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

This is a course demonstrating and exploring the basic techniques of Stop-Motion 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. Conceptual skills are exercised through exploring intent, storytelling, storyboarding, editorial concepts, material manipulation, character performance, art direction, lighting 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.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $40.00

Elective

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 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. During Wintersession, the students perform production work in video and film, organize crews for filmmaking, review rushes and do initial editing and sound work on their degree projects.

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

Elective

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.

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

Elective

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.

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

Elective

This course is designed to teach students how to utilize the computer to create animation. Special emphasis is placed on exploration and experimentation as it applies to computer-generated or computer-assisted animation. The class covers hand drawn non-computer originated animation, cut out animation, computer generated drawn animation, painting under the camera, rotoscoping, and an introduction to the concepts used in 3D animation. Additionally, an introduction to sound design and editing will be explored in the final animation project.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $40.00

Elective

Over the course of a year, senior students integrate their media skills through a cross-disciplinary approach with time-based media practice, resulting in a developed work or a series of smaller related works meant for exhibition or performance. This path is for students that wish to engage with time-based media in non-traditional ways, such as through installation, performance, public art, interactivity, intervention, networked/collaborative production, activism, etc.. Students research, develop, design, prototype, direct and produce these works independently. Students receive weekly individual guidance from the instructor and partnered peers. Class meetings are devoted to lectures, informational workshops, student presentations of related research, individual meetings and group critique. During Wintersession, students perform production work, test and analyze parameters and results. Students have weekly meetings for lectures, guests, technical workshops, and weekly small-group meetings to discuss their works-in-progress.

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

Elective

Furniture design is concerned with meeting the needs of a body in the context of its environment, but must that body and environment belong to a human? Homo sapiens compose 0.01% of the Earth’s biomass. In this class we will explore the other 99.99%, the nonhuman world. Drawing upon the concept of umwelt, the unique sensory experience of a particular organism, students will deeply interrogate the life history and sensory world of nonhuman organisms in order to explore what it means to design as an animal. Through lectures, readings, discussions, and guest speakers, topics in biology will be introduced and their relevance to design discussed and analyzed. Students will develop their own intuitive approach to making and undertake a research and design project centered around an organism of their choice, culminating in a final presentation with accompanying visuals, diagrams, and models. The concepts of design and furniture will be explored beyond the purview of humanity in order to expand our circle of consideration when making. Students will be introduced to basic biological concepts like evolution, metabolism, development, and genetics. Contact with scientific literature and guest researchers will expose students to how science works in the real world and how they can use it effectively in their own creative practice. No prior knowledge of biology is required, only curiosity.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $150.00

Elective

What happens when an object refuses to function as expected? This course explores the intersection of humor, critique, and craft through the creation of objects that resist, subvert, or challenge their intended use. Inspired by Chindogu (the art of almost-useful inventions) and speculative design, students will investigate how intentional dysfunctionality can serve as a lens for deeper design thinking, storytelling, and social commentary. 

Through hands-on experimentation, students will engage with a variety of materials and fabrication techniques to push the limits of function and form. Material play will encourage unexpected combinations, such as rigid materials behaving flexibly, or familiar materials being used in unfamiliar ways. Conceptual development will focus on questioning the role of everyday objects, exploring themes of absurdity, frustration, failure, and user interaction. 

Students will examine case studies of unconventional design, including artists, designers, and inventors who have embraced dysfunctionality as a creative tool. Readings and discussions will explore how humor and critique intersect in design and why provoking confusion or discomfort can challenge societal norms. 

By the end of the course, students will have conceptualized, prototyped, and presented a series of useful useless objects that provoke thought, humor, or frustration—redefining our relationship with the things we use (or struggle to use) in daily life. 

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