With a completion date scheduled for 2013, the Center for the Arts is being built on campus at the corner of Main Street and Alumni Mall and is sparking the imagination of many who are curious about what it will look like when it is complete. Renderings of the building’s interior and exterior provide a glimpse of the plan, but Dane Webster, assistant professor of animation and 3-D modeling and area coordinator of creative technologies in the College of Architecture and Urban Studies’ School of Visual Arts, wanted to craft a richer experience with a virtual visit to the center.

With help from two of his students — Chris Russell and Mallory Brangan — Webster used models and single-frame renderings from architecture firms Snohetta and STV to create a virtual fly through of the center. Fly throughs are animated videos that allow users to virtually move through a structure, getting a close-up view of a building.