refinement: Movement
- Advanced animation techniques
Week 11 (Friday, November 15) Refinement: Rendering
- Advanced rendering techniques
Week 13 (Friday, November 22) Final project prep
- Work day and desk crits
- Collaborative voiceover finalized
- Projects due Wednesday, December 4
Week 12 (Friday, November 29) Thanksgiving
- No class
Week 14 (Friday, December 6) Final Review
- Final review day
Week 15 (Friday, December 13) Studio reviews
- No class
Project Overview
Acquiring full texts is not required. PDF excerpts of any required readings will be provided to the class via the course website. The reading list below is supplemental/for reference only.
- Philippe Descola – Beyond Nature and Culture (2013)
- Jakob von Uexküll – A Stroll Through the Worlds of Animals and Men (1934)
- Donna Haraway – Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene (2016)
- Merlin Sheldrake – Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, and Shape Our Futures (2020)
- Ed Yong – An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us (2022)
- Sanford Kwinter – Combustible Landscape from Projective Ecologies (2014)
- Gilles Deleuze – The Actual and the Virtual (1996)
- Peter Wohlleben – The Hidden Life of Trees (2015)
Grading Procedures
Grades will be determined based upon the meeting of student learning objectives, quality of work produced, improvement over the course of the semester, completion of project requirements, quality of participation, attendance, attitude, and ethical conduct. SCI-Arc grading policies will be discussed on the first day of class, and any questions regarding grades or policies should be directed to the instructor and/or Lisa Russo, the registrar. A passing grade in the course requires committed completion of all projects. Incomplete work will not be evaluated.
From the SCI-Arc Student Handbook: SCI-Arc employs a narrative grading system, as follows: credit with distinction (CR+), credit (CR), marginal credit (CR-), conditional credit (CCR), no credit (NC), incomplete (I) and withdrawal (W). The grade of no credit (NC) is given whenever cumulative work, final work, and/or attendance are unsatisfactory. It is also given when a student fails to submit a final project or fails to take a final examination without prior approval from the instructor. No credit (NC) grades cannot be altered.
GPA Equivalents:
Grade Point equivalent
- CR+ 4.0
- CR 3.35
- CR– 2.7
- CCR 2.0
- NC 0.0
- I 0.0
- W 0.0
Academic Integrity Policy
(from SCI-Arc Student Handbook)SCI-Arc takes issues of academic integrity seriously, including plagiarism, which can occur in design classes as well as core and elective classes. Some examples of plagiarism include:
- Copying words, images, or other material without using quotation marks or other indications of the original source.
- Paraphrasing another person’s ideas in your own words without crediting the original source.
- Taking sole credit for assignments without giving credit to those who worked with you.
- Submitting work for a course that has already/also been submitted for another course.
- Internet plagiarism, such as submitting work either found or paid for online, failing to cite any internet sources used, or cutting and pasting sentences from various websites to create a collage of uncited words.
Attendance Policy
(from SCI-Arc Student Handbook)Any student who is absent without an acceptable excuse more than three times during a fifteen-week term will receive a grade of no credit (NC) for the course. Unexcused lateness more than 10 minutes or early departures from class will be counted as full absences.
Examples of acceptable excused absences are the following: medical/illness, observance of religious holiday, emergency leave, bereavement due to death in immediate family, military duty, jury duty, involvement in traffic accident, and court appearance.
Incomplete Work
A student may receive a grade of incomplete (I) by requesting permission from the instructor prior to the date of the final examination or presentation. Permission will be granted only under extraordinary circumstances and usually for medical reasons. Incompletes must be fulfilled to the satisfaction of the instructor no later than three (3) weeks after the end of term. The student is responsible for providing the instructor with the “Request for Credit” card used for this purpose. This card must be signed by the instructor and returned to the Registrar’s office. Failure to do so will result in the incomplete (I) being changed to a no credit (NC). No credit grades cannot be altered.
Appeal of a Grade
Evaluation and grading of a student’s performance in a course is based upon the instructor’s professional assessment of the academic quality of the student’s per¬formance on a body of work. Such assessments are nonnegotiable, and disputes about them do not constitute valid grounds for an appeal. Students are encour¬aged to contact their instructor for clarification regarding the grade received in their course.
Grade appeals are rare and subject to appeal only for the following three grounds:
- improper academic procedures that unfairly affect a student’s grade.
- application of nonacademic criteria, such as: considerations of race, poli¬tics, religion, sex, or other criteria not directly reflective of performance related to course requirements.
- sexual harassment.
Students must meet with the Academic Advisor to review the appeal process if they believe the grade received meets one or more of the grounds listed above. Petitions must be settled, and a final grade submitted to the registrar no later than six weeks after the end of the term in which the course was completed.
Archiving
The SCI-Arc Upload site is the school’s official archive of each semester’s work. This is a mandatory requirement of each student’s coursework, and grades will not be submitted until work is uploaded. This archive will be used for all future publica¬tions and graphic material as well as for required accreditation needs of SCI-Arc.
Archiving requirements may vary based on curricular and/or project requirements. Specific instructions will be communicated to students each semester.
Ownership of Student Work
(from SCI-Arc Student Handbook)Physical copies of student work submitted to the school to satisfy course requirements including but not limited to digital files, papers, drawings, and models become the property of the school. SCI-Arc shall have no obligation to safeguard such materials and may, at its discretion, retain them, return them to the student, or discard them.
Notwithstanding whether it retains any physical copies of such student works, SCIArc shall have an irrevocable, royalty-free, worldwide right in perpetuity to use, reproduce, display, and exhibit works created by students during their studies at SCI-Arc, in publications by or about SCI-Arc, on its websites, on social media, or otherwise. SCI-Arc will make a reasonable effort to credit the author(s) of student work included in publications or other uses. Excepting works which are created during a student’s participation in a Sponsored Project, the student shall have the right to publish or present their own work without compensation to SCIArc. However, SCI-Arc must be informed of this publication and appropriately credited in this publication or presentation unless SCI-Arc requests not to be credited.
Supporting Mental Health
Diminished mental health, including significant stress, mood changes, excessive worry, or problems with eating or sleeping can interfere with optimal academic performance. Reducing stigma about accessing mental health care supports students seeking professional help when it is needed. SCI-Arc provides all students with two free counseling sessions per year. Sessions are available two days per week throughout the fall and spring terms, and one day per week during the summer term. All counseling sessions are confidential. Only with your consent can any details of your session be shared with another individual. Information to schedule an appointment can be found on the Campus Life tab of MySciarc.