Digital Arts & New Media 1: Digital Drawing – Introduction to Photoshop and Illustrator

Learn how to draw bold and expressive graphics using industry leading software such as Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, and explore cutting edge techniques with 3d visual environments!

Students will explore traditional hand-drawing techniques and modern styles, as well as 2 and 3-dimensional drawing methods. Through hands-on projects, students will learn how to draw characters and letters by hand using pen and paper, and translate that knowledge into digital drawing, using an innovative method of gesture recognition to ‘trace’ their hand movements. Students will also develop an understanding of industry-standard raster and vector editing software, computer interface and interactivity, and data visualization. Students will take a journey from traditional drawing by hand, into media, messaging and the tools of the trade, concluding with a peek into advanced methods of drawing in 3D using gesture analysis and motion data.

Example of a Digital Drawing interface:

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This class will thoroughly cover topics related to graphic design, interactive graphics, and visual communication. Additionally, we will discuss and explore human-computer interfaces, computer programming and the role of code in gesture analysis and data visualization.

By the end of the class, students will be proficient in interactive design techniques, and will have successfully translated their drawings into a 3D environment using a motion capture tool. This technique creates visualizations of the motion data involved in the creation of hand drawings. The data is captured via a video camera, and translated into an XML file for archiving gestural motion data.

This program is designed to allow students to develop their own creative use of technology, merging artistic and technical skills through the exploration of digital media. Students will practice both technical applications and critical thinking and analysis of topics presented.
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This course is taught using classroom and computer lab instruction employing lecture/demonstration, in-class exercises, individual and group student projects, and class assignments leading to a final project.
Classes will include introductory theory; history and practice of traditional urban art techniques, introduction to GML markup language and an analysis tool with which students gestural motion data will be recorded and analyzed in a virtual environment.
Students will have a profile page at fablabsd.org, where they will use blogging techniques to document the progression of their learning experience. Student work will showcased on their profile pages at FAB LAB website.
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Drawing and gesture recognition

More about gesture recognition:

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