ACX-611W
Learn how to construct projects in Unreal Engine using freely available assets from Epic Games. In this seven-week course, you’ll engage in hands-on exercises that will culminate in the production of an individual short film based on your interest and industry (e.g. architectural visualization, automotive rendering, product design, animated short film). Weekly topics include fundamentals of shot and sequence development, working in the timeline, cameras, using motion capture for animation, materials, lighting and rendering. Prerequisite: experience using 3D software. Required: access to a computer; visit Unreal Engine’s website for hardware requirements.
ACX-631
Understanding the factors influencing consumer purchasing decisions is crucial, but delving into the intricate relationship between consumers and brands is essential. This course explores the emotional, mental, and behavioral responses that shape buying decisions, while also considering the psychological, social, cultural, personal, and economic influences at play. Engage in research projects, conduct interviews, and analyze individual, group, and mass behaviors. Leveraging these findings, you’ll learn how to harness consumer psychology and apply to brand positioning and messaging that resonates with your target audience. Apply your new knowledge to develop dynamic and relevant insights that serve as the foundation for the final deliverable, the “Brand Vision Document,” to capture key consumer insights and guide brand development strategies. An ideal course for those interested in graphic design, package design or product design. Prerequisite: Intro to Graphic Design or Intro to Package Design, or by permission of an ArtCenter advisor. Meets online.
ACX-466W
Is the Creative alive in you? Do you find yourself blocked? Join us for a 12-week journey through the text of The Artist's Way and unleash the creative process within you with the support and guidance of Dr. Kathleen Fitzgerald. Our inner artist needs support, attention and community, now more than ever. We will explore limiting beliefs and fears that get us stuck, find inspirational activities to unleash the creative process within us, and gain deeper awareness and insight to your own creative process. Dr. Kathleen Fitzgerald is a Psychoanalyst working with artists, designers and everyday creative people who is passionate about opening up inner pathways to potential and healing to discover the creative self, and the creative unconscious.
ACX-380
Sharpen your conceptual problem-solving abilities as you explore a variety of mediums and techniques—acrylic, watercolor, mixed media— used to illustrate ideas for magazines, newspapers and books. Projects will be editorial in nature; later projects can be self-directed to reflect individual interests or portfolio needs. Prerequisite: Some prior drawing experience required.
ACX-426
Learn different methods and approaches used to develop believable creatures and monsters for the entertainment industry. Working from photographic reference of animals and nature, you will learn how to combine the fundamentals of design, anatomy, form, storytelling and character development to create original sketches and renderings of beastly quadrupeds, bloodthirsty bipeds, and large-scale leviathans. With a focus on introductory level 2D drawing skills, this is an ideal class for aspiring concept designers, illustrators, animators or students considering the undergraduate Entertainment Design program at ArtCenter. Students who wish to work in digital formats will need to provide their own equipment and software. Prerequisites: Intro to Figure Drawing, or by permission of an ArtCenter advisor.
Work by Brian Larson
Instructor: Scot Moss
In the ACX course Essential Typography, taught by ArtCenter alum Scot Moss (BFA 89 Graphic Design), students learn to use typography with greater confidence to communicate and reinforce the content of their work.
“Essential Typography is, well, essential, as it provides the history, the why, the tools, the vocabulary and the structures to succeed,” says Moss, whose experience includes more than two decades as a graphic designer at Walt Disney Imagineering. “I promise, taking this course, that you will never look at typography the same again!”
With a strong emphasis on the typographical grid, the course is a vital foundation for editorial design and multipage layout, says Moss.
Students learn about the details of typographic form, paragraph format, page layout dynamics, type characteristics and nomenclature, and the expressive potential of type.
Aspiring designers and working professionals get the opportunity to boost their typography skills and build a portfolio for professional development or to apply to ArtCenter’s degree programs.
“Because typography has diverse applicability across creative disciplines, I get students from not just graphic design, but also from fashion, illustration, user experience (UX), cartography and creative direction,” Moss says. “With that range, I tailor the class to each of their needs.”
Experimentation and discovery lead to students thinking about typography in their future.
“I push students to try things they would never think about,” says Moss. “As I tell them, I can’t teach you everything in a 14-week class, but I can teach you that when you see bad typography, you will have a driving urge to fix it!”
For examples of student work, visit the gallery.
Spring 2024 registration period
11.30Scholarship deadline
12.23 -01.01Winter Break - Campus closed
01.15Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday - Campus closed
01.16Spring classes begin; Late registration and drop period begins
01.19Last day to add a class
03.01Last day to drop a class
04.01Summer registration begins
04.20Spring classes end