BFA in Digital Art and Animation

Have you ever dreamed of building an entire world from scratch? From breathtaking landscapes to eye-catching characters, artists have a tremendous amount of influence over how we connect with video games, animated films, and movies.

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Who Should Pursue This Degree
Academic Roadmap
Career Outlook

The Bachelor of Fine Arts in Digital Art and Animation is a rigorous program that prepares you for the challenges of professional art production. It begins with a solid grounding in the traditional arts, then progresses to computer animation techniques and technologies, and culminates in a series of projects that teach you all stages of the art production pipeline. You’ll graduate with the tools to translate your ideas into powerful, affecting imagery — and a new way of looking at the world around you.

As a student in the BFA degree program, you will both learn and practice the many roles that make up the art production pipeline for games and animation.

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Who Should Pursue This Degree?

The BFA in Digital Art and Animation is a challenging program, but one that will mold you into becoming a capable artist through sustained creative practice and critical feedback. If you have the capacity to get lost in your artwork, an interest in learning the stages of the art and animation pipelines, and the determination to begin creating at a professional level, this program is designed to help you get there.

As a student in this program, you will:

Master the Fundamentals
Build your artistic foundation through sustained practice in traditional media and application of core concepts.
Build Your Proficiency in Digital Tools
Dive deep into the world of 2D and 3D digital art and animation production by learning the tools, pipelines, and techniques of professionals in the industry.
Work on Original Film or Game Projects
Apply what you learn toward collaborative film or game projects as a team artist, animator, or related role.

Academic Roadmap

As a BFA in Digital Art and Animation student, you’ll spend the majority of your first year learning about tone, color, composition, and other foundational subjects as you practice observational drawing and working with traditional media. From there, you’ll begin to apply those same fundamentals to the realm of computer graphics, digital sculpting, and 2D and 3D animation. As you advance through the traditional and digital foundation, you will work on projects that incorporate the many roles and job types common to modern-day films and game productions. By your third year, you will tailor your electives to specialized skill sets that match your career aspirations. By the end of your studies, you’ll have a deep understanding of production pipelines and a body of work to get you started on your career path.

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Admissions Requirements

In addition to meeting all standard undergraduate admissions requirements, applicants to the BFA program must submit an art portfolio.

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Topics Covered

Students in the BFA in Digital Art and Animation program will learn the following:

Extensive production experience in both 2D and 3D animation, as well as an area of greater focus that enables you to target a specific sector of the industry according to your interests and abilities.
Excellent drawing skills, including a mastery of perspective, shading, drawing from observation, figure drawing, value, color, and composition.
Strong storytelling abilities, including visual storytelling, literary traditions, story through dialogue, story through acting, and cinematic conventions.
Familiarity with modern studio processes, including the ability to use current tools and software, as well as the ability to learn new software while maintaining a strict production schedule.
Professional work habits, including an understanding of how to continually enhance your craft, as well as the ability to utilize and implement professional criticism.

Career Outlook

As a graduate of the BFA program, you’ll be equipped to pursue a wide range of professions within the fields of game and film, as well as other applied arts.

Potential Careers

Character Artist

The role of the character artist can involve or incorporate a number of specialized tasks, including modeling, texturing, rigging, and more. Their job is to create the actual 3D or 2D character assets that populate the games we play — relying on the fundamentals of anatomy, locomotion, and visual storytelling.

Environmental/Asset Artist

Environmental/Asset artists create and build the interactive worlds and spaces of video games, as well as the props and objects found within.

Animator

The animator brings life and motion to the creatures, characters, and environments in a game or film — in a way that is accurate and believable. Similar to a character or environmental artist, the day-to-day work or specialized role of an animator can take many forms, however, the foundation remains the same.