During the senior year, students synthesize and apply what they have learned in their previous studies to the creation of a year-long project. Students develop, design, animate, direct, and produce these projects independently. Students receive weekly individual guidance from instructors and two critiques by established professionals from the world animation community. Class meetings are devoted to film screenings, group critique, and specialized technical workshops.

Estimated Cost of Materials: (varies considerably with production design) average $1,000.00 to $3,000.00.

Fall semester includes a one-week field trip to the Ottawa International Animation Festival in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Majors are pre-registered by the Department Coordinator during the pre-registration period in the Spring semester preceding the senior year. Students make full payment via Slate. Payments can be made at any time once registration begins in May. Payment must be completed by September 1.

Estimated Cost to Travel: $700.00 - $1,000.00

Please contact fav@risd.edu for permission to register.

Major Requirement | BFA Film/Animation/Video | Animation

The intermediate year of animation study witnesses a significant transformation, in which the student grows from novice to independent director. This year-long studio develops an integrated understanding of the diverse aesthetic tools of animation, and teaches students directing for the animation medium. The course is comprised of four elements. First, weekly in-class structured experiments and homework awaken and refine the student's understanding of movement, timing, writing, editing, sound design, art directing, and use of materials. Second, students receive technical training in 2D animation production. Third, students screen and discuss animated works spanning history, culture, and design approach. Fourth, each student designs, animates, directs, and produces two independent projects, one in the fall and one in the spring.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $300.00

Please contact fav@risd.edu for permission to register.

Major Requirement | BFA Film/Animation/Video | Animation

The intermediate year of animation study witnesses a significant transformation, in which the student grows from novice to independent director. This year-long studio develops an integrated understanding of the diverse aesthetic tools of animation, and teaches students directing for the animation medium. The course is comprised of four elements. First, weekly in-class structured experiments and homework awaken and refine the student's understanding of movement, timing, writing, editing, sound design, art directing, and use of materials. Second, students receive technical training in 2D animation production. Third, students screen and discuss animated works spanning history, culture, and design approach. Fourth, each student designs, animates, directs, and produces two independent projects, one in the fall and one in the spring.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $300.00

Please contact fav@risd.edu for permission to register.

Major Requirement | BFA Film/Animation/Video | Animation

The Senior Studio brings together the advanced skills and ideas about image-making that each student in the major has developed over the previous two years. Students are expected to work independently on their individual projects with the expectation of a culminating body of work to be presented in a public exhibition during the spring semester (Degree Project). As in Junior Studio, group and individual critiques with faculty and visiting artists will continue to form the basis of the course curriculum. Attendance at all departmental visiting artist lectures is required.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $200.00 - $250.00

Enrollment is limited to Senior Photography Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Photography

An advanced studio course, students propose and develop individual research projects surrounding their interests in jewelry and metalsmithing. In preparation for the Degree Project, conceptual development and critical thinking are highly emphasized, and students are encouraged to explore materials and processes that best serve their ideas. Digital process documentation, display/presentation and participation in-group critiques/discussions are required and highly evaluated.

Major Requirement | BFA Jewelry + Metalsmithing

This path, within the senior studio options, allows for the exploration of a broad range of hybrid practices. Through the structural support of this year-long studio, students will produce a project that synthesizes their understanding of and aspirations for media art practice. Works produced use media as their point of departure, but may take a variety of forms including performance, installation, public art, intervention, networked/collaborative production, print publication, activism, etc. The course prepares students to work with depth in their use of media and as contemporary artists in a complex art world, in which media is often only one component in a larger project. Students receive weekly individual guidance from the instructor and peers, as well as two critiques by prominent working artists or related practitioners. During the spring semester, each student explores the notion of distribution intensively, resulting in the crafting of individualized forms of presentation. Each student also develops a portfolio of their work, focused on communicating their core interests to a defined group. Class meetings are devoted to presentations of related artists works, individual meetings and group critique. Fall semester includes field trips to events in the NY/New England area.

Estimated Materials Cost: Varies considerably with production design.

Please contact fav@risd.edu for permission to register.

