As an Animation major at MassArt, you’ll receive a cutting-edge education in the field of animation that balances technique and skill with creativity and innovation. You’ll be encouraged to take risks, work collaboratively, and think about your work within broader historical, social, and cultural contexts.
Students begin with assignments that emphasize building technical skills while also encouraging inventive and experimental work, right out of the gate. As you dig into your own projects, you’ll master production efficiency, learn organizational structures, practice creative problem solving, and develop flexibility. While building these foundational skills, you’ll also learn how to teach yourself new techniques – a critical skill for any successful animator.
Our Animation students have access to both analog and digital technologies, allowing exploration and discovery that informs their artistic vision, voice and direction.
Learn moreAs students produce original work, they will also work hard at revision and take part in group critiques. Here, you’ll be part of a tight-knit community of Animation students and faculty who are excited to see you take your work to the next level.
When you finish your degree, you’ll be well-prepared to work as a professional animator, or apply your skills as a practicing artist or designer. Our graduates go on to work in film, television, advertising, gaming, interactive media, and other fields.
Students who complete the Animation BFA program are expected to be able to demonstrate the following learning outcomes.
Students learn the production skills needed to become a professional animator, which include technical proficiency, organizational structures, and ongoing development of self-education, or learning how to learn.
Students develop a creative process that involves risk-taking, intuition, collaboration, originality and the art of revision as it applies to animation.
Students engage in extensive critiques of various methods as an integral part of learning through engaged participation, reflection, and subsequent action.
Students situate their studio practice in the historical, social and cultural contexts within and surrounding animation.
The MassArt Animation Department offers a wide-ranging curriculum that teaches flexibility, innovation, and creative problem solving. Dedicated faculty help students build foundational production skills while also encouraging them to take risks and experiment across media. If you’re an original thinker who likes to collaborate, learn new techniques, and push the limits of your creative practice, then MassArt Animation is the place for you.
Alex Small-Butera sat down for an interview to explain about how he and Lindsay got from here to there, rising in their careers to receive this mark of achievement from Hollywood on their ability as animators, as artists.
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Students have access to world-class production spaces, including stop motion, editing and sound, and film – and an Über Kitchen student workspace.
Marissa Valdez grew up on the South Texas border, dreaming that one day she’d be drawing for her job. Marissa graduated with a BFA in Animation from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and has worked as a preschool teacher, graphic designer and freelance illustrator since. Marissa is the illustrator of the #1 New York Times bestseller Ambitious Girl and hopes that her work encourages young girls to be ambitious and to dream big. She lives in Houston, Texas with her two ambitiously large cats. You can learn more about her at marissavaldez.com.
