Archive notice: This article was originally published on March 22, 2010. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
In the Game Design degree programme at Mediadesign Hochschule, the first semester concludes with a modelling workshop lasting several weeks. Its purpose is to familiarise the future creators of computer games with anatomy, proportions and material structures and to stimulate their creativity.
Modelling with clay describes a direct path from thought and feeling, through the intelligence of the hand, to sculptural work, opening up an additional level for developing ideas. Engaging with the body’s proportions and anatomy establishes the foundations for spatial work. They form an important basis for creating the three-dimensional digital worlds, characters and fictional figures that game designers produce during their studies and careers.
The modelling course contains two project assignments: after an introduction to the anatomy and proportions of the human skull and the function of human musculature, the first project is to model a head at three-quarter scale, with the students serving as models and measuring one another with compasses and tape measures as precisely as possible.
The second assignment is a free project in which the students use all their creativity to shape clay models up to 60 cm tall by hand and with great dedication. Since they are now familiar with the material, astonishing creatures emerge during this phase with tremendous attention to detail.
The six-semester Game Design degree at Mediadesign Hochschule remains strongly project-oriented in subsequent semesters and, alongside its academic standards, is primarily aligned with the practical requirements of developing real-time 3D games. In the fifth and sixth semesters, students specialise in design or programming, culminating in a bachelor’s thesis produced as a game or playable game sequence. The programme concludes with the academic degree Bachelor of Science.
The modelling course and the project results shown were professionally supervised by freelance artist Barbara Spaett. All photographs were taken by Wallo Linné, a specialist lecturer at Mediadesign Hochschule.
Mediadesign Hochschule is one of Germany’s leading media universities. It trains the next generation in all relevant areas of media. In the 2009/10 winter semester, more than 1,300 trainee media designers and students were enrolled in bachelor’s and master’s programmes in Media Design, Game Design, Media Management, Fashion Design, On-Air/TV Design and Digital Film Design at its Munich, Düsseldorf and Berlin locations. The small seminar groups enable close collaboration with professors and instructors, ensuring a short and practically oriented period of study.
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