Course details

This curriculum has been developed with a double graphic and technical aim:

Graphic training – Technical training – General training – Practicals – Work placements

1. Graphic training

Graphic design (195h)

Courses of drawing obviously, but also of modelling, layout, computer-aided graphic design, photography and image processing.
As the graphic training is not limited to its ‘technical’ aspects, extended skills in visual communication (120 h) and aesthetics (45h) as well as critical education (30h of phenomenology of perception and 30h of logic, image and argumentation) complete the students’ graphic culture.

2. Technical training

3D computer-generated images (CGI)

CGI is a highly specialized computer graphics field and is widely dealt with from the beginning of the first year (90 h) with the study of the basics of reference software so as to be able to model and animate. The students who wish to choose this field for their final project will have the opportunity to improve their knowledge through workshops that will take place in the 2nd and 3rd years as well as through lab work and work placements in the 3rd year.

Detailed computer graphics techniques

This course is made up of several workshops taking place in the 2nd and 3rd years. The computer graphics techniques learnt in the first year are dealt with more in details and according to the student’s personal project. For instance thanks to the notions of 3D computer-generated images from the first year, it will be possible to master modelling skills in order to create a high-definition model for a movie, to use the same skills for specific applications (modelling for video games) or to learn new techniques (compositing, postproduction, special effects,…). This approach can be extended to all the other fields of computer graphics (150h).

Multimedia computer graphics techniques

Introduction to the various content creation software and multimedia production tools (25h). This course is linked with other courses such as ‘Digital compression and transfer rates’ or ‘Image reproduction and transmission techniques’. As for CGI, the students willing to choose this field for their final project will have the opportunity to improve their knowledge through workshops in the 2nd and 3rd years, as well as through lab work and work placements in the 3rd year.

Special techniques

This course is composed of several workshops held during the 2nd and 3rd years. Varied and specialized skills are dealt with, ranging from storyboard to sound design for a site or a movie. These techniques are directly connected with the students’ personal projects and can thus vary from one work group to the other. The purpose is to enable students to make their final project professional (180 h).

Advanced digital techniques

Just like courses of Special techniques, this course is made up of several workshops held during the 2nd and 3rd years.
Varied and specialized techniques are dealt with, ranging from image processing to animation of video game characters or interactive interface design, and even advanced digital layout techniques. These skills are directly connected with the students’ personal projects and can thus vary from one work group to the other, the purpose being once again to put the students in a learning environment that enables them to make their final project professional (240 h).

3. General training

IT training

In addition to the 90 hours of fundamental IT (computer structure and networks, operating systems, logic and programming technique) extended training in specialized IT is provided for (150 hours of digital compression and transfer rates, image reproduction and transmission techniques, specialized IT techniques).

Fundamental science training

Applied biology (anatomy): background knowledge in descriptive, systematic and scientific anatomy enabling the students to address morphological drawing with an analytical mind (30h).

Applied physics (optics)

Study of the nature of light and its properties in connection with the techniques of the graphics industry and related technologies (30h).

Mathematics

The aim is to provide the students with tools they can rapidly transfer to their professional objectives: the 50-hour course of mathematics deals with mathematics applied to computer graphics (introduction to logic and to binary and hexadecimal arithmetic, geometry in connection with the graphic design and computer graphics industry).

General courses

English

For this course as for the others, the purpose is essentially practical and aims at gaining technical vocabulary related to IT and to computer graphics, as well as fundamental skills in oral and written expression linked to their future occupation (105h).

Introduction to copyrights

Far from being a theoretical course cut off from the professional reality for which students are getting prepared, this course aims at making students aware of the positive and negative effects of the laws concerning their future occupation (protecting their rights and sanction in case of infringement) (15h).

4. Practicals

Colour management and colorimetry

The course of applied physics is put in practice through this lab work aiming at enabling computer graphics students to implement colour management techniques in the graphic process in which they will have to work (15 h).

Anatomical representation

Implementation of the basic knowledge acquired in the anatomy course, anatomical representation from an écorché and from a living model (75 h).

Codified representation

Implementation of basic knowledge in geometry and drawings of volumes integrated into spaces and put in perspective (15 h).

Lab work in computer graphics techniques and final project (TFE)

In those third-year courses students work on their final work under the supervision of the different 3rd-year teachers (150 h). In those case more than in any other the approach is clearly tailored to individual needs.

5. Work placements

The work placement is the key element of a professional training such as our Bachelor’s degree, and is of great importance in the third-year programme (12 weeks). The agreement set up between the company or the host institution and the Haute Ecole Albert Jacquard explicitly provides for the obligation for the company to offer students on-the-job training in order to allow them to improve their practical skills but also to specialize with a view to their final project. This work placement takes place under the guidance of a supervisor appointed by the company and by at least one supervising teacher specialized in the company’s industry. An assessment is drawn up by the 3 parties at the end of the placement.