Design Visualization Winter 2010 Course Highlights

DVIS 101: Intro to Design Visualization

Instructor: Severin Villiger

Key elements of the Design Visualization process are the focus of this course. Experience such as meeting with professionals, working with a client, creating concept designs, researching, working in a production team, creating presentation boards and learning presentation skills are all components in this class. These skills help the future professionals to understand the work flow and the process involved.

The course, DVIS 101: Introduction to Design Visualization builds on a concept study created by working in teams. The class has the great opportunity to work with the City of Portland, helping to design the light rail station layout and structure for the Orange Line from Portland to Milwaukie.

The class is split into two teams.  Each team has its own challenges and opportunities.  One team is working on the start of the new line while the other is working on its terminus.  One team is working in the urban built environment while the other is working in the rural.  

The final design proposal will be presented to the board of the City of Portland. There is the possibility that the student work will be used for the real world environment.

DVIS 314: Transit Studies

Instructor:  William Taylor

“Bus Rapid Transit” systems incorporate the benefits of light rail experiences with the use of specially designed bus vehicles, lanes, and stations at a significantly lower cost. Due to the relatively recent introduction and popularity of such systems, urban and transportation planners have a strong need for visualization of these hybrid systems for the purposes of system design, public education and approval, and fundraising among others.

Through a client guest lecture and research, students interact with a local major transportation planning agency and are given the opportunity to design, direct, and produce a short animated 3D design visualization introducing a Bus Rapid Transit initiative.

Creative design of the animation follows industry standard practices in the development of animated computer graphic films as a studio based endeavor including pre-visualization, production and post-production phases. Students learn to understand sophisticated design narratives and stakeholder requirements and utilize both informational and experiential modes of computer graphic animation to craft a compelling animation.

The structure of the studio emphasizes satisfying relationships between design visualization client requirements, creative storytelling, transit user points of view, efficient use of graphic computation, levels of graphic detail, and quality of resulting media.