Animation & Media Arts, BFA

Curriculum

Belmont University’s Animation & Media Arts BFA is a 128-credit-hour degree structured to build from foundational skills to independent professional practice. The first year establishes core competencies, the second and third deepen technical and production skills, and the fourth year centers on a required internship and a two-semester Senior Project.

In the upper division, students choose one of three emphasis areas that shape their coursework, studio practice, and Senior Project:

Illustration & Art Direction

What is illustration and art direction in animation? Students in this emphasis develop the foundational visual skills that drive animation production: figure drawing, illustration, character design, color and the aesthetic decision-making that defines a production’s look. Drawing on Watkins College of Art’s illustration faculty and facilities, this path is for students who think visually and want to lead the way a story looks.

Storytelling & Production

What does the Storytelling & Production emphasis cover? This path draws on the Mike Curb College’s strength in cinematic storytelling: screenwriting, directing, sound and production. Students develop the skills to guide a production from script to screen, learning to collaborate with animators, sound designers and producers in the same cross-disciplinary environment professional studios operate in.

Interactive & Immersive

What does the Interactive & Immersive emphasis prepare students for? This emphasis moves into the design of experiences that respond, adapt, and surround the viewer: museum installations, themed entertainment, augmented reality, VR production and interactive media. Students in this path are less likely to end up making animated cartoons and more likely to be designing animated interactions; the kind where two people experience the same piece differently. All students in the BFA complete a foundational VR Production course; this emphasis goes deeper.

Animation today exists far beyond what most people picture. Graduates of Belmont's Animation & Media Arts BFA are prepared for careers across the full breadth of where the field really lives, from traditional animation studios and virtual production sets to concert tour design, sports and broadcast graphics, museum installations, themed entertainment, UX animation, architectural visualization and corporate media. Anywhere you see motion, there's a career for someone trained to make it.

Nashville's growing creative industry is a particular advantage for AMA graduates. The city's music industry relies heavily on animation. Almost every major tour involves animated stage visuals, and the demand for animators who can work at that scale is growing fast. Professional sports, corporate conferences and large-scale live events all run on the same pipeline. Students who study animation in Nashville graduate into a market that is actively building itself around their skills.

Because the program is built on transferable creative and technical skills (not just proficiency in a single tool or format) graduates are positioned to move across industries as the field evolves, not locked into a single career path on day one.

• Industry Studio (Year 1)
• Guest Critiques & Milestone Reviews
• Required Intership
• Senior Project (Two Semesters)

Belmont University's Animation & Media Arts BFA is a joint undergraduate degree program offered through Watkins College of Art and the Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business, preparing students for professional careers across animation, film, interactive media, immersive experience design and the broader creative industry — anywhere motion, story and digital visualization intersect.

The Animation & Media Arts BFA at Belmont University is designed to be completed in four years of full-time study.

Belmont's Animation & Media Arts BFA offers three emphasis areas: Illustration & Art Direction, Storytelling & Production and Interactive & Immersive. Students choose one emphasis in the upper division, and it shapes their coursework, studio practice and Senior Project.

Each class in Belmont's Animation & Media Arts BFA enrolls 15–17 students, making it a small, studio-based program where students work closely with faculty and move through the curriculum as a class of collaborators.

The professional experience built into Belmont's Animation & Media Arts BFA begins in the first year, when students work with real assets from professional industry partners through the Animation Industry Studio — not hypothetical briefs, but actual creative problems. From there, students receive feedback from industry guest critics throughout the program, complete a required supervised internship and complete a two-semester Senior Project that culminates in a public showcase.

The careers you can pursue with an Animation & Media Arts BFA from Belmont University span a wide range of industries — including animation studios, film and virtual production, interactive media companies, themed entertainment, immersive experience design, motion design for live events, concert tour visuals, sports and broadcast graphics, branded digital content and UX animation. Nashville's growing creative industry provides direct access to many of these career pathways to graduates with an animation degree.

Digital animation is the process of creating moving images using computer software and technology. It encompasses 2D and 3D animation, motion graphics, visual effects, and interactive media used across film, web, gaming and live production.

A digital animation degree prepares you for UX/UI roles at software companies, agencies and startups. Motion design and UX animation are growing intersections in the tech industry.

Animators can pursue UX careers such as motion designer, UX animator, interactive media developer and product designer. As apps and digital platforms increasingly prioritize animated interactions, the demand for animators with UX sensibility continues to grow.