Design: From Figment to Form: The Art of World-Building

Standards Integration

Design: From Figment to Form: The Art of World-Building Standards Integration

Montana Content Standards for Arts: Media Arts (Grades 9-12)

  • Creating (CR)
  • MA.CR.1.HS1 – Use multiple approaches to begin creative endeavors in media arts
    • Addressed in:
      • Week 1, Topic 1: World Brainstorm Worksheet – students generate three different world concepts with thumbnails before choosing direction
      • Week 2, Topic 1: Setting thumbnail sketches (3-4 approaches) exploring different views and environmental moments
      • Week 4, Topic 1: Lifeform Character Brief with three full-body silhouette sketches exploring different design directions
      • Week 4, Topic 4: Silhouette Shape Study – five variations using dramatically different shape languages
  • MA.CR.1.HS2 – Formulate variations of goals and solutions for media arts products using multiple viewpoints and creative processes
    • Addressed in:
      • Week 1, Topic 2: World Detail Map organized by categories (shelter, clothing, food, nature, objects, transportation) to explore multiple aspects
      • Week 3, Topic 1: Artifact Brainstorm across at least three categories with 10+ options before selecting top three
      • Week 5, Topic 1: World Cohesion Audit identifying multiple approaches to strengthen consistency
  • MA.CR.2.HS1 – Collaboratively apply aesthetic criteria in developing, proposing, and refining artistic ideas, plans, prototypes, and production processes for media arts productions
    • Addressed in:
      • Week 1, Topic 4: World Color Palette with 2-3 sentence rationale explaining aesthetic choices
      • Week 4, Topic 4: Design checklist (silhouette, line economy, texture, color, cohesion) applied to lifeform development
      • Week 5, Topic 2: Focused Revision Session implementing instructor feedback and aesthetic refinement
      • Week 6, Topic 1: Final Illustration Review applying readability and consistency criteria
  • MA.CR.2.HS2 – Refine and elaborate aesthetic elements and technical components to intentionally form impactful expressions in media artworks
    • Addressed in:
      • Week 2, Topic 2: Environment Detail Study – focused sketches of plants, materials, and atmospheric elements
      • Week 3, Topic 3: Contour Line Form Study demonstrating progression from flat to three-dimensional rendering
      • Week 4, Topic 2: Simplification Redraw Challenge – three iterations refining line economy
      • Week 4, Topic 3: Texture Reference and Swatch Sheet with six texture studies showing intentional surface treatment
  • MA.CR.3.HS1 – Consolidate production processes to demonstrate deliberate choices in organizing and integrating content and stylistic conventions in media arts productions
    • Addressed in:
      • Week 5, Topic 4: Concept Sheet Work Session – organizing finished illustration, supporting sketches, color swatches, and labels with intentional hierarchy
      • Week 6, Topic 2: Composite Sheet assembly integrating all three deliverables with clear visual hierarchy and layout logic
      • Week 6, Topic 3: Export protocols at 300dpi with professional file naming conventions
  • MA.CR.3.HS2 – Refine and modify media artworks, improving technical quality and intentionally accentuating selected expressive and stylistic elements
    • Addressed in:
      • Week 5, Topic 1: World Cohesion Audit with targeted edit identification
      • Week 5, Topic 2: Revision session with color corrections, line consistency, and detail additions
      • Week 6, Topic 1: Final touch-up focusing on high-impact details (highlights, shadows, texture passes)
  • Producing (PR)
  • MA.PR.4.HS1 – Integrate various arts, media arts forms, and content into unified media arts productions that retain thematic integrity and stylistic continuity
    • Addressed in:
      • Week 1, Topic 4: World Color Palette establishing consistent color scheme across all three deliverables
      • Week 3, Topic 4: Shape Language consistency applied across setting, artifacts, and life-form
      • Week 5, Topic 1: Cohesion Audit ensuring thematic and stylistic unity (color, shape language, materials, mood)
      • Week 6, Topic 2: Composite sheet unifying setting, artifacts, and lifeform into single cohesive presentation
  • MA.PR.5.HS1 – Demonstrate effective command of artistic, design, technical, and soft skills in managing and producing media artworks
