Animation and Visual Effects (MFA)

Setup lighting, green screen, and tracking markers the way professional VFX supervisors understand for both studio post-production and Indie type "guerrilla" filmmaking. You'll learn new digital camera operation and sensor types and how to best record on set VFX elements for successful compositing and integration with digital elements.

Gain perspective. To learn the size and structure of an animation film production unit, you'll analyze animated feature films, focusing on layout design, value, and structure.

Master your ability to draw proportionally accurate figures, both nude and clothed, for entertainment art. You'll study anatomy, proportion, foreshortening, construction, movement and gesture, making simple still lifes and tonal self-portraits.

Experience what it's like to work as an assistant animator. To increase your ink and paint skills, you'll learn digital and traditional tools to create a finished full color scene from rough animation.

Learn to navigate this complex 3D software and its many tools and workflows as they are used in major animation and VFX studios, preparing you for specialized study in the track of your choice.

Learn how to render beautiful animations, just like your favorite studios. You'll learn core principles of looked and lighting, including painting in 3D, how to work with BRDF shaders, linear lighting, animation caches, compositing of render passes, and much more.

Learn advanced compositing techniques such as keying, float color space, and tracking. You'll focus on developing your artistic eye, attention to detail, troubleshooting skills, and maintaining rigorous image quality standards.

Explore the different types of geometry in Maya (polygon, nurbs, and subdivision), focusing on polygonal and subdivision surfaces. You'll get the basic and advanced tools needed to enhance the modeling experience in Maya.

Produce animation for TV, features, games, and storyboards. Working from live models, you'll maintain a sketchbook showing your design flexibility, sequential drawing for animated performance, line-of-action, and volume control skills in a variety of styles.

Master modeling techniques like texturing, shading, and character set-up. Using nurbs, polygon, and subdivision modeling, you'll finish at least one demo reel of quality modeling for your final project. (This course is cross-listed with ANM 313.)

Lighting can determine both what the audience sees and how they feel. You'll learn advanced lookdev techniques, such as grooming hair and rendering cloth fibers down to the thread level, as well as advanced lighting techniques and tricks of the trade used by cinematographers to create stunning animated shots. (This course is cross-listed with ANM 353.)

This course will introduce you to the virtual animation and visual effects production pipeline. This course will teach you how to work in Unreal Engine and why we use it in virtual production. We will explore the proper real-time production methods, how to work with physical VR trackers, and how to incorporate green screen as well.

Refine your thesis topic while learning the roles of pre-production artists. Working one-on-one with the instructor, you'll prepare to present midpoint reviews including a written thesis, concept drawing, character studies, storyboards, and story reels (animatics).

You'll use cinematic composition, atmospheric use of color, and color continuity to complete a sixteen-frame color script. (This course is cross-listed with VIS 380 and ANM 880.)

Become an illustrative storyteller. Taking a step-by-step approach to story development, you'll study the structural elements of storytelling, storyboarding formats, motion and animation, animatics, and character development.

Learn the unique character animation techniques of different professional studios. You'll study real-world weight, physics, object interaction, pantomime, character sketching, and motion analysis to animate 3D characters.

Animated characters come to life when we can see them thinking. You'll learn the principles and techniques of acting and subtext in animation as well as dynamic physical action and cycles. (This course is cross-listed with ANM 321.)

To master the twelve principles of animation, you'll learn its terminology and history and practice storyboarding and character forms.

Learn to storyboard for a variety of film genres: comedy, drama, action, and musical. You'll gain a comprehensive skill set by drawing, staging, and creating story sequences for animation and live action production. (This course is cross-listed with ANM 370.)

You will be guided through specialized assignments that focus on the artistry of animation. You’ll gain a deeper understanding of animation principles like timing, spacing, squash and stretch, arcs and anticipation, and use them to create fun exercises with bipedal characters.

Prepare for your future career by learning what's expected of the professional in the animation, visual effects, and game industries. As an MFA candidate, you'll gain communication, collaboration, networking, marketing, and workplace pipeline skills.

Prepare for your future career by learning what's expected of the professional in animation. You'll gain communication, collaboration, networking, marketing, and workplace pipeline skills while polishing your portfolio.

Take a deep dive into how to structure interesting camera angles and impactful cinematic compositions for storyboarding. You'll learn how to draw, stage, and pitch story sequences for animated and live action storyboards. (This course is cross-listed with ANM 372.)

Understand the skeletal and muscular systems of the human body. You'll investigate the complexities of the human form to enhance your figurative drawing skills.

Apply classical drawing principles to render a 3D form. You'll dive deep into the five-value system of tonal rendering, composition, value pattern, variation of form, cast shadow edges, and light and shadow relationships.

You'll develop personal interpretations of the human form.

Learn skeletal construction and musculature by sculpting an anatomical representation of the human body with the skin removed. Using plasteline figures, you'll explore morphology, structural concepts, and rhythmic proportion. (This course is cross-listed with FASCU 270.)

Learn to draw situations suggesting 3D believably. This will include naturalistic environments, lighting, and placement of characters, allowing your audience a full understanding of your stories.