Online courses directory (88)

Gamecrafting is a second-order design problem. Unlike traditional linear media, in which the form and sequence of an experience are created by the designers, game experiences are created by the players. Good game designers must be therefore be good anticipators, striving to imagine and optimize the range of interesting choices afforded by their designs. They must also anticipate the range of experiences they can afford to afford, based on the practical limits of available time and resources.

This course focuses on the basic skills of scoping a game project to keep it manageable, iterating on design details to refine and improve the player experience, and thoroughly testing game prototypes (using both automation and live subjects) to determine if experience goals are being achieved.

Software engineering and asset production are the means of digital game development, but the end is an intentional experience. Digital game design is the process of creating, implementing and iteratively refining that experience.

This hands-on course will introduce you to the theory (lehr) and practice (kunst) of digital game design. You will modify, design, build and test a number of toys and games using the Perlenspiel gameclavier, a cloud-based, abstract microgame engine programmed in JavaScript. Lectures and readings will familiarize you with key principles and vocabulary of general design, together with issues and methods specific to the development of digital games.

Nearly all devices now used to play digital games are connected to a network. This fact has revolutionized the game development process. Telemetric instrumentation can silently measure and transmit data on the behavior and performance of games and their players. Statistical analysis of the resulting databases can be a powerful tool for refining and verifying the attainment of design criteria.

This course provides experience in devising measurable experience goals, together with the basic techniques and mathematics needed to capture and analyze player behavior. It concludes with a reflection on the ethical implications of data-driven design, and the role of game designers as creators of cultural artifacts imbued with meaning and the potential for influence.

This course introduces three-dimensional composition of modules, basic form and volume principles, and form-based (three-dimensional) operational and ordering strategies. We will focus on the relationships between form and space with basic ingredients such as planes, surfaces, masses, and volumes. Students will produce physical and digital working models of their module studies as well as generating plan and section drawing types.

This course focuses on the design of modules or components that can be assembled/clustered/aggregated to form a larger spatial component system to enhance an existing space. Rather than aggregating identical components (such as bricks which are identical in size and shape), we will be designing our own components that can vary in size and shape to form differentiated component systems. The exercises in this course will introduce and develop parametric thinking skills (without the use of advanced parametric design software) and will require the student to fabricate working prototypes of her/his component system out of simple materials or commonly found items.

The media of mixed reality allows for increasingly immersive experiences that blend the virtual and real, and that change how we perceive and think about what is real. This course attempts to place the evolution of mixed reality in the long history of humans hacking perceptions of reality: from pyramids to cathedrals to google earth VR, from cave paintings to novels to film to immersive cinema.

This course will introduce you to the different forms mixed reality takes. We will:

• Learn about the different hardware platforms mixed reality spans, and understand their differences.
• Practice creating by taking a short story from Italo Calvino and seeing how it translates into Mixed Reality.
• Understand the context of mixed reality as it relates to philosophy and psychology.
• Critically review currently available mixed reality experiences to be inspired and understand best practices.

While the term “Fashion Icon” is relatively modern, fashion has always been defined and redefined by bold visionaries throughout history. Images of today's celebrities and fashion mavens are ever-present, but long before the selfie, sculpture and painting captured individuals and their fashion styling. Designers still look to these powerful sources for fashion elements and inspiration, and this course will trace the history of clothing and the way that themes have been interpreted over the last 500 years.

Starting in the 15th century, we will view the fashion biographies of notable individuals and examine garments and ‘looks’ for their trend-setting elements. Fashion is extremely and pointedly cyclical, and garment elements and design ideas that look ‘fresh’ to a certain generation can often be directly or indirectly traced to a prior moment or figure in history. In this course we will look at some of these times and people, and compare and contrast them to fashion that has emerged. Contemporary designs will be reviewed to identify the reuse or redefinition of many of these details. We will progressively develop the eye and skill to sketch and create our own ideas through a creative journaling process, culminating in an original design project based on historical elements.

