California Institute of the Arts Courses

World Design for Video Games

4.4

Class Central TipsLearn How to Sign up to Coursera courses for free1600+ Coursera Courses That Are Still Completely FreeStart creating your world. A game world is not just a backdrop for your game—be it minimal or detailed, contained or part of a much bigger universe, it provides the context for your player. Ultimately, a game world should feel alive and wholly unique to any player who will experience it. In this course, we will explore game worlds in existing games and study the art and influences that inform their themes and styles. We will also investigate key components of environment and level design as well as strategies designers use to define gameplay or advance it. We’ll also look at navigation and the elements that make your world as real (or unreal) as you want it to be. A weekly challenge will prompt you to explore styles and inspirations for possible game worlds, and you’ll learn effective ways to communicate your ideas from concepts to presentation-worthy proofs of concept.

Web Design: Wireframes to Prototypes

0

Class Central TipsLearn How to Sign up to Coursera courses for free1600+ Coursera Courses That Are Still Completely FreeThis course is focused on the application of the early UX research to actual user interfaces: the creation of wireframes, high-fidelity mockups, and clickable prototypes. Along the way we will also discuss: - Responsive web design and mobile web challenges - Mobile-first approach - Web typography - The relationship between design and programming and whether it is important to know how to code - The different web technologies that make the web work, such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, server-side coding, and databases.This course is the continuation of the course Web Design: Strategy and Information Architecture, in which students completed the first half of a large scale project—developing a comprehensive plan for a complex website. If you are intending to complete the assignments in this course to earn a certificate you must complete the Strategy and Information Architecture course first so you have the materials and data needed to begin creating wireframes and mockups in this course.This is the fourth and last course in the UI/UX Design Specialization, which brings a design-centric approach to user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) design, and offers practical, skill-based instruction centered around a visual communications perspective, rather than on one focused on marketing or programming alone.These courses are ideal for anyone with some experience in graphic or visual design and who would like to build their skill set in UI or UX for app and web design. It would also be ideal for anyone with experience in front- or back-end web development or human-computer interaction and want to sharpen their visual design and analysis skills for UI or UX.

Sound Synthesis Using Reaktor

4.3

This course provides an introductory overview of audio synthesis and visual programming using Native Instruments' Reaktor Software.  Students will receive an in-depth look into various audio synthesis methods, including: additive, subtractive, sampling, wavetable, physical modeling, and granular synthesis, as well as the various types of modulation synthesis. Students will also learn about the history of the synthesizer and electronic music, and will take a look at many of the current sound design trends in electronic music.  Additional topics include:• Sound + waveform characteristics (Timbre)• Modulation/filters/envelopes• MIDI/OSC• Analog + digital signals• Signal flow• DAWs/sequencing• Sound design• Audio effects• Production techniques• Audio warping/FFT 

Creating Site-Specific Dance and Performance Works

0

Class Central TipsLearn How to Sign up to Coursera courses for free1600+ Coursera Courses That Are Still Completely FreeWelcome! This project-based course focuses on the creation of live site-specific choreography and performance works from conception to production to performance. It is geared towards performers, artists, composers and creative producers interested in learning techniques and production practices for site-specific work. The course is open to both veterans of the field as well as emerging artists jumping in to the topic for the first time. Site-specific dance/performance is work created in response to a particular place or site, inspired by its architecture or design, its history, and/or its current use. Lectures and forum discussions will investigate site-based projects in both urban and non-urban locales, and ranging from large-scale to small (guerrilla) style productions. Furthermore, together we will delineate definitions of site-specificity, and look across the history of the field, focusing primarily on dance.Specific techniques and approaches towards generating site-inspired choreography will be introduced here, but the primary focus is navigating technical issues (lighting, sound, media) and production challenges (budgeting, obtaining permissions, insurance, fundraising, audience/event design). By the end of this course, you will have developed a comprehensive proposal for producing a site-specific work.

Graphic Design

0

Class Central TipsLearn How to Sign up to Coursera courses for free1600+ Coursera Courses That Are Still Completely FreeGraphic design is all around us, in a myriad of forms, both on screen and in print, yet it is always made up of images and words to create a communication goal. This four-course sequence exposes students to the fundamental skills required to make sophisticated graphic design: process, historical context, and communication through image-making and typography. The sequence is completed by a capstone project that applies the skills of each course and peer feedback in a finished branding project suitable for a professional portfolio.The goal of this specialization is to equip learners with a set of transferable formal and conceptual tools for “making and communicating” in the field of graphic design. This core skill set will equip learners for formal studies in graphic design, and a starting point for further work in interface design, motion graphics, and editorial design.

