Major Overview and Training Objectives
This program course for a master's degree is based on the trend of media change in the era of intelligent media, focusing on the creative design and industry application of content in animation, film and Internet industries. It adheres to the concept that art as body, technology as use, innovation as method. It also oriented to practical practice, focusing on the development of new language, new skills, new thinking, new concepts of digital content art training and research of cutting-edge methods of art design. This program is a composite interdisciplinary specialization of art and technology, aiming to cultivate leading talents in digital content creation and design industry for China in the era of intelligent and integrated media.
Research Direction and Content
1. Animation Creation Direction
Research Content:
The direction of animation creation focuses on exploring the creation concept, expression, technical means and style characteristics of animation, comics and picture books.
Graduate students are required to master the basic theories and professional skills of animation, comics, picture books and illustration creation, and also possess high artistic quality, strong modeling ability, narrative ability and necessary technical foundation. The aim is to cultivate high-quality creative talents with broad artistic vision, solid theoretical foundation, high artistic quality and strong creative ability, as well as high-level complex talents who can undertake the planning and management of related fields.
2. Digital Art Creative Design Direction
Research Content：
Based on the trend of media change in the era of intelligent media, the digital art creative design direction focuses on the technical means, presentation characteristics, creative concepts and expressions of digital images, as well as intelligent product design, digital interactive art creation, digital game design and other industry frontier areas.
The program aims to cultivate high-end creative talents with comprehensive quality in humanities, arts and technology, mastering the high-tech video and human-computer interaction technologies represented by 3R, and engaging in content creation and intelligent product design and management.
Faculty Team
The program has an interdisciplinary faculty with high professional level, reasonable academic background, and a balance of art, technology and humanities. Most of the faculty members are engaged in digital media art, animation creation, network and intelligent media product design, digital imaging technology, interactive design, etc. Among them, 13 are professors and 37 are associate professors. At the same time, the program has established a high-level and international part-time faculty. Among them are Ishu Patel, David Erhlich and Jimmy Murakami, who have won many awards at the Oscars and Cannes Film Festival, as well as industry leaders from Tencent, Alibaba, ByteBeat, Meituan, AiYiQi, Airbnb, KuangShi, Himalaya, Perfect World, Quantum Sports and so on.
The faculty members of the program have undertaken many national and provincial projects, including the major projects of the National Social Science Foundation, the Art Project of the National Social Science Foundation, the National Key Research and Development Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the major project of the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission, the project of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) on the key technology of stereoscopic TV, the special project of the Ministry of Propaganda on the rescue project of modern Chinese cartoons, and the project of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) on social science, The project of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) "Digital Representation of Chinese Folk Tales", the major project of the Humanities and Social Sciences Base of the Ministry of Education (MOE) "Strategic Research on China's Animation Industry", the industry-academia cultivation project of the MOE based on AI technology and virtual interaction technology, and the construction of the creation platform of AI virtual anchor, etc.
Talent Cultivation
1. Main Course:
Frontiers of Media and Design, Animation Directing Art, Animation Script Research, Animation Comic Book Creation, Design Thinking, 3D Engine Technology Research, Interaction Design Theory and Practice, Information Visualization Design, Virtual Reality Film and Video Creation, etc.
2. Research Platform:
At present, the program courses have two national first-class undergraduate majors direction in "Digital Media Art" and "Animation". The course of Digital Media Art has been selected as one of the "985 Project Advantageous Discipline Innovation Platforms". There is one animation teaching and research base of national practice teaching demonstration center of "animation and digital media", one Beijing key laboratory of digital animation technology research laboratory, and one Beijing key interdisciplinary discipline of animation. At present, the college is the director unit of "Animation and Digital Media Professional Teaching Steering Committee" of the Ministry of Education, the construction point of animation specialties of the Ministry of Education, the secretariat of the expert committee of animation teaching materials construction of the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Culture, the director unit of the National Association of Computer Basic Education in Higher Education, the director unit of the Animation and Digital Media Art Professional Committee of the National Association of University Film and Television, and the director unit of the Chinese Animation Society. It is also the director unit of Animation and Digital Media Art Committee of National Association of University Film and Television, and the director unit of Education Committee of China Animation Society. The college has also established joint laboratories with HP, Apple, Unity, Shanghai Film Studio, Beijing TV New Media Center, and Oxygene Technology. It has established academic platforms such as China (Beijing) International University Animation Festival, China Animation Yearbook, and the Digital Creative Talents High School of the Ministry of Culture, forming a teaching and research base integrating teaching, creation and production, which has had a wide impact both at home and abroad. In 2012, the professional construction unit won the Best Animation Education Institution Award of China Culture and Arts Government Award.
