Digital Game Artist Certificate

Become a professional video game artist with this online game artist training course, designed to equip you with the necessary skills and knowledge to succeed in this creative and lucrative industry. Focus on developing core competencies in areas such as digital art, 3D art, modeling, character design, and environmental art design. You will learn essential techniques for jobs related to game art, including modeling game props and characters, importing elements into game-specific software, and...

18 Months / 600 Course Hrs

Open Enrollment

Offered in partnership with your preferred school

Butler Community College

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Learning method

Instructor-led

$2,595

Self-paced. Study on your own schedule

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Details + Objectives

Course code: GES3006

What you will learn

How to improve your game art abilities
Prop, environment, and character art/animation
Proficiency in popular 2D and 3D modeling software
Modeling and texturing techniques to effectively bring your designs to life
The fundamental principles of creating exceptional art

How you will benefit

Identify the specific skills needed for your professional game art projects
Engage in hands-on development to practice and improve your new animation skills
Assess your artistic ability and identify areas for improvement
Evaluate the effectiveness of your new skills in real-world projects

How the course is taught

Self-paced, online course
18 Months to complete
Open enrollment, begin anytime
600 course hours

Outline

3D Modeling I
1. Getting Started
2. Basic Blender Interface
3. Viewport Configuration and Layout
4. Display Settings and Menu Rollouts
5. Select, Undo/Redo, and Space Search
6. Rendering an Image
7. Viewport Controls and Settings
8. Transforms and User Preferences
9. Select and Deselect
10. Primitives
11. Append
12. Primitive Properties
13. 3D Cursor and Object Position
14. Edit and Object Mode
15. Grease Pencil
16. Pivots and Object Origin
17. 3D Cursor
18. Transform Orientation and Duplicate
19. Polygon, Vertex, and Edge
20. Object Mode Keys
21. Edit Mode Keys
22. Limit Selection to Visible
23. Viewport Shading and Smoothing
24. Insert, Delete, Dissolve Edge
25. Edge Split and Create Edge
26. Merge
27. User Preferences and Key Commands
28. Outliner
29. Modifiers
30. Piling Modifiers
31. Snaps (Edit and Object Mode)
32. Snap to Grid
33. Splines
34. Rendering Splines
35. Splines in Edit Mode
36. Curve Modifier
37. Path Deform Process
38. Bevel with Contour Controls
39. Lathe
40. Mirror and Symmetrize
41. Insert
42. Intersect Tool
43. Fill, Bridge, and Grid Fill
44. Bend
45. Pivot Positioning
46. Fill
47. Grease Pencil Revisited
48. Duplicate and Linked Duplicate
49. Appending and Saving Selected
50. Layers
51. Boolean
52. Smooth Shading
53. Arrays
54. Solidify
55. Subdivide
56. Proportional Editing
57. Mesh Deform
58. Basic Light Settings
59. Basic Edge Placement for Sub D Surfaces
60. Final Practical
Elements of Visual Design
1. Getting Started
2. Balance
3. Unity
4. Gradation
5. Harmony
6. Dominance
7. Repetition
8. Contrast
9. Gestalt
10. Space
11. Symmetry and Asymmetry
12. Gathering and Filtering
13. Style Guides
14. Form and Structure
15. Silhouette and Visual Reference
16. Tonal Studies
17. Light
18. Ball Study
19. Visual Depth
20. Tactile Texture / Visual Texture / Pattern
21. Volume
22. Visual Narrative I
23. Visual Narrative II
24. Final Practical
Texture Maps and Digital Painting
1. Getting Started
2. Photoshop Texture Maps
3. Custom Brushes
4. Style Sheets and Ortho Concepts
5. Creature Design
6. DDO, NDO, and 3DO in Photoshop
7. Quixel
8. Map Types
9. What is Physically Based Rendering?
10. Ambient Occlusion (AO) Maps
11. ID Maps
12. Using the Quixel Suite
13. Using NDO I
14. Using 3DO I
15. NDO Practical
16. Accessing Material ID Links
17. Using DDO I
18. Saving DDO Smart Materials
