MCAD emphasizes a collaborative process and working with students from all majors. For this Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, you will take courses in several different areas, including a core focus, adding up to 120 total credits required for graduation.
Required Courses - These are the core courses that every Animation student takes.
Foundation Studies - These classes help you become a well-versed student; they help you build a solid art background.
Studio Electives - Throughout your studies you can choose from several studio electives that give you hands-on creative time.
Humanities and Sciences Electives - These classes round out your experience at MCAD, deepen your creative practice, and fulfill non-studio requirements for a degree.
Learning Outcomes
This course introduces students to a variety of animation production techniques to create believable motion and acting. Students develop skills needed to create appealing character animation (i.e., Disney fundamentals) through a series of exercises in Toon Boom Harmony including ball bounce, walk cycle, and sound sync. Other software used includes Photoshop, Premiere, and After Effects. Individual exploration is emphasized in assignments and critique, culminating in the creation of a short, animated project.
This course is an introduction to telling stories and expressing ideas in film. It introduces historical and critical issues of film language and provides a theoretical and technical foundation for future work. Principles of cinematography and editing are applied through assignments in the forms of documentary, narrative, and experimental genres. Technical processes and practices demonstrated include preproduction planning, shooting, basic lighting, sound recording and mixing, and digital editing. Equal attention is availed to technical and artistic concerns in screenings, lectures, discussions, technical demonstrations, and evaluations. Each student develops their creative work through the completion and critique of individual and group projects and exercises.
Expanding upon Foundation Drawing 1, students will construct poses for both 2D and 3D character animation. Students will draw from the nude model to explore techniques and concepts including gesture drawing, basic shapes, line of action, silhouette, perspective, balance, force, and rhythm. In addition to in-class drawing, students will participate in weekly lectures and demonstrations. A completed sketchbook at the end of the semester is required.
This course is designed for animation, filmmaking, and comic art students. Working from preexisting and student-created scripts and narrative ideas, students analyze the various techniques involved in the visualization of stories and sequences for film and animation production. Coursework includes script and story adaptation, continuity, camera placement, image sequencing, shot composition, styling, and mood. Students apply the visual “language” of storyboarding and continuity sketching. Vigorous in-class critiques address storyboard effectiveness with strong emphasis on the process of revision and refinement. Assignments include the development of several short animation and film storyboards, and a final project consisting of a two- to five-minute production storyboard from the student’s own script or story.
Believable characters remain the foundation and most difficult skill of successful animation. This course concentrates on creating credible characters that can walk, talk, and think, depicted through the techniques of timing, staging, and acting. Students begin with a basic drawing method for describing gesture and form, and then go on to produce pencil tests, animatics, and finished movement animations. Beginning with structured projects aimed at specific animation principles, students eventually develop their own scenarios and final project. Lectures, in-class drawing time, and weekly assignments are augmented by occasional demonstrations and visual aids. Students also analyze basic animation principles from single-frame viewing of short selected segments of classic animated shorts and features. Weekly group critiques and individual consultation during in-class work are also provided.
Students study various models of character creation, including realistic, heroic, exaggerated, and invented form, in addition to a variety of body expressions, facial expressions, and locomotion. Discussions and assignments in character creation for the narrative are explored. Lectures and discussions cover historical and contemporary animation. Weekly journals and exercises are assigned so that students may develop observational and invented figure drawing skills. An emphasis is placed on reducing detail to make a character suitable for animation and developing character sheets to help visual rotations in perspective space.
This class provides students with an introduction to stop-motion animation, covering traditional and non-traditional animation techniques. Students will explore the medium through various exercises, including armature and character building, set-building, animating found objects, replacement animation, and pixelation. Students will produce a short stop-motion animated film for their final project, complete with a title sequence. The class will include recommended readings, lectures, demonstrations as well as stop-motion screenings.
In this class Toon Boom Harmony is taught as a way of creating 2D animation, using a 2D digital puppet (also known as a Character Rig). Exercises are conducted in motion graphics, kinetic typography, cut-out puppet animation, and 2D visual effects. Students research contemporary studios doing innovative work in the field and complete a final project.
