Course Links: 

• Discord Server for technical help, general questions, fast communication https://discord.gg/kAVs93Fgbk
  
• DMA Support 
  
• Assignment Submission Google Drive access with your UCLA email 

Deadline Rendering for Maya: 

• Tutorials for Deadline rendering  - go to this link -> Rendering -> Tutorials A, B, C
  
• Note: if you want to connect at home - FIRST you will need to install deadline using the instructions found on the cloud  
• DMA Web Server interface  - Cloud access. Easiest way to access the DMA server remotely 
• Troubleshooting/help -email support@dma.ucla.edu or Sophia directly 
  

Software (Required): 

• Blender Download. It’s important to ensure your home version matches the version installed in the classroom.  
  
• Autodesk Maya 2024 - Make an account with Autodesk Student (must use UCLA email address)
• Adobe CC for Students (Photoshop, Premiere, After Effects, Substance Painter)
  
• Mixamo - sign up with Adobe account here
  
• Presentation design software. You will be submitting many of your homework assignments as pdf presentations. You are welcome to use any software of your preference (InDesign, Keynote, PowerPoint, Google Slides, etc).  
  
• Discord - sign up here if you don’t have an account.  Download discord app here- recommended.
  

Software (Optional):

• G Scatter - plant ground cover 
  
• Piperator - make pipes on meshes 
• Biome Reader - auto generate plants/landscapes 
  
• Nebula Generator - space scenes 
  
• Molecular - particle systems w/ interaction 
  
• World Machine - standalone software for landscape simulations that can be imported into Blender 
  
• ChatGPT addon for  - GPT plugin (we will install together later in course) 

• Luma Labs 3d scanning 
• Polycam 3d scanning

Hardware (Required):

• External hard drive (SSD) - at least 500GB (Please format as exFAT) 
You will use this hard drive to store all of your assignments. It is important that you purchase a solid state drive (SSD) as opposed to a mechanical/ standard drive. While individual drives will vary, an SSD can read/write data up to 5 times faster than HDD’s. Examples:  
Samsung T9 1 TB SSD (around $130)  Amazon
Samsung T7 “Shield” 1 TB SSD (around $100)  Amazon You do not need these exact drives if you already have an alternative that meets the same specs, but these would be my recommendations if you need to purchase one.

• A mouse (for your laptop) If you will be working on your homework / assignments on your laptop at any time, please purchase a mouse.

AI Tools / Resources:  

• ChatGPT
• Anthropic Claude
• Google Gemini
• More advnaced generation OpenAI Playground
  
• Guide for Prompt Engineering
  
• Guide for Prompt Engineering from OpenAI directly
  

• ChatGPT - automatically runs Dall-e + others  
• Midjourney - use via Discord or WebUI (see the Midjouney prompting guide)
• Dall-e-2 (older) 
  
• Gemini
  
• Meta AI
  
• Dream Studio by Stablility.ai 
  
• Adobe Firefly - best if you have a reference photo 
  
• UI for running Stable Diffusion
• Runway.ml - branching out, many tools now
  

• Classic Automatic 1111 Stability on Github and Install guide (older tool now, but fun to play with if you’re proficient in the simple UI image generations) 
  
• For advnaced image (and video) generation - ComfyUI - SOTA tool as of Sept 2024
• For ComfyUI manager you’ll need: https://git-scm.com/download/win and https://github.com/ltdrdata/ComfyUI-Manager?tab=readme-ov-file
• oldie but goodie - TensorFlow Deep Dream collab notebook
  

• https://civitai.com/
  
• https://civitai.com/models/62437/v1-5-pruned-emaonly  (good version of SD 1.5) 
  
• https://comfyanonymous.github.io/ComfyUI_examples/lora/ LORA examples for ComfyUI
  

• Polycam - AI / Lidar 3d scanning app
• Masterpiece X - text to 3d tool  
  
• Luma Genie - text to 3d tool (beta)
  
• Meshy.ai - text and image to 3d
• TripoAI - 3d generation (developed with StabilityAI)
  

• Cultural Automation through  Machine Learning - Dr. Parag K. Mital UCLA Course
• Conceptual background and tools for image generation specifically - up to 2023/early 2024 Parag Mital pdf
  

• Epidemic Sound (free trial 7 days) - royalty free sound and foley 
  
• AudioGen - text to audio AI 
  
• AudioGen 2
  
• Stable Audio - AI sound
  
• Riffusion - AI sings what you type 
  
• Adobe’s Voice Cleaner - AI 
  
• ElevenLabs - AI voiceover 

Digital Assets: 

• Quixel / Bridge / Megascans - 3d library with plugin for Maya including plants 
• Textures.com - textures library 
  
• Turbosquid - free 3d models
  
• Free 3d - free 3d models 
  
• PolyHaven - HDRI’s, textures, some models 
• SketchUp 3d Warehouse - built for Sketchup, most can be repurposed 
  
• Ultimaker’s Thingiverse - geard towards 3d printable models, but many available 
  
• MyMiniFactory - also geared towards 3d printing 
  
• BlendSwap - Blender model share community 
  
• SketchFab - general 3d library, some free and some paid 
  
• Kitbash 3d - expensive, pro-quality kitbashable models 
  
• Artstation Marketplace - lots of assets of varying quality