Approaching Music Theory: Melodic Forms and Simple Harmony

0

Class Central TipsLearn How to Sign up to Coursera courses for free1600+ Coursera Courses That Are Still Completely FreeThis course is about how music works. It is about the relationship between the technical and aesthetic details of music. It is also about how developing a meaningful theoretical vocabulary can help you think and talk about musical style, and how learning that vocabulary can expand your appreciation for music.In this course you will learn music theory not by looking at theory itself, but by listening to, looking at, and—yes!—writing your own musical examples. By hearing, seeing, and writing yourself, you will learn about classical, modern, ancient, pop, jazz, and folk styles.Through lectures, relevant examples, and numerous practice assignments, we will examine fundamental aspects of melody. We will move into working with two voices and counterpoint, and finally to three voices and the beginnings of harmonic function.This is an intermediate-level course for musicians and composers who already have some understanding of music theory through previous study. If you are a musician or composer looking to build a deeper understanding of music theory for composing, performing, or improvisation, you have come to the right place. If you are an amateur lover of music or, perhaps, play a musical instrument and want to develop a deeper sense of appreciation for music theory, aesthetics, and history, you are also in the right place!

Introduction to Typography

4.5

Class Central TipsLearn How to Sign up to Coursera courses for free1600+ Coursera Courses That Are Still Completely FreeTypography is the art of manipulating the visual form of language to enrich and control its meaning. It’s an essential area of skill and knowledge for graphic designers. Typography predates modern graphic design by around 500 years; it is rich in rules, conventions, and esoteric terminology—but it remains an exciting space for invention and expression.In this rigorous introductory course, we will study, name, and measure the characteristics of letterforms. We’ll consider the pragmatic concerns involved in selecting and combining type. We’ll peek into the 
rich historical, cultural, and aesthetic histories of familiar typefaces. We’ll discuss time-tested conventions and best practices in setting type, as governed by principles of hierarchy and spatial organization. And we’ll explore the expressive, meaning-making potential of type. Informative lectures will be complemented by a series of three peer-assessed assignments, culminating 
in an opportunity to design a full-scale typographic poster.Please note that this is not a software course; a basic working knowledge of Adobe InDesign or other 
page layout software will be assumed. You will need access to a computer and page layout software, such as InDesign, to complete the assignments.

Sharpened Visions: A Poetry Workshop

4.4

Class Central TipsLearn How to Sign up to Coursera courses for free1600+ Coursera Courses That Are Still Completely FreeWhy just write poems when you can write better ones? This course is built on the notion that the most exciting writing begins after the first draft. It is specifically for folks who believe that writing poems just to express oneself is like using the Internet just for email. After all, poetry can change the way you and your readers think of the world and its inhabitants; it can break new ground for language; turn a blank sheet of paper into a teeming concert of voices and music.Though any of us may have the potential to make that happen, having an understanding of how several tools of poetic composition can be used (and audaciously “mis-used”) gives you more ways to try (and if we do this right, we might surprise ourselves most of all). We'll cover key poetic terms and devices by studying poems by a handful of modern and contemporary poets and then get a chance to try our own hand at writing new poem drafts from a select number of prompts. Throughout the course you will have the opportunity to workshop your poem drafts and get feedback on your work, working towards a more polished poem.

UI / UX Design

5

Class Central TipsLearn How to Sign up to Coursera courses for free1600+ Coursera Courses That Are Still Completely FreeThe UI/UX Design Specialization brings a design-centric approach to user interface and user experience design, and offers practical, skill-based instruction centered around a visual communications perspective, rather than on one focused on marketing or programming alone. In this sequence of four courses, you will summarize and demonstrate all stages of the UI/UX development process, from user research to defining a project’s strategy, scope, and information architecture, to developing sitemaps and wireframes. You’ll learn current best practices and conventions in UX design and apply them to create effective and compelling screen-based experiences for websites or apps.User interface and user experience design is a high-demand field, but the skills and knowledge you will learn in this Specialization are applicable to a wide variety of careers, from marketing to web design to human-computer interaction.Learners enrolled in the UI/UX Design Specialization are eligible for an extended free trial (1 month) of a full product suite of UX tools from Optimal Workshop. Details are available in Course 3 of the Specialization, Web Design: Strategy and Information Architecture.

