``` I am creating a Canvas course for ARTV 2371 Advanced Skill Development for Animation. This course is part of the Enhanced Skills Certificate that students can earn after they received their Associate of Applied Science or Certificate in Animation & Game Art. There are usually only two students in the course, and it is offered alongside another lecture course. Students work projects independently and consult with the instructor every week to report their progress, receive project critiques, and gain instruction on where to go next. Students can focus on a number of areas: 3D animation, character rigging, concept art and storyboard, motion graphics, game design, game programming, virtual production, or other related areas. I'd like to create a course schedule and Canvas pages, plus numerous resources for this course. I've uploaded PDF (created in Excel) from Fall 2025. The new course is being offered Fall 2026. This Tuesday course is not affected by the Thanksgiving Break, which starts on Wednesday. Please research the latest job trends and employer requirements, so students can gain those skills. ``` --- I'll start by reading your Fall 2025 materials to understand the existing structure. Used 2 tools What format do you want the Canvas pages delivered in?Markdown documents How much should the Fall 2026 structure change from Fall 2025?Keep 3 projects + add career/portfolio track Which specialization tracks should the resources cover in depth?3D anim, rigging, tech art, game dev Searched the web, updated tasks, loaded tools Research done. Building the course materials now. Created 9 files, ran a command Core Canvas pages done. Now the industry report and track resource guides. Created 6 files Now the setup guide and verification. Updated tasks, used 5 tools, ran 3 commands Sixteen markdown files, ready to paste into Canvas — nine course pages, six track resource guides, and a setup guide that maps each file to a Canvas page and lists the eleven assignments to create. **The schedule works out cleanly.** Fall 2026 gives you sixteen Tuesdays with no cancellations: Aug 25 through Dec 8, with Dec 8 landing inside finals week (Dec 7–13) for the final review. Nov 24 is a class day as you said — Thanksgiving runs Wed Nov 25 through Sun Nov 29. Census is Sep 8, withdrawal deadline Oct 30. **Structure is unchanged from Fall 2025.** Same three projects at 30 points each, same milestone names (research, thumbnails, first draft, final render, written/video tutorial), attendance at 10, total 100 + 5 extra credit = 105. I put the new Career & Portfolio Track in that 5-point extra-credit slot so your existing grade sheet still balances — it runs as a small weekly deliverable (résumé pass, job-posting teardown, reel assembly, a Week 14 mock interview) that assembles into a package due Week 15. If you'd rather grade it inside the 100, say so and I'll produce that variant. **What the research changed.** A few findings shaped the project pages more than I expected: - The GDC 2026 survey has 28% of respondents laid off in the past two years and studios hiring for demonstrated ability over potential — so Project 3 now requires students to name a target role and three studios _before_ concepting, and the "finished beats ambitious" scoping guidance is explicit. - Portfolio expectations have hardened around showing _how_, not just _what_ — wireframes, texture map breakdowns, rig demos, profiling numbers. That's now a planned capture deliverable in Project 3 rather than something reconstructed at the end. - OpenUSD hit Core Spec 1.0 and is heading toward ISO ratification. Almost no new graduate has it on a résumé, so it's flagged as a high-leverage Project 2 choice. - Generative AI is contested enough (36% use it, 52% say it's harming the industry) that I wrote disclosure language into academic integrity rather than leaving it implicit. The depth guides cover 3D animation, rigging, tech art, and game dev with free rigs, learning resources, portfolio standards, and project ideas per track; concept art, motion graphics, and virtual production get lighter treatment in a fourth file. Two things you'll want to do before publishing: paste your official Collin syllabus header into the Course Information page, and confirm the Tuesday time-block breakdown in the Consultation Protocol matches how you actually run the five hours — I sketched a 9:00 reports / individual consultations / supervised production structure that's easy to adjust. Sources: [Collin College 2026–2027 Academic Calendar](https://www.collin.edu/calendars/pdfs/2026-2027-academic-calendar.pdf) · [GDC 2026 State of the Game Industry](https://gdconf.com/article/gdc-2026-state-of-the-game-industry-reveals-impact-of-layoffs-generative-ai-and-more/) · [BLS Occupational Outlook](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/arts-and-design/multimedia-artists-and-animators.htm) · [Skillsearch 2026 job market](https://www.skillsearch.com/news/item/the-mood-of-the-games-job-market-in-2026--from-passion-to-pragmatism) · [PixelCareer 3D Artist Guide 2026](https://www.pixelcareer.com/3d-artist-career-guide-2026/) · [Epic — Jobs in Unreal Engine: Technical Artist](https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/tech-blog/jobs-in-unreal-engine---technical-artist) · [CGSpectrum Technical Artist](https://www.cgspectrum.com/career-pathways/technical-artist) · [SuperRenders VFX Trends 2026](https://superrendersfarm.com/article/vfx-industry-trends-2026) · [KORE1 Hiring Unreal Developers 2026](https://www.kore1.com/hire-unreal-developers-2026/) · [Alliance for OpenUSD Core Spec 1.0](https://aousd.org/news/core-spec-announcement/) · [iAnimate Recruiters' Perspective](https://ianimate.net/more/articles/animation-recruiters-perspective-stand-out-and-get-hired) Artv2371 fall2026 canvas course ZIP  Readme canvas setup Document · MD  00 course schedule Document · MD  09 industry skills report 2026 Document · MD  Artv2371 fall2026 course schedule Document · MD --- ``` I've looked over the course