Welcome to your Games Art course

Hello there, and welcome! We’re excited to meet you on our Games Art course that you’re soon set to start at University of Staffordshire. Let’s cover some information that you’ll find useful before starting your adventure with us. 

Course delivery

In Games Art, the academic year is comprised of three blocks of learning. Each block is nine weeks long. You can expect to be scheduled for 12 hours of contact throughout the week. This is usually timetabled over three days.

You will study two modules at the same time. With each module being timetabled six hours of contact per-module-per-week. You will study six modules per year.

You will be taught through a combination of lectures, seminars, workshops, and development practical. Seminars enable you to discuss and develop your understanding of topics covered in lectures in smaller groups of around 15-40 students. In addition, you will have timetabled meetings with your personal tutor at least twice a year. You will be taught in first-class learning spaces throughout your course. Many of our courses are accredited or recognised by professional, statutory, or regulatory bodies.

Your course will provide you with opportunities to engage with formative modules and engagement activities to help us to gauge your understanding of your subject informally before you complete the formal assessments.

There is a formal or ‘summative’ assessment at the end of each module. This includes a range of coursework assessments, practical portfolio work, development logbooks, written reports, presentations, and independent supervised projects. The grades from formal assessments count towards your module mark, and ultimately to your degree classification.

You’ll often be given independent learning tasks (homework) that are designed to consolidate your learning and give you opportunities to complete tutorials or practice what you’ve learnt from your scheduled sessions. This is what we refer to as self-managed study time. Assignments are broken up into milestones throughout the semesters.

Semester one activities

3D Asset Development - This module provides students with a grounding of 3D Modelling. Students will learn about the fundamentals of low poly textured 3D games modelling and assets development for Game Art and Concept Art workflows.

Visual Studies for Games - This module provides games art students with an introduction to art theory and fundamentals. The module focusses on 2D skills development with an exploration of composition, colour and lighting and art and design theory supported with observational, perspective, & life drawing.

3D Game Props - Pipeline and Production - A module that trains your ability to art direct by breaking down films, games, and shows, and then linking that back into your own project work. You’ll also explore level design, environmental storytelling and set dressing in Unreal Engine

Principles of Textures and Materials - Expands your visual communication skills - developing your artistic good eye. You'll be drawing from life, perspective, and environments whilst getting to grips with sketching, light and shadow, tone, foreshortening, anatomy and proportion. This culminates in a concept art and self-portrait study.

Digital Sculpting and Stylized Assets - From The Legend of Zelda to Fortnite the world of stylised game art is vast, but what exactly is stylised game art? In this module you will not only find that out but be introduced to industry level digital sculpting and asset creation techniques. By the end of this module, you will be modelling stylised game ready models ready for today’s PC and console games.

Level Art and Visual Storytelling - This module aims to build your knowledge and skills in visual storytelling. The module looks at the fundamentals of level design, architecture and spatial design to communicate with the player. The module will explore Mise-en-scène, set dressing, composition, & environmental storytelling to portray setting, location and theme.

Pre-learning

The Spellbook

Follow along with one of our course team tutorials on creating a stylised Spellbook in 3DS Max.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLArQQs5eT0PYw0l0z3c-EoeIBvrxEy0BR

Autodesk 3ds Max Learning Channel

Visit Autodesk’s 3ds Max Learning Channel and watch videos regarding polygon modelling and introductory techniques.

https://www.youtube.com/user/3dsMaxHowTos/videos

Getting Started with 3ds Max

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnKw1txyYzRkDT7ZH-2Mzd4hwZ_zjY_jt

Download and Install Unreal Engine 5

https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/download

Getting started in Unreal Engine

Visit KitBash3D’s Getting Started in Unreal Engine 5 and have a play with worldbuilding by creating some quick environment art.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cr9cCYO23JU

You might find it worth having a look at the following learning channels:

Flipped Normals

https://www.youtube.com/user/FlippedNormalsTuts

Cubebrush

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn2fjfkRnUHlt1tSi60g5oQ

Arrimus 3D

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSLLdTBwLMfTKWS56tOiQpw

If you’re on Twitter you might like to follow us there

https://twitter.com/StaffsGamesDev

Watching, reading and playing

Below you will find a list of essential films, ranging in style, genre, and subject matter, some of which are available to watch in full on our Library collection or on YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime or other streaming platforms.

Take this opportunity to broaden your horizons, gain a different perspective, open your mind and be inspired.

