RTVFX Curriculum

	A	B	C	D	E
1	Title	Goal	Notes	Projects	School References

2	Fundamentals of Animation/RTVFX	Learn the fundamentals of Animation (Animation handbook, Elemental Magic 1 and 2. Form over function, What effects are and how they're used. Go over how games use effects. Go over weight, force, presence, volume, motion, Aesthetics, communication, staging and timing.			http://www.sva.edu/undergraduate/fine-arts/curriculum
3	Fundamentals of Color Theory and Grpahic Design	Learn the fundamentals of graphic design and color theory. Goal is to break down shapes and colors to use them to your advantage			http://www.sva.edu/graduate/mfa-computer-art/curriculum
4	History of Special Effects	Look back on special effects in film and games. You can't move forward if you don't know your history			http://gamecenter.nyu.edu/academics/
5	Concept and completion	Goal is to create effects concepts and learn how to create a plan. for building efects. This course would be used later when they start building effects. See Photoshop basics			http://www.ringling.edu/Game-Art
6	Figure gesture drawing	Learn how to trust your eye. Stop thinking just draw			http://www.ringling.edu/sites/default/files/Game%20Art%20Bachelor%20of%20Fine%20Arts.pdf
7	Basic Physics	Learn fundamentals of physics. Focuses on forces, tubulence, gravity, propulsion, and math			https://www.fullsail.edu/degrees/game-art-bachelor
8	3d animation	Workshop Apply what was learned in Fundamentals course. Form and function			https://www.scad.edu/academics/programs/interactive-design-and-game-development
9	Houdini/Maya/3DSMax basics	Depending on what your school decides to use, have a primer on how to use a third party package for creating meshes, test materals/shaders, fluid sims, and camera and render usage. I would suggest houdini, as it has most of the third party tools inside and would be good for any fx artist to learn, as it crosses into film and commercial work easily			https://www.unrealengine.com/education
10	Advanced Houdini/Maya/Max	Elective: Would look more at film based rendering Pyro, water sims, and 3rd party fx systems. ADvanced networks for building tools.
11	Photoshop Basics	Can be used in conjunction with the concept class, Would be basics of digital painting.
12	Advanced Photoshop	Direct vfx applications of photoshop for real time
13	3rd party VFX tools overview	Facedown FX. AFX tricks for real time
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15	Game Engine overview	Go over the fundamentals of the game engine, cover basic level building, lighting, skyboxes, level org. and cameras. Larger topic here.
16	Cascade/Niagra or whatever engine you plan to use 101	This would cover the basics of cascade.niagra, and building effects only. I'd go over the interface, materials, meshes, ribbons, trails, different sprite settings (GPU,CPU), dynamic parameters etc. When to use them and what cases to use them. Id cover best practices here. There's a lot to go over here
17	Advancd Cascade/Niagra	Expand Cascade Niagra into Blueprint and logic and have parameters, anims, and sequences
18	Materials/Shaders	Overview of basic materials for sprites and mesh emitters. Basics would cover additive, translucent, erosion, depth check, camera fade, and other basic gotchas to resolve sprite and mesh issues in game. GPU specifics would be covered here.
19	Advanced Materials/Shaders	More math based materals, and shortcuts for uncommon use cases. Students would learn vertex deformation, methods of creation and gotchas. Lit Mateirals and subsurface scattering covered here. Also would use materials to call on parameterization in BP and hooks back and forth from logic.
20	Advanced Materials/Shaders 2	Elective: would cover VR specific cases for material/shader use. Thinking larger mathy issues. Need more help on this one.
21	Bluerpint/game logic basics	Go over basics of blueprint and some of the direct needs for effects. Parameter hooks, timing, and construction for varied emitter types.
22	Advanced bluerpint/game logic	Bluetprint set for weapons, state changes, collision sets and calls.
23	Blueprint: weapon logic	Create a melee, bullet, projectile, aoe, energy, beam and explosive weapon. Might need to be a group project
24	Blueprint: Power Logic	Create a set of powers connected to animation states. Would need to have animations handy to make this work, might need to be a group project.
25	Blueprint: Collision and traversal logic	Create a character with walk, run, fly and collision states. (like landing, failures etc) Might need to be a group project
26	Game effects and animations	Learn to hook effects into animation states like sword swipes. Also learn fundamentals of cinematic effects and working with fixed cameras. Sequencer would be covered in this series.
27	Environmental Effects	Group project: students would set dress a scene. Emphasis on light weight emitters, meshes, shader tricks and perf.
28	Troubleshooting and performance.	Kinda says what it is. Learn how to troubleshoot issues with effects and learn how to squeeze as much perf as possible.
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30	Emphasis: Cartoon Style
31	Emphasis: Movie (High Frequency) Style
32	Emphasis: VR
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34	Physics: Destruction
35	Physics: Hair
36	Physics: Cloth
37	Physics: Volumes
38	Physics: Explosions
39	Physics: Fluid Interactions
40	Lighting basics
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42	Animation: Morph Targets
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44	VFX Workshop: Water
45	VFX Workshop: Fire
46	VFX Workshop: Explosion
47	VFX Workshop: Electrics
48	VFX Workshop: Powers and Magic
49	VFX Workshop: Smoke and Dust
50	VFX Workshop: Environmental Effects
51	VFX Workshop: Destruction
52	VFX Workshop: Interactions
53	VFX Workshop: Transitions and transformations
54	VFX Workshop: Dynamic Cinematics
55	VFX Workshop: Dynamic Gameplay
56	VFX Workshop: Attack and defend
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