Overview

This unit introduces students to the area of production design, the role of the production designer and creative methods used to develop the look and feel of animated outcomes. Students will be introduced to principles of character and environment design, and will learn the value of investigation and iterative development when formulating believable characters and environments for animation.

Requisites

Equivalent units
ANI10004 Introduction to Character and Environment Design

Equivalent
DDM10003 Introduction to Character and Environment Design (Discontinued)

Teaching periods
Location
Start and end dates
Last self-enrolment date
Census date
Last withdraw without fail date
Results released date
Semester 2
Location
Hawthorn
Start and end dates
04-August-2025
02-November-2025
Last self-enrolment date
17-August-2025
Census date
31-August-2025
Last withdraw without fail date
19-September-2025
Results released date
09-December-2025

Learning outcomes

Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:

  • Recall principles of character and environment design during the development and critique of original concepts
  • Apply principles of character and environment design throughout the creation of original concepts
  • Explain the role and expectations of a Production Designer when developing original concepts for animation
  • Demonstrate basic production design methods and workflows in the design of characters and environments for animation
  • Analyse gathered resources to inform the generation of visual ideas and narrative concepts

Teaching methods

Hawthorn

Type Hours per week Number of weeks Total (number of hours)
On-campus
Class		3.00 12 weeks 36
Specified Activities
Various		4.00 12 weeks 48
Unspecified Activities
Various		5.50 12 weeks 66
TOTAL150

Assessment

Type Task Weighting ULO's
Portfolio Individual  40%  1,2,3,4,5 
Environment Design Portfolio Individual  40%  1,2,3,4,5 
Research Assignment Individual  20%  1,5 

Content

  • Production design for animation and the creative screen industries
  • Principles of character and environment design
  • Using reference and resources to develop unique characters, worlds and narratives
  • Exploring form, volume and movement through model and maquette making
  • Colour and graphic treatments, vector and raster illustration techniques
  • Characters in motion - gestural drawing, posing, line of action and staging
  • Style guides, production bibles and process documentation
  • Graduate Attribute – Communication Skills: Communicating using different media
  • Graduate Attribute – Digital Literacies: Information literacy
  • Graduate Attribute – Digital Literacies: Technical literacy

Study resources

Reading materials

A list of reading materials and/or required textbooks will be available in the Unit Outline on Canvas.