Estimated tuition
$10K to $15K
Prices may vary on elective courses taken
Duration
21 months
Prerequisites
Foundation & Design Program or a suitable portfolio submission + Block 0
Estimated Salary
$65K to $174K
Based on US job data
Foundations & Design Program overview
Understand the role of a Character Designer in a Production
H.R. Giger, Phil Tippett, Ray Harryhausen, Stan Winston, Patrick Tatopoulos--all are rightly regarded as legends in the entertainment industry. Their visions have helped define popular culture, inspiring thousands of creative minds and entertaining millions worldwide. It’s clearly no overstatement to say that character and creature design is one of the most exciting, creative, and celebrated artistic disciplines. Gaining entry into this field isn’t always easy: this is where our Character Design Program comes in. Designed for those already versed in the fundamentals of drawing and design, this program carefully builds on those core skills to give students head-to-toe training in the art of human and creature character design for the entertainment industries. By the end of the program, students will be ideally placed to make the leap to a character design/concept art position at a film, animation, games, or print-based studio. To enroll in the Character Design Program, students will need either to have successfully completed the Foundation & Design Program or submit a portfolio that demonstrates sufficient core drawing skills and character/animal anatomy knowledge.
Enrolling into a CGMA Program is a simple and painless affair. Once you've decided on which program you want to complete, simply register and start taking the classes outlined in your program's block list. That's it!
On average, we recommend 1-to-2 courses per term. Should you wish to complete the program at an accelerated rate please contact registration@cgmasteracademy.com. Additionally, you only pay for the course(s) you take in a given term (so no need to pay for an entire program upfront). And, after completing all the block-courses in a given program, you will be awarded a Program Certificate of Completion.
In order to qualify for a program certificate of completion, students must enroll in least 13 courses in this program and complete 11. This can be some combination of the program's standard block courses, (1-7) and up to 2 electives as part of the total courses enrolled. Students should note that Block 0 courses will not count toward the program total.
Story
Art/Pre-Production
Modeling
Foundations & Design CURRICULUM
Get a better sense
of our curriculum.
The following requirements are only mandatory for students enrolling in the 2020 Spring Term and beyond. For all students who enrolled prior to the 2020 Spring term, they have the choice of continuing with the previous format or take advantage of our updated/optimized version.
In order to qualify for a program certificate of completion, students must enroll in least 13 courses in this program and complete 11. This can be some combination of the program's standard block courses, and up to 2 electives as part of the total courses enrolled.
Winter
Spring
Summer
Learn from award-winning artists who've worked at top studios around the world
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Jonathan Valdez
I cannot say enough about Patrick's ability to communicate his process. Patrick was extremely helpful to everyone during the Q&A and took his time with every single critique. I consider Patrick one if not the best teacher I had the pleasure of studying under. He is a true master of anatomy and I cannot recommend his class enough. I hope to one day have the opportunity to study under him again.
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Nancy Vw
One of the best instructors I have ever had. My artwork improved considerably during this course, as did my understanding of the figure. The instructor is extremely sincere, and encouraging while having high expectations for excellence. I wish that he were teaching more courses. I would take them all.
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Sean Guzman
Great job, especially considering it was the first class Patrick taught on the CGMA platform.
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Marcellino Tan
All of the instructors should be like him!
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Joshua Moya
Patrick has opened the world of traditional art to me. And I am forever great full. His passion for his work resonates clearly in his lectures and QA sessions. He really makes it feel like a world I want to be part of. I will continue to work in charcoal and sanguine long after this class. Thank you Patrick.
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Liberty Johse
I learned so much in this class. Patrick is a fantastic teacher, artist, and person. He truly cares about art and the well-being of his students, like a drawing art-dad!
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Chris Lindstrom
Very good instructor. He provided clear and useful feedback each week and the Q&As were very informative.
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Jenny Tan
Brett: you're awesome! I'd definitely want to join another class in the future.
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Giuseppe Bonanno
Brett is an amazing artist and teacher.
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Christine A
Brett is a wonderful instructor. I learned a lot from his helpful feedback in a short amount of time. Funny guy, and clearly very knowledgeable about pushing poses and creating very appealing characters!
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Bakari Griffin
Thank you so much, Brett! I learned so much and finally learned how to put the character into characters! Thank you, thank you, thank you for everything!
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Andreas Hechtfischer
One of the best CGMA courses I’ve participated in—a big thanks to Marco!
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Farah Mérand
This class has a really good presentation: there are a lot of examples and lecture notes that help us to understand the concepts. I really enjoyed this class. The instructor always gave feedback and answers promptly. It was really easy to communicate with him!