3. Awards and Outstanding Journal articles, Invention patents
More than 100 works by faculty and students have won awards at the Student Academy of America, the New York Design Competition, the Siggraph International Graphics Society, the Animation Festival of France, the Golden Dragon Award for Animation in China and other important international events, and have achieved great social influence. These include the commercial animation film "Legend of Deification" created by a team of students and faculty, and the animation works "Kung Fu Rabbit", "Three Sons in the Cloud: Drowned Lady", "Silent Blue: Prologue", "Strange Wormhole" and "Mao Mao Town", which have won awards or nominations in more than 70 famous international film festivals, as well as "Spring Flower", which won the 2018 Student Academy Award for Best Short Film. It also includes the student-created webtoon emoji "Rabbitsky", the "Three Kingdoms" game, the famous photography and image editing smartphone app "Butter Camera", and the branded font library "Magpie Word". The students have also created the famous photography and image editing smartphone application "Butter Camera", the brand font library "Magpie Character Creation", and the digital online video marketing company "Qingtou Culture". Graduates Cui Di and Zhao Ji worked as producers and directors on the project "The Origin of the White Snake", Zhang Kang and Long Manni were responsible for storyboard creation and original artwork for the film "The War of Luo Xiaohe", and Shen Wei worked as the main character concept designer on "Nezha's Demon Boy". The animation, game and film works of the faculty and students have won numerous international awards and are among the highest in quantity and quality in China.
The thesis published by the students won the 7th National Student Film Criticism Competition's Postgraduate Award of Excellence and the Bronze Award in the Beijing Film Academy's "National Forum for Young Scholars in Film Studies".
4. Academic Exchange Program
The program has established long-term educational cooperation programs with the Film and Television Institute of Poznan, Germany; Sheridan College, Canada; Animation Institute of Gobran, France; Digital Media Center, Canada; Northeastern University, U.S.A.; Hong Kong Polytechnic University, U.S.A.; National University of Arts, Korea; Central University, Korea; Bournemouth University, U.K.; and Cochise University, U.S.A. We have also established the "Asia Campus Project" animation co-work program with Tokyo University of the Arts and Korea National University of Arts.
5. Career Path of Graduates
Graduates are active in the Internet, digital entertainment, mass media, intelligent technology and other industries at home and abroad, including Yahoo, Google, Airbnb, Scanline VFX, Pixar, Industrial Light & Magic, Disney and other internationally renowned companies; Tencent, Alibaba, Baidu, Aiyiqi, Jingdong, Byte Jump, Netease, Kuangwei, Xinhua, People's Network, Chasing Light Animation, Light. At the same time, many graduates have founded famous cultural and creative enterprises such as Qingteng Culture, which has been listed on the stock market, and Internet enterprises such as Butter Camera, Punching Conference, and Magpie Character Creation, and produced popular animation films such as White Snake - The Origin. In the meanwhile, graduates are also active in traditional media industries such as Xinhua News Agency, CCTV, Hunan TV, Phoenix TV, and national institutions such as China Science and Technology Museum, National Museum, National Library, National Film Museum, etc. They are mainly engaged in new media, animation, film and TV related work in these institutions, and have made important contributions to the reform of integrated media and the construction of Internet informationization in the relevant institutions. Many graduates are also working in Beijing Normal University, Sichuan University, Communication University of China, Beijing Film Academy, Zhejiang Media Institute and other famous universities.
