Course Introduction
CSIS 5835:
Graphics and Animation for Gaming
Game Development Workflow
3D animation
software
(Blender, etc.)
Create game
characters
Import
Game engine
software
(Unity, etc.)
Implement
game rules
Character Development
• Building mesh
– Vertices, edges, faces in 3D
• Adding surface textures
– Colors, patterns, images projected on mesh
• Rigging skeleton to mesh
– Skeleton mapped to corresponding points on mesh
• Keyframe animation
– Basic cycles for main actions (running, jumping, throwing, etc.)
– Location of points/skeleton at points in time, automatic
interpolation of locations at other times
Game Engine
• Creating world in which game is played
– Terrain
– Lighting
– Cameras…
• Writing scripts for game
– Implement rules of game
– Control actions of characters in games
– First person/Third person games
Underlying Math/Physics
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3D projection and transformations
Smoothing algorithms
Projecting 2D images to 3D objects
Physics of lighting/shadows
Inverse kinematics
Game physics
• Tradeoffs between accuracy and speed
Underlying Psychology
• Overall character design
– Proportions, role in game, etc.
• Realistic motion
– Running, walking, etc.
• Other cues
– Speech, pose, expression, etc.
• Basic cinematography concepts
– Lighting
– Camera angles/motion
Software Tools
• Blender
– Public domain 3D Graphics/animation package
– www.blender.org
• Unity
– Popular game engine (free version available)
– Scripting in C#/JavaScript
– www.unity3d.com
Limits of Course
• Will not be able to create realistic “human” character
in this course
– Takes work an skill learned from years of practice
– Often takes team of animators weeks to create a few
seconds of animation
• Goals of course:
– Understanding of major steps of animation
– Understanding of underlying principles
– Practice with animation tools
– Practice with game engine scripting
Assignments
• Simple projects (learning Blender):
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Meshes for simple character
Adding textures/images to character/level
Rigging skeleton to character mesh and creating animation
Using characters in very simple first-person game
Using animated character in simple third-person game
• Final project :
– Creating simple game of own design in Unity
– Creating characters of own design in Blender for use in game
• Graduate student requirement: Short presentation on underlying
math/physics of some animation concept