Basic Animation – Visual Effects for Film Syllabus

Dallas College Richland Campus

Contacting Your Instructor

Instructors typically respond to emails from students with 24 hours. However, over the
weekend and holiday periods responses may be delayed. Find out more about
contacting your instructor.

Instructor Contact Information

Name: Christopher Rasch
Email: [email protected]
Office Phone: 972-238-6258
Office Location: T246C
Office Hours: TBA
ACCESS Center and Phone for Adjunct Faculty: Alamito Hall, A-110 (Temporally
Located in C-110), 972-238-6140 

Division Office and Phone: School of Creative Arts, Entertainment and Design, 972-
860-8121

Course Information
Course Title: Basic Animation – Visual Effects for Film
Course Number: ARTV-1303
Section Number: 82400
Semester/Year: Spring 2021

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Credit Hours: 3
Class Meeting Time/Location: Course will meet online on eCampus.
[https://ecampus.dcccd.edu/]
Certification Date: Monday, January 19, 2021
Last Day to Withdraw: Thursday, April 15, 2021

Academic Calendar
2021 Spring Academic Calendar for Online Courses Meeting These Dates:
Tuesday January 19, 2021 – Thursday, May 13, 2021

CALENDAR DATE CALENDAR DATE DESCRIPTION

January 18 (Monday) Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day - Holiday
January 19 (Tuesday) Classes Begin
12th Class Day / Census Day
February 1 (Monday) Last day to drop a course without receiving a "W" grade on
transcript.
Professional Development Days
February 25-26
Thursday and Friday day classes will not meet. Friday
(Thursday and Friday)
evening, Saturday and Sunday classes will meet.
March 15-21 Spring Break
(Monday - Sunday) Campus buildings and offices will be closed for the week.
April 2 (Friday) Spring Holiday
April 15 (Thursday) Last Day to Withdraw with a grade of "W".
May 10 - 13
Final Exams
(Monday - Thursday)
May 13 (Thursday) Semester Ends

Course Prerequisites
Suggested prerequisite: IMED 1301: Introduction to New Media

Official WECM Course Description (cannot be altered in any way)

Examination of animation concepts, principles, and storyboard for basic production.
Emphasizes creating movement and expression utilizing traditionally or digitally
generated image sequences.

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Official WECM End-of-Course Outcomes (cannot be altered in any way)
Demonstrate animation principles; communicate conceptual ideas through storyboards;
execute animation sequences; and develop artwork using traditional or digital tools.

Official SCANS Skills

The Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) was appointed by
the Secretary of Labor to determine the skills people need to succeed in the world of
work. Richland College is determined to prepare you with the knowledge and skills you
need to succeed in today’s dynamic work environment. Towards this goal, these
workplace competencies and foundation skills have been designed into the curriculum
for this course:
● Creative Thinking - generates new ideas
● Decision Making - specifies goals and constraints, generates alternatives, considers
risks, and evaluates and chooses best alternative
● Visualize (Seeing Things in the Mind's Eye) - organizes, and processes symbols,
pictures, graphs, objects, and other information
● Reasoning -discover a rule or principle underlying the relationship between two or
more objects and apply it when solving a problem
● Applies Technology to Task - understands overall intent and proper procedures for
setup and operation of equipment

Required Course Materials

If your Dallas College course requires learning materials they will be provided as part of
the IncludED program (see dcccd.edu/included) or as free materials you can access in
your online course shell.

If you opt out of the IncludED program, you are responsible for obtaining all your
required learning materials by the first day of the class (for more details:
Institutional Policies).

No Textbook Required:
Teacher will provide all course materials and videos.

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 NOTE: A student of this institution is not under any obligation to purchase
a textbook from a university-affiliated bookstore. The same textbook may
also be available from an independent retailer, including an online retailer.

Supplies:
Required Supplies for all Courses: headphones and some kind of external
storage: jump drives, external hard drives, blank CD-Rs/DVDs or cloud storage
like Dropbox.

Software:

SideFX Houdini Apprentice Version

File Storage and Backup:

You will need some means of storing and backing up the digital files for your
assignments. Multiple locations for storage and backup are always preferable to
only one storage location. You should consider using several of these types of
storage:
● A local directory on your home or laptop computer, if you have a
computer.
● A portable electronic storage device such as a USB jump drive or a
portable hard drive.
● An online storage service such as Dropbox.
● An online backup service such as iDrive.com.