In this course, students continue working with the software toolset of Maya, focusing on the Animation menu set and character motion. Students apply their knowledge of the Disney Principles of Animation by posing and moving character rigs in 3D sets. Starting with simple exercises that gradually progress, students gain experience with the software while honing their skills in creating authentic motion and compelling storytelling.
3D modelers produce characters, props, and environments seemingly by magic. What are the secret methods that make their creations functional and compelling? In this course, students will explore essential modeling tools and techniques, craft organic and hard-surface meshes, and learn how to organize the underlying structures so these assets are ready for rigging, animation, surfaces, and lighting. Skills and concepts are applicable to film and television entertainment, video games, advertising, commerce, education, pop art, and more.
Designed to acquaint students technically and conceptually with the medium of sound, this course provides a basic working vocabulary for understanding, discussing, and producing sounds. Topics covered include basic perceptual concepts and fundamentals of composing sound such as pitch, rhythm, duration, and volume. Students complete a series of assigned projects designed to demonstrate and assess competencies with microphones, studio recording, and digital editing, mixing, and processing.
In this course, students learn how to enhance films and stories with visual effects, using both commercial techniques and do-it-yourself principles. The course focuses on incorporating visual effects in live-action footage using Adobe Creative Cloud and Maxon One. The course is rooted in principles that allow digital illusions to cross the threshold into believability. Students learn previsualization, how to shoot footage for VFX shots, compositing, chroma keying, rotoscoping, masking, tracking, integrating stock elements, particle simulations, light effects, matte painting, and more. Students complete engaging and creative technical exercises and assignments to create a finished short piece, utilizing techniques learned in class. This class is designed for both film and animation majors.
A newly completed 3D model is a dimensional canvas waiting to be fully realized, its uniform gray giving way to the artist's choice of wood, metal, paint, rust, freckles, or scars. Once these surface qualities are applied, evocative light and shadow can further pull the viewer into the scene, stirring emotions, and enhancing the narrative. Learn how to prepare and then transform models into CGI works of art by exploring concepts from character design, production design, photography, cinematography, painting, optics, and other disciplines.
This course is designed to provide students with a basic understanding of the aesthetic, technical, theoretical, and conceptual issues related to artificial lighting used in the various aspects of still and moving image production. Technical information covered includes portrait lighting, studio set lighting, architectural lighting, electronic flash, continuous light, camera movement, blocking for actors, and color compensation. In addition to the technical and practical aspects of this course, students are expected and encouraged to develop a personal aesthetic and a conceptual foundation for their images.
Experimental animation is a form of animation that is non-narrative and has a unique form of nonlinear structure. This course will explore the history and materials of the Experimental Animation tradition. Through short exercises, students will explore process-oriented animation and experiments with physical materials and camera techniques. Additional techniques will include pixilation, stop-motion, direct animation, drawing, sand, and paint as well as sound. After much exploration, students will plan and execute a self-directed complete animation.
This class is concerned with virtual worlds developed entirely within the digital realm. Students learn how to write and develop ideas for nonlinear narratives and characters as well as how to build and/or modify fully functional virtual environments for single and multiple users. Issues covered include interface design, interaction, character design, animation, nonlinear structure, rules, and algorithms. Additionally, the class offers a thorough survey and study of programming concepts related to the development of games and simulated environments.
Take 3D skill sets to the next level of complexity and artistry by taking a deep dive into the depths of technical art. Through the art of rigging, give hard-surface and organic models the underlying structures that animators use to create the illusion of life by implementing skeletons, deformers, and controllers. Through the art of MayaVFX, explore and apply powerful particle, hair, and fluid simulation capabilities to enhance animations and visualizations. Finally, plan and execute an independent project that promotes research and practice in an area of special CGI interest. This project can both expand a personal portfolio and serve as practice for the senior project.
This course builds upon the traditional character animation content (i.e., Disney Principles of Animation) taught in Character Animation 1. Students develop sophisticated secondary movement and overlapping action through several five- to ten-second animation assignments focusing on acting and physicality. Projects are based on everyday scenarios and require the student to produce industry-level animation evoking believable character movement, thought, and emotion. While this is a 2D animation class, students who have completed the 3D Animation course may choose to work with Maya software with faculty permission.
