Past Class Syllabi

Aug 30	Fall 2007: Arch 138/139X. The class was an introduction and detailed explanation and expectation of the coming semester. Forms were filled out. The semester’s agenda was addressed with questions asked and answered. The major assignment was given out with all aspects covered. The Electronic Theater held annually at the SIGGRAPH Convention was discussed and the work chosen competitively which represented the best animations from the US and abroad from the year 2005 was shown.
Sept 6	There was Storyboard Discussion, more on SIGGRAPH and the individual Electronic Theaters. The class pinned up their storyboards and each student presented his/her work. Then everyone was called upon to comment, pointing out various perceived meanings, making suggestions, etc. Highly interesting.
Sept 13	A continuation of last week and further discussion of animation principles and storyboards.
Sept 20	Guest: Dennis Lieu ME Professor. Dr. Lieu came and discussed in great detail the solid modeling projects in which his students were involved. They were often astonishing in complexity. We then saw the Electronic Theater from 2007 and ‘Dreamworks Animations’.
Sept 27	Guest: Alan Tse, of Saitowitz Assoc. and new graduate student this year. He showed us what he spends his time on for the company. He has worked for them for many yeas. He showed us the beauty and amazing detail he creates. His work is unbelievably complex.
Oct 4	Guest: Tim Fortenbury, ILM. He has worked for some time for ILM. He brought a lot of info on the making of the ‘Transformers’, which explained many of the principles originated and used by ILM in their pieces. We all felt it was fantastic.
Oct 11	Guest: John Vegher, Director of Giant Killer Robots. He gathered us around a table and showed us printed images pointing out in great detail about what they went through to achieve their results. He let us know about the closing down of their company.
Oct 18	Guest: Cris Benton, Professor of Architecture. This semester he is on Sabbatical and it was very kind of him to come and talk to us about all of the work and landscapes in the Bay Area he takes his students to examine and photograph.
Oct 25	Midterm: Discussion of all the work on which the class had been working.
Nov 1	Guest: Waibun Lee, Des Architects. Waibun gave us details on how the Architecture business at his office was conducted. He explained how the designs were proposed and completed and how they interacted with each other. Penny Dhaemers, Professor ER showed previously created class animations which elucidated the differences and similarities of the various years.
Nov 8	Individual appointments in the classroom with Penny Dhaemers, Prof ER and Waibun Lee, TA for the duration of the class.
Nov 9	Field Trip: to Electronic Arts in Redwood City. Games. We were given an elaborate 2 hour tour and had a conductor, Julie Wynn, and two speakers who spoke of the procedures on how they ran their game business. The tour included looking over the grounds. It’s quite superb.
Nov 15	Midterm: Continued presentation and discussion of all of the work the students had been doing.
Nov 20	Guest: Glenn Cotter, from Matte World, also teaching at Academy of Art, SF. He told us about the original development of the 2D images laid on top of each other and transferred into 3D illusion from early on. Showed Electronic Theater 2006
Nov 29	Guest: Ed Raymond, ‘IATSE’ told us of the history of the unionization of the computer graphics business and which companies were unionized and which weren’t.
Dec 6	Guest: Daniel Ebuehi. Daniel Ebuehi had been a student in Architecture and I hired him to TA my class which he did for more than one semester. When speaking to us, he told us about being hired by Interactive Resources to lead two employees to do special jobs. Guest: Professor of Architecture Jean-Paul Bourdier. Professor Bourdier gathered the class around a large table to examine many images that he and his students went around the Bay to creatively photograph. Great.
Dec 20	Final with jury members Waibun Lee, Daniel Ebuehi, and Alan Tse.