Alien (1979)
Terminator 2 (1991)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Spirited Away (2001)
Taxi Driver (1976)
Dredd (2012)
Arrival (2016)
High Fidelity (2000)
Fargo (1996)
Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
They Live (1988)
Natural Born Killers (1994)
The Wrestler (2008)
The Green Mile (1999)
Trainspotting (1996)
Sin City (2005)
Tron (1982)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Jaws (1975)
The Fountain (2006)
Heat (1995)
The Warriors (1979)
Robocop (1987)
The Princess Bride (1987)
Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
Being John Malkovich (1999)
Battle Royale (2000)
Interstellar (2014)
Lost in Translation (2003)
Moon (2009)
Juno (2007)
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
The Lord of the Rings - Extended Edition Trilogy (2001-3)
Watchmen - Directors Cut (2009)
Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
The Boys (2019)
The Mandalorian (2019)
Stranger Things (2016)
Tales from the Loop (2020)
Arcane (2021)

Books for you to lose yourself in:

Ready Player One - Ernest Cline
Gateway - Frederik Pohl
American Psycho - Brett Easton-Ellis
Mort - Terry Pratchett
The Sisters Brothers - Patrick deWitt
Geek Love - Katherine Dunn
The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers - Grant Naylor
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson

Equipment and software

You can download wide range of software from the University free of charge once you have enrolled.

We’ll be using the following software on all our awards. Much of the software you’ll be using is free or heavily discounted to students with a valid University e-mail address. The key software is listed below with free alternatives suggested at the bottom:

Autodesk Suite (Including: 3ds Max, Maya, Motionbuilder)

https://www.autodesk.com/education/home

Adobe Photoshop, Premiere & After Effects

 https://www.adobe.com/uk/creativecloud/plans.html?plan=edu&promoid=KTROQ

Microsoft Office

 https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/education/products/office

Unreal Engine 4 & 5

https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/download

Pixologic ZBrush 

https://pixologic.com/zbrush/downloadcenter/

Substance Painter

 https://www.substance3d.com/buy/education

Substance Designer

https://www.substance3d.com/buy/education

3D Coat 

https://3dcoat.com/download/

Free alternatives or practice software:

Krita

https://krita.org/en/

ZBrush Core Mini

https://https://zbrushcore.com/mini/

The above packages are available in our labs, but if you wish to have access to them on your own PC the recommended specification is below. 

Suggested Hardware Specifications

Minimum 8GB RAM, recommended 32 GB RAM

Minimum i7-4790k5 Intel CPU, recommended i7-8700k Intel CPU

Minimum NVidia nVidia GTX 1060, / 2080 recommend RTX2080 for Ray- Tracing projects

Minimum 1 TB HDD, recommended 512TB SSD with 1TB HDD

Recommended Graphics Tablets

As a BA(Hons) Games Art student most of your modules will involve the use of a graphics tablet. We support the Wacom lntous and Pen and TouchI ntuos and Intuos Pro tablets in our games development labs. We have numerous labs with these set up ready for you to use and tutors will bring pens for you to use with your classes.

Wacom Intuos Pro Medium tablets and pens are also bookable through SISO, the website of the Henrion Media Stores free of charge.

https://staffsorb.siso.co/henrion_media_centre

You may find it more convenient to purchase your own Pen to use on these tablets.

https://estore.wacom.com/en-GB/wacom-pro-pen-2-with-pen-case-kp504e.html

It is suggested that you purchase at the very least a Wacom Intuos Small if you do not already have a tablet device.

https://estore.wacom.com/en-GB/wacom-intuos-small-black-ctl-4100k-s.html

Many students also use iPads or other brands of tablets as part of their development process.

Trips and activities

The Games Art course includes several modules where you’ll be expected to draw, model, sketch, plan, concept and paint textures. To get you started, we’ll be assigning a drawing/modelling challenge for you to explore your creativity and artistic freedom.

We like to organise trips to museums and galleries to get your creativity flowing! Keep your ears open for opportunities throughout the year.

Our BA (Hons) Games Art students' trip to New York

Social Groups

The student's union has a lot of groups that you, as a games and visual effects student may be interested in:

Pokémon Society London - https://www.staffsunion.com/activities/society/pokemonsocietylondon/

Press Start Society - https://www.staffsunion.com/activities/society/pressstartsoc/

Rhythm Revolution Society - https://www.staffsunion.com/activities/society/rhythmrevolution/

Robotics Society – coming soon!

Rolling Bones Society - https://www.staffsunion.com/activities/society/rollingbones/

Silver Screen Society - https://www.staffsunion.com/activities/society/silverscreensoc/

What to expect on Welcome Week

We're so excited for you to join us on campus and to welcome you to where you matter. During your welcome week you'll be able to meet our friendly student services teams, connect with new friends, join societies, explore on-campus venues attend club nights and much more.