Week One: Overview
In week one, Jon will demonstrate the core principles of next gen character creation using his own examples. Students will gain an understanding as to how normal maps work, as well as gain insight into the overall creation pipeline as it could exist in a studio setting.

The assignment for this workshop is to choose a retro video game character, and create a concept of how he/she/it would look if subjected to a next gen make over (with your own personal twist of course!). Students will be guided through the conceptual stages, as well as learn how to create an initial 'stub' mesh of their model for importing into ZBrush. In addition, Jon will give an overview of the course specific viewport shader, supplied by Ben Cloward..

Week Two: Define and Refine
In week two, students will import their initial 'stub' mesh into ZBrush, and begin the fleshing out process using their concepts as a guide. While working through this stage, Jon will discuss proportions, posture, and weight – elements that give life to your creation!

Week Three: Hard surface modeling (Define and Refine Part 2)
In week three, students will be introduced to the core principles of hard surface modeling within 3D Studio Max, and how to seamlessly integrate this with their ZBrush models. Jon will demonstrate how his class model was constructed by giving step-by-step re-enactments of different hard surface modeling challenges.

Week Four: Catch up week!
The first three lessons not only cover a ton of information, however the work assignments are quite heavy as well! This week allows for students to get caught up, so they're ready for the lessons to come.

Week Five: Adding detail
In week Five, students will continue to work on their models by delving into the addition of detail. Jon will demonstrate different methods used within ZBrush, as well as in 3D Studio Max. Students should expect to learn about alphas, how to create their own, and how to use Projection Master.

Week Six: Creating the in-game mesh
In week six, students will merge their character meshes into 3D Studio Max, and from this create their in-game geometry. Low poly modeling techniques, joint construction, and optimal mesh creation for hosting normal maps will be covered.

Week Seven: Unwrapping your model and map bakes
After the in-game mesh is completed, students will move on to unwrapping the character. In week seven, students will learn all about the efficient techniques of utilizing maximum texture space, as well as distinctly different UV limitations found in some of the most popular game engines of today.

In addition, students will learn how to bake maps using 3D Studio Max's 'render to texture' feature. Jon will demonstrate how to bake normal, ambient occlusion, displacement, and cavity maps. How do these relate to your final asset? That will be covered as well!

Week Eight: Adding some color
In week eight, students will be creating their character's color map, and accentuate the detail with bakes made in week six. Students will learn different methods for creating the color maps using ZBrush's Polypaint, and/or Photoshop. Warning: There will be some color theory discussed!

Week Nine: Finishing touches and wrapping up
In this final week, students will learn how to construct their specular and glow maps from previously created textures and bakes. Students will add the finishing touches to their work, and create a final presentation image for inclusion in their portfolios. Jon will wrap up with a quick refresher of the entire class, and will be open to answering any questions about getting in, and working in the game industry.

Level of Ability
This is a workshop aimed at the intermediate student. You will need a good understanding of 3D, Photoshop, and have basic ZBrush skills. This workshop is not aimed at beginners. This is an intense workshop aimed at students who are able to commit to at least ten hours a week to this class while being mentored by a master artist.

Hardware and Software Requirements
Students must have 3D Studio Max 2008 or higher (Students with anything lower will have problems with the class files including the shader), ZBrush 3.1, Photoshop (7 and higher), and a GeForce 5800 or equivalent card and above (pixel shader 2.0 support). A custom made shader by Ben Cloward (written specifically for this class) will be available to allow students to see their work in the 3D Studio Max viewport.

A broadband connection will be needed for downloading the weekly video lessons.

Some of the sample scenes are hardware heavy, so its recommended to have a minimum of 2 GB of RAM.

Other Requirements
Students need to be familiar with web navigation and browsing, as well as email.

Students need to be familiar with using a bulletin board system (such as CGTalk.com) as well as how to upload attachments to postings for review.