Animation is a subject compatible with many majors. From the drawing of sub shots, the setting of characters, the design of costumes, the design of scenes, to the later voice and music dubbing, the animation director needs to make overall planning and do it by himself. The animation hand drawn storyboard and separation are widely used in the film and television industry. Compared with the high cost of live shooting separation, the flat script, the most intuitive hand drawn, and the lowest cost way to show the director's vision of the lens. While we love animation, we should also see the limitations of animation, as well as more possibilities arising from the extension of animation. Today, I will talk to you about the natural light. How can the animation and visual communication majors achieve cross discipline?

　　 How does animation and visual communication specialty achieve interdisciplinary?

Visual Communication Design is a derivative specialty based on graphic design. Director Min Jin, whom we mentioned to you, graduated from the Department of Visual Communication Design of Musashino University of Fine Arts in Japan. Students who are interested in animation will not be unfamiliar with the director Jin Min. Kon Min's animation has a profound impact on music, design, games, especially the film industry.

Source: Personal homepage of SAIC MFA visual communication designer KJKim

The biggest difference between visual communication design and graphic design is that the purpose of visual communication design is to communicate with the audience by any available visual means, not just limited to static graphic design. This means that students need to learn graphic design, illustration, animation, photography and even post photo. This can understand why Jin Min was able to change from a visual communication major to a cartoonist and then an animation director, because the visual communication major is originally a comprehensive discipline that summarizes modern media art.

　　 Chicago Academy of Arts Visual Communication

SAIC, the top American art school we are familiar with（ Chicago Academy of Arts ）It has a major in visual communication design (undergraduate). SAIC itself is a top American art and design school. Walt Disney, Georgia O'Keefe and Wen Yiduo all graduated from SAIC.

SAIC aims to cultivate visual arts talents. In addition to the high degree of professionalism that top art colleges should have, what's more, its curriculum is very flexible. At SAIC, more than half of the students are engaged in interdisciplinary learning. This atmosphere is a hotbed for a major with a wide range of disciplines, such as visual communication design.

Chicago Academy of Arts Visual Communication

Let's first take a look at the curriculum of SAIC Visual Communication Design (undergraduate). From a macro perspective, we can choose a wide range of courses for further study. In addition to design courses, we also include some practical courses, such as offset printing/digital printing, letterpress printing/book binding, etc.

The setting of these "physics" courses makes up for the shortcomings of the traditional visual design majors' lack of practical experience, and also increases the social competitiveness of students after graduation, which can be said to be considerate for students.

In terms of design courses, SAIC is also far more comprehensive than we expected. The general directions we are familiar with, such as illustration, web pages, interaction, and MG animation, are needless to say, but even the details of fonts, art books, packaging, posters, which were generally classified as "graphic design", have their own independent courses. Even some unexpected concepts, such as sustainable development design, identity design/strategic design, have emerged corresponding courses. In addition, the school will hold a lecture course named "Exploratory Languages" for students of visual communication design (undergraduate) every year.

Visual Communication Course at the Chicago Academy of Arts

Leading designers and artists from all over the world will be the keynote speakers, such as Henk van Assen, a designer from Yale University Press, Anne Bush, the winner of the Global Design Award, and Philip Zimmerman, an American icon painter, etc. The biggest disadvantage of the traditional academic curriculum is that it is divorced from social practice, but this kind of lecture curriculum can well avoid this. It also helps students better integrate the design concept into the social trend, so as not to be isolated from the society.

Application requirements (undergraduate):

1.10-15 personal art works (no specific format restrictions, mainly to show self creativity)

2. Personal creative inspiration statement (250-500 words are recommended. It contains information to stimulate inspiration; artistic creation process; preference for artistic expression forms; what exhibitions and activities have you participated in and how these experiences affect your works.)

3. High School Transcript

4. TOEFL 82/IELTS 6.5

5. Teacher or professional recommendation letter

　　 New York Institute of Visual Arts Motion Graphics

In the course of SAIC Visual Communication, we saw a familiar figure - Motion Graphics! Speaking of this, natural light has to talk more about MG animation, the emerging "big devil" in the visual communication industry! Recently, MG Animation has become the first choice of many large companies for its clear style and low production costs.