19. Using DDO II
20. Using DDO III
21. Create Base (Albedo / Specular / Reflection / AO / Normal)
22. Lowering Preview Resolution and Viewing IDs in Real-Time
23. Combining Normal Information
24. Layers and Blending Modes in DDO
25. The Mask Editor and Mask Paint
26. Brush Combining in Photoshop and Blender
27. Grouping Layers
28. Final Practical
3D Modeling II
1. Getting Started
2. Basic Photoshop
3. Tile Texture
4. Wacom Tablet Properties
5. Layers
6. Lights
7. Sizing and Saving Texture Maps
8. Texel Density
9. Basic UV Unwrap
10. The UV Editor
11. Adding Maps to Objects
12. Auto and Smart Unwrap
13. To Sphere
14. Unwrap Follow Active Quads
15. Setting Seams for UVW Unwrap
16. Smoothing and UV Elements
17. Element Selection
18. Positioning of Unwrap Elements
19. Weld, Stitch, and Breaking UV Elements
20. Relaxing UV Vertices and Elements
21. Packing UV Elements
22. Mesh Smooth and Edge Crease
23. Cycles in Blender
24. Texture Paint
25. Basic Sculpt
26. Baking ID Maps
27. Baked Textures
28. Creating Normal Maps
29. Sub-D Modeling Intro
30. Final Practical
Elements of Digital Design
1. Getting Started
2. Stylized 3d Character
3. Man Made Prop
4. 3d Tree
5. Underwater Vehicle
3D Modeling III
1. Getting Started
2. Anatomy (Hands)
3. Anatomy (Feet)
4. Anatomy (Head)
5. Anatomy (Arm, Leg)
6. Anatomy (Chest, Back)
7. Anatomy (Creature - Cat)
8. Anatomy (Creature - Horse)
9. Anatomy (Bird)
10. Anatomy (Creature - Dinosaur)
11. Anatomy (Structural Design - Wings)
12. Edge Flow, Relaxed Edge Flow
13. Anatomy and Edge Flow
14. Supporting Edges (Structural)
15. Supporting Edges (Curved Mesh)
16. Mirror and Edge Flow
17. Weighted Vertices
18. Armature in 3d (Skin Modifier)
19. Edge Flow for Animated Meshes
20. Fixing Texture Seams
21. Digital Sculpting
22. Solidify to Set Up Clothing
23. Script UV Squares Master
24. Script Mesh Align to G Pencil
25. Final Practical
3D Sculpture
1. Getting Started
2. Orthographic Planes
3. Alpha Settings and Transparency
4. X-Ray
5. Blocking Out the Leg
6. Adding the Mirror Modifier
7. Defining the Back of the Neck
8. Creating the Feet
9. Creating the Head I
10. Creating the Head II
11. Creating the Hands I
12. Creating the Hands II
13. Creating the Arms
14. Creating the Toes
15. Eyes and Teeth
16. Final Base Mesh (Ready for Sculpt)
17. The Multiresolution Modifier
18. Setting Up the Sculpt Menu
19. Laying Down Clay Strips
20. Refining the Sculpt
21. Sculpting Details
22. Duplicate Mesh, Create Low and High Variation
23. Spaced (Relax) Vertices and Tight Mesh Areas
24. Texture Projections
25. Projection Snaps and Retopo
26. Final Practical
Sub-D Modeling
1. Getting Started
2. Add/Delete Edge Loops to Define Volumes
3. Unwrapping Separate Objects (Sub-Objects)
4. Baking Normal Maps (Blender)
5. Baking Normal Maps (XNormal)
6. Apply Normal Maps to Mesh
7. Texture Paint Mode and Brushes
8. Mirror in Paint Mode
9. Stencils
10. UV Unwrap Guidelines
11. Normal Map Errors and Extreme Stretching
12. Normal Map Elements (XYZ, Color, Designation)
13. Additional Projects
14. Final Practical
Digital Lighting and Game Engines
1. Getting Started
2. New Project and UI Overview
3. Viewport Navigation
4. View Modes and Show Flags
5. Placing Objects in a Level
6. Content Browser
7. Material Creation I
8. Material Creation II
9. Basic Lighting
10. Basic Blueprints
11. Lights and Settings
12. Shadows
13. Light Behavior I
14. Light Behavior II
15. Three Point Lighting
16. Time of Day Lighting
17. Translucency and Projections
18. Game Engine Lighting I
19. Game Engine Lighting II
20. Final Practical
Character Design and Animation
1. Getting Started
2. Modeling the Base Mesh
3. Sculpting the Character
4. Retopology
5. UV Mapping and Texture Baking
6. Texture Painting
7. Rigging the Character
8. Creating Animation Cycles
9. Setting Up in Unity
10. Final Practical
(CAPSTONE) Final Practical and Portfolio
1. Final Practical and Essay
2. Portfolio Development
3. Career/Next Steps Consultation