Major Requirement | BFA Film/Animation/Video | Open Media

This is a year-long course of study, for which the student will complete a 10-20 minute live action work to final professional screening format. Students are free to choose genres and formats in which they want to work. Students have weekly meetings for screenings, guests, and technical workshops, and weekly small-group meetings to discuss their works-in-progress. Fall semester covers pre-production work on narrative projects: developing of scenarios, location scouting, budgets, initial camera tests or initial shooting of non-fiction projects. Visiting consultants come in to instruct in sound recording and cinematography, and guest critics come in November to review project proposals and/or footage.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $2,000.

Please contact fav@risd.edu for permission to register.

Major Requirement | BFA Film/Animation/Video | Live Action

Building upon the independent work accomplished in Junior studio, students are expected to generate self directed work supported by in-process critiques, formal critiques, and individual meetings. Faculty and peer feedback will help students clarify their objectives, fine tune their technical abilities, and develop a strong working practice. Students are expected to hone their creative problem-solving skills and engage in a high level of dialog and work. Throughout the fall, students will practice integrating their source research into their studio practice. An increased and rigorous integration of contemporary art, critical theory, and criticism is expected. The visiting artist lecture series is a vital component of this course.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Senior Sculpture Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Sculpture

In the beginning of your fourth year you work independently with a ceramic faculty tutor to develop your individual degree project. Your project is expected to be a body of ceramic work that is unified in direction, significant in its degree of growth, innovative in its resolution, and personal in its expression. Students are pre-registered for this course by the department.

Enrollment is limited to Senior Ceramics Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Ceramics

In this course students explore the fundamentals of animated movement, timing, and materials through various animation techniques, including working directly on film, drawing on paper, pixilation, cut-out animation, and modified-base processes. Over the course of the semester, students will create six short animations and a wide range of animated films will be studied to augment the student's understanding of the field.

Please contact fav@risd.edu for permission to register. Preference is given to FAV and Illustration Students.

Elective

In this course students explore the fundamentals of animated movement, timing, and materials through various animation techniques, including working directly on film, drawing on paper, pixilation, cut-out animation, and modified-base processes. Over the course of the semester, students will create six short animations and a wide range of animated films will be studied to augment the student's understanding of the field.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $40.00

Please contact fav@risd.edu for permission to register.

Major Requirement | BFA Film/Animation/Video

In this course students explore the fundamentals of animated movement, timing, and materials through various animation techniques, including working directly on film, drawing on paper, pixilation, cut-out animation, and modified-base processes. Over the course of the semester, students will create six short animations and a wide range of animated films will be studied to augment the student's understanding of the field.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $40.00

Please contact fav@risd.edu for permission to register.

Major Requirement | BFA Film/Animation/Video

This is a course demonstrating and exploring the basic techniques of Stop-Motion Puppet Animation, with the intent to provide students with hands-on creative experience in learning the potentials of the medium, and an introduction to filmic language. Studio exercises strengthen individual technical skills in basic armature construction and model making, animating pose-to-pose movement, the basic walk, expressions and gestures, clay animation with lip-sync, set construction and lighting for three-dimensional animation. Basic sound recording, mixing and editing are also covered. Conceptual skills are exercised through exploring intent, storytelling, storyboarding, editorial concepts, character performance, art direction, and basic sound design. This class is based on process and experimentation. It is meant to provide a strong foundation in the basics of stop-motion animation filmmaking, as well as the confidence to experiment further in one's future work. The idea is to enjoy the process by understanding it; control is born of experimentation and experience. This is a one semester class repeated in the spring.

Estimated Cost of Materials Cost: $40.00

Please contact fav@risd.edu for permission to register.

Elective

An advanced studio course, students propose and develop individual research surrounding their interests in jewelry and metalsmithing. In support of the Degree Project year, conceptual development and critical thinking are highly emphasized, and students are encouraged to explore materials and processes that best serve their ideas. As the structure of this term allows for more individual freedom, it is necessary that students maintain a high level of self-initiative, curiosity, work ethic, and time management to be successful in their independent degree project.

Major Requirement | BFA Jewelry + Metalsmithing

Building on skills learned in the Intro Stop-motion Animation class, students will develop and produce one short stop-motion animation for professional portfolio and public screening. This course will provide students the opportunity to focus on particular issues of stop-motion animation and explore more advanced production techniques and processes. The course emphasizes art direction and project development. Students are encouraged to experiment with individual style and techniques of armature and set building, lighting, special effects and camera techniques. Weekly exercises are designed to strengthen students' conceptual and animation skills. In addition, a wide range of short films are screened to provide creative stimulus and demonstrate a variety of aesthetic and technical approaches.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $300.00

Please contact fav@risd.edu for permission to register.

