The first thing to note is that visual art electives are moving from year-long classes to semester long classes.
So, if you are enrolled in Digital Arts, you could get a rough understanding of what we will be doing in class; but we will not be able to do all of the things we have done in the past. Notably, Digital Arts will not be doing web design or animation.
If you are enrolled in Cartooning and Animation, we will be doing animations; so you could get a rough sense of some of the things we will be doing in Cartooning and Animation if you look at some of the Adobe Flash (this year we will be using Adobe Animate) tutorials and assignments from last year; ; but we will be doing things that Digital Arts hasn’t done, so you’ll only get a small insight.
With that said, here’s a bit of an overview of the classes I will teach, as I currently imagine them:
In Digital Arts, we will learn how to use Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop. I imagine that we will spend the first two months working in Adobe Illustrator, and the second two months working in Adobe Photoshop, and the last month we will create a capstone project that shows our best work in a project that combines both programs.
In Cartooning and Animation, we will likely take some time developing stories – creating characters, settings, and plots. We will likely draw some cartoons by hand, and eventually move onto the computer. We will likely use Adobe Illustrator (or Adobe Photoshop) to continue our development as cartoonists. We will end the semester creating short, animated films using Adobe Animate.
In Video/Film we begin the semester working in groups to plan projects, write stories, use digital sound and video recording devices, and edit footage. Early on in the semester, we will establish roles and develop production teams within the class. By the second month of school we will be producing a regular (likely fortnightly) news program for the school. For this class, we will using Adobe Premiere to edit our videos.
That’s it, I guess. Now I’m off to write my syllabus. I look forward to meeting you. Best wishes.