CGMA | An Art Academy That Inspires Creativity and Innovation
Sponsored by CGMA
LEARN FROM THE INDUSTRY’S BEST
CGMA is an academy that inspires creativity and promotes innovation. By offering affordable digital art,
games, and VFX courses online, students can learn at any level, anywhere.
Founded by industry professionals, CGMA’s mission is simple: to provide individuals and companies an affordable, online, interactive learning environment that fosters growth in a highly competitive and
increasingly digital landscape. Their range of industry-focused programs and affordable online courses will teach you the necessary skills and knowledge to be real-world ready.
2019 SPRING REGISTRATION IS OPEN AT CGMA
2019 Spring registration is now open and CG Master Academy has expanded their roster of courses and instructors. See the full list of new courses. CGMA is a company founded by industry professionals who try to make sure the curriculum they offer consists of the most relevant information possible so artists can enter the industry equipped with the skills they need. This is all a part of the academy’s Content Management Initiative (CMI) to bring students lessons that are up to date and align with industry standards.
If you have questions or concerns about registration (including how to get a portfolio review for course placement purposes), get connected with Admissions by phone at 1-800-959-0316 or email [email protected].
WHY CGMA?
·      Expert Training from Industry Professionals
·      Collaborative Virtual Classroom
·      Personalized Expert Feedback and Live Q&A
·      Learn at Any Level, Anywhere
·      One Year Free Access
NEWEST COURSES FROM CGMA
Environment Painting & Design with Gilles Beloeil (Ubisoft)
In this course, students will be going a bit further in what makes a good environment painting, from values, lighting and design to composition and colors. This class is an extension of the Environment Concept Design class. The goal here is to go more into the intricacies of environment painting and design specifically for the video game and feature film genres. A longer-term project will include design tasks as exteriors, interiors, establishing shots, and design call outs.
Environment Concept Design with Aaron Limonick (Naughty Dog)
Environment Concept Design includes the basic and general outline of creating an environment as used in illustration and concept design for the video game and film industries. There will be a firm focus on creating thumbnail and final illustrations, composition, value studies, perspective and digital painting techniques in Photoshop. The class will also focus on incorporating 3D programs into an environment concept creation workflow.
Matte Painting and Illustration for Production with Nick Hiatt (Bang Bang FX)
Today’s studios have evolved a set of demands that move beyond the singular focus of matte painting to include digital environments and production illustrations. In this course, Nick Hiatt will demonstrate the processes he uses to create a detailed production illustration, employing the same modern techniques required in everyday production work. He will break down his workflow for creating digital environments and show students how to create a range of 3D assets–from characters to terrain to architecture. Once 3D assets are created, students will paint them using a mix of techniques in Photoshop. This course will cover many different types of industry-standard software, and will explore an array of approaches to create production illustrations and modern digital paintings.
Designing Landscapes in Plein Air with Tiffanie Mang
Studying and painting landscapes from life provides artists with the fundamentals of mastering value, composition, and color that will help them in the digital painting realm.
Sketching Mentorship with Peter Han
NEW CONTENT
Fundamentals of Character Design with Brett Bean (Drawn To It Studios)
This is a beginning character design course with an emphasis on creating memorable characters with interesting personalities & shapes to tell a story. The goal is to visually communicate our characters from life observations, reference, and our imaginations. As we continue the course, the students will get used to the idea of iteration and refinement in designs, better serving the story and direction. Exploration, getting out of your comfort zone, and visually communicating through drawing will be major components to our class.
Storytelling and Storyboarding Mentorship with Mark Walton (Freelance Story Artist)
This class is for students who prefer live, long-format, interactive group lectures and critiques–with plenty of hands-on, personal attention from a mentor. The main goal of this class is to help students create, from scratch, a storyboard sequence of professional quality worthy of inclusion in a portfolio. Along the way, we will cover: the best ways to come up with ideas, how humor works, creating interesting and dynamic characters, creating the best possible situations for those characters, staging, composition, story-boarding to music, and how to troubleshoot problems with the drawings, dialogue, and ideas.
PROGRAMS
Broad-based by nature, this program is designed to suit a wide range of abilities, interests, and career paths. Choosing from a range of standard block courses, electives, and studio courses, students build their own program of 10 or more courses across a variety of sketching, painting, and design disciplines in order to create an individualized yet comprehensive learning experience.
This program is the next step for artists focused on a career in designing characters for film, games, and other entertainment industries.
Build your world-design expertise from the ground up with this program for environment-focused entertainment design roles.
Learn how to capitalize on your design skills with a unique program dedicated to storytelling, storyboarding, and visual communication.
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