Fondamentaux de l’infographie

0

Class Central TipsLearn How to Sign up to Coursera courses for free1600+ Coursera Courses That Are Still Completely FreeL’infographie est partout ! Les mots et les images, les composantes de l’infographie, sont les éléments qui véhiculent la majorité du contenu à la fois dans le monde numérique et dans celui des documents imprimés. À mesure que l’infographie devient plus prépondérante et évidente dans nos vies, l’infographie en tant que technique devient plus importante dans notre culture.À travers des exemples visuels, ce cours vous fera découvrir les fondamentaux de l’infographie : création d'images, typographie, composition, association des couleurs et des formes géométriques... les compétences de base communes à tous les domaines de l’infographie. Je ne veux pas que vous vous contentiez de regarder une vidéo de quelqu'un qui parle de conception ; je veux que vous vous lanciez dans la conception ! Pour être un concepteur, vous devez être un créateur et un communicant. Ce cours vous donnera donc de nombreuses opportunités de vous entraîner à l’aide d’exercices et de projets plus concrets.À la fin du cours, vous aurez appris à explorer et à étudier la représentation visuelle à travers une gamme de techniques de création d'images ; vous comprendrez les principes de base du traitement des formes géométriques, des couleurs et des modèles ; vous aurez été exposé au langage et aux compétences de la typographie ; et vous comprendrez et saurez appliquer les principes de composition et de contraste visuel. Si vous suivez ce cours, ainsi que ses briefings facultatifs (mais fortement recommandés), vous aurez un ensemble de compétences en infographie que vous pouvez appliquer à vos propres projets ou pour approfondir une zone particulière de l’infographie.Pour réussir ce cours, vous devrez avoir accès à un ordinateur. Vous pouvez suivre le cours sans ordinateur, mais ce sera plus compliqué. L'accès aux logiciels Adobe Creative Suite, tels qu'Illustrator, Photoshop et InDesign et une connaissance de niveau débutant des programmes vous seront utiles, surtout si vous souhaitez suivre les briefings facultatifs.

Основы графического дизайна

0

Class Central TipsLearn How to Sign up to Coursera courses for free1600+ Coursera Courses That Are Still Completely FreeГрафический дизайн — повсюду вокруг нас. Слова и изображения — структурные элементы графического дизайна — несут в себе большую часть контента как в цифровом, так и в печатном мире. Графический дизайн становится все более заметным и распространенным в нашей жизни, а графический дизайн в качестве практики — более важным в нашей культуре.На визуальных примерах этот курс ознакомит вас с основными принципами графического дизайна: создание изображений, типографика, композиция, работа с цветом и формой — основополагающими навыками, которые являются общими для всех областей практики графического дизайна. Нужно, чтобы вы не просто посмотрели видеоролики, где говорят о дизайне, необходимо, чтобы вы РАЗРАБОТАЛИ дизайн. Чтобы стать дизайнером, нужно быть творцом и специалистом по коммуникации, поэтому в этом курсе вам будет предоставлено множество возможностей для экспериментирования при выполнении упражнений и более практических проектов.В конце этого курса вы научитесь исследовать и изучать визуальное представление с помощью целого ряда техник создания изображений; усвоите основные принципы работы с формой, цветом и рисунком; ознакомитесь с терминами и навыками работы с типографикой; поймете и примените на практике принципы композиции и визуального контраста. По завершении курса и выполнении дополнительных брифов (настоятельно рекомендуется) вы будете обладать базовым набором навыков графического дизайна, которые сможете использовать в своих собственных проектах или для более глубокого изучения специализированной области графического дизайна.Для успешного прохождения этого курса вам потребуется доступ к компьютеру. Курс можно пройти и без компьютера, но это будет труднее. Наличие таких программ пакета Adobe Creative, как Illustrator, Photoshop и InDesign, а также знаний начального уровня по использованию этих программ помогут вам, особенно если вы планируете выполнять дополнительные брифы.

Introduction to Programming for Musicians and Digital Artists

0

Class Central TipsLearn How to Sign up to Coursera courses for free1600+ Coursera Courses That Are Still Completely FreeThe course, lecture, and examples build on each other to teach the fundamentalsof programming in general (logic, loops, functions, objects, classes) andalso deals with advanced topics including multi-threading, events and signals. Throughout the course, students create meaningful and rewarding expressivedigital “instruments” that make sound and music in direct response to programlogic.  The ChucK language provides precise high-level control overtime, audio computation, and user interface elements (track pad, joysticks,etc.).  ChucK is used (unknowingly in most cases, via SMule Apps)by millions of users throughout the world, and is the backbone of dozensof academic programs and laptop orchestras.  Learning to program usingChucK, through the musical examples provided in this course, will preparestudents to program in C++, Java, and other languages. There will be specialguest lectures from creators of the ChucK language, Dr. Ge Wang (StanfordUniversity) and Dr. Perry R. Cook (Princeton University).