This course provides an overview of strategic planning for a creative career, with particular emphasis on budgeting tools, insights, and analysis within creative careers and building diverse sources of income.

You know what creative systems you need for a successful practice. But what business systems do you need? This course outlines the primary financial statements used to track progress towards creative goals. We’ll measure “worth,” manage cash, spot variances, and protect your assets. All in a creative context.

In this course, we will introduce you to the basics of programmable electronics using Arduino. We will start off with simple concepts around designing and creating light sculptures with LEDs that blink to create a variety of patterns and sequences. The course will expand this project to show you how to dim and fade LEDs using a technique called Pulse Width Modulation (PWM). This same technique will be used to mix colors of a tri-color LED to re-create any color in the rainbow and produce your very own disco light show!

Throughout this course, we will introduce the basics of programming in Arduino, introducing a handful of useful constructs in C \ C++ programming.

This course explores the primary entertainment vehicles that students are exposed to on a daily basis through a series of interlinking concepts such as the digital audio workstation, a Kraftwerk 3D concert, interactive toys, robotics in art, 3D projection mapping, Pokémon Go! and much more.

This examination is supported by a critical evaluation of the various kinds of technologies that have emerged along the continuum of entertainment technology.

How have these technologies shaped and even created new art forms? How have these transformations informed styles and genres across theater, recording music, feature films, integrated media events, game play from consoles to hand-helds and the explosion of commercially accessible virtual and augmented realities?

Information will be synthesized through an understanding that the common thread has been the ever-expanding role of computing technologies in all forms of commercial and popular art.

This 4-session survey course covers the main designers in Parisian Fashion from the 1990s to today, focusing closely on one iconic creative individual for each decade. Their work is discussed in light of the cultural and political context of the time, which students learn about through video lectures, assigned readings and discussions. In addition to learning about specific designers and key sartorial techniques and trends, students learn about the main phenomena in the fashion business for each decade. Students are shown how the past influences and shapes the present.

The first session focuses on the 1990s, globalization, and the designers Jean-Paul Gaultier and Issey Miyake. The second session highlights four top Anglophone designers: Marc Jacobs, Tom Ford, John Galliano and Alexander McQueen. The third session summarizes the main changes in business models and the arrival of large luxury conglomerates at the beginning of the century. It also features Christian Louboutin as a designer. The final session is devoted to students’ final presentations and projections about the next developments in technology, business models and media.

In addition to weekly quizzes on designers and techniques, students are required to complete readings and participate in weekly online discussions and the course culminates with a personal research project in which students use primary sources to research the influence of French fashion on a contemporary designer of their own choosing.

In this course, we’ll explore what it means to work collaboratively in building a more sustainable and equitable society for all people. Students in this course will learn to acknowledge their context, privileges and disadvantages, and the different ways they have of knowing the world. In this course, learning and teaching will be generative, fluid processes. Much of the hard work of this course will be outside the classroom: reading, thinking, organizing and providing situated context for our ideas so our class colleagues can come to a fuller, richer understanding of our own shared and individual experiences. The students and instructor will come together to discover and explore the ideas shaped by the readings, and build emergent systems that provide deeper understanding of our own boundaries and possibilities.

This course proposes an introduction and overview of the history and practice of generative arts and computational creativity with an emphasis on the formal paradigms and algorithms used for generation.

On the technical side, we will study core techniques from mathematics, artificial intelligence, and artificial life that are used by artists, designers and musicians across the creative industry. We will start with processes involving chance operations, chaos theory and fractals and move on to see how stochastic processes, and rule-based approaches can be used to explore creative spaces. We will study agents and multi-agent systems and delve into cellular automata, and virtual ecosystems to explore their potential to create novel and valuable artifacts and aesthetic experiences.

The presentation is illustrated by numerous examples from past and current productions across creative practices such as visual art, new media, music, poetry, literature, performing arts, design, architecture, games, robot-art, bio-art and net-art. Students get to practice these algorithms first hand and develop new generative pieces through assignments and projects in MAX. Finally, the course addresses relevant philosophical, and societal debates associated with the automation of creative tasks.