Elective

This course explores the use of the computer to create animation and motion graphics. Emphasis is placed on producing dynamic movement using keyframe interpolation and vector graphics. In addition, students will work with sound and motion data, coded expressions and effects generators to expand the range of animation possibilities. Through a series of individual and group projects, students will explore and experiment with computer animation techniques and gain experience with digital tools. A range of films will be screened complementing each week's focus. Knowledge of Adobe After Effects and Illustrator is helpful but not required. In addition to project work, students will reinforce software concepts by viewing weekly video tutorials outside class.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $40.00

Please contact fav@risd.edu for permission to register.

Elective

This course explores the animation medium as a tool for community engagement, documentary storytelling and advocacy. Working closely with local organizations, students will produce animated works around themes that are rooted in Providence. With an emphasis on co-creation and participatory models of production, the semester will culminate in a screening that is open to the public. Students will also develop a deeper foundation of research practices, pre-production methods, creative collaboration strategies, time management, event promotion, and production pipelines.

Elective

This course, taught by zoological medicine veterinarian Dr. Lucy Spelman examines how we interact with animals-both domestic and wild-and how, in turn, these interactions affect us. Each week we focus on a different species, working our way up the taxonomic tree from corals to gorillas. We study the animal's basic biology, including its anatomy, natural history, and ecology. We consider the role it plays in human society, including as companions, as food, and, as sources of medicine and spiritual inspiration. We study how human activity is affecting its health and the ripple effect on our own health. We explore how agriculture, climate change, emerging diseases, habitat loss, hunting, and trade are driving many species to extinction. In the process, we discover that while many human-animal interactions are positive, many more are problematic, and that although we have solutions for most of these negative interactions, we often fail to implement them. Examples include excessive antibiotic use in cows, the continued loss of wetlands threatening frogs, and, the increasing number of coyotes favored by urban landscapes. We explore some of the underlying reasons for this inaction. In their final project, students identify a problematic human-animal interaction and explore solutions.

This course is designed to encourage you to explore the range of biological complexity in the animal world, the many ways we interact with animals, both domestic and wild, and, the scientific basis of the interconnectedness of health. You will also have the opportunity to explore solutions for problematic human-animal interactions; it is possible to live in balance with animals if we make informed decisions. The material presented will challenge you to learn more about animal classification, zoology, ecology, food animal science, veterinary medicine, public health, and conservation biology. For your final project, you will research a problematic human-animal interaction, explore potential solutions, and create a work of art or design that inspires others to take action.

Elective

This is a seminar class for the senior printmaking student. The course addresses practical topics related to becoming a professional artist after graduation. Topics include:

1. professional content development as applied one’s CV, artist statement, website, and social media promotion.

2. class discussions about galleries, museums, graduate programs, auction houses, and grants.

3. examination of marketing channels for today’s artist.

4. introduction to business skills and professionalism as appropriate for the art world.

Professionals from related fields will be invited to the class to share their expertise and experience. 

Major Requirement | BFA Printmaking

In this course we examine individual studio practices in depth through collecting, drawing, and writing. We approach writing as a mutable medium, one that can be built up, torn apart, cobbled together, patch-worked, polished, shined, exploded, and altogether constructed in a way that is not dissimilar to the way an object emerges in the studio. We examine the ways that writing as a part of making can spark ideas for visual work, enrich subliminal visual narratives, connect ideas that may seem disparate, collect a wide variety of sources in a small space, act as a place for reflection, and ultimately be an active and integral part of making. In the process, we will unearth themes that permeate students' artistic work in a way that forges future paths for creative exploration while protecting some of the mysteries that are particular to an embodied practice. Students will begin to develop a personal vocabulary that parallels the richly developed language of their visual work, laying the foundation for their Senior Degree Project. The primary aim of this class is for students to develop a better understanding of their own practice and its context through writing and archiving influences and inspirations, laying the conceptual foundation and establishing a specific theme for the spring semester Senior Degree Project Report.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Senior Furniture Design Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Furniture Design