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Allan Boulogne
AMAZING instructor. Amazing class. After two years at some art college, he taught me more than I ever would have in the other college. You guys honestly have a keeper here. Best instructor for color and light I've had. He knows his stuff!
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Nora Garcia
Chris Brock has been an outstanding teacher, providing great feedback and always answering emails or forum threads with helpful information.
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Zachary Chapman
My instructor was very positive and encouraging, and was sensitive to the stylistic choices of the individual.
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Ian Froud
Very enthusiastic and engaging. Listening to her lectures and her live Q&A was always a pleasure.
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Alyssa Veysey
Shannon was very informative and engaged in everyone's work with wonderful feedback.
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Cody Rose
Very knowledgeable of the content taught within the class. Great at clearly conveying ideas and concepts to the students, even without direct contact or interaction during the lectures.
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Eric Ng
Awesome instructor! She's really nice and even takes the extra time to post additional resources. Also quite patient and understanding.
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Antonio Díaz
Shannon is a wonderful person and teacher. Her love for her craft does nothing but inspire to be better and I will ALWAYS be thankful to her for that!
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Tyler Bourne
Shannon goes above and beyond. She visibly puts more time, effort and energy into each student's work and critique than anyone else. Her critique and QAs are always lengthy (in a good way), she explains things in simple terms, and she is constantly sharing resources, whether on the forums or in the QAs or your critiques. Her caring and commitment to her students shows through in all she does.
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Mary Highstreet
Fantastic class! Nate is a great teacher and an incredible resource, I'm so thankful for his dedication to teaching!!
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Devere Wint
The course content is broken down structurally so that it allowed for nice linear progression and growth. I am leaving with a better understanding of character design.
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John Steventon
Nate Wragg continued to impress me with his knowledge of the material, and the skills he displayed in demos and in the Q&As! He really knows his stuff, and the fact that he is willing to share that knowledge with us is really great. He is also open and honest about the industry, and what we will face when we get there. Honestly, I feel honored to have studied with him, and hope to work with him in the future.
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Melis Malatani
Really enjoy Nate Wragg's approach to teaching online. It felt authentic and really helpful. This was my second course with him instructing, both times were equally great.
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Tegan Clancy
I liked how clear and constructive the feedback was.
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Seven Jones
Nate Wragg is easily one of the best instructors I've ever had. He seems like a truly caring human being and a top level instructor. I would give him a 20 on a scale of 1-10.
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Amber K
Nate Wragg is an incredible instructor and mentor. He has designed his courses to set his students up for success as character designers in the industry. I was hired for a job as a character designer while taking Art Direction for Character Designers, and I credit much of that to Nate's classes and instruction.
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Megan Perez
Great personality, very good at explaining things and helping us if we need it, and gives fun assignments.
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Rosana Iarusso
Nate is one of the best teachers I've had. I really learned a lot and grew as an artist!
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Bukela Campbell
He is a perfect mentor and I really enjoyed the learning path with Nate Wragg. I learned so much and he is really motivating in keeping up
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Madeline Julyk
I had a phenomenal time in this class, and I'm so sad it's ending. The instructor is funny, personable, knowledgeable, and is always responsive an attentive in and outside of the classroom. He puts a lot of effort and care into critiques and genuinely cares about the improvement of his students. I can't express enough what a positive experience this was!
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Tessera Madison
This has been a fantastic experience! Mitchell has been an incredible teacher. He takes the time to give each student detailed feedback. He is easily available if we have any questions or are struggling with an assignment. His lectures were extremely helpful and I learned so much. I am so grateful for this experience and would love to take more classes in the future!
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Lucca Medeiros
The classes were really full of knowledge, and I learned a lot!
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Pam Miller
Miguel is amazing, both as an artist and a compassionate instructor. Thank you so much for your insight and support!
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Lucas Örström
Very helpful, and could motivate students whilst giving very much needed feedback to keep the learning a fun experience!
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Laurie M. Satizabal
Bobby was a terrific professor, I will definitely take his class again!
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Rosemary Chalmers
Bobby was very thorough and constructive with his feedback. He was also very encouraging.
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Emma Baumann
Phil was an absolutely phenomenal teacher. He was very engaging in our Q&A sessions, and really went the extra mile to help us. I got a lot of valuable feedback from him, and would love to learn more from him in the future.
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Natalie Sega
Absolutely fantastic. Phil always spent enough time talking to everyone about their work and teaching a few new techniques. Also always very positive and encouraging.
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Ibrahim Khan
This course showed me other techniques in referencing, photo manipulation and reference painting to achieve a more efficient workflow
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Louis Lasarte
This class helped a lot which my skills
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Allison Loftus
This class helped me to find new ways to think about designing costumes.
