BFA Game Art & Animation Course

Art as a subcategory of video games, play a key role in the game development process. Looking at the video games of today, it’s obvious that each successive generation of hardware has opened the doors for more realistic gaming experiences. And with technology continually expanding, the gaming industry now demands specialized digital artist to create hi quality artwork. Industry-quality standards continue to rise, and competition for entry-level positions demands that artists possess sophisticated skill sets before they can even begin their careers. Studios seek artists with a broad and integrated foundation of theoretical, practical, and technical skills. Keeping in mind the specific needs of the gaming industry, Backstage Pass’s Game Art Bachelor Degree Program is designed to open the gaming world to the students, helping them develop the skills to become part of a specialized group of artists. These artists help to create the next generation of video games, creating hi quality visuals, and helping to shape the future of one of the world’s fastest-growing forms of entertainment.

Overview

Backstage Pass’s Game Art Bachelor Degree Program is designed to develop artists well-versed in 2d & 3d asset creation for game development. With a focus on 2d & 3d content for consoles and computers, the students go through project-based classes that follow a clear progression from the basics of digital art creation up through the latest trends and tools. Along the way classes like Game Production, Production Modeling & Texturing, Character Animation, Level Design, and Shading and Effects will help the student gain the skills necessary to move and improve content through the production pipeline. Each of these specialized classes is based around the same workflow processes found at professional game companies. Supporting these industry-specific foundations are classes focusing on the communication skills, and how to prepare you for that first step into the gaming industry.

Objective

Our goal is to provide students with the focused knowledge and understanding of traditional fine arts, modeling & texturing environments, props, vehicles, characters to create Next-Gen games. The students can qualify for entry-level positions in the game industry as game artist, concept artist, character artist, 3d modeler, texture artist, animator and technical artist. In addition to the technical proficiency and creative development, your education will help you develop critical thinking, problem solving, and communication skills that contribute to life learning, providing you with tools to help sustain a long and productive professional career in the entertainment industry.

Fine Arts

The foundation in traditional art is the key to be successful as a digital artist. Our curriculum is built on the skills, concepts, and techniques that will enable students to understand and appreciate the holistic approach artists must use in the gaming process. Using traditional mediums such as graphite, color pencil, and clay students will learn how to manipulate the elements of art to create designs that work in the three-dimensional world. Students will also learn various techniques involved in illustration, color theory, character development, life drawing, and sculpting.

Art Creation for games

The Art Creation for Games Course provides students with a strong knowledge in developing 3d assets for games. Students develop game models of buildings, vehicles, or characters, which includes modeling of high and low-resolution geometry.

3D Modeling/Texturing

The modeling foundations will help the students draw a parallel between traditional art and modeling/texturing techniques. Students learn to model/texture the way characters, objects, and environments look in real life. Students are also introduced to Advanced sculpting of Game Characters. It concentrates on the detailed creation of a gaming character from top to bottom. The course helps students to understand the constraints of geometry and textures in a game engine.

Rigging & Animation

The Character Rigging course introduces students to the foundations of rigging. Through exposure to the core rigging toolset, students develop a strong understanding of how a joint hierarchy works. Students learn the principles of mechanical rigging, focusing on topics such as set driven keys, constrains, and expressions. Students then apply these techniques while exploring rigging of inorganic objects such as cars and machines. The course also emphasizes the core 3d animation concepts that are essential to the industry. The course teaches students computer animation techniques and applies them to the process of animating modeled characters, vehicles etc.

Level Design and Lighting

The Level Design and Lighting course continue to expand students’ understanding of game requirements with a focus on constructing a playable level. As a team, students design, build, texture, light, and add effects for a level. This course will be useful for students in creative 3d environments for games.

Final Project Creation

In the final year of the program, the students from Game programming and Game Design classes team up and work together to design and produce an original game project from start to finish. This collaborative environment will help you learn to deliver content on a deadline as well as how to work within guidelines set by a real-world production team. It is an advantage of coming out of school as an artist who has already worked on a fully functional game, which will help students in entering into the industry as a game professional.