The Art Institute of California - San Francisco
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Art Institute of California, San Francisco |
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| Established | January 12, 1997 |
| Type | Private |
| Chancellor | James Campbell |
| Faculty | 140 |
| Undergraduates | 1,400 |
| Postgraduates | 6 |
| Location | San Francisco, California, United States |
| Campus | Urban, 2 (5 km²) |
| Nickname | AICA-SF |
| Affiliations | IGDA, SIGGRAPH |
| Website | AICA-SF Homepage |
Contents |
[edit] School Information
The Art Institute of California - San Francisco (or AICA-SF) is a part of EDMC's system of vocational institutions. The school offers degree programs in the following subjects: Advertising, Computer Animation, Fashion Marketing, Fashion Design, Game Art & Design, Graphic Design, Interactive Media Design, Interior Design, Media Arts & Animation, Simulation & Visual Environments, and Visual Game Programming. EDMC, the parent organization of the Art Institute of California was acquired by Goldman Sachs and Providence Equity Partners in June 2006. [1] AICA-SF is not affiliated with the San Francisco Art Institute, which is a private purely "fine arts" school.
Though relatively young as a campus, The Art Institute of California - San Francisco is part of a growing group of institutions that offer video game-based education in the United States. Many of the school's graduates (particularly from the Visual & Game Programming major) have gone on to work at popular game development and film effects studios such as ArenaNet, Electronic Arts, Industrial Light & Magic, and Perpetual Entertainment.
[edit] History
In 1997, The Art Institute of California - San Francisco opened its location on 1170 Market Street in the city of San Francisco, California. Originally the school centered on fashion based education but has now grown and expanded to other areas of study.
[edit] Campus
The Art Institute of California - San Francisco is located in the urban center of San Francisco near the crossing of 7th and Market, more commonly known as Civic Center. Public transportation is easily accessible near the campus in the form of BART, and MUNI stations.
Three buildings make up the AICA-SF campus; the main building is located at 1170 Market Street, and houses most of the lab facilities as well as the administrative offices for the school. The 9th floor of 1145 Market houses the career services program, as well as general education courses. The third building located on UN Plaza's 2nd floor is home to 2D animation labs, as well as the campus library.
[edit] Academics
The Art Institute of California - San Francisco is part of a growing number of established video game educational institutes spawning across the United States.
The institution offers degree programs at three levels; associates, bachelors, and masters level.
Education runs the gamut from topics dealing with the video game industry, or special effects within film to Fashion, web design, and advertising. The student-faculty ratio is a manageable 19 to 1. Many instructors are noted in their field for their accomplishments in games and film and work full-time at companies such as Pixar, UbiSoft, and Electronic Arts.
[edit] Admissions
Students applying to AICA-SF must have at least a 2.0 GPA to be considered for any program. The Visual Game Programming and Game Art & Design programs have instituted a 3.0 GPA requirement reflecting on the intensity of the programs in question.
AICA-SF began offering a Masters Degree in Animation beginning in the Fall 2006.
[edit] Post-education Employment
The following statistics are calculated from the Winter 2005 Graduating class and were released by the Art Institute of California.
| Program | # of Graduates | # of Graduates Employed | % Employed in Field | Avg. Salary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fashion Design | 4 | 3 | 75.0% | $25,237 |
| Graphic Design | 14 | 11 | 78.6% | $32,995 |
| Media Arts & Animation | 15 | 13 | 86.7% | $37,326 |
| Multimedia & Web Design | 3 | 3 | 100.0% | $35,357 |
| Interior Design | 10 | 10 | 100.0% | $32,093 |
[edit] Criticism
[edit] Location
The current location of AICA-SF is centered very close to the city's tenderloin area, a location well known for its homeless population. The campus will be moved to a location in the city's financial district in Spring 2008.
[edit] Mute/Off Controversy
Currently, there is a censorship controversy concerning a student run magazine called "Mute/Off". Published by students in the cultural studies class on campus, the newsletter was banned with all copies confiscated. This action brought up censorship complaints from students on campus as confiscating the magazine may run counter to California's "Leonard Law" which prevents private post secondary institutions from censoring student press. [2][3]
It has been reported that Robert Ovetz, Ph.D., the instructor of the cultural studies class in question, was fired in connection with this controversy on December 20, 2006.