In SVA, Motion Graphics is also a very important course. In combination with the title of "the top ten high salary potential art schools in the United States", it is not difficult to understand why SVA attaches so much importance to MG animation.

Source: THE SVA MOTION GRAPHICS

SPRING SHOW 2018

MG animation is a hybrid of graphic design and traditional animation. It combines the simple visual beauty of modern graphic design with the vivid narrative form of animation. At the same time, because MG animation has abandoned the high cost production method of traditional animation frame by frame hand drawing, it has become a new favorite in the media industry to replace flat graphic design and high cost traditional 2D animation.

SVA (School of Visual Arts), as a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design, attaches great importance to MG animation. Every year, we not only hold an exhibition of MG animation works for students, but also offer a large number of MG animation courses.

Almost all of SVA's undergraduate dynamic effects courses include MG animation and visual effects. Taking computer art and animation visual effects as an example, one third of the professional courses in the second academic year were assigned to MG animation, which can be seen from the importance of MG animation.

So if students are not willing to learn too much and miscellaneous macro knowledge in undergraduate courses, they want to learn well and thoroughly in one field. MG animation is a popular and good choice. SVA also has a strong voice in this regard, and can become the preferred goal of the school for students.

Application requirements (undergraduate):

1. Statement of creative intention (500 words is recommended. Discuss the reasons why individuals engage in visual arts)

2.15-20 personal art works (images or films/2 film papers)

3. High School Transcript

4. TOEFL 80/IELTS 6.5

5. Teacher or professional recommendation letter (unnecessary)

　　 Graduate of Visual Communication Design, Royal Academy of Arts

RCA (Royal College of Art), as a top British art school, ranked first in the QS World University Ranking in 2019 for five consecutive years in the arts and design category. RCA's visual communication design (postgraduate) is also among the best in MA.

Visual Communication Design of Royal Academy of Arts

Visual communication design belongs to the Media College among the four RCA colleges, and is the graduate course of the Media College along with animation design, digital direction design and information experience design. Therefore, in terms of specialty setting, these four directions are connected with each other around the core of "Communication".

Visual Communication Design Course of Royal Academy of Arts

In terms of curriculum, RCA divides visual communication design into three major directions: plane, illustration and experimental media. As a postgraduate course, compared with the introduction and science popularization of undergraduate courses, it will target different fields more accurately.

Source: RCA Score of Communication

Logo Design of 2015 Works Exhibition

Among them, graphic design is more practical, experimental media is more inclined to try academic innovation, and illustration is an intermediate platform connecting the planarity and experimentation of visual communication design. From the perspective of traditional subject setting, experimental media will involve more paper projects and theoretical knowledge, and illustration and graphic design focus on visual expression of works of art.

Through the brief description of the courses of the visual communication design major (graduate students) on the official website, we can see that RCA is not like most traditional art colleges, which one-sided focuses on "works" and ignores academic literature. Critical papers and academic research account for nearly 1/5 of the credit units in the students' two-year learning process, which is the same proportion as the school elective courses.

Such discipline setting is clear and clear, and gives students the choice of multiple directions. Whether the students are practical or academic who prefer to study theory or both, they can find their own way in RCA.

Application requirements (postgraduate):

Phase I:

1. TOEFL at least 80/IELTS at least 6

(The school provides language courses)

2. Certificate of educational background

Phase II:

1. Provide personal works collection according to school email

(No specific format restrictions, mainly to show self creativity)

2. Personal creative inspiration statement (300 words recommended)

3. Shoot a video within two minutes to talk about personal creative journey

4. Complete written statement of works

One of the creative journey videos in the second stage is the most distinctive one of Huangyi over the years, which is also the most troublesome one for students. According to the statement on the official website, this video does not focus on shooting skills, nor on equipment, but more on students' creative ideas expressed in the video.

How does animation and visual communication specialty achieve interdisciplinary? The connection between visual communication and animation? Today, natural light is introduced to you in detail by three schools, including the Chicago Academy of Arts, the New York Institute of Visual Arts and the Royal Academy of Arts. If you want to know more about natural light, please come to natural light for free consultation.

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