METHODOLOGY

This course places greater weight on the practical and project components compared to the theoretical component. The practical and project parts will be carried out in work sessions tutored by the instructor, work demonstration sessions, submissions of reports and documentation, and autonomous work carried out by the student individually or in groups.

• THEORY: Lectures with material that will be previously provided on the Virtual Campus, introducing theoretical concepts (exterior and interior environment creation, theory of materials, and visual effects) as well as practical concepts (Blender, Quixel, and Unity) of the course. Despite being theory classes, a large part of the session will be dedicated to solving problems posed by the instructor, either individually or in groups.
• PRACTICALS: Practical cases of different environments will be posed in groups of 3 people, where a prompt will be provided and students must implement and present a solution for the case using Blender and Unity. These practical cases will require the application of the concepts explained in the theory classes.
• PROJECT (Virtual Environment Development): Mid-course, students will form tutored work teams to fully develop the visual and artistic environment suitable for a Virtual Reality (VR) and/or Augmented Reality (AR) application over 6 weeks. During class sessions, students will do group work where they must define tasks, assign them to each member, and periodically submit meeting minutes and monitoring logs to the Virtual Campus. On the last day of class, each group will give an oral presentation of the project, having previously submitted a report of the work done along with the functional interactive environment.

COMPETENCES

• Develop autonomous learning strategies.
• Capacity for organization and planning of the artistic production pipeline.
• Capacity for technical problem-solving within game engines (Unity).

SOFTWARE

Blender, Quixel Mixer, Unity 3D.

The detailed calendar with the content of the different sessions will be displayed on the presentation day of the course and will also be available on the Virtual Campus, where students can find the various teaching materials that the teaching staff deems appropriate and all the information necessary for the proper monitoring of the course. In the event of a change in teaching modality due to force majeure according to the competent authorities, the teaching staff will report the changes that will occur in the programming of the course and in the teaching methodologies.

NOTE: The content of the course will be sensitive to aspects related to the gender perspective and the use of inclusive language.

Annotation: within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.

EVALUATION

1. Continuous Evaluation Activities The evaluation activities graded out of 10 are the following:

• a) Theoretical test (20% of the final grade)
• b) Submission of practical assignments (20% of the final grade)
• c) Practical execution (Virtual Environment Project) (40% of the final grade)
• d) Monitoring, submission of minutes, and log control of project sessions (10% of the final grade)
• e) Oral presentation of assignments and project (10% of the final grade)

2. Criteria to Calculate the Final Grade

• To calculate the final grade of the course, a minimum grade of 5.0 will be required in the Theoretical test, the Submission of practical assignments, and the Global Grade of the Project.
• Activity d) Monitoring and minutes does not require a minimum grade to be factored into the average.
• To pass the course, students must obtain a minimum global final grade of 5.0.

3. Criteria for the Assignment of a "Non-Assessable" (No Avaluable) According to point 9 of article 266 of the UAB Academic Regulations, when it is considered that the student has not been able to provide sufficient evidence of evaluation, this course must be graded as non-assessable. In this course, a "Non-Assessable" grade will be assigned if the student does not take the theoretical test and, at the same time, does not submit the final environment project.

4. Reassessment / Recovery Process

• Students will be entitled to reassessment in the course if they have been evaluated on a set of activities accounting for at least two-thirds of the total course grade (article 261.2 of the UAB Academic Regulations).
• The reassessable activities are the Theoretical test and the conceptual practical assignments. Due to its nature as a group production tutored over 6 weeks, the Final Environment Project (40%) is defined as a non-reassessable activity.
• To participate in the reassessment activities, the teaching staff requires students to have obtained a minimum grade of 3.5 in the corresponding failed activity.
• The maximum grade that can be obtained in the reassessment process of a failed activity will be 8.0. Reassessment is not provided for passing students who wish to raise their grade.

5. Single Evaluation This course/module does not provide for a single-evaluation system.

6. Management and Stability of Work Groups Work groups are considered stable and cannot be dissolved or modified after the first three project sessions. If, for justified reasons of force majeure, a modification is required before this deadline, the express authorization of the instructor will be necessary. In such a case, the faculty will adjust the scope of the assignment according to the number of group members or establish an individualized work plan for the affected members, while maintaining the same competence criteria and weighting percentages set in this guide. Failure to accept these bases of tutored work will result in the immediate suspension of the activity.

7. Students in Second Enrollment or Beyond In the case of a second enrollment, students may opt to take a single synthesis test consisting of a control of theoretical contents and advanced practical exercises in environment creation. The final grade for the course will correspond entirely to the grade of this synthesis test. Students wishing to choose this modality must notify the course coordinator in writing before the deadline established by the center.

BREAKDOWN AND DETAIL OF ACTIVITIES

• a) THEORETICAL TEST: Individual theoretical exam on environment composition, lighting, PBR material behavior, and modular structures.
• b) SUBMISSION OF PRACTICAL ASSIGNMENTS: Exercises on creating modular metric pieces, developing Trim maps, and configuring Atlases in Blender.
• c) PROJECT (Virtual Environment): The evaluation of the environment will be based on a collective group grade (70%) weighted with individual involvement and milestones (30%), considering the following elements:
• Executable Application and Scene: Correct and optimized integration of the environment into Unity 3D, proper application of PBR materials, and adequate technical performance for VR/AR.
• Technical Report / Group Portfolio: Explanatory document covering the project approach, task organization, artistic references, and assembly manuals.
• d) MONITORING AND MINUTES: Weekly submission of group meeting minutes reflecting the agreements reached and the control of tasks assigned to each member.
• e) ORAL PRESENTATION: Visual defense and technical exposition of the scene on the last day of the course before the class.

REGULATIONS ON SANCTIONS AND USE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Restricted Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) For this course, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies is permitted exclusively as a support tool for searching for artistic references, programming auxiliary support scripts or shaders under their own responsibility, support tasks such as bibliographic or information searches, text correction, or report translations. The final result must necessarily reflect a significant and original contribution by the students in geometric modeling, environment design, and personal analysis. Students must clearly identify any parts supported by this technology, specify the tools used, and include a critical reflection in the documentation. Failure to disclose the use of AI will be considered a breach of academic integrity and may result in a grade of 0 for the activity, or more serious sanctions in severe cases.

Mention of Academic Irregularities In the event that a student commits any irregularity (academic fraud, plagiarism, impersonation, or improper use of AI) that could lead to a significant variation in the grade of an evaluation act, this evaluation act will be graded with a 0, regardless of the disciplinary process that may be instructed. If several irregularities occur within the evaluation acts of the same course, the final grade for this course will be 0.

Action in Cases of Suspected Irregularities Any student or group suspected of submitting environment elements that have been generated by AI without authorization, purchased, or copied, may be asked to provide preliminary development work (original .blend files, Quixel Mixer layers, or version control logs in Unity) that demonstrate original authorship. The teaching staff may conduct any checks and individual interviews deemed appropriate to verify the authorship of the submitted pieces. If irregularities are detected, the evaluation act will be graded zero.