The RWC eMedia department is offering a new course called “3-D Gaming: Modeling” this coming Winter Quarter. According to Program Director Professo Mike Sanders, the course came about because of interest from students. “We felt like what we had in our 3-D classes before wasn’t enough,” Sanders said. The department will now offer two classes of 2-D animation and three classes of 3-D gaming animation. The “3-D Gaming: Modeling” course will be followed by “3-D Gaming: Texture and Lighting” in the spring and “3-D Gaming: Animation” in the summer.
Adjunct Instructor Tom Miller will teach all three 3-D gaming courses.
Miller joined the RWC Department from Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus, Ohio. He majored in Illustration and minored in Advertising Design. Tom is also an independent creative artist and owner of Atomic Art in Cincinnati. Lou Olenick of the RWC eMedia Department had high praise for Miller: “His portfolio demonstrates his wide range of talents. He has illustrated children’s books and has created cover art for textbooks and fiction. He designs art for magazine and newspaper advertising; logos and presentations; and storyboards, conceptual designs, and animations for gaming. His client and employer list includes Maxis/Electronic Arts, Wild Planet, National Geographic, Smithsonian Institution, PyroTechnix/Sierra OnLine, Proctor and Gamble, Ral Partha Enterprises, Inc., Silver, Burdett & Ginn (textbook publishers), Maryland Academy of Sciences, and Albert Einstein Spacearium.” Prior to teaching at UC, Miller taught college level art classes in Fashion Design at the University of Delaware.
Miller hopes to take his experience in the gaming industry “to bring the students a balanced education where their visions are explored and realized in an atmosphere of experimentation.” Yet he wants them to “know what to expect and what will be expected of them in the everyday work and production environment of deadlines and team structures.”
Miller will teach Animation II, Digital Image Applications, and 3-D courses and has helped design the 3-D Gaming Performance Package Certificate.