Spring 2014 3D GDAD Capstone Course The Spring 2014 semester was the first 3D Capstone Course in the GDAD Program at the University of Texas at Austin. That semester, undergraduates from the Computer Science Department, College of Fine Arts, and Radio-Television-Film Department were assigned to one of five teams, and each team developed a 3D video game. At the end of the semester, the teams presented their games at Blizzard Entertainment‘s Austin office. After viewing the presentations, Kelly Milsop, Talent Acquisition, commented, “It was amazing to see the student’s progression through testing; their development cycle mirrors that of professional studios. The Capstone is great preparation for the daily realities of working at a game studio.” In addition, Team Underdog Games, the creators of the game Port of Call, were selected as a finalist in the E3 2014 College Game Competition. Below are the results of the the Capstone (Download – Unity Web Player). Lethal Pursuit Team Galacticats Alex An Stephen Brownlee Andy Hsu Russell Jahn Kevin Ong Becky Schmader Play (Keyboard) | Play (Controller) | Trailer Port of Call Team Underdog Games Ricky Llamas Darwin Pek Mario Rodriguez Mark Rubin Wilson Villegas Lynn Vuong Play | Trailer Rascal Roll Team Extra D Aaron Angert Jeff Dolan John Michael Hunt Sa Liu Hector Carmona Miranda Trevor Scott Play (Keyboard) | Play (Controller) | Trailer The Runners Team Waterford Eduardo Aceves Thomas Cardwell David Finol Justin Hust Nathan Waters Play | Trailer Xeno Aegis Team Xeno Aegis Aaron Campbell Jacky Chou Alonso Salas Keegan Sandifer Roberto Torres Play | Trailer College of Fine Arts The Spring 2014 semester saw undergraduates from the College of Fine Arts create 3D Digital Art & Animation. The students in the course participated in an in-depth study and practice of 3D modeling, surfacing, lighting, rendering, animation, compositing, and visual FX using Autodesk Maya, Adobe Photoshop, among other programs. This particular semester was a collaboration between the whole class. They were to create graphics based on the pop art of Roy Lichtenstein. Each student modeled, textured, rigged, and animated a painting, then created transitions to make the video flow from one to another. Below is the result (right-click->save the image for more detail). Tara Awad, Annielyn Felux, Briana Gray, Laura Levisay, Patrick Matthews, Lyz Reblin, Mario Rodriguez, Trevor Scott, Catherine Wetmore