    • Addressed in:
      • Week 2, Topics 3-4: Procreate and Adobe Fresco technical skill development with practice pages
      • Week 6, Topic 3: Professional file management – export at correct resolution, proper naming, successful Airdrop submission
      • Week 7, Topic 1: Gallery installation demonstrating presentation and curation skills
      • Throughout: Time management across 7-week timeline with multiple deliverables
  • MA.PR.5.HS2 – Demonstrate effective command of artistic, design, technical and soft skills in managing and producing media artworks
    • Addressed in:
      • Week 3, Topic 3: Technical skill in contour lines and form rendering
      • Week 4, Topic 2: Line economy mastery through progressive simplification
      • Week 5, Topics 3-4: Professional concept sheet layout with typography, hierarchy, and composition
      • Week 7, Topic 2: Oral presentation skills in World Tour Share-Out
  • MA.PR.6.HS1 – Evaluate the benefits and impacts of presenting media artworks for different audiences, contexts, and purposes
    • Addressed in:
      • Week 5, Topic 3: Concept sheet as professional design tool – understanding audience needs in portfolio reviews and industry presentation
      • Week 7, Topic 1: Discussion of how professional designers present work in portfolio reviews, gallery shows, and conventions
      • Week 7, Topic 2: World Tour Share-Out – presenting to peer audience with narrative and design explanation
  • Responding (RE)
  • MA.RE.7.HS1 – Analyze the qualities of and relationships within a variety of media artworks to identify and interpret meaning and intent
    • Addressed in:
      • Week 1, Topic 1: Analysis of worldbuilding examples across genres (alien planets, prehistoric landscapes, underwater civilizations, mythological realms)
      • Week 1, Topic 4: Color theory analysis – understanding emotional and cultural associations
      • Week 3, Topic 4: Shape language analysis – interpreting meaning from circles (friendly), squares (stable), triangles (dangerous)
      • Week 4, Topic 3: Texture as storytelling – interpreting status, history, and identity from surface qualities
  • MA.RE.7.HS2 – Survey an exemplary range of media artworks, analyzing methods for managing audience experience, creating intention and persuasion through multimodal perception
    • Addressed in:
      • Week 1, Topic 1: Examining professional worldbuilding from films, games, and concept art to understand what draws audiences
      • Week 3, Topic 1: Analyzing how artifacts create audience understanding of culture and daily life through visual storytelling
      • Week 5, Topic 3: Professional concept sheet examples from animation and game design showing how information is organized for viewer comprehension
  • MA.RE.8.HS1 – Analyze the intent, meanings, and reception of a variety of media artworks, focusing on personal and cultural contexts
    • Addressed in:
      • Week 1, Topic 2: Discussion of how environmental design choices reflect culture, history, and logic
      • Week 1, Topic 3: Ethical reference use – analyzing difference between inspiration and appropriation in cultural context
      • Week 4, Topic 1: Lifeform’s relationship to world (dominant, harmonious, out of place, hidden, intimidating, protective) as cultural narrative
      • Week 4, Topic 3: Analyzing how texture reveals cultural status (royalty vs. everyday being vs. warrior)
  • MA.RE.9.HS1 – Form and defend evaluations and judgments about the qualities and conditions of media artworks and production processes, considering context
    • Addressed in:
      • Week 4, Topic 4: Design checklist evaluation with justification (silhouette readability, line economy, texture storytelling, color palette connection, world cohesion)
      • Week 5, Topic 1: Self-assessment identifying one strength, one disconnection, one needed edit with rationale
      • Week 6, Topic 1: Structured self-review defending print-readiness decisions
      • Week 7, Topic 3: Course survey evaluating favorite activities, challenges, and skill applications
  • Connecting (CN)
  • MA.CN.10.HS1 – Access, evaluate, and integrate personal and external resources to inform the creation of original media artworks
    • Addressed in:
      • Week 1, Topic 3: Documented Reference Board using at least five sources with written explanation of what is taken and how it will be transformed