Advanced 2D Digital Animation is a class for students who are interested in taking their rigging knowledge to the next level for studio productions. Students will learn how to use Toon Boom Harmony to plan, construct, and analyze production-ready rigs, using cutting-edge techniques, including Nodes, Cutters, and Master Controllers. By the end of the class, students will have created their own 360-degree Character Rig and a short, animated piece using their finished Rig.
This class provides students with an opportunity to further refine their creative, technical, and programmatic skills while working on larger-scale, sophisticated projects. Students engage in studies of theoretical, critical, and cultural concepts relevant to the design, development, implementation, and impact of games in contemporary society. Students are encouraged to investigate and identify their career plans and recognize their potential role in the context of the gaming industry. Specific career models and skill sets are discussed in relation to specialized aspects of game design and development.
This class explores the fundamentals of creating a believable and immersive environment that displays a strong understanding of visual storytelling for animated characters to inhabit. We will explore concept art, layout drawings, and finished backgrounds, considering the overall look and feel of the film and how environment design can support the mood and tone of the scene in relation to the characters and the action taking place. In addition to composition, we will explore camera angles, camera movement, color, and lighting to create depth and a sense of space.
In this course students work in conjunction with commercial clients both in groups and as a whole to realize an animated project. Student groups will be assigned roles based on individual strengths presented on the first day of class. Students will work on material provided by the client. Groups and individuals are responsible for weekly presentations and responses to the client producer by delivering finished assets as the schedule demands. Coursework and assignments simulate a studio production model and prepare students for the collaborative work environment of professional animation. Animation Collaboration can be counted as an internship.
Internships provide an opportunity for students to gain practical experience in a particular career area and valuable on-the-job skills. Internships may be arranged by the Director of Career Development or initiated by students. All internships must be preapproved through the Career Development Office. For an internship to be approved, a mentor relationship and learning experience should exist beyond a simple employment opportunity. Three-credit internships require working 120 hours at the internship site and keeping a journal of hours and activities. To register an internship, begin by contacting Career Development at careers@mcad.edu.
This course provides animation students with the tools to enter professional practice immediately following graduation. Each student is required to produce a polished resume, artist statement, website, professional identity system, and portfolio. Topics include long-range goal creation and planning; financial, legal, and other business considerations; grant writing; and communication and marketing skills demonstrated via verbal, written, and visual presentations. Topics are investigated through a series of lectures, critiques, and presentations by experts in the field.
Part one of a two-part course required of each senior animation major, this course begins the development of a substantial body of work in a specific field. Course content includes critical readings, position paper, individual and group discussion, visiting artists, and informational meetings.
Part two of a two-part course required of each senior animation major, this course is designed for students to complete a substantial body of work in a specific field. This course extends the forum for the critical evaluation and curatorial guidance laid out in Senior Project 1 in preparation for the Commencement Exhibition. Course content includes critical readings, position paper, individual and group discussion, school presentation, and informational meetings.
Advanced Animation Seminar: Production is designed for students to develop individual or group projects in close conjunction with faculty guidance. Individual projects evolve through a detailed and continuous process of presentation, critique, and revision. In addition, a wide variety of animation is screened and discussed with regard to production issues, context, and story. All students are required to complete a project that is animation or animation adjacent in order to experiment with various forms of animation as well as hone their skills.
Foundation: 2D is an introduction to creative thinking that develops students’ skills in research, observation, interpretation, and self-expression. An emphasis is placed on exploring new ways to read and see the world, as well as new ways to report on it. Students learn basic two-dimensional principles through the use of various media, tools, materials, and processes. As a result, students develop a visual and verbal language for analyzing, organizing, shaping, and communicating two-dimensional form and meaning.
This course is an introduction to understanding of visual creation for the development of knowledge, imagination, and perception. Students are introduced to basic three-dimensional concepts as well as materials and technical production processes. Classroom activities include shop demonstrations of tools and techniques, information, lectures, and discussions appropriate to promote the balanced fusion of practice and theory.
Foundation: Drawing 1 is an introductory drawing course designed to prepare students for study in all majors of the college. Students develop basic drawing skills, including the ability to perceive and express visual relationships, organize a two-dimensional composition, and depict and manipulate form, space, and light. Students work from direct observation of still life, interior space, and landscape.
