DIGITAL ENVIRONMENTS: (3D MEDIA) - 2025/6

Module Overview

Having gained confidence in working with 2D digital graphics, on this module you will progress to the realm of 3D graphics as we explore 3D modelling and texturing techniques. You will develop your understanding of 3D assets for video games, and your ability to create 3D environments using industry-standard packages such as Maya or Blender. Digital Environments (3D Media) begins with a foundation in low-polygon modelling. You will learn how to create models with good surface topology, before smoothing them in a controlled fashion with subdivision surfaces. Students are also introduced to NURBS, an alternative approach to creating smooth models, that has its own strengths and toolset. From there, students learn how to unwrap their models¿ UVs, apply texture maps, set up lights and cameras, and render their scenes. By the end of this module you will understand how to create 3D models from reference imagery, and know when to use a range techniques to produce high-quality game-ready 3D assets.The concepts and skills you learn on this module provide an essential grounding in working with 3D graphics which will inform your work in 3D game engines throughout your studies. This will enable you to produce engaging interactive experiences that will feed forward into advanced applications in animation and environmental design in video games. Digital Environments (3D Media) contributes to the acquisition of technical and specialist software skills across the first year of the degree, and provides a vital foundation for your work with 3D graphics throughout the degree.

Module provider

Music & Media

Module Leader

MOONEY Stephen (Lit & Langs)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 4

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 2

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

None

Module content

Indicative content may include:

• 3D space and coordinates
• Primitive 3D shapes
• Splines and 2D shapes
• Object modifiers
• Topology
• Polygon modelling
• Modelling buildings, props and landscapes
• Nurbs modelling
• Mapping UVs 
• Textures and lighting 
• Hierarchies and inheritance
• Cameras and rendering

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

N/A

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy designed to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate:

• their knowledge of, and skills with, digital graphic and image-making techniques and technologies
• subject knowledge relating to the close analysis of form, meaning and context
• cognitive/analytical skills in critical thinking
• professional/practical skills in communicating ideas in visual form that will feed forward into their future careers in the games and creative industries and beyond
• creative engagement with the opportunities and limitations of particular modes of digital visual representation, skills that will feed forward into their modules in future years of the degree, including their major project in their final year
• creative engagement with the themes discussed on the module, which may include sustainability and global cultural awareness matters
• an ability to locate their own creative work fruitfully and articulately in relation to existing digital art traditions and the contemporary field of visual production as part of their journey to hone their contextualising skills through their degree
• demonstrate their understanding of, and expertise in, production techniques and compositional skills while also encouraging students to experiment and work continually through the semester (rather than attempting to create work just before deadlines)

 Thus, the summative assessment for this module consists of:

• Weekly Lab Tasks (30%)

This summative assessment is an opportunity for students to present their responses to weekly lab exercises and tasks set for the module. The weekly assignments cover each of the techniques presented in class and build toward the creative project. 

• Creative Project (70%)

This summative assessment is an opportunity for students to present a small project-based portfolio using 3D concepts and techniques. This summative assessment represents a culmination of the module¿s output with students presenting a larger creative project of creative digital visual work. They will also submit a reflective critical commentary on the project (1000 words). Formative Assessment & Feedback:The module includes weekly assignments covering the production skills required for each of the briefs, so continuous formative oral assessment and feedback is given through timetabled group critiques. Immediate oral feedback is given on works-in-progress presented during class. In addition, during the laboratory seminar sessions held prior to submission of assessed works, students are given individualised technical support and immediate feedback on their works in progress.Digital graphics, presentation and critical analysis skills will be developed and honed which will feed forward to the summative assessment at the end of the module and towards building the students¿ resilience and confidence in presenting work publicly.

Module aims

• introduce students to the fundamental principles of 3D digital design
• furnish students with applied knowledge of the principles, controls and workflow inherent in building, texturing, and rendering 3D models in a professional 3D modelling package
• equip students to work in 3D environments and with 3D assets
• provide students with support to further develop their 3D production skills
• prepare students to be able to make informed decisions about what approaches and techniques may be most suitable for a specific project
• provide students with experience of 'real world' industry briefs
• develop students' reflective writing skills in relation to their studio-based activities

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to:

• develop further technical skills in ways that facilitate creative independence and an ability to continue learning processes outside the classroom through the use of online tutorials, books, etc., providing an overview of digital and media arts production techniques and pipelines
• facilitate students' continued productive reflection on their creative work and connect this to critical approaches encountered on the module
• hone and develop students' writing skills in academic writing by developing an awareness of the application of their creative practice in informing their critical thinking, and vice versa, and in further developing workshopping and editing skills through in-class discussion and sharing of experience alongside study of critical and source materials
• further develop students' grounding in resourcefulness and resilience as developing digital artists by giving them the freedom to experiment with form and style in response to form-based exercises, and by providing them with the supportive and encouraging safe space of the laboratory seminar within which they can develop further their skills in receiving and giving constructive critical and creative responses to their own work and those of other students and to develop a more developed awareness of their creative process in relation to the technology, digital graphics and game design
• help students develop further the sorts of visual communication skills so valuable in the games industries and related creative industries (and beyond) through the editing and feedback process engendered though the exercises and the workshopping process in tandem with an emphasis on seeing alongside designing as a critical tool in developing artistic skills.

