College of Design - Departments

Digital Art & Design Department

Overview

Digital Art & Design Department of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Art covers hi-tech design areas such as digital animation, digital image, computer game, multimedia, interactive art, etc. Digital art design is called the rising industry of the twenty-first century, and because of its great potential, digital art design will play an import role as a component of GDP.

Digital Art & Design Department is a newfounded
specialty of combining forming arts design education with computer arts design education. Back in 1978, design educator, Prof. Yin Dingbang brought this idea back from Japan and Hong Kong, and first founded the specialty of this kind in China. We invited a famous Japanese professor Asakura as a guest professor in 1990. At the same time, we sent two professors to do research with professor Asakura in
Japan. Year 1991 and 1993, we successfully trained two groups of graduates and built a solid foundation. After years of experience, in 1999, "New-media Arts Design specialty" can solely provide courses in Digital Animation, Digital Image, and Dynamic Installation etc. to his students. Later, "Digital Art & Design Department" was formally founded in 2003.

As a new born specialty, we only have three batches of graduates. 90% of them can easily find jobs after graduation, and they work for academies, TV station, net game company, animation production firm, advertising company, media group, exhibits planning company, etc. The feedback from all those
companies are extremely well.

We proudly list the awards our department received in the past six years:

1."2003'Contribution Award of Animation Education"
conferred by China Cultural Communication Center and Cartoon Committee of China Television Association.

2."2004'Special Academic Contribution Award" conferred by China Animation Institute and China Digital Art Committee.

3.2005,in the project of China Hall of the Expo, Professor Chen Xiaoqing preside over the photoelectric sector. The new-media work "Digital Electric Luxury" and the video "Introduction of China Hall (conceptual clip)"in charge of Prof. Chen Xiaoqing, as well as the work of our lecturer Zeng Yulin
"Light" were shown in China Hall.

4.In 2004 and 2005, led by professor Chen Xiaoqing,
many works of our teachers and students were showed in the 1st and the 2nd International Newmedia Art Exhibitions; the multi-media interactive work "Opti-space" was collected by Science Museum of China ,and shows perennially in its A hall

Within three years, there are about 60 students have been awarded different national rewards such as "Best 3D animation," "Best CG clip gold award," "International Special Award,"etc. .

Education Target

Our aim is to educate applied-type professionals in the field of digital art design, who are of wide scope, with solid knowledge structure, well qualified, practical and innovative.

On the courses, students are encouraged to set up strong foundation of specialist knowledge and skills in a spirit of creative enquiry, through exploration and experimentation. Also, we place much importance on practicing skills, by which provide a lively education system for our students.

Specialty & Teaching Staff
By present, Department of Graphic Design includes 2 specialist pathways, including Animation Design and New-media Design. It has an experienced staff with the reasonable age structure, a wide range of knowledge, active and open academic mind. There are 9 academic staffs including 1 professor, 6 lecturers as well as 2 teaching assistants,
and 1 foreign specialist.

Besides that, we employ many experts who are distinguished digital animation director, software technical director, music director film director, film cutter, multi-media designer, interactive design technical director, etc. to undertake courses in our department.

Resources & Facilities
In pace with the construction of Guangzhou University Town, facilities of Digital Art &Design Department have been qualitatively improved. The advanced facilities include: a number of sharing labs such as computer lab with investment of 15,000,000RMB, computerized digital animation lab,
digital film editing lab, etc. ,equipped with SGI vision
workstation, AVID editing system ,Pro Tools HD2 advanced recording system, DELL670/370 graphic workstation, recording studio, photography studio, etc., which form unparalleled technical supports assisted our courses.

Besides, our department is equipped with wide range of specialist workshops and studios to provide practicing opportunities for students.

Degrees and Certificates
We offer both BA(hons) and MA(hons) degree courses to nationwide. Currently, there are 160 BA (hons) students, of which 98 are in new-media design pathways, 62 are in animation pathway, and 4 MA(hons) students of Animation and Forming research pathways.