Savannah College of Art and Design
B.F.A. in Visual Effects
Savannah, USA
BA
DURATION
180 years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
EARLIEST START DATE
TUITION FEES
USD 41,130 *
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* total, full-time student for one academic year
Key Summary
About: The B.F.A. in Visual Effects at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) trains students in visual effects (VFX), CGI, compositing, animation, and direction. SCAD has campuses in the US, France, and online, providing access to professional digital tools, studios, equipment. Faculty worked on films. Alumni shared Academy Awards for work on Avengers: Endgame and Frozen 2. SCAD reports 99% of graduates find success within a year.
Career Outcomes: You can become lighting artist, technical director, visual effects supervisor, 3D environment artist, digital compositor. Employers include Pixar, Disney, DreamWorks, Blur Studio. Skills include rendering, simulation, compositing, asset creation, post-production.
Join the leagues of SCAD visual effects alumni, who have shared Academy Awards for their work on such phenomenal films as “Avengers: Endgame,” “Frozen 2,” “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” “Toy Story 4,” and “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.” At SCAD, we set you up for success with access to high-end, professional digital tools, and top-of-the-line studios and equipment. Our faculty includes an impressive roster of professionals who have worked for the giants of the industry, and who are the visual effects masterminds behind the most iconic animated films of our era. Now it’s your turn to follow suit.
Foundation studies: 30 hours
- DRAW 100 Drawing I: Form and Space
- DSGN 100 Design I: Elements and Organization
- DRAW 101 Drawing II: Composition and Media
- DSGN 101 Color: Theory and Application
- Select one of these three options:
- DSGN 102 Design II: 3D Form in Space
- DRAW 200 Life Drawing I
- DRAW 240 Inventing Environments
- Select one of these two options:
- DRAW 206 Drawing for Storyboarding
- DSGN 208 Storyboarding Essentials
General education: 55 hours
- COMM 105 Speaking of Ideas
- BUSI 110 Business I: Fundamentals
- CTXT 121 Visual Culture in Context: Pre-Modern Global Perspectives
- CTXT 122 Visual Culture in Context: Making Modernities
- ENGL 123 Ideas to Ink: Critical Concepts in Academic Writing
- DIGI 130 Digital Communication
- ENGL 142 Foundations of Story
- Select one of these two options:
- CINE 205 Reading Films
- CINE 275 History of Cinema
- Select one of these two options:
- ARTH 207 20th-century Art
- ARLH 208 Modern Architecture After 1900
- BUSI 220 Business II: Economic Principles
- Mathematics/natural sciences elective
Major curriculum: 75 hours
- VSFX 101 Survey of Visual Effects
- VSFX 130 Visual Effects-based Cinematography
- VSFX 160 Introduction to Visual Effects Programming
- VSFX 210 Digital Visual Effects
- VSFX 270 Compositing
- Select one of these two options:
- VSFX 310 Matte Painting
- VSFX 316 Digital Lighting and Rendering
- VSFX 319 Programming Models and Shaders I
- VSFX 350 Procedural Modeling and Animation Techniques
- VSFX 406 Concept Development for Visual Effects
- VSFX 408 Visual Effects Studio I
- VSFX 409 Professional Development for Visual Effects
- VSFX 448 Visual Effects Studio II
- Select one of these three options:
- VSFX 479 Undergraduate Internship
- 500-level SCADpro elective
- Business-focused elective
- ANIM, ARVR, DWRI, FILM, ITGM, MOME, PROD, SANM, SFLM, SNDS, STEC, THED, or VSFX elective
- ANIM, ARVR, DWRI, FILM, ITGM, MOME, PROD, SANM, SFLM, SNDS, STEC, THED, or VSFX elective
Additional electives: 20 hours
Total course of study: 180 hours
Become a technical director. Become a 3D environment artist. Become an effects artist. SCAD visual effects students become leaders in this imaginative discipline, transforming static visions into vivid visual sequences. In recent years, several SCAD alumni have shared Academy Awards for work on such mind-blowing films as Avengers: Endgame, Frozen 2, and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker." More than a dozen SCAD alumni contributed to the visual effects for "Guardians of the Galaxy," produced by Marvel Studios.
Launch your career as a professional:
- Lighting artist/technical director
- CGI FX technical director
- Visual effects supervisor
- 3D environment artist
- Digital compositor
- Character FX artist
- Concept artist
- Surfacing artist
- Previsualization artist
Get recruited and hired by the best of the best:
- Pixar
- Disney
- DreamWorks Animation
- Blue Sky Studios
- Microsoft
- Shade VFX
- Blizzard Entertainment
- Blur Studio
- Pixomondo