Making Money as a Freelancer

0

Class Central TipsLearn How to Sign up to Coursera courses for free1600+ Coursera Courses That Are Still Completely FreeThe second course in the Building Your Freelancing Career specialization is aimed at freelancers looking to integrate financial analysis and strategy into their business. Learners will discover and apply accounting best practices through creating a budget and financial plan and using it to set financial goals with rates and prices backed up by their own research.CalArtians who do not see a "Sponsored by CalArts" notice when enrolling are encouraged to access this course and the specialization by joining through the Coursera for CalArts program linked in the course/specialization FAQ.Course OverviewIn this section, you'll review the course introduction and student expectations. You'll also get to know some of the successful freelancers in our community and hear practical advice about how they handle financial decisions. Lastly, you'll have the opportunity to have a meet and greet with your peers.Personal and Business Finances In this section, we'll dig into key financial concepts that will create a solid foundation for a successful freelance career. You'll explore the factors to consider when transitioning from a job to a freelance career, how to set up healthy habits for personal and business financial management, and how to plan for your future.Making and Managing Money in Your Business In this section, you'll consider how to price your offerings, how to forecast the number of sales you'll need, and how to consider all the costs that go into running a business. These factors will help you consider many options and choose a business model that fits your goals for your financial future as a freelancer.How are you doing? How will you get the help you need to run a freelancing business? In this section, you'll learn the importance of key business advisors and professional tools to manage your finances. You'll also learn how to look at your financial reports so that you can understand the financial aspects of your business.Making Financial Decisions In managing a business, you'll need to make many important decisions that will have a financial impact. It is important to track and interpret information to help you make wise decisions, and know when to consult with experts to help you plan and stay on track.

Web Design: Strategy and Information Architecture

5

Class Central TipsLearn How to Sign up to Coursera courses for free1600+ Coursera Courses That Are Still Completely FreeThis course is focused on the early user experience (UX) challenges of research, planning, setting goals, understanding the user, structuring content, and developing interactive sequences. While the concepts covered will translate to many kinds of interactive media (apps, digital kiosks, games), our primary focus will be on designing contemporary, responsive websites. In this course you will complete the first half of a large scale project—developing a comprehensive plan for a complex website—by defining the strategy and scope of the site, as well as developing its information architecture and overall structure. Along the way we will also discuss: - Different job descriptions in the web design industry and where UX and UI skills fall within this spectrum - The difference between native apps and websites - The difference of agile vs. waterfall approaches - User personas and site personas - User testingThe work and knowledge in this course continues in the last course in the UI/UX Design Specialization, Web Design: Wireframes to Prototypes, where you will tackle—finally—wireframes, visual mockups, and clickable prototypes.This is the third course in the UI/UX Design Specialization, which brings a design-centric approach to user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) design, and offers practical, skill-based instruction centered around a visual communications perspective, rather than on one focused on marketing or programming alone.These courses are ideal for anyone with some experience in graphic or visual design and who would like to build their skill set in UI or UX for app and web design. It would also be ideal for anyone with experience in front- or back-end web development or human-computer interaction and want to sharpen their visual design and analysis skills for UI or UX.

Character Design for Video Games

4.5

Class Central TipsLearn How to Sign up to Coursera courses for free1600+ Coursera Courses That Are Still Completely FreeIn this course you will explore concepts and approaches involved in creating successful character designs that can be applied to video games. Following a first week delving into some foundational concepts for successful character design, each of the remaining three weeks are structured as a master class where you will observe three professional character designers at work in the studio: Andy Ristaino (Adventure Time), Jacky Ke Jiang (Journey), and Robertryan Cory (SpongeBob SquarePants). Each designer will take on two different design challenges on the fly and address the various issues in designing characters for games, such as movement, expression, and technical limitations. At the end of each week you will have an opportunity to try out some of the concepts from that week's lesson on characters of your own design. This is a fun and engaging class especially useful for students interested in animation in film and TV as well as games, and is suitable for students of any drawing ability.