Need Help Choosing A Concentration for My BFA

Tairii

Hey guys, so I just started the process of applying to the BFA program at my university. I'm stuck between 3 concentrations now: Drawing, Painting, and New Media. Drawing is the usual go to, but I really dislike the pencil (I taught myself how to draw, and I started with a pencil, so I have some negative connotations with it despite how much I have improved). I want to work with painting, because I feel it would be the most familiar to digital painting, and I want to work with New Media because it has 2D and 3D animation in its setup (but only 2 classes, 8 credits).

For you over-achievers, I'm gonna list the degree requirements.

Gen Ed (37 credits),Art History (24 credits), Senior Project (4 credits).

Art Foundation
- AVT 101 New Majors Colloquim
- AVT 104 Studio Fundamentals and AVT 222 Drawing I
- AVT 105 Studio Fundamentals II and AVT 323 Drawing II or AVT 324 Figure Drawing

Breadth and Experience
Three of the following
- Typography
- Intro to Web Design
- Painting I
- Printmaking I
- Fundamentals of Photography
- Intro to Digital Photography
- Sculpture I
- Interdisciplinary Arts
- Introduction to New Media Arts
- Nontraditional Approaches to Drawing
- Digital Printmaking
- Sound Art I
- EcoArt
- Special Topics

Concentrations:

Drawing
- AVT 422 Drawing III
- AVT 423 Drawing IV
1 Class from:
Figure Drawing, Nontraditional Approaches to Drawing, Painting II, Experimental Painting, Figurative Painting, Painting III, Painting IV.

3 courses from AVT 300-499

Painting
-AVT 333 Painting II
-AVT 432 Painting III
-AVT 433 Painting IV

2 courses from:
Experimental Painting, Figurative Painting, Painting V, Painting VI

1 course from
AVT 300-499

New Media Art
3 courses from:
Sound Art I, Experimental 2D Animation, Experimental 3D Animation, EcoArt, Video Art, Advanced Image Making, Art and Interactivity, Advanced Topics: New Media Art.

3 courses from
AVT 300-499



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To be personally honest, the only reason I'm interested in the New Media degree is because of:

AVT 382 Experimental 2D Animation
- Introduces conceptual, contextual, technical and aesthetic practices of two-dimensional experimental animation. Students learn to animate hand-drawn and computer generated images. Students work to create an imaginative and meaningful short animation with sound.

AVT 383 3D Experimental Animation
- Students create socially relevant 3D scenes with scaled objects, surface textures, lights, and shadows. These scenes serve as environments for short, thought-provoking animations. Emphasis on idea development, critical examination of animation practices, and visual aesthetics.

I kind of want some degree of 3D modeling in my degree (no pun intended) and a minor in game design at my school has no modeling in it at all. This leaves me with either Drawing or Painting. With a Drawing concentration, I will basically do 2D and 3D experimental animation and Painting II and Painting III. With a Painting concentration, I will just take the 3D experimental animation. What do you guys feel is a more comprehensive approach to getting some useful skills under my belt to improve myself? I'm honestly not sure at this point. If you're interested in some more info, let me know and I will get you everything you need.

- Tairii

ZacD

I'd suggest picking painting and learning 3d on your own. The painting teachers will have a lot more that you can learn from, there's plenty of 3d resources online and most likely the classes will be very basic unless your school specializes in 3d.

Justin Meisse

so they have you creating an animated short in one semester with no foundation classes? It sounds like they added those two classes just to attract new students, it will most likely be a mess - they should at least have introduction, intermediate and advanced animation classes before they throw you into making animated shorts.

Tairii

Justin Meisse wrote: »

so they have you creating an animated short in one semester with no foundation classes? It sounds like they added those two classes just to attract new students, it will most likely be a mess - they should at least have introduction, intermediate and advanced animation classes before they throw you into making animated shorts.

AVT 280 - Introduction to New Media Arts is the foundation I believe, but I don't know any students who are New Media majors and there is only one new media studio which is usually closed when I have my Drawing or Fundamentals course.

EDIT: Also, I go to George Mason University for anyone curious. I think our art program was ranked 22 or 23(Correction: Ranked 82), but the school is mostly known for the Economics, Engineering, Political Science and International Affairs majors.

ZacD

Yeah, there isn't enough courses to learn how to make an animated short. You cannot learn how to model, texture, rig, render, animate, and vfx from 3 courses. Ask the school or teachers if they have show reals from students that have finished the courses.

Justin Meisse

well, look into the classes, find out who the teachers are. I did a search for "George Mason University animated short" and only came up with a handful of sad examples, that doesn't make me to excited about their new media classes - it sounds like it's too new.

compare that to a search for "Ringling College of Art and Design animated short"

ZacD

TBH this is the most likely out come of these 3d courses.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiARsQSlzDc"]Colin's Bear Animation - YouTube[/ame]

Tairii

Justin Meisse wrote: »

well, look into the classes, find out who the teachers are. I did a search for "George Mason University animated short" and only came up with a handful of sad examples, that doesn't make me to excited about their new media classes - it sounds like it's too new.

compare that to a search for "Ringling College of Art and Design animated short"

Mason also has a BFA in Game Design, which is probably the animated short that came up for you. The work from the Game Design department isn't too stunning...

Just checked, nope...I think Painting or Drawing are the only two choices now.

I wish I could afford to go to Ringling.

EDIT: Decided I will go with the Painting. The work that comes out of the Painting BFA is really impressive.