If you play games, chances are you've thought about creating them yourself. So come in and create a game from scratch using industry-standard tools and see if you like it! There are careers in art, programming, design, and business in the video game industry, which is bigger than the music, sports, or movie industry and is currently seeing huge growth in sales as entertainment focuses on esports and home entertainment.

By the end of this course, you will have created a virtual reality game as a portfolio piece for your future college applications and get feedback on your search. If you have a portfolio already, awesome! if you're just getting started and are thinking "OMG where do I even start?," that's ok, we can help get you on the right track. Whether it's finding opportunities at video game companies that are looking for play-testers or making a series of game prototypes, let's figure it out together!

In this course, students will be able to:

• Produce a video game prototype
• Analyze a video game and understand terminology applied in the gaming world
• Explain a list of general functions and elements which make up a video game
• Achieve familiarity with the principles, terminology, procedures, and practices of game design and production
• Provide peer assessments and constructive feedback to fellow students
• Design the game mechanics for a video game
• Design and map level progression for a video game

• Did you know that Flappy Bird was made in a couple of days? There are games that are beautiful, games that are fun, and games that make you want to scream. Our job is to enable you to develop your own "Work of Game" and focus on something you would want to play yourself.
• The game industry is huge! We find out what companies and career paths exist in the industry by investigating portfolios from developers of Halo, Assassins Creed, and Call of Duty. We also take a look at portfolios from students graduating with a 4-year degree, so that you can find a benchmark for "what you'll need to be able to learn"
• You can't make something if you don't understand it! Part of a Game Designer's job is to examine games critically, so we will play some short web games and analyze their content.

Combining design, technology and the ever-expanding media, our Digital Animation and Motion Graphic course gives students the opportunity to dive into the complex world behind multimedia productions. This class aims to provide students with the conceptual and practical tools for understanding and creating the diverse range of time-based media that have come to be known as motion graphics and digital animation. Throughout the course, students will create visual effects and animated graphics for television, film, web, and other types of multimedia productions using:

• Adobe After Effects
• Adobe Illustrator
• Adobe Photoshop
• Adobe Premiere Pro

By the end of this course, the student will:

• Have an understanding of commercial motion graphics and animation production and film process
• Strengthen current industry technique including Adobe softwares
• Be able to create basic motion graphics and animations based on stories and infographics

• Participate in class discussions and critiques
• Apply techniques covered in class in the completion of technical exercises
• Develop and complete Assignments and final project
• Document creative planning, process, and completed work

In this course, students will gain an understanding of the “tricks of the trade,” storyboard development and character development. The class will also dig into contemporary topics such as collaborative storytelling and navigating multiple animation techniques within a single production. This will offer insight to the process used by professional studio animators.

The goal of this course is to empower students to make animations and then transfer that skill set to make their own animations own using limited materials and technology. Students learn how to make animations on their smart phones using different applications. This content can easily translate to portfolio materials for college applications. This is a great class for students who are curious about studying art, illustration or animation at the college level. No previous animation experience is required!

• Learn fundamentals of animation
• Learn storyboard and character development
• Experience "world building"
• Create material for college application portfolio
• Feel what it is like to take a college art class
• Develop the ability to create animations with limited materials and technology
• Leave with a framed piece of art work