Students are introduced to digital resources at MCAD while exploring digital media. Areas covered include the Service Bureau, Gray Studio, and Media Center, along with other digital resources. Students use a variety of software and hardware to learn the basics of working with recorded media, including video, sound, and photography, as well as developing critical language for discussing media and media artists.
Practice is more than working methods: it’s the context, marketing, and creative space that maintain creative work. Contemporary Practice introduces students to the foundations, variety, and tools of a professional practice. Students upgrade websites and documentation, enter contests, and create professional presentations of their work. Classes consist of lectures, student presentations, and guest speakers from a wide range of disciplines.
A 3D model is a dimensional canvas waiting to be fully realized, its generic gray giving way to wood and metal, paint and rust, freckles and scars. Once surface qualities are defined, evocative light and shadow pull the viewer further into the scene, stirring emotions, and enhancing narrative. Learn how to turn models into works of art by exploring how concepts from character design, production design, photography, cinematography, painting, optics, and other disciplines combine in the CG realm.
Students in the Bachelor of Fine Arts program take studio courses as electives; amount determined by your major.
The objective of this course is to familiarize students with the major stylistic, thematic, cultural, and historical transformations in art history from prehistoric times to the nineteenth century. This course helps students develop critical tools for the interpretation and understanding of the meaning and function of art objects, architecture, and design artifacts within their original historical contexts. Class sessions consist primarily of lecture with some discussion.
This course introduces students to issues in modern art, popular culture, and contemporary art and design. Topics may include the expanding audience for art, the transformation of the art market, the impact of new technologies, the changing status of the artist, and the role of art in society. This course is taught as a seminar with some lecture.
This course surveys the history of the animation medium explored through various methods and techniques, as well as through shared themes from various countries and filmmaking traditions. Central topics include propaganda, personal filmmaking, abstraction, technical innovations, and politics and social protest. Connections between animation and editorial caricature, the fine arts, the avant-garde, illustration, and media other than film are made throughout the course. Classes are primarily lecture with some discussion.
Key to the creative and critical growth of the engaged, successful artist is participation in a culture of writing and inquiry. Students in this course focus on the kinds of writing they will encounter and produce in their coursework at MCAD and as creative professionals. Regular writing workshops allow students to concentrate on experiential and practical approaches to writing. Students explore a variety of texts and objects through class assignments, and then develop clear compelling essays employing a variety of rhetorical and narrative strategies.
Creative or professional writing elective
Scientific and Quantitative Reasoning classes increase students’ appreciation for the power of scientific and quantitative approaches to knowing the world.
The Liberal Arts Advanced Seminar enables students to pursue their own research and writing goals within a seminar setting. Projects are student-originated and consist of both a written piece and a public presentation. Class sessions are discussion-based and interactive. Group learning is emphasized
Using a global and historical perspective, this course examines the rise and spread of European colonialism and its impact on artistic practices in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Through a series of case studies, students will explore the ways in which European forms of image-making underwrote and facilitated the colonial project and the multiple modes through which picturing practices offered a venue for both colonizer and colonized to articulate, define, and forge political and social relationships. In each case, indigenous and hybrid forms of art-making will be highlighted alongside European forms in order to understand how the visual arts served as an expression of identity, cultural belonging, and self-fashioning. Topics will be explored by urban centers: Paris, Algiers, Shanghai, Mumbai (Bombay), Cairo, Istanbul, Port-au-Prince, New Orleans, and other sites.
Most Native American tribes do not have a word in their languages for “artist,” yet the arts are a living part of both daily life and ceremonial tradition. Focusing on the works of selected tribes, students in this course look at Native American art, architecture, and aesthetics. Emphasis is placed on the nineteenth century to the present. The impact of outside forces on continuities and changes in traditional forms is also explored. Classes are primarily lecture with some discussion.