Music for this course was composed with the StyleMachineLite Max for Live engine of Metacreative Inc.
Artistic direction: Philippe Pasquier, Programmation: Arne Eigenfeldt, Sound Production: Philippe Bertrand

Where did graphic design come from, and where will it go next? This fast-paced introduction to graphic design history will change your understanding of everything from fonts and letterforms to posters and brands. Discover how printers revolutionized society when they created open access to information. Explore the visual systems that inform graphic design practice—from handwritten alphabets to online publications. Learn how avant-garde artists, architects, poets, and painters shook the world by reinventing mass media. Pursue the dream of a unified civilization held together by neutral typefaces, international pictograms, and global brands—and see how subcultures rebelled against cultural uniformity by forging their own visual identities. Thinking about history will open your eyes to new ideas and diverse practices. The course is taught by Brockett Horne and Ellen Lupton, renowned authors and leading faculty at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). In a series of dynamic conversations, they will introduce you to fascinating people and processes that changed the way we communicate. Test your knowledge with short quizzes, and stretch your own design practice by responding to inspiring creative prompts.

Course image A. M. Cassandre. The uncompromising one, the strongest, 1925. Lithograph.
Collection of Merrill C. Berman

This course focuses on the object itself: What does it do, what does it say? How do objects convey ideas? The shape, volume, surface and color of an object constitute its overall visual aesthetic and can communicate the object’s use, utility, significance and value. Analysis, study, exploration and refinement of 3D form, looking at a variety of methods for producing iterative study models and prototypes. Students will be introduced to relevant theoretical approaches, including semiotics, through readings and group discussions. The goal of this course is to teach students how to control the semantic, formal and aesthetic dimensions of their design work so that it communicate the story of the designer, brand or company to the intended users/consumers.

Learn how the music and video technology industry operates behind the scenes, and get career advice directly from industry professionals. In six 50-minute video sessions, meet over fifteen mentors who share their experiences of working at Pandora, LANDR, Sonos, Native Instruments, and more. Access to exclusive product case studies will allow you to develop the tools for a smoother transition into this industry, giving you a look into the day-to-day life of various roles - from marketing to engineering. Plus, engage renowned music tech industry experts and entrepreneurs in online AMA’s and one-on-one office hours.

Continue learning with Real Industry mentors through the online course Careers in Media Technology.

This course will explore the distinct mindset and essential knowledge base vital to the establishment and success of any music-related entrepreneurial endeavor. It will highlight the notion that, whether they know it or not, musicians are natural entrepreneurs!  

   • Repurpose your skills as a musician to envision and develop a business.

   • Leverage your fundamental “multipreneurial” nature as a musician.

   • Create opportunities around your diverse musical skills.   

   • Conceive, form, launch, market, and manage a music-related business.

This free course is composed of select modules from MMI 530 Entrepreneurship for Musicians, a popular course at the Frost School of Music also offered through Frost Online. It offers a unique opportunity to experience the convenience and rewards of online learning. 

3D modeling and animation have transformed numerous fields, including filmmaking, computer games, architecture and product design. Yet the underlying basis of high-quality 3D production originates in traditional design and animation methodologies. This course provides an introduction to the exciting world of 3D content creation, while emphasizing its connection to the creative thought process. Students will learn an overview of the artist workflow as it relates to modeling, texturing, animation, lighting and rendering. This course offers a new dimension to the process of filmmaking and design.

In today’s diverse consumer market, illustration exists through many forms of expression breaking with traditional roles of the illustrator. Through a series of projects, students will explore the translation, production and distribution of their visual ideas. Through the integration of design principles and drawing skills, students gain an opportunity to discover new possibilities for illustrated visual expression in the market.

A student should have basic drawing skills, basic digital tool skills (Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop) and understanding in fundamental design theory, in order to take this class.