Past Class Syllabi

Aug 28	Fall 2008: Arch 138/139X. Introduction and expectations for the coming semester. Class forms were filled out. The semester's agenda was addressed and questions asked and answered. Next week's assignment for a story board was distributed. DVDs were shown.
Sept 4	The class put up their storyboards and presented his/her work. When each student was finished there were comments from all those participating, pointing out various perceived meanings, making suggestions, etc.
Sept 11	There was a continuation of storyboards both 1st & 2nd week and advanced work. I gave a demo of 'VTC' online tutorials of Max, Maya and other assorted software to give an idea of the scope that was available for use.
Sept 18	Guest: Alan Tse 3:30-5 from Saitowitz Assoc. Architecture Alan showed us the work that he creates for the company. It is unbelievably complex. He has been with them for many years He gave an interesting talk to the class and had a discussion about the whys and wherefores of all of his highly detailed Architecture designs. Additionally he is also getting a master’s degree at UC Berkeley, Architecture, and he is a Graduate Student Instructor. Class showed their work.
Sept 25	Guest: Prof Jean Paul Bourdier 4:00-6:00 Architecture He showed us the images in his new book. They were extraordinary digital output. His talk gave us in detail the procedures he created and followed. Students showed their work and there was much enthusiasm about additional potentials they could follow.
Oct 2	Guest: Prof Cris Benton, Architecture Dept, KITES Charles C. Benton is a kite aerial photography (KAP) enthusiast and a professor of architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, who teaches building science. He sees his hobby as a natural extension of his job. Not only can he get a bird's perspective on how a building weathers, but he can exercise that part of the brain essential to practicing architecture: the imagination. "I watch the camera as it lofts into the air and try to frame what it sees," he says. "You form a hypothesis. When you get the image back, you can compare what you imagined with what it actually captured." Benton has been working with a microbiologist on a project called "Hidden Ecologies" that examines the salt ponds in the San Francisco Bay area, documenting change from 10 million meters high—the level of a satellite image—to microscopic levels of one-millionth of a meter. Benton's KAP images hover between 100 meters and one meter high, filling the gap between Google Earth and humans tethered to the ground. "As designers in the building world, we're trained to visualize relationships," Benton says. "This is a way of literally realizing that."
Oct 9	Guest: Ed Raymond Union Rep IASTE Local 16 Ed Raymond told us of the history of the unionization of the computer graphics business and which companies were unionized and which weren’t and the effect such a relationship is helpful to the member. Students showed work then Weibun Lee talked about applying for a job.
Oct 16	Guest: Prof Dennis Lieu, Mechanical Engineering Dr. Lieu came and discussed in great detail the solid modeling projects in which his students were involved. They were often astonishing in complexity. Students showed work.
Oct 23	Guest: Tim Fortenbury, ILM He has worked for some time for ILM. He brought a lot of info to the lecture 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. Midterm Work Shown 3:30-4:45.
Oct 30	Students showed work. As a class we looked at the ‘Oxford Project’ on the web, in a book and learned about Stephen Bloom the photographer, who talked about his work in a lecture given at a different time from the class. Guest: DES Architects, Weibun Lee Weibun, Architect and Class TA, gave us a detailed description of the work he does for DES Architects. He showed us many city, landscapes and building images, animated and still, explaining ‘how’ the details of these visual descriptions were done.
Nov 6	Guest: Stefan Gronsky PIXAR Stefan talked for some time about the procedures required to create the work produced by the company. He discussed Nemo, The Monsters, and The Incredibles pointing out the areas on which he worked. He showed us his personal film which continually develops between visits leaving us to look forward to its progress. Stefan then spent time talking to the students about their own work.
Nov 13	Guest: Motionwerx, Roger Nelson Roger has for some time been involved in Motion Capture. He travels all over the U S and Europe to become totally immersed in the newest technological matters pertaining to desirable motions. Students: Nelson made comments and helped with the students’ questions about how they might be able to use such equipment to enhance the reality of their own storylines.
Nov 20	Guest: Activision, Stephen Toh, Games He showed the class all of the pertinent matters in which he was involved. He showed his work and discussed in depth why he did each item the way that he did. He then said he wanted to stay past 5pm and see and would be glad to comment on the work the students had created.
Dec 4	Guest: Penny Dhaemers, UC Berkeley, Arch. Copyright is a topic about which there is a much misinformation and it is of great importance when one is planning to make any creative work for recompense. The details involved must be known. Questions like ‘Who did creation of the 2D visuals? the 3D visuals? The sound? Etc? Everyone needs to know the answers to these questions because all needs examination as to whether it should be copyrighted.
Dec 5	Guest: Dennis Martin from Digital Domain, Games Dennis Martin from Digital Domain in Los Angeles came to show us what Digital Domain does and how it differs from ‘non-game‘ work. He showed us what he did in creating games. It was entrancing to say the least. Then the students showed and talked about their work. Afterwards he took us out to the entrance of Wurster and photographed the class with a 360 degree lens. It was a remarkable image.
Dec 19	Final.