Instructors & Support

Christian Bradley

Christian Bradley is the Director of Curriculum Development for Digital Media at the Art Institute of California, Orange County campus. He was as an instructor and Academic Director of Game Art and Design at the Art Institute of California, San Diego from 2003 to 2015. For more than twenty years, Bradley was an environment artist and texture artist with more than 35 commercial video game titles for PC, and Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo consoles in his portfolio. He has worked at Interplay, the Dreamers Guild Studios, and the Collective Studios. Some previous clients include Activision, Digital Extremes, and Legend Entertainment.

Requirements

Prerequisites:

Basic computer literacy and software installation.

Requirements:

Hardware Requirements:

This course can be taken on either a PC or Mac.
3 Button Mouse (with wheel)
These supplementary materials are recommended but not required:
- Pressure sensitive tablet (e.g., Wacom)
- Quixel Mixer
- Various thickness black markers
- Sketching pencils
- 12 color pack of pens

Software Requirements:

PC: Windows 8 or later.
Mac: macOS 10.6 or later.
Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox are preferred. Microsoft Edge and Safari are also compatible.
Blender 2015 or later
Adobe Photoshop CS6+ (not included in enrollment) or GIMP/Paint.NET (free)
Unreal Engine 4
Unity 5+
Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.

Other:

Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.

Instructional Material Requirements:

The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online.

FAQ

According to Glassdoor, the average salary of a game artist is $65,045 per year in the U.S., with a total average salary of $72,289 per year. The estimated additional pay is $7,243 per year. Additional pay could include a cash bonus, commission, tips, and profit sharing.

No.

This course is open enrollment, so you can register and start the course as soon as you are ready. Access to your course can take 24-48 business hours.

This course is self-paced and open enrollment, so you can start when you want and finish at your own pace. When you register, you'll receive eighteen (18) months to complete the course.

The time allotted for course completion has been calculated based on the number of course hours. However, if you are unable to complete the course, contact the student advising team to see what options you may have available to work out a suitable completion date. Please note that an extension fee may be charged.

Our courses are designed to accommodate various learning preferences. Depending on the course structure, you may get different forms of support. Self-paced courses are designed to be user-friendly and independent, minimizing the need for external support. In courses with instructors, our direct platform support feature includes opportunities for questions, discussions, and remediation, with email and phone support available for select courses. Our student advising team is available to guide you on program requirements and administrative requests, but they do not provide assistance with course content. Our goal is to provide you with the necessary support for success, whether it's through self-paced exploration, direct communication, or guidance from our advising team.

Upon successful completion of the course, you will be awarded a Certificate of Completion.

This course will provide you with the skills you need to obtain an entry-level position in most cases. Potential students should always do research on the job market in their area before registering.

This course is non-credit, so it does not qualify for federal aid, FAFSA and Pell Grant. In some states, vocational rehab or workforce development boards will pay for qualified students to take our courses. Additionally, some students may qualify for financial assistance when they enroll, if they meet certain requirements. Financing is available from select schools. Learn more about financial assistance.

If you have questions that are not answered on our website, representatives are available via LIVE chat. You can also call us at 1-877-221-5151 during regular business hours to have your questions promptly answered. If you are visiting us during non-business hours, please send us a question using the "Contact Us" form.

Reviews

“The program was extremely professional, and the support was over the top! With so much information to pass on, the program did it flawlessly.” - California State University - Pomona

Digital Game Artist Certificate

Butler Community College