If you enjoy making the characters and environments that help storylines come to life, there are numerous educational and career tracks to consider to help you pursue your creative goals.

Full Sail University offers undergraduate areas of study in computer animation and game art. Let’s dive into these two areas to learn how the courses in each discipline are similar and different.

An Overview of the Computer Animation Curriculum

From working on films to video games, animators utilize computer graphics in nearly every aspect of today’s ever-evolving entertainment industries. By studying computer animation at Full Sail, you’ll gain experience in the same production pipelines used in professional environments.

“You’ll learn the basic skills of modeling, animation sequencing, lighting, and materials,” says Pete Bandstra, the Program Director for the computer animation curriculum. “As you continue in your classes, you will take more advanced modeling and animation courses, adding new knowledge in character rigging, compositing, and rendering.”

The Character Rigging course stands out in the curriculum. “In terms of what Full Sail offers in these two areas of study, the big difference is that computer animation covers character rigging and compositing,” Pete says. Students also focus on how game engines are related to film.

As for software, courses highlight Autodesk Maya, Unreal Engine, Maxon ZBrush, Substance Painter, and compositing tools.

“The final goal is to generate a portfolio showing off your strengths as a 3D artist, specifically by generating assets in one of the pipeline disciplines you have learned,” Pete explains.

Diving into Game Art

In Full Sail’s game art area of study, students learn skills in modeling, materials, animation, and motion capture, with a focus on roles in the game industry. More specifically, they learn how to create physically based materials, handle real-time rendering, develop gameplay animation cycles, and the ins and outs of game engine integration.

The curriculum focuses on creating production-ready 3D assets for the game and real-time industries. One unique course is Texture Painting and Sculpting.

Much like computer animation, students in game art use a variety of industry-standard software titles. These include Unreal Engine, Autodesk Maya, Adobe Photoshop, Substance 3D Painter, Substance 3D Designer, Motion Analysis Cortex, and Maxon ZBrush.

“We're always building off of those pieces of software because they are quite complex and cover lots of different types of things,” says Chad Kendall, the Program Director for the game art curriculum.

According to Chad, the courses build on each other as students move along in their studies.

“We start introducing them to animation specific for games and character work specific for games, and then more environment [areas]… and then it just levels from there,” he explains. “We are built off of disciplines. So, the next level is going to be another level up of environments, characters, [and] animation until they get into their portfolio classes and things like that cap off them doing their work.”

Campus students in game art get hands-on experience using a virtual production studio. Online students take the Game Production course and get to join a game design team that’s already working on producing a game.

Computer Animation vs. Game Art

There are several similarities between computer animation and game art. The primary focus for each is how to create 3D art. Students on both educational paths start out by taking shared courses in entertainment, technology, and media, then fine arts and beginning modeling.

Later on in their studies, three of the shared courses are Shading and Lighting and Visual Development, as well as Motion Capture for students learning on campus. There are also several courses in each discipline focused on character creation and development.

“The students [in these two areas of study] are kind of interchangeable these days because of these industries,” Pete says. “Real time has become more of a trend. We also do get students from computer animation who go into gaming.”

Pete adds that Unreal Engine – the 3D computer graphics and game engine developed by Epic Games – has become an integral part of both professional tracks.

“If you look back three or four years ago, nobody ever thought about Unreal as it relates to… the cinematic world. But now, Unreal is being considered as part of a production pipeline for film and television,” he says.

Ultimately, both the computer animation and game art areas of study can help prepare students for potential opportunities across industries like film, television, games, architecture visualization, simulation, virtual reality, augmented reality, and marketing.