In this studio course, students will engage in a thorough technical and conceptual walkthrough of post-production techniques, with an emphasis on editing and sound design, managing projects, color grading, and deliverable design. By reflecting on the possibilities embedded in the filmed material, we will explore editing as a generative process that can clarify themes within a piece and shape or even reimagine its structure. We will explore editing strategies that focus on the visual and conceptual forces at play when shots come together, transform each other and create new meanings. Students should be familiar with production terminology and methods, cameras, and digital video and audio.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $280.00

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

Elective

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 will focus on animation and rendering using a combination of 2D, 3D and compositing software. It covers detailed 3D modeling, rigging, and texturing.

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

Elective

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 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. Class meetings are devoted to presentations of related artists works, individual meetings and group critique. 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. Spring Semester features speakers, working with related practices, who meet with students to prepare them for their professional future.

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

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

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

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

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. Spring Semester features speakers from different sectors of the animation field who meet with students to prepare them for professional practice. During the spring semester each student also prepares a professional reel and portfolio. The year culminates with the RISD Senior Festival, a public showcase.

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

Deposit: $150.00

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

Major Requirement | BFA Film/Animation/Video | Animation

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

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. Spring semester covers post-production, editing, sound mixing, color correction, outputting, and a series of professional practice workshops. A guest critic reviews work in early April. Final projects are screened at a public film festival in May, which is reviewed by the local media.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $2,000.00.

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

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

In this interdisciplinary critique-based class, advanced students take a rigorous look at the various ways time-based imagery functions in their work. With an emphasis on post-cinema, research- based, site-dependent, and performative practices, students in Meeting Points: Open Media examine their studio projects in-depth, through group critiques, a close analysis of critical concepts, and working with focus and discipline in their medium of choice.

This course is required for FAV seniors in Open Media and is well-positioned to be a critical support for senior and graduate students looking for additional insight into the development and refinement of their work in the area of cross-disciplinary media art practice. Course work includes research, readings, critique sessions, group discussions, and visiting artist lectures.

Fall semester includes a recommended field trip to a relevant exhibition or performance, and visits by related working artists and curators.

Spring semester includes an emphasis on curatorial exhibition strategies, a recommended field trip to a relevant exhibition or performance, and visits by related working artists and curators.

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

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

In this interdisciplinary critique-based class, advanced students take a rigorous look at the various ways time-based imagery functions in their work. With an emphasis on post-cinema, research- based, site-dependent, and performative practices, students in Meeting Points: Open Media examine their studio projects in-depth, through group critiques, a close analysis of critical concepts, and working with focus and discipline in their medium of choice. This course is required for FAV Seniors in Open Media and is well-positioned to be a critical support for senior and graduate students looking for additional insight into the development and refinement of their work in the area of cross-disciplinary media art practice. Course work includes research, readings, critique sessions, group discussions, and visiting artist lectures. Fall semester includes a recommended field trip to a relevant exhibition or performance, and visits by related working artists and curators. Spring semester includes an emphasis on curatorial exhibition strategies, a recommended field trip to a relevant exhibition or performance, and visits by related working artists and curators.

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

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

This course examines pre-production methods for animation, including storytelling and cinematic language particular to the animation medium. Emphasizing practical approaches to research and concept development, the course will introduce structural tools including storyboards, writing, color scripts, animatics, and preliminary soundtracks. We will ask the central question "Why Animation?" as we cover topics such as point-of-view, expressive scale, use of metaphor, and transformation.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $50.00

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

Elective

This advanced studio is a collaborative partnership with the furniture brand Blu Dot. Drawing from Blu Dot’s archives, the course invites students to engage deeply with the brand’s design ethos–clarity, accessibility, and formal innovation–while proposing new work that extends or challenges these principles. Using Blu Dot’s iconic 2D3D Collection as precedent and prompt, students will examine the translation between two-dimensional form and three-dimensional object, exploring structure and fabrication as generative design strategies. Investigations into flatness, line, volume, the history of DIY furniture, and the expressive potential of minimal means will be integral to course content.

Over the course of the semester, students will work with Blu Dot’s senior creative team through critiques, presentations, and a visit to their NYC showroom, receiving direct feedback throughout the design process from the company’s Creative Director. Emphasizing rigor, experimentation, and professional-level output, the studio requires iterative prototyping, material testing, research, and critical reflection. 

This course will be of particular relevance to students interested in design for industry. Students should be prepared for a high level of intensity and independence, producing refined, exhibition-ready work that bridges conceptual inquiry with manufacturable design.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $100.00

Elective

Learn the theory of Windsor Chairs and how the use of wood in tension can create a chair like no other. This class will cover techniques necessary to the Windsor system of building while working through design decisions that will culminate in a completed chair. Students are encouraged to embrace process and parameters in a direct and hands-on manner. Through small projects, students will learn how to balance wood strength, aesthetics, joint strength and ergonomic considerations. These principles will be applied to a carefully considered, finished chair. Topics covered will include: selection of wood, turning, seat carving, complex radial layout, several types of joinery, and finish techniques.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $200.00

Elective

This course will focus on the art of upholstery design. It will teach the basics of traditional techniques and materials; cover historic influences; and explore methods used in mass production. The course will survey nontraditional materials and review unconventional methods. There will be an emphasis on ergonomics including shaping, angles, and scale and how upholstery impacts comfort. This is a hands-on class where students will gain experience applying the techniques of upholstery.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $100.00

Elective

This course will focus on the art of upholstery design. It will teach the basics of traditional techniques and materials; cover historic influences; and explore methods used in mass production. The course will survey nontraditional materials and review unconventional methods. There will be an emphasis on ergonomics including shaping, angles, and scale and how upholstery impacts comfort. This is a hands-on class where students will gain experience applying the techniques of upholstery.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $100.00

Elective

This course focuses on material and process investigations that lead to a higher degree of technical proficiency providing students with an expanded foundation on which to carry out their ideas. The content of the course emphasizes how exploration and application operate in both pragmatic and unorthodox ways and reinforces ideas of how critical making and material investigation can lead to innovation. The technical aspects of production and outsourcing will also be examined.

Estimated Materials Cost: $150.00

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

Major Requirement | MFA Furniture Design

This course concentrates on the exploration of personal design aesthetics and the development of furniture projects that exhibit a high degree of technical proficiency.

Enrollment is limited to Graduate Furniture Design Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Furniture Design

This course explores advanced design processes and methods of construction. The evolution of a project through a complete design process is required including conceptual and design development phases.

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

Major Requirement | MFA Furniture Design

This course concentrates on projects that begin the thesis body of work. Advanced design and technical processes are continued as part of this process.

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

Major Requirement | MFA Furniture Design