Courses + Concentrations
New Media courses promote experimentation, conceptual and technical development of student projects, ideas and research. The major offers a vehicle for learning digital storytelling, animation, 3D modeling, stop motion, digital fabrication, interactive art and design, web development, video art, virtual and augmented realities, artificial intelligence, and creative applications in internet art, sound art, performance art and installation.
Welcome to a creative liberal arts education in Asheville, NC.
The structure of our curriculum prepares students for this ever-evolving field. We promote the value of individual research and interdisciplinary collaboration—a typical 4-year plan of study challenges students to develop conceptual and critical thinking skills through technical and creative problem solving. Students eventually choose an area of emphasis in one of three concentrations: Video, Animation, or Interactive Media. Find our list of courses below and a sample 4-year plan for completing the major.
Video
New Media's video concentration teaches students to work with cameras, pre-production, post-production, and editing. See the courses in this track below.
Introduction to Video Art + Design
Time-based sequence design, stop motion animation, motion graphics, and basic video
editing and production techniques. Students will study design principles, post-production process, and practice critical thinking skills. Prerequisite: NM 101. Fall and Spring.
Intermediate Video
Through the exploration of video techniques and motion media design principles, students will concentrate on motion graphics production, and will create innovative work for cinema, television and digital interfaces. Students will spend time in class presenting, defending, and improving their work based on formative faculty and peer feedback. Prerequisite: CSCI 182, 183 or 185; NM 281, and either NM 231 or 251. Spring.
Advanced Video
Advanced course of study and techniques with a focus on, aesthetic, conceptual problem-solving, creating innovative art, and visual storytelling. Students will explore video in relation to performance, audiovisual and installation art, and address issues relevant to identity and diversity. Video art will be the theme of the course as students synthesize current research and trends within their own experimental work. Prerequisite: NM 350. Fall.
Interactive
New Media's interactive concentration includes web and networked media, interactive installation, performance, and physical computing. See the courses in this track below.
Introduction to Interactive Media
A crash-course introduction to internet cultures, internet-specific production techniques, and code as an artistic medium. Students survey contemporary internet media cultures and technologies while learning essential web-based coding skills in HTML, CSS and other programming languages applied within the context of art and design. Media production techniques will include transcoding, digital representations of sound and
images, and user-interface multimedia experience. Prerequisite: NM 101. Fall and Spring.
Networked Interactive Media
Students will create projects that explore networked art and design and interface development. They will study the history, theory, and application of technologies used to construct innovative interactive products. Students will spend time in class presenting, defending, and improving their work based on formative faculty and peer feedback. Prerequisites: CSCI 182, 183 or 185; NM 231, and either NM 251 or 281. Spring.
Interactive Physical Computing
Advanced techniques for designing and scripting complex interactive media and interfaces. Students will spend time in class presenting, defending, and improving their work based on formative faculty and peer feedback. Prerequisites: CSCI 182, 183 or 185; NM 231, and either NM 251 or 281. Fall.
Animation
New Media's animation concentration has 2 sub-tracks, animation and 3D modeling, characters design + rigging. See the courses in this track below.
Introduction to Motion Media
Introduction to Motion Media (4)
Introduction to manual and digital animation skills. 2D hand-drawing, and traditional 3D stop-motion training will harmonize with their digital counterparts, including Dragon frame, industry standard 2D animation software, and 3D animation using Maya. Critical screening and adaptation of film and storyboarding precedents will provide a solid foundation for students' conceptual and technical grasp of animation. Prerequisite: NM 101. Fall and Spring.
3D Modeling, Lighting, and Rendering
Advanced 3D modeling, texturing, lighting and rendering techniques using Autodesk Maya, Arnold, RenderMan and other programs. Attention will be paid to conceptual design development of modeling of complex objects and environments. Prerequisites: CSCI 182, 183 or 185; NM 231, and either NM 251 or 281. Fall.
Intermediate Animation
Introduction to manual and digital animation skills. 2D hand-drawing, and traditional 3D stop-motion training will harmonize with their digital counterparts, including Dragon frame, industry standard 2D animation software, and 3D animation using Maya. Critical screening and adaptation of film and storyboarding precedents will provide a solid foundation for students' conceptual and technical grasp of animation. Prerequisite: NM 101. Fall and Spring.
Character Design, Modeling & Rigging
Students will study and utilize advanced character design principles, and modeling and rigging techniques as they develop original characters for use in 3D animation.Prerequisites: NM 312. Spring.
Advanced Animation Techniques
Introduction to Motion Media (4)
Introduction to manual and digital animation skills. 2D hand-drawing, and traditional 3D stop-motion training will harmonize with their digital counterparts, including Dragon frame, industry standard 2D animation software, and 3D animation using Maya. Critical screening and adaptation of film and storyboarding precedents will provide a solid foundation for students' conceptual and technical grasp of animation. Prerequisite: NM 101. Fall and Spring.
Electives
The New Media major requires each student to take an upper-level studio elective course. Some of these electives are listed here.