      • Week 2, Topic 2: Reference gathering for environmental details (plant life, atmosphere, materials)
      • Week 4, Topic 3: Texture Reference and Swatch Sheet integrating observed references into original design
      • Throughout: Ethical integration of reference material to inspire rather than copy
  • MA.CN.10.HS2 – Explain and demonstrate the use of media artworks to expand meaning and knowledge and create cultural experiences
    • Addressed in:
      • Week 1, Topic 1: Discussion of how worldbuilding in media creates cultural experiences and draws audiences
      • Week 3, Topic 1: Understanding how artifacts reveal cultural values and create meaning about societies
      • Week 7, Topic 2: World Tour presentations explaining cultural and narrative meaning embedded in design choices
      • Week 7, Topic 4: Recognition that worldbuilding shapes cultural imagination through storytelling
  • MA.CN.11.HS1 – Demonstrate and explain how media artworks and ideas relate to various contexts, purposes, and values
    • Addressed in:
      • Week 1, Topic 3: Professional practices in concept art industry – ethical reference use, attribution, and originality
      • Week 5, Topic 3: Concept sheets in animation and game design contexts
      • Week 7, Topic 1: Gallery presentation mirroring professional portfolio reviews and conventions
      • Throughout: Understanding worldbuilding’s role across entertainment industries (film, games, animation, novels)
  • MA.CN.11.HS2 – Critically evaluate and effectively interact with legal, technological, systemic, and vocational contexts of media arts
    • Addressed in:
      • Week 1, Topic 3: Ethical reference use – understanding creative, professional, and legal implications of copying vs. inspiration
      • Week 6, Topic 3: Professional file specifications (300dpi minimum, correct formats, naming conventions) as industry standard
      • Week 2, Topics 3-4: Technology mastery with Procreate and Adobe Fresco as industry tools
      • Throughout: Portfolio development for vocational preparation in concept art and design fields

Montana Standards For Arts: Visual Arts (Grades 9-12)

  • Creating (CR)
  • VA.CR.1.HS1 – Use multiple approaches to begin creative endeavors
    • Addressed in:
      • Week 1, Topic 1: Multiple world concepts with thumbnail exploration before commitment
      • Week 2, Topic 1: 3-4 thumbnail sketches exploring different compositional approaches
      • Week 4, Topic 1: Three silhouette directions for lifeform before choosing one to develop
      • Week 4, Topic 4: Silhouette Shape Study with five dramatically different approaches
  • VA.CR.1.HS2 – Shape an artistic investigation of an aspect of present-day life using contemporary practice of art or design
    • Addressed in:
      • Entire Course: Digital art and concept design using industry-standard software (Procreate, Adobe Fresco)
      • Week 1, Topic 3: Contemporary ethical practices in digital reference gathering
      • Week 5, Topic 3: Professional concept sheet layout matching current industry standards
  • VA.CR.2.HS1 – Through experimentation, practice, and persistence, demonstrate acquisition of skills and knowledge in a chosen art form
    • Addressed in:
      • Week 2, Topics 3-4: Procreate and Fresco Basics with structured practice pages
      • Week 3, Topic 3: Contour Line Form Study – three iterations showing progressive skill development
      • Week 4, Topic 2: Simplification Redraw Challenge demonstrating line economy mastery
      • Weeks 5-6: Sustained project development through revision and refinement
  • VA.CR.2.HS2 – Explain how traditional and non-traditional materials may impact human health and the environment
    • Addressed in:
      • Week 6, Topic 3: Digital workflow eliminating waste from physical materials
      • Implicit throughout: Digital art as sustainable alternative to traditional media consumption
  • VA.CR.3.HS1 – Apply relevant criteria from traditional and contemporary cultural contexts to examine, reflect on, and plan revisions for works of art and design in progress
    • Addressed in:
      • Week 5, Topic 1: World Cohesion Audit using professional design criteria (color, shape language, materials, mood)
      • Week 5, Topic 2: Targeted revision based on identified gaps and instructor feedback
      • Week 6, Topic 1: Self-review at thumbnail scale checking readability and consistency
