Objective: Establish an art foundation and understand how assets move from creation to engine.

• 3D modeling pipeline: high-res sculpt → game-res mesh → baking
  

• UV mapping, retopology, and texturing with Substance Painter (PBR)

• Lighting, rendering, and integration into Unreal Engine and Marmoset
• Sculpting practice in ZBrush for form and proportion

Capstone: Game-Ready Prop — take an asset through the full pipeline and present in a portfolio-ready breakdown.

Objective: Build the algorithmic and graphical foundation of shaders and real-time rendering.

• Ranges, spaces, and coordinate manipulation
  

• Shapes, SDFs, and raymarching concepts

• Transforms, polar coordinates, and trigonometry

• Fractals, recursion, and iterative patterns

• Noise (value, gradient, fBM) and Voronoi functions

• Rendering and post-process effects (NPR, convolution, edge detection) 

Capstone: Shader or Procedural Effect — develop a custom Unreal material, Shadertoy shader, or Houdini HDA demonstrating multiple math-driven effects.

Objective: Extend mathematical and algorithmic foundations into advanced production contexts across Unreal, Substance Designer, and Houdini. 

• Unreal material systems: render targets, layered shaders, dynamic masking
  
  

• Advanced shader and material workflows (procedural graphs, optimization)
  
  

• Niagara for art-driven effects
  
  

• Houdini attribute-driven tools via Houdini Engine
  
  

• Blueprint utilities for editor tools and PCG
  
  

• Graphics Profiling and optimization strategies for production
   

Capstone: Procedural Art Tool or Shader System — create a production-ready tool or shader-driven system (e.g., Niagara library, Houdini terrain scatter tool).

Objective: Learn procedural world-building, terrain creation, and tools for large-scale environment creation.

• Houdini heightfields to Unreal terrains
  

• Procedural landscape materials (layer blending, slope/elevation masks)

• Rock and cliff generation with procedural masking

• Procedural foliage scattering and biome systems

• River and lake generation with flow maps and bank detail

• Building generators (Houdini HDAs for modular assets and buildings)

• Layered materials with procedural trimsheets and atlases
• Procedural city generators (roads, buildings, instancing)
  
  

Capstone: Procedural World Toolkit — Develop a Houdini Digital Asset integrated with Unreal that generates scalable environments. Examples include terrain and biome painters, modular city builders, or procedural river systems with foliage scattering.