Storyboarding
Storyboarding is the artistic process of developing sequential, visual narratives. It is where concepts of cinematography, staging, blocking and acting are introduced as thinking tools through which creative ideas are developed and given detail. Students will explore the basic components of storyboarding including shot composition, screen direction, camera movement, character development, and story structure through the use of 2-D storyboards, color scripts and animatics.
Glass Art
This hands-on course presents a multicultural overview of glass, the original “New Media,” and its role in art, science and communication. Students will study the history of glass design and production, and learn through hands-on workshops about the glass art techniques of several cultures, including the Middle East, China, Europe and America. Students will learn about the various creative impacts that glass has made throughout history, from ancient vessels, sculpture, and telescope lenses, to the contemporary fiber optics, and touchscreens that are so crucial to contemporary life.
Digital Creation Lab: 3D Print
This course takes a creative and experimental approach to 3D modeling, 3D printing, laser and waterjet cutting for model-making. Analog and digital making skills will be developed by solving a series of design prompts related to creating articulated puppets, vehicles and environments.
Stop Motion Animation
Students build and film stop motion animation sets and puppets in the department's stop motion animation studio. Students will learn professional techniques in the medium of stop motion animation.
Virtual Reality
Students practice techniques for creating immersive and interactive virtual reality environments, developing, presenting, defending, and improving their work based on formative faculty and peer feedback. Practical experience will be gained with tracking systems, head-mounted-displays, and 3D graphics. Alongside projects, students will complete readings and engage in discussions about virtual reality history and theory.
Digital Illustration
Digital Illustration is a form of computer-generated art made with the use of graphics tablets and painting software where artists directly manipulate digital media to create complex compositions as in traditional drawing method. In this course, students will learn basic digital painting techniques to construct original compositions from scratch by applying design principles and color theory to projects ranging from modernist self- portraits to sci-fi and fantasy landscapes. Prerequisite: NM 101.
NM History + Theory
New Media requires each student to take a writing intensive history/theory class within the major. Some of these courses are listed here.
New Media History + Theory
Traces the history of new media and its theoretical underpinnings from the origins of computing in the first half of the 20th century to contemporary new media art and design. Students will read critical texts by artists, scientists, theorists, and philosophers, and will interpret these texts in various social, political, aesthetic, and ethical contexts through writing, class discussion, and artmaking. Every year.
History of Design
Traces the history of graphic design from its origins in bookmaking to contemporary new media. The focus begins with the Arts & Crafts movement of the late 19th Century and continues through the modern and “post-modern” design movements of the 20th Century. Students will develop ways to insightfully “read” visual communication in an appropriate historical context by practicing a range of design writing and research forms.
Video Game Studies
A critical investigation of 40+ years of video game histories, technologies, global cultures, philosophies, and aesthetics relevant to the medium. Using texts, auto-ethnographic gameplay, and informative documentaries, we will discuss the influence and the experiential power of video games, which will culminate in a substantial research paper and in-depth independent game design proposal. Every year.
History of Animation
Students will study the history of animation, examining the influence of studios like Disney, DreamWorks, Warner Bros, and Pixar. Topics will include how animation is used in advertising, experimental animation, anime, the role of gender in the animation industry, propaganda, and the demise and rebirth of racism and bigotry in animation. Emphasis will be placed on how animation both reflects and shapes cultures around the world. Each session will include in-depth discussion and debate about the topics being covered. *Survey course, not a writing intensive*
Afrofuturism
Exploration of Afrofuturism as a metaphor for the displacement of black culture and as a creative philosophy of resistance through the imagining of speculative futures and techno-narratives of freedom. Tracing lines between social reality and science fiction, the class will experience, discuss, and write through Afrofuturist media and concepts to study how they are effectively embodied and practiced by artists, authors, filmmakers, and musicians in the context of social change. This exploration will culminate in a semester research paper and presentation. Every year.
Foundation + Capstone
New Media requires each student to take foundational courses as they enter the major to set the conceptual and technical framework for upper level courses.
Digital Design Principles
An introduction to new-media image production techniques. Making connections between modernist art-historical movements, principles of design, and contemporary visual culture, students will learn an array of essential media production skills that emphasize critical, conceptual, and aesthetic development.
Senior Capstone Project
Students design, develop and implement a semester-long collaborative research project that demonstrates in-depth understanding, both conceptually and technically, of an aspect of new media. Prerequisite: NM 231, 251, 281, and at least 4 credit hours at the 300-400 level in declared emphasis area. Fall and Spring.
Proseminar and Portfolio
Students will develop and implement an individual project and construct a portfolio of completed projects for use in professional or graduate school environments. Students will consider the impact of new media from multiple viewpoints. Prerequisite: NM 231, 251, 281, and at least 4 credit hours at the 300-400 level in declared emphasis area. Fall and Spring.
Sample 4-year plan
Sometimes it’s hard to imagine what four years will look like – that’s why we have created a sample 4-year plan.
Each concentration has a slightly different path to graduation. Follow this 4-year plan for the animation concentration while keeping in contact with your academic advisor and UNC Academic Success Center to ensure you are on the correct path.