  • Presenting (PR)
  • VA.PR.4.HS1 – Analyze, select, and curate artifacts and/or artworks for presentation and preservation
    • Addressed in:
      • Week 5, Topics 3-4: Concept sheet curation – selecting finished work, supporting sketches, and development pieces
      • Week 6, Topic 2: Composite sheet assembly – curating best elements from all three deliverables
      • Week 7, Topic 1: Gallery installation with intentional arrangement and grouping decisions
  • VA.PR.5.HS1 – Analyze and evaluate the reasons and ways an exhibition is presented
    • Addressed in:
      • Week 5, Topic 3: Analysis of professional concept sheets from animation and game design
      • Week 7, Topic 1: Discussion of presentation choices in professional portfolio reviews and gallery shows
      • Week 7, Topic 1: Student input on gallery flow and viewer experience
  • VA.PR.6.HS1 – Analyze and describe the impact that an exhibition or collection has on personal awareness of social, cultural, or political beliefs and understandings
    • Addressed in:
      • Week 7, Topic 2: World Tour Share-Out with peer questions exploring cultural and narrative elements
      • Week 7, Topic 4: Gallery celebration with peer appreciation and reflection on creative accomplishment
  • Responding (RE)
  • VA.RE.7.HS1 – Hypothesize ways in which art influences perception and understanding of human experiences
    • Addressed in:
      • Week 1, Topic 4: Color theory and emotional/cultural associations influencing viewer perception
      • Week 3, Topic 4: Shape language creating immediate emotional responses (friendly vs. frightening)
      • Week 4, Topic 3: Texture as storytelling tool communicating character without words
  • VA.RE.7.HS2 – Analyze how one’s understanding of the world is affected by experiencing visual imagery
    • Addressed in: 
      • Week 1, Topic 1: Analysis of how worldbuilding in favorite media shapes understanding and engagement
      • Week 3, Topic 1: Discussion of how artifacts reveal cultural values and daily life
      • Week 4, Topic 1: Understanding lifeform relationships to environment shapes narrative interpretation
  • VA.RE.8.HS1 – Interpret an artwork or collection of works, supported by relevant and sufficient evidence found in the work and its various contexts
    • Addressed in: 
      • Week 1, Topic 3: Reference board with written justification for each source’s use
      • Week 1, Topic 4: Color palette with 2-3 sentence rationale connecting choices to world identity
      • Week 4, Topic 3: Texture Swatch Sheet with labels explaining what each texture communicates
      • Week 5, Topic 1: Written identification of cohesion strengths and specific disconnections
  • VA.RE.9.HS1 – Establish relevant criteria in order to evaluate a work of art or collection of works
    • Addressed in: 
      • Week 4, Topic 4: Design checklist (silhouette, line economy, texture, color, world cohesion)
      • Week 5, Topic 1: Cohesion audit checklist evaluating consistency across deliverables
      • Week 6, Topic 1: Print readability criteria (focal point, finish quality, color clarity, line consistency)
  • Connecting (CN)
  • VA.CN.10.HS1 – Document the process of developing ideas from early stages to fully elaborated ideas
    • Addressed in:
      • Week 5, Topics 3-4: Concept sheets including development sketches alongside finished work
      • Week 6, Topic 2: Composite sheet showing progression from ideation to final
      • Throughout: Digital file versioning and saving iterations showing creative process
  • VA.CN.11.HS1 – Compare uses of art in a variety of societal, cultural, and historical contexts and make connections to uses of art in contemporary and local contexts
    • Addressed in:
      • Week 1, Topic 3: Ethical reference use in professional vs. amateur digital art communities
      • Week 3, Topic 1: Artifacts across cultures (ancient remnants, survival tools, entertainment objects)
      • Week 5, Topic 3: Concept art profession in animation, games, and film industries
  • VA.CN.11.HS2 – Assess the impact of an artist or a group of artists on the beliefs, values, and behaviors of a society
    • Addressed in:
      • Week 1, Topic 1: Analysis of worldbuilders in media (films, games, novels) and cultural impact
      • Week 7, Topic 4: Recognition of concept artists as storytellers shaping cultural imagination
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