Animation and Digital Arts at the USC School of Cinematic Arts nurtures the next generation of film and content makers who chose animation as their medium. The program offers a well-rounded creative learning environment to hone your animation and design skills and while you explore a multitude of options including 2D and 3D character animation, character and production design, motion graphics, visual development, story development, real-time animation, visual effects and immersive media.

Students will have opportunities to collaborate across the School of Cinematic Arts divisions as well as work in partnerships with other USC students from the Thornton School of Music, the Glorya Kaufman School of Dance, the School of Dramatic Arts, the Viterbi School of Engineering and the School of Architecture. We encourage our majors to take advantage of the entire catalog of classes at USC during their time here.

The program gives students the opportunity to choose their own artistic path whether it is to become a professional or independent artist. Our students’ work has been recognized by the Academy and countless animation film festivals. Many of our graduates have gone on to work at feature and TV animation studios, motion graphics studios and other top creative content companies.

BFA Curriculum

Year 1

Introduction to the Art of Animation
Design Fundamentals I
Introduction to 3D Computer Animation
History of Animation

Year 2

Design Fundamentals II
Intro to Story Structure
Storyboarding for Animation
Introduction to Character Animation

Year 3

Intermediate Character Performance
Cinematography for Animators
Professionalism in Animation
Ideation + Pre-Production

Year 4

Senior Capstone Film / Project

Animation Electives

Students can take a variety of elective and master classes that focus on skill building and different areas of animation creation. Our faculty are accomplished digital and traditional artists and professionals from the animation industry and independent media production.

3D Animation for Motion Graphics (C4D)
2D Motion Graphics
3D Motion Graphics
Advanced Character Animation for Games
Character Design Workshop
Concept Design for Animation
Creative Development for Animation
Creative Production in Virtual Reality
Demystifying the TV Animation Pipeline
Digital Effects Animation
Digital Lighting and Rendering
Environment and Hard Surface Modeling
Experiments in Immersive Design
Live Action Integration with Visual Effects
Motion Capture Fundamentals
Organic Modeling for Animation
Pipeline and Character Modeling for Animation
Procedural Animation (Houdini)
Production Design for Animation Projection Mapping Design and Production
Real-Time Animation (Unreal Engine)
Visual Music
Visual Effects
The World of Visual Effects

For more information go to the USC Academic Catalog