The learning and teaching methods include:

• Lectures and demonstrations
• Laboratory seminars and open-ended tasks
• Group critique

These lectures, laboratory seminars and group critiques are organised into 3 sections (still photo, image manipulation and vector artwork creation) to:

• introduce techniques
• give students in-class experience with the techniques
• attempt the techniques independently
• provide techique-specific technical feedback.

Sessions are taught in small groups in bespoke labs. The required computers and software tools and technologies will be supplied by the university. Students may also use their own equipment as desired. Students will also engage with preparatory reading. This is designed to help students reflect on and apply their learning to creative and critical outputs, the laboratory seminar environment acts as a safe space for developing and exchanging ideas, support and observational and digital graphic skills.Varied learning materials such as texts, visual materials, videos, sounds, and games will be used to increase student accessibility and will present them with a range of interpretive materials and approaches with which to work and develop their own thinking and creative responses.

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: DMA1018

Other information

The School of Arts, Humanities & Creative Industries is committed to developing graduates with strengths in Employability, Digital Capabilities, Global and Cultural Capabilities, Sustainability, and Resourcefulness and Resilience. This module is designed to allow students to develop knowledge, skills, and capabilities in the following areas:

Employability: this 1st year module further explores digital graphics and visual art not just in relation to games and the games industries, but beyond to a whole host of industries and fields that utilise these skills, techniques and technologies, such as film, tv, interactive art, music and many other industries by providing up-to-the-minute knowledge and understanding of tools and techniques used every day in these fields at professional level. In focussing on, and growing, key digital graphics skills, in this module you will develop the sorts of proficiencies and abilities that will facilitate your practice as a professional digital visual arts practitioner. The modelling, sculpting environment design, object design, coding and problem solving skills and aptitudes developed in this module will feed forward to the visual arts and design modules throughout your degree, such as character design, animation and virtual production.

Equally important for employability within these areas (and often overlooked) is the development of ‘personability’: so that employers, collaborators, funders and commissioners want to work with you.

Digital Capabilities: this module, and the programme as a whole, is built on the very latest digital techniques and technologies developed and employed by not just the games industries, but the wider creative industries and beyond, thus ‘digital capabilities’ is at the heart of your learning in Digital Environments (3D Media). Students are introduced to, and gain proficiency in, 3D modelling, design and rendering programmes, tools, techniques and practices. In addition, the opportunities and challenges posed by generative AI will form part of the skills development of students. Appropriate use of digital media and communication platforms is increasingly important for visual arts and creative industry professionals and students will gain and develop those invaluable skills as part of this module.

Digital image generation and production is an inherently ‘digital’ activity, and this module engages at all levels with technology and digital skills. As part of the module laboratory seminars, you will also be encouraged to communicate with one another and to work on some exercises using SurreyLearn, Microsoft Teams, and other digital and file and output sharing platforms, skills will be carried forward to other modules across your degree and beyond.

Global and Cultural Capabilities: Visual arts and digital graphics and are fields that reach out to all parts of the human experience and all parts of our global cultures. Digital graphics and visual art, especially through the creation of digital environments, also play a very important recording and preservation role in narrativising and keeping alive and vibrant different cultures and experiences, especially those that might otherwise be silenced or endangered. The weekly laboratory seminar sessions give students the opportunity to present your own visual work and to experience and respond to those of others in a friendly, constructive and open forum. Games Design students will be exposed, throughout their degree, to a wide range of approaches, textuality and visuality from all over the world and students are encouraged to bring this knowledge into their digital graphics, visual arts and design practice right from the beginning of their study of image creation.

Resourcefulness and Resilience: this module, through the shared experience that comes about from sharing work with other students will help equip you for the real world setting of your current and future digital visual art practice. You will benefit from the experience of your peers (a really important group, as you will be the digital visual artists of the future), from your tutors who are all have professional digital visual arts skills and from periodic guest speakers attached to the Games Design programme as you progress through your degree.

This module provides students with a number of challenges which reflect the current state of the art. Students need to respond to these with inventiveness and flexibility and are often required to research and develop their own solutions to given problems. This module also helps set the stage for more detailed discussions in later visual arts and design modules on your degree about your practice as an artist, the practicalities of building a portfolio of work and a profile as an artist in the games industries and beyond.

Sustainability: Students are made aware of sustainable production practices around the production and presentation of digital graphics and visual art. Furthermore, from a content viewpoint, students may choose to produce creative work that directly addresses environmental and sustainability issues as part of their subject matter. Teachers across the School also work closely with the University of Surrey’s Institute for Sustainability to explore and promote the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2025/6 academic year.