Resources
Advanced Media Lab
The Advanced Media Lab is a multimedia facility housing the latest in digital hardware and software. The lab has a wide range of animation and interactive software including Maya, zBrush, MotionBuilder, Nuke, Final Cut Pro, AfterEffects, Unity3D and Flash. The lab houses multiple suites of dual-boot Apple Mac Pros with pressure sensitive Cintiq monitors. Students have access to high-end digital video cameras and audio recording equipment, digital blue screen room and projection room. In addition to the specialized software and hardware dedicated to the Animation concentration, students have access to all equipment and software in the general multimedia lab. Visit the web site at: http://www.onebitpixel.com/aml/
Weaving Lab
The weaving lab in the Department of Art and Design has 10 Macomber, 40″ wide, 8 harness hand looms; one Macomber, 56″ wide, 16 harness hand loom; 6 AVL 20″wide, 24 harness computerized studio looms; one AVL 56″ wide, 24 harness computerized hand loom; and one TC-1 computer driven hand Jacquard loom. Other small equipment is available in the weaving lab: bead looms, drop spindles, frame looms, knitting machines, warping boards and reels, table top looms, inkle looms, and a wide variety of weaving yarns and threads available at no charge to students.
Surface Design Lab
The surface design lab in the Department of Art and Design has printing tables, sinks, photo-emulsion exposure unit, dust box for dye mixing, power washer, refrigerator, washer and dryer, drying rack, and small equipment like dye buckets and pots, arashi devices, felt making supplies, blenders, electric skillets, irons, mixers, and steamers. The lab easily supports work with dyes and pigments in a wide variety of applications. Digital printing on campus is done through our links with the College of Textiles’s Digital Design lab (see below) or on a smaller scale in our department.
College of Textiles Labs
Students in the Fibers and Surface Design concentration have access to some of the labs and equipment housed in our College of Textiles.
Digital Design Center
This state of the art teaching and research facility is devoted to all aspects of digital textile design including, woven, knitted, printed and sewn products. The lab contains: a whole garment knitter; 3-D Body Scanning system; textile ink jet printers (using fibers reactive and acid dyes); computer aided embroidery system; a multitude of textile and apparel design software as well as a digital resource database. A control center, the lab houses weave and knit software capable of driving a 5,120 hook jacquard loom and a Moratronic electronic jacquard knitting machine, respectively. The center supports initiatives in rapid prototyping, mass customization, 3D body scanning, digital printing, and three dimensional designing.
The Materials Lab
Referred to colloquially as “the shop”–provides space, equipment and trained personnel to assist students in their work. The Materials Lab includes a complete range of power equipment and hand tools for working with wood, metal, plastics, concrete, glass, fabric, and stone. Including laser cutting machinery.
Information Technology Laboratory
The Information Technology Laboratory provides students 3 central computing labs. Two of these are used for instruction; a Windows lab with 19 computers and a Macintosh lab with 16 computers. The third central lab provides 13 computers and a video editing system, a 3D digitizer, a 3D printer, 40″ wide color scanner, 12 x 18 scanner, 6 letter size scanners, 35mm film scanner, and a 35mm film recorder. These labs are available for general use 88% of the hours they are open.
The lab provides a central help desk and equipment checkout service staffed by student part-time employees. Students may borrow software manuals and CD/DVD tutorials as well as a wide variety of equipment for presentation and project needs. This includes 15 laptop computers, 8 LCD projectors, slide projectors, TV/VCRs, portable hard drives, CD writers, graphics tablets, digital cameras, miniDV camcorders, 35mm cameras and lenses, tripods, photo lighting kits, wireless and wired microphones, portable sound system, audio recorders, speakers and dictation and transcription equipment.
The central labs provide 9 Wolfcopy printers, including two color laser printers, two 36″wide color inkjet printers and a third 36″ wide printer just outside the labs which is available to students 24 hours per day.
Eight additional smaller computing clusters are distributed around Brooks, Kamphoefner and Leazer halls, and Park Shops, either in the design studio spaces or immediately adjacent to them. These facilities provide another 48 computers and 10 Wolfcopy printers and are available 24 hours per day. They also provide various scanners, a 24″ x36″ digitizing board, and a video editing system.
The lab provides many specialized software programs important to the design professions, including: 3D modeling applications Alias Studio, Rhino, form-Z and Maya; AutoCAD; digital video editing application Final Cut Express; Adobe applications Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign for page layout and After Effects for motion graphics and compositing.
The five-person IT staff provides direct support to students using the college-owned computing resources and to approximately 350 students using their own computers.
Harrye B. Lyons Design Library, College of Design
This collection emphasizes materials in architecture, landscape architecture, graphic design, industrial design, and art and design – including fibers and surface design and animation. It is part of a larger arts information environment in the Research Triangle area including the Sloane Art Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (materials on art from prehistoric to the present) and Duke University’s Lilly Library (materials on art and art history, architecture, performing arts, drama, costume, film, and philosophy). NCSU students and faculty may borrow materials from these other libraries.
The Design Library’s Visual Resources Collection includes over 74,000 slides in the areas of art, architecture, landscape architecture, industrial design, textile design and graphic design. The library has a growing collection of DVDs and videos. Visit the web site at: http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/design/.
The Burlington Textiles Library, College of Textiles
This library is of particular interest to the Masters students in the Fibers and Surface Design concentration. The Library supports the curriculum and research programs in textile chemistry, textile materials and management, textile history, and fiber and polymer science. The Textiles Library’s collection is made up of approximately 50,000 volumes, with over 200 periodical subscriptions—one of the largest textiles libraries in the world.
D. H. Hill Library, NC States Main Library
Collections and services are available to all students in the University. The older books in the Design Library collection are currently being shelved in the main library. Library holdings, for the main library, branch libraries, as well at UNC in Chapel Hill, and both Duke University and North Carolina Central University can be searched on the web through the D.H. Hill home page: http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/.