Digital Illustration & Animation Curriculum

Summary

Digital illustration students build upon foundation skills in drawing, color theory, perspective, and composition to create original, effective, and audience-appropriate illustrations using various digital techniques. Assignments are based on jobs typical of those given in the professional arena such as advertising, user interface design, publishing, concept, and editorial illustration.

Digital illustration students are required to develop skills with both raster and vector based illustration software, as well as computer hardware, including scanners and tablets.

What the students gain through this course:
The digital illustration curriculum provides students’ opportunities to review trends in contemporary digital art, learn about freelance business practices, and begin to develop their own illustration style.

Technical Takeaways:

Apply various methods to create styled digital illustrations.
Exhibit the ability to develop a concept from thumbnail to finish.
Understanding the role of different creative illustrators in the industry.
Demonstrate originality and creativity.

Schedule	Exercises
Day 1: Introduction To illustration in General	Best global Practices and our Growing local scene: Commercial illustration in Advertising, animation and gaming in Nigeria. Brief Introduction into the Popular Software and the tools for digital illustration. No exercise on this day as students would get valid information on how to get familiar with the environment of the software. However there would be homework so that when they come the next morning they can be equipped to start with an actual exercise.
Day 2: Hands-on Software	Develop a base sketch and inking: Tracing and adding basic paint. Students would learn how to create their first character. Students who don’t have any artistic sketch skill would learn easy ways to make a style or make compositions from ready made references. Colouring and shading. Light study. Full character sketch and finish. Exporting to jpeg without a background.
Day 3: Background compositing	Matt painting and basic perspective: Adding character to the background. Light study and effects. Students would create backgrounds of their own in teams. The teams would work on one background together each and then take their individual characters which they had created the day before to make a composition.
Day 4: Revisiting the Nigerian scene of illustrators	Brief and summarization of what you can do with these skills. Freelance and Full time. Putting together a portfolio. Self-promotion and dealing with clients. Creating your trademark or watermark. Creating a Unique TITLE TREATMENT. Students would create Individual character designs again and their own trademarks. With their own individual backgrounds. Making their own Composition poster With everything they have learnt so far.
Day 5: Feedback	Brief summary. Questions. Students would finish up their digital illustrations. Working at home before day 5 is allowed with evidence of solo work.