Department of Art

B.F.A. Digital Animation

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BFA Digital Animation

The Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.) in Digital Animation degree at Missouri Western offers an art student the opportunity to become proficient in skills that are useful for producing a wide range of animation for cinema, broadcast television, gaming and interactive media.  Students will gain a broad foundation in animation from traditional hand-drawn to 3D animation. Balancing theory and practice, the educational emphasis will be on developing creative problem-solving skills and processes; honing artistic identity; spatial and temporal thinking and analysis; mastering digital animation technologies; and, research of new strategies for learning through digital advances. The Digital Animation degree reflects the convergence of computers and art, and emphasizes working with 2D and 3D graphics in a computer based, graphics-intensive environment.

Career Opportunities

Digital Animation majors may be self-employed or work for public or private businesses. The degree focuses on the preparation of design professionals in the animation and visualization industries, small-scale animation houses, media design firms, and fine art studios. Students who graduate with a B.F.A. degree in Digital Animation will be qualified for positions in the digital art industry including motion graphic designer, illustrative animator, character animator, character modeler, texture and lighting artist, background painter, medical and scientific visualization artist, product designer, visual effects artist, environment artists and level designer.  An increasing number of Digital Animators also are developing material for Internet Web pages, interactive media, and multimedia projects.

See Occupation Profile for more information.

Admission Requirements

Minimum GPA of 2.5 in following courses:

Digital Animation Courses

Major/Minor Form 4 Year Plan
Elementary drawing with the figure, still life, landscape, and perspective in various media.
Design principles and fundamentals in two-dimensional media using a problem-solving approach.
Basic skills with studio hand tools and power equipment; emphasizes safety procedures. This course is a prerequisite for any studio art course except ART110 and ART120.
Study of the fundamental principles and mechanics of motion through hand-drawn animation. Students explore timing, spacing, weight, staging an image for clarity, emotion and storytelling, and learn to apply and manipulate the fundamental concepts to creatively animate an idea. Lecture and laboratory.
Working with industrial 3D modeling software, this course provides an introduction to 3D model design. Students will learn how to utilize modeling techniques and applications, and gain a basic understanding of 3D modeling to design organized virtual models.
Study beginning rendering techniques using industry standard renders. Create custom shaders work with lighting and develop an understanding of the rendering and lighting process. Lecture and laboratory.
Students will learn to create believable and natural 3D computer animations with a combination of several different techniques. Movements of objects, actors and cameras along with animated affects of attributes will be demonstrated and discussed.
This course emphasizes the practical and theoretical principles of character animation. Students will explore how to put personality into characters and develop skills to create characters that act. The exercises will provide a foundation for comprehending the underlying techniques for capturing expression of emotions in animation.
Investigation of a research problem, project, or topic on an individual conference basis.