SUMMARY
The Department of Visual and Media Arts
(VMA) at Emerson College has had at its disposal a computer lab, the
Three-Dimensional Lab (3DL), which has supported computer animation courses for
the New Media track. The lab’s use started out prior to actual curriculum
support and has progressed to being the sole place for doing digital modeling
and animation on campus. A re-evaluation of the lab’s function and place
in the department is warranted, as the current interpretation of where 3-D
animation fits with the New Media curriculum has evolved. Consider the
question, is it important to link the theory and practice of interaction design
with the “place,” or the environment where it is created,
investigated, or even implemented?
BACKGROUND HISTORY
The 3DL began as a prototype incubator facility created by Academic Computing for curriculum development. Initial use of the facility began the fall of 1997, with the use of three graphics workstations (SGI) operating under a dedicated local area network. Projects were encouraged through Academic Computing (AC) Advanced Projects program, requiring individual students to submit proposals for work. A dedicated network manager developed initial standards for the server system and software management. The first official use of the 3DL for coursework occurred in the spring of 1999.
TODAY
Hardware: Today the 3DL supports the entire computer animation curriculum (undergraduate and graduate) of typically two to three courses per semester. The standing courses are an undergraduate two-semester sequence - Computer Animation I and II (MA318 and MA418), and a graduate course Topics in Computer Animation (MA604). The 3DL has 11 SGI workstations configured to run the two industry leading animation packages: Alias|Wavefront’s Maya and Avid’s Softimage XSI. Two Windows NT workstations dedicated to Maya were added in fall 2001. A full-time network manager provided by AC maintains the server, workstation network, software, and works closely with the instructor to support the course requirements. AC has also worked with the instructor to improve the physical layout and support infrastructure.
The 3DL stands alone when compared to the current Visual and Media Arts (VMA) and Television, Radio, and Film (TRF) production studios, i.e., the hardware and software resources are Unix-based graphics workstations and the lab has its own dedicated server network. The current system supports output of software-generated image renders for stills and animations in a wide variety of industry standard still and movie formats. As of spring 2001, the 3DL now has the means to transfer data via campus Ethernet to post-production compositing systems in the Digital Production Lab (DPL).
An attempt has been made to locate a DPL provided “brick” – 18GB hard disk – for media transfer, but that system is currently not operable. Removable media (ORB disk) and FireWire connectivity are available and stable at the moment. Ultimately, the success of the 3DL as an integral facility in VMA is directly dependent on a fully functional input/output connection of the production and post-production environments. Ideally the connectivity should be accomplished via reliable removable media devices, Ethernet linkage between labs, or putting the post-production resources on the local 3DL network.
Software: Students often ask what software platform is the best, or what software is taught? Alias|Maya is currently the darling of the 3-D community and is what is taught at Emerson. Whereas Softimage, in its newest release (XSI) is a complete makeover and is subject to classic ‘first version’ quirks, it still is an excellent tool as well. There is no doubt that Softimage’s short-term handicap will be overcome and it will remain a serious competitor and industry standard. The relevance really comes down to whether both systems should continued to be supported, and how does the curriculum incorporate both – that debate is still open. For what it’s worth, most schools do continue to support both software tools. A valuable exercise would be to research how other programs differentiate and/or foster courses that take advantage of both software environments.
TOMORROW
General student interest in the animation curriculum, and the number of students taking animation courses, is growing rapidly and in big leaps. The program has grown from a one course per semester (beginning year 1998-2000 taught by adjunct faculty) to a 2/2 course load in 2000-2001 (taught by a full-time visiting artist) and is now a 3/2 course load for year 2001-2002. All undergraduate courses are generally oversubscribed, while the graduate course tends to be full when offered in fall, but under-subscribed when offered in the spring. The second level course varies considerably and seems to be more dependent than the others on general timing of student’s required courses and their expected graduation. Continuous monitoring of enrollments and evaluation of sequencing with New Media major’s requirements should continue.
Hardware/Software: The 3DL has 13 workstations on-line: an ideal near-term improvement would be 20 workstations to both support a recommended class maximum of 15-16 students and to provide at least 5 workstations configured with non-linear compositing software and peripherals. Platform specific (i.e., Mac G4s running OS X, 512MB RAM, 20GB storage) software like Bryce5, Poser4, Photoshop 6, and Director 8.5 are becoming a crucial component of the curriculum and will need support in the 3DL. This would allow concurrent work in both phases of the animation process (production and post-production) and insure that every student has access to a workstation during class lectures and worksessions.