NOTE: A Chromebook, tablet, smartphone or Linux computer may not be

suitable for some activities in this course. Please ensure you have access
to a desktop or laptop device and Windows or OS X operating system.

Graded Work
The tables below provide a summary of the graded work in this course and an
explanation of how your final course grade will be calculated.

Summary of Graded Work

Assignments Points Totals

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 Section Quizzes 10 @ 4 points each 40 points
Assignments 6 @ 5 points each 30 points
Midterm Project 1 @ 15 points 15 points
Final Project 1 @ 15 points 15 points

TOTAL: 100 points

Final Grade
Points Percentages Letter Grade
90-100 90-100% A
80-89 80-89% B
70-79 70-79% C
60-69 60-69% D
0-59 0-59% F

Description of Graded Work

Quizzes: Quizzes will be given each week at the beginning of the week unless noted by
the instructor. These quizzes will cover the topics covered from the week(s) before.

Assignments: Assignments will be project based and cover the content we go over
during that current week.

Midterm Project: The midterm project will be a project that covers all the material up
until this point.

Final Project: The final project will be a project that covers topics from mostly the
second half of the course, but could include topics from earlier in the semester.

Attendance and Your Final Grade

Attendance will be counted through the section quizzes that we will have each week!
Please make sure you complete each quiz! If you cannot complete the quiz during that
week, please notify the instructor via email and the instructor will determine if the
absence qualifies as an excused absence.

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Late Work Policy
Late work will NOT be accepted! Please make sure you get your assignments in on
time!

Institutional Policies
Institutional Policies include information about tutoring, Disabilities Services, class drop
and repeat options, Title IX, and more.

Class Policies
Attendance Policy:
In order to be successful, students must attend and participate in enrolled
courses.

While Richland does not have a formal attendance policy, students are expected
to attend class regularly. If you know you will be missing classes this semester,
please speak to your instructor about days you will be missing so you can
receive information on the missed lessons and assignments.

If you are unable to attend class, please email the instructor or leave a message
for the instructor at the ACCESS Office at (972) 238-6140 BEFORE THE CLASS
BEGINS. 

It is imperative students login to class on time and remain in class the entire
session each week.

Handheld Devices Policy:

Please turn OFF all electronic devices during class.

Participation Policy:
Course participation is required. Ask questions and be involved with the lesson.

Students should not surf the Net, play games, send emails or work on unrelated
homework/projects during class. Students should not disturb their classmates
during lectures and demos.

Attention Continuing Education Students:

To receive a certificate for this course, you must make a grade of "C" or higher
as a final grade. A grade average of 69% or lower is failing.

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 Contact the Continuing Education Office at the end of the semester to find out
how to receive your certificate of completion.

The Continuing Education Office is located in Thunderduck Hall: T160, 469-666-

7509, [email protected].

Course Schedule
Week Topic Lectures & Reading
1 Course Intro & Houdini UI Online Lectures 1 – 4 w/ Online Reading
Material
2 Parameters, Channels, Online Lectures 5 – 8 w/ Online Reading
and Attributes Material
3&4 Working w/ Geometry Online Lectures 9 – 15 w/ Online Reading
Material
5 Terrain and Noise Online Lectures 16 – 19 w/ Online Reading
Material
6 Time and Motion Online Lectures 20 – 22 w/ Online Reading
Material
7 Lighting, Shading, and Online Lectures 23 – 27 w/ Online Reading
Rendering Material
8 Midterm Project Project-Based Midterm
9 & 10 Particles Online Lectures 28 - 33
11 & 12 Rigid Bodies Online Lectures 34 - 38
13 & 14 Pyro Online Lectures 39 - 44
15 Fluids Online Lectures
16 Final Project Project-Based Final Project

The Multimedia Learning Center Department’s Web Site:

Multimedia: [https://www.dcccd.edu/cd/credit/multimedia-tech/rlc/pages/default.aspx]

The Multimedia Learning Center is part of the Dallas College School of Creative Arts,
Entertainment and Design.

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Student Acknowledgement:
Please read and sign the Student Acknowledgement provided by your instructor and
turn it in to your instructor.

8/1/20m Version