Creating my Own College Course from Scratch
While completing my MFA in Digital Production Arts in the Spring of 2022, I was asked by the head of the program, Dr. Eric Patterson, if I would be interested in teaching a class about visual effects and procedural workflows. I happily jumped at the opportunity, and spent my summer planning out an original course on “Effects and Proceduralism in Houdini” as a part of our curriculum for other graduate students. I created all of the lectures, assignments, resources, and taught this class alone to 10 graduate students, 2 undergraduates, and the occasional faculty member that would sit in. I created a relatively freeform class based on the principles of effects and creating procedural workflows to create your own effects and fit your own goals. The class went fantastic, and I hope to continue to teach in the future after getting more industry experience.
Below I have attached some of my lectures as a bit of a “preview” of what I offered at Clemson. These presentations were accompanied by several demo files and my personal projects, so they won’t read exactly how the lectures went but if you’re interested in getting an idea then I’m still happy to have you take a look. I based my new class around weekly projects that cover several aspects of effects and proceduralism and then combine into larger projects. I aimed to give everyone a good foundation to build off of for their own projects, and guide them to create smaller projects that lead up to their larger goals. This was created as an introductory class for Visual Effects, and I am fairly happy with how it went and have heard great reviews from students and faculty. While I have graduated and will not be able to teach it next year, I hope to revise this curriculum and give it another shot further in the future!