materials. I'd like to remove the resume, networking, demo reel, cover letter, mock interview elements. There is a Portfolio course for that. I'd still like students to audit their career, review their portfolio, and choose a track. This class is normally after students have taken the Portfolio Development course, so they should have an existing online portfolio that they can refer to and expand. The Industry Skills reports are important, and we can update them each semester. Perhaps we can think of specific items for each of the projects. Project 1 is a Deconstruction where students choose an existing special effects sequence, game mechanic, character design, etc., and recreate it, perhaps in their own style. This allows students to understand how to arrive at a final product, but not worry so much about creative direction. I have typically used The Art of the Title to show a specific Movie or TV show opening that students can choose from. Project 2 is taking one of the techniques they learned in Project 1 and developing a Tutorial so they can teach others or archive their process. They can produce a written tutorial, a video, or perhaps now they can use AI to craft it! The third project is original work. This could be a project that is inspired by their own creativity and could address a paucity in their portfolio, some skill they need to develop to target a specific job posting but that is not yet shown in their portfolio pieces. Can we rework this? I also need Weekly (there is one class meeting per week) Canvas pages to focus what students do each week. ``` --- Good — that tightens the course considerably, and the portfolio audit feeding Project 3 is a clean loop. A few decisions before I rework: How should AI factor into the Project 2 tutorial?Allowed as a production aid, disclosed For Project 1, how prescriptive should the source menu be?Track-driven with curated lists for each What should the weekly Canvas pages contain?Full focus page per week (Recommended) What happens to the 5 extra credit points now that the career track is trimmed?Keep 5 EC for the audit + portfolio review Searched the web Research grounded. Reworking now — starting with the three project pages. Created 3 files Project pages reworked. Now the trimmed orientation page and the 16 weekly pages. Created 17 files, ran a command All 16 weekly pages written. Now updating the schedule, home, course info, rubrics, and setup guide to match. Created 2 files, ran 2 commands Two fixes needed — the due-date table order and a stale learning outcome. Ran a command Now the updated setup guide, plus a final consistency check across all files. Ran 4 commands, used 2 tools, created a file Reworked. 32 files now — the career material is trimmed to what you kept, the three projects chain properly, and there are 16 weekly pages. **The projects now feed each other**, which they didn't before. Project 1's research milestone produces a _technique list_ — every technique the rebuild requires, marked have it / partial / don't have it. That list is literally the menu Project 2 picks from, so the deeper a student digs in September, the more they have to teach in October. Week 3's portfolio gap statement gets reread in Week 11 and becomes the Project 3 brief. It's one loop instead of three assignments. **Project 1** now leads with your framing — choose a title sequence, effects shot, game mechanic, character design, level, or rig and recreate it, faithfully _or in your own style_. Art of the Title is the primary source for the motion/title track with nine specific sequences scoped by difficulty (Catch Me If You Can is very achievable; Westworld is a scope trap, and I flagged it as one). Every other track got its own vetted list — Blender Studio's open movies for animation since they publish the actual production files, Agora and Mery for rigging, specific shipped-game systems for tech art and programming. **Project 2** is now "teach one technique from Project 1," and the "final render" milestone became the demonstration piece the tutorial produces. I added a note that catches the predictable misread: the tutorial is the deliverable, the demo exists to make the technique visible, so a clean sphere showing a shader teaches better than an environment where it's one element of forty. AI is allowed as a production aid under three conditions — the technique knowledge is theirs, every published step is personally verified, and use is disclosed. I leaned on the verification point because AI-generated technical instructions are confidently wrong often enough to embarrass someone publicly, and that's the real risk, not academic dishonesty. **Weekly pages** each have: focus, due today, bring to class, in-class agenda, before next week, and a short instructional note. The notes are where I put the things worth saying once — why "complete at rough standard" means the whole thing rough rather than 20% polished, why students should start with the technique they can't do rather than the easy parts, why Week 13 always feels worst and isn't a signal about the work. Week 9 has a peer reproduction test where each student tries to follow the other's tutorial unaided; where they stall is the real feedback, and it's almost never where the author expected. **Two things to decide before publishing:** the Course Schedule has a week-link table with `#` placeholders you'll swap for real Canvas URLs, and you may want date-based release on the weekly pages so students aren't scrolling past sixteen entries. The setup guide now includes a refresh table for the Industry Skills Report — which source to re-pull each semester and when it updates. BLS refreshes annually, GDC's survey lands each January. Hand me the current report next fall and I'll do a data pass. Artv2371 fall2026 canvas course ZIP  Readme canvas setup Document · MD  04 project1 deconstruction Document · MD  05 project2 new techniques tutorial Document · MD  07 audit portfolio review track Document · MD  Artv2371 fall2026 course schedule Document · MD ---