Curriculum

Bachelor of Science Digital Media

In each of the four Digital Media concentrations, each student takes courses in General Education. The General Education courses are part of every bachelors degree and ensure that students are exposed to different areas to develop a well rounded education. These courses help students develop advanced reading, writing and speaking skills, in addition to exposure to the arts and humanities.

• General Education Classes

  ENGL1010 Critical Reading and Expository Writing
  ENGL1020 Critical Thinking and Argumentation
  Oral Communication (choose 1)
  Literature (choose 1)
  ARTH2020 Art History Survey II
  ENTC3020 Technology & Society
  Social and Behavioral Sciences (choose 2)
  HIST2010 The United States to 1877
  HIST2020 The United States since1877
  
  
  Natural Sciences (8 credits)
  Math1530 Probability and Statistics 
  
  CSCI1100 Using Information Technology

Digital Media Core. The Digital Media Core is required by all digital media majors, regardless of concentration. These courses develop skills required of professionals across all areas of digital media. The last class in this series, Portfolio Development (DIGM 4930) prepares students to transition from college life to professional life by working on resumes, cover letters, presentation skills, and most importantly: developing a professional digital media portfolio.

• Digital Media Core

  ENTC1510 Student in University
  ARTH2010 Art History Survey I
  ENTC3030 Technical Communication
  DIGM1400 Principles of Visual Effects and Motion Graphics
  DIGM1500 Principles of Digital Game Design
  DIGM1800 Principles of Digital Animation
  DIGM1900 Principles of Visualization
  DIGM2660 Topics in Digital Media History
  DIGM2990 Mid-Point Review
  
  
  MATH1710 Pre-Calculus I (Algebra)
  DIGM4930 Portfolio Development for Digital Media

Concentration Requirements. Each concentration gives students the opportunity to specialize in an area of digital media. Each concentration includes required courses and electives. The electives need to be chosen with faculty and the digital media advisor.

• Digital Animation Concentration

  This concentration gives students the background necessary to animate in any media/software with strong skills in one of several specialty areas of animation, such as character animation and special effects animation. Students in the animation concentration would typically be preparing for careers in 3-D animation, 2-D animation, motion graphics, character animation, and technical direction. 

  DIGM2824 Technical Direction
  DIGM2870 Animation Fundamentals
  
  
  DIGM4854 Character Animation

  
  
  3D Pathway

  DIGM3120 3D Lighting & Rendering
  DIGM3130 3D Animation
  DIGM3450 Procedural Modeling and Effects Simulation

  
  
  2D Pathway

  DIGM2730 2D Character Construction
  DIGM3140 2D Animation
  DIGM3230 Storyboarding

  
  
  
  The Digital Animation concentration also has 20 credit hours of guided electives.

• Digital Visualization Concentration

  This concentration gives students the background necessary to create dimensional digital models that solve visual problems and provide solutions for both the physical and virtual worlds. Students in this concentration would typically be preparing for careers in product design, architecture, interior design, entertainment, gaming, and data visualization.
  
  
  
  
  
  

  DIGM2720 Raster-Based Imaging
  
  DIGM3230 Storyboarding
  DIGM4620 Visualization Projects

  Digital Communications Pathway

  DIGM2710 2D Content Creation
  DIGM3220 Digital Publishing
  DIGM3420 2D Motion Graphics

  Concept Development Pathway

  DIGM2730 2D Character Construction
  DIGM3140 2D Animation
  DIGM3240 Concept Art
  
  
  

  
  
  The Digital Visualization concentration also has 20 credit hours of guided electives.

• Digital Game Design Concentration

  This concentration gives students the background necessary to create games and interactive environments with strong skills in one of several specialty areas such as environment design, level design, modeling for games, materials, scripting for interaction, etc. Students in the interaction and game design concentration are typically preparing for careers in the game industry in one of these fields.

  
  
  DIGM4550 Game Play and Testing

  Asset Development Pathway

  DIGM2530 High-Fidelity Modeling for Entertainment
  DIGM2750 3D Fundamentals
  DIGM3110 3D Model Design
  DIGM3120 3D Rendering & Lighting
  DIGM4560 Reality Capture For Modeling

  Design Pathway

  CSCI1250 Introdution to Computer Science I
  DIGM2824 Technical Direction
  DIGM3450 Procedural Modeling and Effects Simulation
  DIGM3530 Game Design
  DIGM3540 Interaction for Game Design

  The Digital Game Design concentration also has 20 credit hours of guided electives.

• Digital Visual Effects Concentration

  The Digital Visual Effects concentration gives students the background necessary to work with moving images to create short form work. Students will work with the full production process, from ideas and script, to shooting and editing, and post production with compositing, visual effects, and color grading. Students in the Digital Visual Effects concentration would typically be preparing for careers in motion graphics, compositing, shooting and editing digital film for creative productions.

  
  
  
  
  DIGM2720 Raster-Based Imaging
  DIGM2900 Editing for Digital Media
  DIGM4410 Digital Media for Film and Effects

  Motion Graphics Pathway

  
  DIGM3420 2D Motion Graphics
  DIGM3430 3D Motion Graphics
  DIGM3220 Digital Publishing

  Effects Pathway

  DIGM3120 3D Lighting & Rendering
  
  DIGM3410 Visual Effects Compositing
  DIGM3450 Procedural Modeling & Effects Simulation

  
  
  
  
  
  
  The Digital Visual Effects concentration also has 20 credit hours of guided electives.

Digital Media Minor

In all art and communication disciplines, and in computer science, education, business, and science disciplines, there is a growing need for visual communication tools (such as web sites, animations, video, data or scientific visualization, computer graphics, concept renderings, broadcast and presentation graphics, etc.). Some of the fastest growing industries incorporate the use computer-based production. Students taking the minor will learn skills that will make them more attractive to employers across a wide range of disciplines.

Students from any major that have an interest in Digital Media are welcome. Students from Art & Design, Computing, Communication, and Engineering Technology should find this minor of particular value as they prepare for their careers.

Students in the minor must take:

• DIGM1400 Principles of Visual Effects and Motion Graphics (4 credits)
• DIGM1500 Principles of Digital Game Design (4 credits)
• DIGM1800 Principles of Digital Animation (4 credits)
• DIGM1900 Principles of Visualization (4 credits)
• DIGM2660 Topics in Digital Media History (3 Credits).

Only courses for which a grade of “C” or higher is earned will be accepted to meet the conditions of the minor.

MFA in Digital Media

There are twelve credit hours in the degree dedicated to advancing the individuals’ skills in their digital media specialization (DIGM 5301 Solo Studio in Digital Media). There are an additional twelve credit hours dedicated towards team work in digital media projects for internal and external clients (DIGM 5302 Group Studio in Digital Media). Since digital media is a swiftly evolving field, there are six credit hours dedicated to experimenting with new technologies (Experimental Media I and II). Additionally, there are twelve credit hours dedicated to the culminating experience where individual students further develop and finalize a professional body of work for peer and faculty review (DIGM 5970 Culminating Experience).

Graduate Coordinator: marlowg@etsu.edu

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