Art Direction and Visual Effects - BA (Hons)

University of the Arts London

Course overview

This course will teach you the skills required to be an Art Director or visual effects (VFX) artist for screen-based entertainment. You’ll learn how to use design and technology to shape innovative ideas that drive the visual identity of film, television, animation and computer games.

What to expect

• Industry skills: You’ll learn the skills needed for storyboarding, pre-visualisation, editing and sound.
• Art direction: Master the art of creating concepts and designs that define the look of a film, TV, interactive or animated project.
• Design skills: Develop concept art skills including digital painting with Photoshop and creating 3D models for environment and character creation.
• Analysis: You’ll be shown how to carry out character and script analysis.
• Research: Develop your research skills and personal reference material taking into account climate, racial and social justice issues.
• An introduction to new and existing technologies: Delve into virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), computer generated imagery (CGI), green screen and digital visual effects.

Course skills

The first year of the course will give you an introduction to BA (Hons) Art Direction and Visual Effects. At the end of the first year, you’ll choose your specialism in either art direction or VFX.

Art Direction

Art directors are responsible for developing the look and visual fingerprint of a production on everything from film and TV through to VFX, games and animation. As an art director, you’re expected to create artwork that drives the style and look of the production and in many cases help define a franchise or brand.

Visual effects (VFX)

VFX artists are concerned with the creation of digital models. This can be either:

• as a production resource for environments and performance, or
• for integrating post-production elements into live action scenes.

Many of these skillsets also translate extensively to the computer games and animation industry.