School President James Campbell plans to have a public forum for current students and faculty, regarding this issue during the first week of the Winter Quarter, 2007.
So far, this story has received widespread media coverage in the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, The Chronicle of Higher Education, ABC KGO 7 San Francisco, and many other newspapers, TV News, on-line magazines and blogs. California State Senator Leland Yee has denounced the firing of Ovetz and has called for him to be rehired.
Ovetz taught at AICASF for about three years and received two pay raises and positive faculty performance reviews.
[edit] Organization
[edit] Majors and Programs
AICA-SF offers 10 undergraduate degree programs in subjects spanning the study of fashion, games, and other media, and one MFA program in Computer Animation.
Advertising - The Bachelor’s level degree program is designed to provide graduates with the skills needed to work in the field of advertising, art direction, copywriting, and account supervision. A solid art foundation combined with hands-on advertising curricula, prepares students for entry-level positions with advertising agencies and departments, art studios and departments, marketing companies and departments, and production companies.
Computer Animation - This program will enroll its first students for the Fall 2006 quarter.
Fashion Design - The Fashion Design program offers creative opportunities to transform design ideas into garments and accessories. Students are introduced to basic skills of construction in sewing, tailoring, flat pattern drafting, and draping to provide a solid foundation in the fundamentals of apparel engineering.
Fashion Marketing - The Fashion Marketing program teaches students how to use textiles, color, and design to create visual merchandising campaigns. Business courses teach students how to develop, analyze, and implement effective sales strategies. They learn how to use computers for cost analysis, inventory control, and other store operations, and are instructed in the basics of merchandise economics, leadership skills, manufacturing, and store planning.
Game Art and Design - The bachelor's program in Game Art & Design offers a broad range of work-ready design and technology competencies focused on career paths in the specialty of game art. Students will acquire a combination of skills in drawing, perspective, anatomy, color theory, rigging, texturing, low and high polygonal modeling, normal maps, specular highlights, specular reflections, and animation. They will study lighting and scene setup, color theory, anatomy and gesture, character design, level design and game prototyping.
Graphics Design - The Associate of Science degree in Graphic Design is a seven-quarter program containing 112 credit hours. Program classes include Survey of Media & Design, Art & Design Concepts, Typography for Digital Media, Electronic Design and Print Production. Students use software such as Adobe PhotoShop, Adobe Illustrator and QuarkXpress.
Interactive Media Design - The Associate of Science degree in Interactive Media Design is a seven-quarter program containing 112 credit hours. Program classes include Audio/Video Techniques, Interactive Authoring and Programming for the Artist. Software includes Adobe Photoshop, Vegas for Audio, DHTML, Macromedia Flash and Director. A twelve-quarter program is also avalaible where the students are working towards their Bachelor's degree. Students who enroll in this program expand on the cirriculum offered to those seeking an Associates, and offers a more in depth look at web programming.
Interior Design - In the Interior Design program, students will develop abilities in all aspects of the design of three-dimensional residential and commercial spaces. Students start with courses in drawing, perspective, proportion, color theory, basic design and other fundamentals. The program also incorporates courses in 2-D and 3-D computer-aided design, history of interior design and cultural contexts, furniture design, materials, textiles, environmental systems, architectural detailing, lighting design, building codes, computer rendering, 3-D modeling, accessory design and other topics related to the field.
Media Art and Animation - The Bachelor of Science degree in Media Arts & Animation is a 12-quarter program containing 192 credit hours. The program includes a variety of general education and program-specific classes, including 2D Animation, Compositing, Modeling and 3-D Animation. Students use software including Adobe PhotoShop, Macromedia Flash, 3D Studio Max, Maya and SoftImage, and complete demo reels of their work using Premiere and Media 100.
Simulation and Virtual Environments - The Simulation & Virtual Environments program equips students for employment within the simulation industry. Students receive intensive training in the foundations of art and design before entering into the more technical areas of 3-D modeling and programming. Students learn the essential skills to effectively create and support real-time software models and simulated environments.
