Are you an artist at heart but aren’t sure which professional track is best for your design skills and interests?

Art and design encompasses a wide range of areas. From 3D animators to graphic artists, there are many roles in which designers make content come to life. At Full Sail University, you can choose from several areas of study in the art and design realm. Let’s explore each discipline to help you determine your best path forward.

Computer Animation

Computer animation is found in nearly every aspect of today’s entertainment industry, most notably in video games and movies. Full Sail’s computer animation coursework covers storyboarding, modeling, rigging, character animation, and final compositing.

Pete Bandstra, Program Director for this area of study, says it’s helpful for students to come in with some experience using 3D design software tools, but basic art skills are a must.

“Over the 30 years that I've been doing this, I have seen so many different software changes… The most important thing is being able to translate your art skills from [one] software package to another,” Pete explains. “I often equate it to driving a car. If you've learned how to drive a car, it doesn't matter what car you get in – you can drive.”

He says there’s a common misconception about the focus of the curriculum.

Students learn skills to work as a 3D production artist building assets for a variety of areas, such as film, games, advertising, toy design, architectural visualization, and numerous other fields.

“Because hardware and software are so inexpensive these days, there are more and more areas and opportunities,” he says.

Two key areas that separate computer animation from game art are courses on compositing and character rigging.

Game Art

When you study game art at Full Sail, you’ll learn to create 3D content for the video game industry as well as other fields. Project-based classes are structured with a production pipeline that mirrors the workplace of a professional game studio. You’ll learn interactive 3D, animation, modeling, lighting, and texture creation.

“Everything we do ends up on some type of real time engine,” explains Chad Kendall, Program Director for game art. “The ideal [student] is someone who’s been doing traditional art for a while and wants to focus on 3D or someone who wants more direction on 3D.”

Students who are inquisitive, work well on a team, and have a technical mindset often excel in game art. Being adaptable is also important.

“We’re not teaching Shakespeare – things are going to change all the time,” Chad says. “3D games at home are less than 30 years old, so it's definitely a [young] industry.”

Courses of note include Advanced Game Characters, Motion Capture, and Game Production for online students.

Game art grads have also gone on to work in career tracks that span the 3D development world beyond games, such as architectural visualization, simulation, advertising, film, and augmented and virtual reality.

Graphic Design

Graphic design involves building brands from the ground up. Students gain a comprehensive understanding of the field of design – from print publishing to advertising and social media design. You’ll develop a keen eye for aesthetics and learn technical proficiency and creative development.

According to Eric Rosenfeld, Program Director for graphic design and digital arts and design, students with a “creative drive to build interesting visual things and [desire] to explore lots of different styles and solutions” would fit into the graphic design curriculum well. A knack for in-depth research, planning, and client communication are also vital.

“Learning design is about identifying your strengths and weaknesses and then developing your skills and applying these skills in lots of different ways,” Eric explains.

He says design-focused career options are fairly broad.

“Design is visual problem solving – any type of creative experience where you were given a problem and had to visually solve it.”

He encourages students to download the free trial of Adobe Creative Cloud.

“Make sure you like learning about it and, in general, the experience of learning something new and solving technical problems.”

Graphic design courses include Color Theory, Packaging & Prototypes, and Logos and Symbols.

Digital Arts & Design

The digital arts and design curriculum will prepare you with a thorough overview of the entire design process, with an emphasis on motion graphics. You'll explore 2D and 3D art theory, learn hardware and software used in the industry, and understand the foundations of effective visual messaging.

“We teach 3D skills, but it’s more of a combo of 2D and 3D,” Eric says.

Unlike building a brand from scratch in graphic design, digital arts and design students learn to come in at a certain point in the design process to take the ball and run with it.

“You are building graphics and illustrations and content, and you're putting them into motion,” Eric explains. “You're using After Effects or Cinema 4D, you're using 2D and 3D animation, and you're spending a little more time building those animations, which is why a motion graphics designer often is brought in toward kind of after the brand is created.”

A few course highlights are Advanced Motion Graphics, Editing Digital Video, and Live Event Design.

Ultimately, Eric believes it’s important for students to find their own unique passions in design.

“Look at as many professional examples as you can and picture yourself and whether you’d enjoy that type of work. What slice of design do you want to focus on? Find something where you enjoy the process as much as the end result,” he advises.