LCAD-Catalog-2016-2018

elationships with publisher contacts, producers, art
directors, and marketing departments. Students also
will learn how to manage game development teams
through milestone scheduling, setting realistic time
considerations for tasks, and agile methodologies to
keep developers accountable and prepared for the
inevitable rapid schedule changes in production.
ELECTIVE CLASSES
UI-UX DESIGN FOR UNITY
(Elect)
2-4 Units
This course focuses on player interaction with user
interface elements. How a player interacts with a
game will make or break their experience. Students
will explore the hazards of clunky gameplay and
ineffective presentations of information. Students will
learn to balance what is on screen so that players will
feel empowered by the information presented rather
than burdened by it.
TOOL THEORY
(Elect)
2-4 Units
Tool Theory focuses on the placement of different
functions in a pipeline. This course will focus on
streamlining a repetitive task or batch operation.
Learning to speed up production processes and to
spot and improve bottlenecks by implementing new
tools or repurposing old ones.
SCALE AND SCOPE IN PROJECT DEVELOPMENT
(Elect)
2-4 Units
This course will instruct students on best practices
for managing project scope and feature inventories.
Understanding these practices is important to keeping
gameplay focused on players’ core experiences. In
Scale and Scope in Project Development, students
will learn to spot when a project is getting away from
core ideas and will learn best methods for saving and
repurposing trimmings for future projects.
PARTICLE SYSTEMS AND ADVANCED LIGHTING
(Elect)
2-4 Units
Particle Systems and Advanced Lighting focuses on
bringing worlds to life with subtle movements and
grand lighting. Details like motes of dust and pollen in
the air, leaves falling from trees, and smoke bellowing
from trenches are examples of finishing touches that
will help make a game experience more dynamic.
Mood and color are additional factors that contribute
to a vibrant world. This course will explore mastering
use of these effects and more.
SPECIAL TOPICS IN GAME DESIGN
(Elect)
2-4 Units
Special Topics in Game Design focuses on current
topics in the field of game design. Topics include
process, art, development, and marketing.
GRADUATE FIELD INTERNSHIP
(Elect)
3 Units
The Graduate Field Internship allows students to
undertake an internship in a field of study of their
own choosing.
GRADUATE TEACHING INTERNSHIP
(Elect)
3 Units
The Graduate teaching internship allows students
to undertake a teaching assignment under the
supervision of a faculty member of LCAD’s BFA
program in Game Art.
MFA DRAWING
PICTORIAL SPACE
(/)
3 Units
This course will examine concepts of pictorial
space that move beyond the single viewpoint of
one- and two-point perspective. Horizontal and
vertical panoramic formats integrating multiple
perspectives will be used as the setting for narrative
structures that interact with the space dynamically.
Experimentation with topographical and worm’s eye
views will also be included. Art Historical precedents
dating from the Renaissance to contemporary periods
will form the basis of a dialogue on the nature of the
perception and representation of space.
TIME: SEQUENCE, PROCESS AND NARRATIVE
(PA617)
3 Units
The depiction of time will be examined in a number
of ways both through single and serial imagery. The
notion of simultaneity within a single image will be
treated as a phenomenon of the creative process and
of narrative progression. Sequential imagery drawing
on conventions of comic books and graphic novels
will depict linear narratives and variations on single
themes. Depictions of time throughout Art History
will be cited and used as visual paradigms.
COLOR: COMPOSITION AND PSYCHOLOGY
(PA616)
3 Units
This course will explore the structural and thematic
aspects of color composition. Works will be created
based on color harmonies and contrasts, gestalt
groupings, chromatic light, dominant hue and
saturation contrasts. The class will investigate the
psychological and narrative potentials of these
combinations. Homework will use color composition
strategies to support narrative content. Readings
on the scientific and psychological bases of color
perception will be a part of the class.
APPROPRIATION
(PA614)
3 Units
This studio course will examine the various historical
and contemporary strategies of appropriation and
recontextualization of imagery. Beginning with the
borrowed styles and formats of the Baroque period
through the ironic anti-modernist gambits of Pop and
the selective reuse of visual mass media conventions
in contemporary art, the class will execute a series
of works experimenting with each approach. Goals
of the class will include the incorporation of coopted
imagery into a synthetic representational
artwork. Questions of originality and authorship
will be explored in class discussions and short
written assignments. Examples of the various types
of appropriation will be reviewed through slide
presentations.
SURREALISM
(PA618)
3 Units
The class will use the theoretical writings and major
artworks of the Surrealist movement as the basis
for a series of studio projects. The canonical texts
of psychology dealing with the unconscious will
also play a role in the assignments. Image-making
strategies that draw on the unconscious including
automatic drawing and the exquisite corpse will be
deployed. Additionally, Surrealist literary works will
be a source of subject matter.
POLITICAL NARRATIVE/IDENTITY
(PA619)
3 Units
Contemporary events and issues will be used as a
starting point for allegories dealing with political
subject matter. Historical and contemporary examples
of imagery that explores social content will serve
as paradigms for assignments. Varieties of cultural
perspective on particular events will be examined
and will be informed by texts that address strategies
of reading and issues of identity.
MYTHOLOGICAL/SYMBOLIC NARRATIVE
(PA620)
3 Units
This course will draw on classical literary sources to
create contemporary narrative works. Readings from
the Western and non-Western canon will form the
basis for each assignment. Readings from Structuralist
philosophy texts will supplement and inform the
strategies for placing the historical narrative into a
contemporary translation.
REQUIRED LIBERAL ARTS COURSES
THESIS PREPARATION
(LA621 / 622 / 633)
1 Units
These one-unit, specialized academic courses are
designed to help the student develop a substantial
academic Thesis that both describes and analyzes
the process involved in the creation of the MFA
studio work. This in-depth analysis will integrate
the student’s understanding of historical and
contemporary issues in art as they relate to themes
CATALOG
248