Visual & Game Programming - An intensely hands-on program that combines traditional animation skills with technical skills, the program focuses on student ability to write, extend and modify programs/scripts for 3D animation. Essentially, this program combines artistic training with technical training deeply embedded in the concepts of animation. Students will be introduced to the principles of programming, which enables them to enter into the world of shading development, motion capture management, and pipeline streamlining. They will learn programming and scripting tools such as bash, Perl, Python, C++, C Shell, MEL Script, DirectX, OpenGL, and Renderman. The program lasts 12 quarters and contains 192 quarter credits, including 56 quarter credits in general education.
[edit] Student Groups
AICA-SF has over a dozen registered student clubs.
Acting and Movement Workshop: The school's acting club. Here students hone their acting techniques and receive further instruction is stagecraft and acting for camera.
Alpha Beta Kappa: The school’s Honor Society Alpha Beta Kappa, is for students who have a Grade Point Average of 3.0.
Animation Club: In the Animation Club, students can discuss the many types of animation, from traditional 2D to current 3D animation.
Anime Club: The Anime Club is dedicated to the style of Japanese animation. As of SEP 2006, the club is currently inactive.
Comic Book Club (OCCULAMA): In the Comic Book Club, members can discuss their favorite comics and graphic novels, get involved in making a comic book, and get ideas and advice from other members in order to improve their skills.
Eco Club: The Eco Club raises awareness about on and off campus environmental issues. It was founded in 2004 by faculty member Robert Ovetz, PhD and then student Mike Kahn.
Fashion Salon: In the Fashion Salon, students meet to discuss current fashion, talk about different fashion ideas, work on techniques for making clothes in different styles and trends, and get involved with special events and local fashion shows.
Game Art & Design Club: The Game Art & Design Club is dedicated to all things involved with gaming. Currently in production of a cell phone game that they will attempt to sell to a company.
Game Production Club: Making games is the idea in the Game Production Club.
Graphic Design Club / Student Newsletter Club: In the Graphic Design Club, students learn all about arranging work in a graphically pleasing way.
Interior Design Club: Students in the Interior Design Club learn more about the techniques of interior design and attend local exhibits, conferences and industry events.
The Roleplayer's Guild: The Roleplayer's Guild started to promote the hobbist past time of Pen & Paper Roleplaying games. Students participate in Roleplaying games and produce artwork and creative writings for their characters or stories. It was started in 2005 by Adam Power and Abel Hernandez and since then has grown to be the largest concurrent membership at the AICSF and also has the largest production of art out of any of the clubs. As of November 2006, Dungeons & Dragons and Deadlands are being run as official club games, however BESM, All Flesh Must Be Eaten, WWE: Know Your Role,Star Wars,Silver Age Sentinels, and World of Darkness have been known to have been played.
Sculpture / VFX Props Club: Students learn about different ways to make a sculpture and VFX props in this club.
SIGGRAPH Student Chapter: The Art Institute’s student chapter of SIGGRAPH is part of an international network of chapters around the world that develop, share and extend the work that is presented at the annual SIGGRAPH conference.
Society of Web Artists and Programmers (SWAP): The Society of Web Artists and Programmers (SWAP) gets students involved in making Web sites, or furthering their interest in specific topics of Web design. It is geared to helping students in the IMD major fill out their portfolios.
Student Body: The Student Body is the student government at The Art Institute. As of SEP 2006, this club was closed by James Campbell due to student apathy. In reality, this club was prohibited form having any real student voice over Ai affairs. According to a recent president of the club, when the Student Body required permission to publish an independent student newspaper it was told by the Director of Public Relations that they would be subjected to her role as its censor, the same role she plays with the official student magazine "Beat".
Student Housing: Student Housing is located in Daly City at the Westlake Apartments, and in San Francisco at the Fillmore Center. Everyone in student housing is assumed in the club, and is thus able to join in on club activities.
Student Photography Club: The Student Photography Club will help students learn how to take great pictures, and develop them.
True Colors: True Colors is designed to be a safe haven for all students to gather. A Gay - Straight alliance.
VGPclub: The VGPclub was established by Visual and Game Programming students in 2003 as a venue to discuss topics and promote game industry related events on campus related to film effects and video games.