The crucial infrastructure issue for the 3DL becomes one of determining a strategy for supporting an all NT lab, an all Linux lab, an all lab Mac, or a hybrid lab. This debate on infrastructure will help resolve related software, network, and peripheral hardware support concerns. An all-Mac lab would be consistent with the other VMA digital production facilities. It should be noted that Alias has ported Maya to the Mac OS X operating system as of fall 2001. Expect at least a year of development to iron-out bugs and associated support, which coincides nicely with the funding cycle.
Finally, there is a need for low-level hardware support of course content. The coursework requires the creation of images for use as textures and environment maps, which would be more efficiently implemented if the 3DL had one or two high-quality (1200 dpi) scanners. Additionally, there is no convenient way to print output (rough stills, wireframe images, etc.) for quick review and critique. A workhorse B&W laser printer able to print to a maximum 11x17 format at 600 dpi would be ideal. Finally, color prints are a preferred format for archival records and presentation portfolios. At least one production studio having a high-quality color output device with archival inks and media is recommended.
Down the Road: Long-term curriculum development includes a generalized administrative interest to support work in 3-D game design and direct integration into the New Media Production II or III classes. However, a careful examination of what specific curriculum elements are relevant in the larger VMA context hasn’t been decided. For example, a game curriculum is largely dependent on software programming, which does not currently exist at Emerson. Perhaps focusing on story structure and visual prototyping using the tools, labs, and courses already in place will be most beneficial [cf., MA418, Spring 2001 final project – Erik Young, Kelley Hoover; Graduate Directed Study project, Spring 2001 – Daniel Levine]. However, these are only low-level considerations for change in the 3DL structure.
The most significant change in the 3DL would be derived from a re-evaluation of how the general New Media production process occurs. From my perspective as an architect, who has been trained in a traditional design studio process, I prefer the physical model of a hybrid studio-lab where students can figuratively get their feet wet and their hands dirty. The process of design includes many media and therefore requires an environment where the display, manipulation, construction, and investigation of those media are supported technologically and programmatically.
CONCLUSION
Animation is a broad topic with a vibrant history. Digital animation effects and feature length films are now well established in entertainment (movies, video games, large-scale theme park rides, IMAX productions) and TV advertising. Interactive and broadcast digital animation occupies the niche of specialty CD-ROMs (education, museum, corporate), presentation and analysis by architects, lawyers, physicians, and engineers, and increasingly, as a media form in-the-making for internet content. For example, an important group of software developers, including Alias|Wavefront, have been developing plug-ins for vector translation of 3-D animations into Shockwave and Flash. Finally, the production of succinct, high-quality images relies heavily on compositing, which is a necessary task to integrate creative output successfully into all these disciplines. Since each has their preferred delivery media, whether it is film, video, IMAX, real-time game engines, CD-ROM, 3DJava, VRML, Flash, Shockwave, or QuickTimeVR, a robust post-production process is crucial to the follow-through of concept.
If the department is to support interaction design in New Media, might that require a place where the very nature of how the interfaces are made or the form in which they are contained is investigated? Yes, and the 3DL is where that can happen. Ultimately, the 3DL, as a production facility and as a creative studio, will be only as effective a resource as the curriculum context by which it operates. The ideas that inform the debate as to what the essential nature of 3-D in “new media” and “digital culture” might be, and the implementation of that dialogue in a coherent, dynamic manner will be the real face of the 3DL. The animation curriculum at Emerson College is evolving from a software-intensive to a topic-intensive experience, wherein the use of 3-D tools informs the creative thinking and visualization of interactive ideas, narrative or experimental forms, and interpretations of metaphorical space. The consensus within VMA has not been established, and will most likely take form under the guidance of full-time assistant professor. In the meantime, it might be useful to consider a set of boundaries for the impending discussion. The following diagram reflects how four topic areas relate to the realm defined by pure theory, pure skills, and pure practice. I believe the growth and maturation of the 3-D curriculum will entail taking a stance within the overall realm by defining the relative weight, or importance, of the topics to each other and between the poles defined by theory, practice, and skill.
How it expresses itself will be dependent on the tools and lab resources available, but perhaps more importantly, will be dependent on how students are able to translate their ideas into tangible forms in a creative, technologically sophisticated studio.