This class uses Adobe After Effects as a tool to achieve the students' individual goals as artists. Starting with the basics of creating imagery in After Effects, the course moves through compositing, special effects, puppet animation and time manipulation. There is an overarching focus on core concepts such as quality of motion, layout and composition, color and form that surpass this single class. The first 6 weeks contain homework assignments that allow the students to grasp individual components of this highly technical toolset, while during the second 6 weeks the students concentrate on a final project. This project stresses the students' knowledge and forces them to grow as a digital animator as they find unique problems and solve them with instructor supervision.

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 Materials Cost: $300.00

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. Deposit: $150.00

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 Materials Cost: Varies considerably with production design; average $1,000.00 to $3,000.00 Deposit: $150.00

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 Travel Cost: $700 - $1,000

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 Materials Cost: $2,000. Deposit: $150.00

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.

Offered as FAV-5291 and IDISC-5291

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

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

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

Located in the heart of Copenhagen this course is a three week immersion in the world of New Nordic design with a focus on Denmark. Denmark is the forefront of design and sustainability. Through this course, students will explore the historical influences and current trends that have helped create a national culture identity of integrating design and sustainability into the Danish daily life. Class time includes seminars with prominent Scandinavian designers. There will be multiple design assignments some which include making and modeling, others are research based. There are class field trips to manufacturers - PP M°bler, Fritz Hansen, Ilomio and more - in addition to design studio visits to Muuto, Hay, Normann and others. We will also visit IKEA's headquarters in Sweden where we meet members of the in-house design team and see the IKEA facilities. Though the focus will be on furniture, there will be discussions and field trips that explore the influence of Danish design upon architecture, city planning, lighting, ceramics and textiles. Local explorations include recent architectural works and city sites such as Bjarke Ingles + BIG, Henning Larsen, Lungaard & Tranberg and more. Additional cultural visits include the Danish Design Museum, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art and historical sites.

Students must complete an application through RISD Global to be added to this course. A minimum GPA of 2.5 is required, good conduct standing, and permission of the instructor. GPA, Student Conduct Standing, and standing with Equity and Compliance will be verified and may preclude a student from participation, either before or during the term. Most courses are open to first year students with approval from the Dean of Experimental and Foundation Studies.

Elective

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

This graduate seminar is organized in parallel with the Graduate Furniture Design Thesis studio for the purpose of guiding the written thesis document. The goal is to provide students with a focused opportunity to map their thesis projects and to create the document that supports their studio practice and body of work known as the thesis.

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

Major Requirement | MFA Furniture Design

This studio course introduces materials commonly used in furniture making and the foundation skills necessary to integrate them into furniture. Emphasis is on techniques, structures and materials properties. These are integrated with theoretical exercises that focus on design.

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

Major Requirement | BFA Furniture Design

This studio course introduces materials commonly used in furniture making and the foundation skills necessary to integrate them into furniture. Emphasis is on techniques, structures and materials properties. These are integrated with theoretical exercises that focus on design.

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

Major Requirement | BFA Furniture Design

Drawing for Furniture 2D will focus on the ways in which drawing can help generate, evaluate and communicate design concepts. Students will be introduced to the conventions and techniques of technical drawing for Furniture Design while pursuing experiments that supplement and challenge established practices. Focus will be on two drawing systems, orthographic and paraline projection, working by hand and with computers.

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

Major Requirement | BFA Furniture Design

Drawing for Furniture 2D will focus on the ways in which drawing can help generate, evaluate and communicate design concepts. Students will be introduced to the conventions and techniques of technical drawing for Furniture Design while pursuing experiments that supplement and challenge established practices. Focus will be on two drawing systems, orthographic and paraline projection, working by hand and with computers.

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

Major Requirement | BFA Furniture Design

The junior studio expands and interprets the skills and concepts introduced in the sophomore studios. The primary focus of the semester is an experimentally based investigation of bending and forming techniques - molded plywood, bent lamination, steam bending, and vacuum-formed plastic. While focused on the use of wood and plastic materials, an experimental approach is expected in the studio. Students are encouraged to conceptually explore skills and materials to develop a personal design approach and studio practice. The semester culminates in a final design, in which students utilize learned techniques to create one-offs, objects intended for batch production or prototypes designed for production.

Prerequisite: FD-2502

Major Requirement | BFA Furniture Design

In this junior studio students are presented with the idea of using metal to develop furniture forms. While the primary metal used to investigate form is mild steel, properties and techniques are also presented that apply to stainless steel, aluminum, copper, brass and bronze. Students become proficient in TIG welding, and are introduced to arc welding, spot welding, gas welding, brazing and soldering. Basic structural properties of steel are investigated through a series of short projects designed to inform students of the appropriate forms and applications. Basic and more advanced fabrication techniques, metal surface treatments, as well as metal finishing are also topics of class demonstrations.

Prerequisite: FD-2502

Major Requirement | BFA Furniture Design

This research course focuses on the experimentation with soft materials utilizing techniques of textile construction to create functional furniture with structural integrity. This course will rely on teamwork between Furniture Design and Textile students to take advantage of each other's expertise in furniture making and textile construction. In the beginning of the course students will be introduced to examples of contemporary furniture design, which use soft materials in unconventional ways to create unexpected forms and experiences. Reading will be assigned that covers these contemporary examples in detail. Parallel to this students will be exposed to weaving and knitting techniques, but should also consider other techniques such as crocheting, knotting, basket weaving etc. Students are encouraged to alter these techniques according to their needs to discover unique design solutions. Additionally, students will be introduced to unconventional materials not necessarily associated with furniture to generate innovative results. Substructures constructed out of solid materials can be used to provide rigidity as well as glue/resin to reinforce soft materials. Since this course focuses on material research, students are expected to engage in sustained in-depth inquiry, which should be documented in a meaningful way throughout the entire process.

Offered as TEXT-2523 and FD-2523. Preference is given to Textiles and Furniture Design Students.

Fill out registration form here.

Elective

This course will provide an opportunity for students to design and make cabinets of various types with doors and drawers. Students will learn the subtleties of casework and fitting doors, drawers and hardware. While a wide range of design approaches from very simple to complex will be encouraged, this course will be an especially good opportunity for those students who wish to explore advanced woodworking.

Prerequisite: FD-2502

Elective

This is a required studio for seniors that develops advanced theory and practice in furniture design. Projects include experimental seating design and an introduction to upholstery techniques. Seniors develop a Degree Project Proposal along with a project that explores and tests the proposal.

Prerequisite: FD-2521

Major Requirement | BFA Furniture Design