Archive for ‘DET’

Watch our new Intro to Mobile App Development Course Promo Video.

This spring we’ll be having an online Introduction to Mobile App Development Course.  The course is designed for current college students and advanced high school students  who wish to develop mobile applications.  Students will learn basic mobile development concepts that apply to multiple platforms.  The course includes a final project where the students are challenged to create a small application of their choice.

ACU students will be enrolling in the upcoming weeks, and applications for Dual-Credit students will be accepted on a space available basis until January 13th.

For more information, contact us at: SITC@acu.edu

Beginning Fall of 2012, the DET program now has multiple licenses of ToonBoom’s Harmony animation software in the DET Lab.  Harmony is used in many of the top-rated, award nominated (and winning) cartoons and animations in both TV and film.

If you are itching to make the next great cartoon or animation, stop by and check it out!

Now that our degree has experienced some significant growth (with new DET majors and minors being declared each week), we’ve finally got the manpower to get the DET Club going again!

Our first meeting will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 31st at 4:00 pm in COBA (MMB) room 201. If you or anyone you know is interested in learning more about video game development, film production, animation, or any other form of digital entertainment or digital media, be sure to come to the interest meeting.

We’re particularly lucky to be joined by guest speaker Dan Selec, Founder/CEO of nonPareil Institute who will share his insights and experience in game development.

And hey, considering that our first meeting will be held on Halloween, why not come in costume? (The possibility exists that I may come bearing candy.)

We hope to see you there! If you have any questions or need more information, feel free to contact either Dr. Burton or myself –

Dr. Brian Burton: bgb07a@acu.edu
Ashley Dillin: and07a@acu.edu

Regularly we are asked which engines are used to teach game development as part of the Digital Entertainment major and minor.

While we use a host of products to create the content for the games (Photoshop, Gimp, Illustrator, Flash, Premier Pro, etc) we primarily use two engines for our classes:

For 2D/mobile projects the SDK of choice is Corona by Corona Labs.  We have found it easy to learn but powerful enough to handle the most intricate of projects.

For 3D projects we use Unity3D.  Again, easy to learn, wonderful pricing structure for the indie developer, and powerful enough to make the most intricate multi-player games, Unity was a natural choice for the DET program.

Digital Entertainment Technology
Software used in Major/Minor
Spring/Fall 2012

 In most situations you are able to select the software that you find most comfortable to use (or can afford).  There are times when we use several pieces of software from one category during a course so that students are able to become familiar with the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Modeling

Google Sketch-up (free)       PC/Mac
*3DS Max  (student edition is free http://students.autodesk.com)       PC
Maya (student edition is free http://students.autodesk.com)                PC/Mac
MudBox (student edition is free http://students.autodesk.com)          PC/Mac

 Texturing

*Adobe Photoshop    PC/Mac
*Adobe Flash                        PC/Mac
GIMP (free)               PC/Mac

Engines

*Corona SDK (unlimited trial is free http://www.CoronaLabs.com)        PC/Mac
*Unity3D (basic version is free http://www.unity3d.com)               PC/Mac
*UDK – Unreal Developers Kit (free http://www.udk.com)                    PC

Sound

Adobe Soundbooth  PC/Mac
Audacity  (free)         PC/Mac
Sony Acid Pro                        PC
GarageBand               Mac

Film

*Adobe Premier Pro       PC/Mac
*Final Cut                            Mac

Compiler

*Visual Studio            PC
*Eclipse IDE               PC/Mac
GCC (free)                  PC/Mac
*Java Developers Kit (JDK) free    PC/Mac
*Apple xCode                         Mac
Python IDLE  (free) PC/Mac

• *- Industry standard
• Bold – required software in one or more DET courses.

Rich Tanner (class of 2010) was one of the first students to graduate from ACU with a emphasis in Digital Entertainment Technology.  Rich now works at USAA creating mobile applications and, more recently, games!  USAA held an internal competition for it’s employees to create a game.  And Rich was the clear winner!

I’m trying to get some screen shots from Rich to show off his game design prowess, but for the time being, we will just celebrate with him!

(Sniff, I’m so proud!)

If you haven’t seen Jacob Kitt’s movies and parody’s then you have been missing out!

Jacob graduated with a minor in DET in the Spring of 2012 and has already been freelancing in the film industry (expect to see many more announcements as soon as the film is released).  But on campus, Jacob is best known for his parodies and award winning work at film fest.

If you haven’t seen Jacobs’ work, check out his Parodies  and demo real

Corona Labs’ Corona SDK, which is used to develop mobile apps and games, was recently featured in inc magazine. (http://technology.inc.com/2011/09/15/anscas-simplisitic-mobile-app-publisher-rises-in-popularity/)

The popularity and ease of use of Corona is no surprise to DET and Mobile Computing students at ACU, they have been using it for over a year to develop apps and games for mobile devices.

The software is so popular that our own Dr. Brian Burton has even undertaken the project of writing an eTextbook on how to develop apps and game using Corona.
Corona allows someone who want to make an app to develop for both Apple and Android mobile devices at the same time, dramatically simplifying and reducing the time needed to develop an app.

The new major is here! The new major is here!

It has been a long time coming (4 years to be exact), but as of Fall 2011, Abilene Christian University will have an interdisciplinary major in Digital Entertainment.
Of course, the minor in DET has been available since 2009, but the excitement around the major is evident around campus!

The new major draws from departments across campus to create a flexible program that teaches game development.

What will you learn in DET?

• story boarding
• 3D modeling
• texturing
• animation
• level design
• 2D game development
• 3D game development
• scripting
• developing for the web, PC, MAC
• mobile game development for: iPhone, iPad, Android, & Nook
• and much much more!

Want to learn more about DET?  Contact info@acu.edu, your academic adviser, or Dr. Burton (Brian.Burton@acu.edu).

You can download the full degree plan here: DET Major Degree Plan