ILLUS-3938

WORLDSMITH

Faculty: Lars Grant-West

Course Level: Junior, Senior, 5th Year

3 Credits

As visual artists, we all have a story to tell. One of the keys to creating a convincing narrative is persuading your viewers of the believability of the world into which you invite them. The creation of graphic novels, games, animations and movies often start with a world guide: a document that fully describes the setting.

Sometimes these are simply textual or visual references and sometimes they are books in their own right. Regardless of form, their purpose is to make sure that all the creative people working on a project will build a consistent “reality”. This course is intended to familiarize students with the process of generating and illustrating the visual parameters of an invented environment in which a story happens - defining first the umbrella under which the story unfolds, then establishing a more specific place/time/habitat that includes details relevant to the story: environment, history, culture, clothing styles, architecture, animals, etc. Beyond the invention of a setting for a visual narrative, in this course students will also learn how to design a style guide for intellectual property worlds (IP). Each will create a visual “bible for envisioning the IP world within which their narrative unfolds.

A strong emphasis will be set on finding real world reference which will inform the creation of student projects.