This course examines the art of Asia from its beginnings to the present day. It involves a regional approach, focusing on representative works from India, Southeast Asia, China, and Japan. While regional characteristics are emphasized, cross-cultural influences are also studied. Through a variety of media, including sculpture, architecture, and painting, students gain an understanding of the broad themes and concepts that run throughout Asian art. Students consider the role of religion, for example, and gain a basic comprehension of Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Islam, Taoism, and Shinto. The structure of the class includes lectures, large and small group discussions, and visits to the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
This course will examine Islamic art and architecture through religious, historical, political, and cultural practices from the seventh century to the present. Combining a thematic approach (such as kingship, gift exchange, identity, etc.) with the more traditional chronological and geographical approaches, this course will trace the visual and material culture of Islam and its global influence
This course provides a comprehensive introduction to the visual art of African Americans from the Colonial period to the present. The course examines a variety of visual media from painting, sculpture, and photography to popular culture objects and mass media images. In addition, students critically examine the ways in which the constructed meanings of "blackness" intersect with representational practices of gender, sexuality, and class, as well as the training and education of artists, public and private patronage, and the history of arts criticism and art history. Class sessions include both lectures and discussions.
This course examines the impact and effects of globalization on the visual culture of the Atlantic world (defined by Europe, Africa, and the Americas) from the period of the Columbian encounter to the contemporary moment. Students examine the circulation and exchange of goods, ideas, knowledge, culture, and peoples across the Atlantic world through an investigation of visual representations, performance, and collecting practices. The course narrative is guided by thematic issues of gender, race, the politics of display, and national and cultural identities, tracing the movement of visual cultures across the Atlantic through individual case studies. This course fulfills a Histories, Places and Philosophies requirement for Humanities and Sciences.
Duke Ellington once said, “the pull of jazz music in American culture is so strong that no one can resist it.” Jazz is truly an American treasure that has influenced other cultures around the globe. Yet most Americans know very little about its history. This class explores jazz from its roots to its most current forms. Hear the music, study its contributions, and explore the cultural patterns and trends that surround its development. Class sessions are a mix of lecture and discussion, with some demonstrations of performance styles.
This course uses standards for information and media literacy (from the Association of College and Research Libraries and others) to explore issues related to queer identities, representations, methodologies, theoretical applications, and interpretations. Using the framework of literacy as a benchmark, students learn how to read "for and from the queer" in a variety of media.
Race and ethnicity have played significant, complicated, and more often than not misunderstood roles in the United States’ history. This course surveys the ways race and ethnicity have been constructed and understood by Americans from the colonial era to the present, focusing on the ways that class, gender, culture, and politics, as well as biology, have defined race and the way race and ethnicity have supported ideologies that have been used to both empower and subordinate the peoples of the United States.
This course offers students a hemispheric perspective on the study of literature, focusing on a range of works from underrepresented, marginalized, and outsider authors in the Americas from the nineteenth century to the present. Students have an opportunity to challenge conventional categorizations of writers from across the Americas—not just in the United States—by fostering transnational and transhistorical perspectives while considering concepts including identity, race, citizenship, hybridity, and nationhood.
This course introduces students to global fine arts production (drawing, painting, sculpture, artists’ books, performance, public, and socially engaged) since 1945. Using a series of case studies this class examines the historical, theoretical, and aesthetic developments in and relationships between fine arts media. Students engage with a combination of primary and secondary texts, apply visual analysis skills, contextualize artworks, and investigate various political and aesthetic points of view.
This course traces the history of applied arts and designed objects through furniture, products, packaging, and multidimensional forms of graphic design. Students examine applied arts and designed objects as part of an evolving human culture of habit, convenience, and status. Various movements and styles within the histories of design genres, as well as the processes and manufacturing of consumer objects are considered.
Since the advent of print and the printing press, text, image, graphic design, comics, and advertising have played significant roles in cultural formation. This course examines the history of mass reproduction of printed matter from the advent of modernity, including books and periodical designs, to the present.
The production and reproduction of static, moving, and digital images have grown from work produced by an exotic technology used only by specialists to a socially ubiquitous representational form that generates millions of images, clips, cartoons, gifs, shorts, and films daily. This course surveys the development of (re)produced and moving images from their commercial applications, entertainments, and art to the all-pervasive media in which our popular cultures and artistic cultures exist. Individual artists and makers, as well as their works and contextualized movements within changing technological, economic, and institutional frameworks, are considered.