Art Degrees Online

The M.F.A. studio program offers concentrations in drawing and painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, and digital art. Students usually focus on one of these but take courses in other areas and in art history. Periodically, their work is formally reviewed by the full faculty who also individually visit their studios for informal critiques. Graduating students participate in a large M.F.A. thesis exhibition, usually at a Manhattan gallery. The department has a fine arts rather than a commercial orientation and seeks a balance between the traditional and the new in its mix of students, faculty, and course content. The faculty includes internationally recognized artists whose work is found in such prestigious museums as the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art and Museum of Modern Art, and who have garnered numerous prizes, awards, grants, fellowships, and other honors. Many are represented by galleries here and abroad. Being in the heart of the art world, the department draws on New York’s vast community of distinguished artists for our faculty and for the many visiting artists, art historians, critics, and curators who regularly lecture and give individual critiques of student work as part of a program that supplements the formal curriculum. In addition, our students have easy access to New York City’s great museums and countless galleries.

A large percentage of our graduates are successful artists, many of whom sell their work in commercial galleries. Many also teach at leading art schools and universities. Others have become commercial artists, illustrators, computer graphics designers, architects, art directors, cartoonists, art restorers, and fashion designers-bringing their fine-arts sensibilities to these related fields. A number have won such major honors as the Guggenheim, Fulbright, Pollock-Krasner, and the Prix de Rome.

What is Animation?
Animation is a discipline that includes everything from traditional, character-based narrative to experimental work. It is an increasingly malleable and sophisticated art form that is well-positioned to take full advantage of ongoing technological development.

Why study Animation at UArts?
The University of the Arts offers a broad base in traditional hand-drawn animation, computer animation, and under-the-camera animation (clay, puppet, cut-out, paint-on-glass, etc). The UArts Animation degree program encourages the development of well-rounded artists in possession of a strong sense of personal vision and solid, technical competencies in all aspects of content creation.

What’s the Animation degree program like?
• Sophomore year: an introduction to the techniques of drawn and under-the-camera animation, 2D and 3D computer animation, and live-action film via a series of exercises and two final projects.
• Junior year: creation of a short personal piece, as well as client-based and interdisciplinary group projects.
• Senior year: studies culminate in a thesis project that demonstrates the ability to successfully complete a longer, festival-worthy piece.

What Animation facilities are available?
You will have access to excellent facilities for 2D, 3D, stop-motion, and other animation techniques, including:
• State-of-the-art 2D/3D computer animation lab
• Animation classrooms equipped with iMac workstations
• Digital audio sound studios
• Multi-format dub room
• Digital imaging lab
• AVID digital video editing systems
• Master Series Oxberry animation stand

Are the faculty practicing animators?
Yes. They include award-winning artists whose animation work has screened both nationally and abroad, notably at the Philadelphia Museum of Art; New York’s Museum of Modern Art; the Philadelphia, Ottawa, and Hiroshima International Animation Festivals; and many others. Our instructors come from a diverse mix of fine-art and commercial backgrounds, combining technical expertise with a strong sense of personal vision.

In an art context, ideas are often as important as execution. Our master of fine arts (M.F.A.) degree program in art photography not only places a strong emphasis on technical accomplishment and the professional presentation of work, but on a clear articulation of ideas.

As a student in our program, you will commit to an intense period of study with the goal of producing a cohesive and technically astute body of work that can be discussed and defended in a context relevant to contemporary art issues. You will have the opportunity to study and interact with other media artists in computer art, film, and video as well as take courses in the larger University.

The faculty are a diverse group of working artists who have a comprehensive knowledge of the contemporary art world and experience in documentary, curatorial, performance, and video work. Visiting artists complement their expertise; recent guests include photographer Renee Cox ’78, curator John Miller, video artist Mike Smith, and Peter Galassi, curator of photography at the Museum of Modern Art.

Our state-of-the-art facilities include separate black-and-white and color darkrooms, a wide variety of cameras and lighting, and digital imaging facilities that feature 20 G4 Macs, a 44” color processor, and an Imacon scanner. Your study is enhanced by close association with Community Darkrooms and Light Work on campus and SPARK, an off-campus, student-run gallery.

MICA approaches experimental animation as an art form, empowering you to create eloquent and original contemporary work through an understanding not only of the technology for production, but also of the historical sources and contemporary social and artistic context for your work. You’ll begin with the foundation for all compelling animation the essence of character creation and the narrative. You’ll sample both digital and traditional 2D and 3D tools and processes, and then select from a range of upper-division courses that allow you to dive in depth into the approaches that best suit your creative vision. You will be encouraged to pursue original research, experimentation, and production using state-of-the-art processes and industry-standard computer hardware and software systems, and to explore multiple distribution opportunities for your work.

The essence of animation is to give life to images and objects. These moving images then “live” to communicate a culture’s stories or to convey the fundamental rhythms and patterns of being. Animation draws from rich global and historical sources—from the masks and trappings of prehistoric ritual to the kinetic mechanisms and illustrations of the 19th century to the narrative formulas and pictorial techniques of 20th century filmmaking. Animation’s sources retain their vitality even as the field expands to integrate new forms and concepts, and adapts to new cultural conditions.

The interest in animation is greater than ever. A recent Museum of Modern Art exhibition of Pixar cartoon animation drew huge crowds to the museum in New York. Groundbreaking work in animation is in demand for a wide array of uses—computer games, entertainment, courtroom reconstructions, documentation of scientific advances. Computer technologies also enable artists to animate entirely new forms of “synthetic” space, “artificial” life forms, virtual realities, “smart” environments, and lifelike animatronics. These new processes and forms promise to take artists into an unknown and exciting future.

Animation has been energized and transformed by computerized systems that let individual artists create moving images, dynamic objects, and global artworks that once could have been produced only through the efforts of large teams with significant resources. At the same time, the meticulous processes of hand-drawn animation, claymation, and other non-digital forms of animation are experiencing a renaissance around the world. At MICA, you can explore both directions and find your own voice as an artist.
From Character to Narrative

MICA’s animation program builds on the traditional and digital skills you gained in foundation to focus on creating characters that your audience will care about. You’ll learn to use digital tools to animate your character in both 3D and 2D, and in the junior year you’ll focus on using your traditional and computer-based techniques to create a story. Your senior year is spent turning your work into professional-quality finished product in post production.
Hands-on Workshops

One-credit technical workshops in animation let you explore a variety of techniques— from acting to stop motion to creating bones and rigging—that will improve the effectiveness of your characters and animations.
Cutting Edge Experience

Research-focused classes at MICA let animation explore new technologies and work at the cutting edge of the field. Recent classes have partnered the animation department with Big Huge Games and the technology firm Direct Dimensions, where students explored the latest technology in 3D scanning. Internships have put student in a range of industries—a recent sampling: Seoul Movie Company, Ltd, Korea; Sesame Street, New York; Firaxis Games, Baltimore; Smithsonian Institutions, National Museum of the American Indian; Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins Hospital Microsurgery Advanced Design Lab, Baltimore; Big Huge Games, Baltimore; Eyemaginations, Baltimore; MTV Networks, New York.
Facilities

Animation majors at MICA have access to a full array of tools for digital and traditional animation. Three animation labs in Brown Center, where the department is based, feature powerful PC hardware and state-of-the-art software for 3D animation, as well as projection and sound equipment for critiques of student work. In addition, students have access to outstanding equipment for sound and video recording and editing.