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Melis Malatani
Great instructor. Sometimes an online course can be very detached from the real experience of a classroom, however Nate really engaged us as students through his lectures and fast and useful critiques, which made the whole experience more effective and real.
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Amber K
Nate is one of the best instructors I have ever had—he communicates concepts in a very clear way that is easy to understand and put into practice. His feedback is always very specific and he communicates both what IS working and what is NOT working, and as a result gives students a clear path forward in their work.
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Kate Dmitrieva
Nate is a great instructor with very professional approach. Many thanks for his thorough feedback and always being there to help.
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Amber Kenneson
Nate is one of the best instructors I've ever had! The way he explains and demonstrates things is so clear—he makes it easy for students to implement what he is teaching into their own work. I know my own work improved by leaps and bounds over the course of just 8 weeks, and I saw improvement in the work of my fellow students as well! Basically, I loved everything about Nate's course.
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Mei-li Liezl Buenaventura
Really impressed with Ron and happy I took the class with him. I am definitely a better artist now than I was six weeks ago, and as someone who already has a BFA (and has taken many many figure drawing classes in the past), I was really happy that Ron was teaching such a technical way of approaching the subject matter. In our first lesson he mentioned gesture drawing and how frustrating he found it to be as it did not yield a usable mannequin, and as someone who learned the "old way", I can definitely agree. Really, really useful class, taught by a great artist!
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John Waggoner
A great teacher, Ron was able to be stern in his critiques while never seeming hostile or combative. I always felt that my improvement was his first priority.
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Colin Rock
Lemen is a great teacher who clearly cares about his students’ progress and takes the time to give thoughtful feedback.
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Paulina Ryguer
Ron Lemen is an excellent teacher, very communicative and invested in his students' improvement. Ron's Q&A sessions were always informative and enjoyable. He encouraged discussions and answered students' questions in-depth.
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Rodrigo Gay
I truly was impressed by his skill. He dragged us from simplicity to complexity using a very simple method. I really liked the class. BRAVO!
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Anne Goodman
I think Melanie is one of the best teachers I’ve ever had. I appreciate both her thoroughness and attention to detail!
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Angie Ngie
She's not afraid to repeat the same feedback where necessary, I appreciate her patience.
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Cathia Nofziger
Melanie is amazing and I learned so much from her. I am so grateful for all the time she spent coaching me and helping me improve. Wonderful teacher!
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Ilona Winkler
Mélanie is by far the best instructor I've had at CGMA so far. She is an amazing artist and shares her knowledge! And she also gives helpful feedback, like really telling you what does not work in your drawing and why.
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Agnes Buronyi
Melanie is a very nice and helpful person—she actively participated on the forum, answered every question, and her feedbacks were great. She really cared about her students and helped us to improve.
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Alessandra Divizia
amazingly talented artist and very kind and thoughtful teacher
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Hugo Favre
Eugene was a really good teacher. He always took time to answer questions and give good and clear feedbacks. Also he didn't have the same level of expectation the first weeks as the last weeks. Which was really awesome and helping!
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Catherine Phan
Eugene is amazing!! I really loved listening to him
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Ulina Small
He is a very personable guy—his spirit makes learning this content fun. He is good at not only finding the students faults, but also remembering to point out the things the student has done well.
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Amy Chen
He has a great personality that shines through in the lectures. His lectures are always funny, interesting, and informative. I enjoyed watching all of the videos and participating in the live Q&As.
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Adele Hentz
My instructor was incredible, one of the best teachers I've ever had in my life—I want to take all of his classes! He has been such a fantastic help to my growth as an artist.
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Angie Avila
Great teacher and always made the class enjoyable.
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Matej Silecky
Christian was a great instructor.
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Jonah Warnock
Really good at explaining difficult concepts and was really nice to everyone
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Sebastian Posada
Mauricio was awesome! He really engaged with us and answered every question that was asked - pretty amazing!
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James Pickard
Really good mentorship and instruction from Mauricio.
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Anouk Perusse-Bell
The instructor is clearly passionate about his profession and he demonstrated his enthusiasm throughout the assignments. He always managed to bring out the best points in any of the students' work, improving them but preserving the student's initial idea.
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Alba Jaen
Miki has been an amazing instructor. He has been really helpfull with all the students and provided great feedback and advice and the lectures have been really useful and interesting.
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AJ Nazarro
This class was incredible. The curriculum Miki has prepared went above and beyond what I was expecting. I will be recommending this class to everyone I know!
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Jason Bernard
Nice guy. Clearly put a lot of work and dedication into the feedback, which he posted like clockwork.
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Ayal Pinkus
This was a great course, I learned a lot!
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Florian Fiebig
Ricardo is very knowledgeable and a great artist. He inspires to grow and learn new techniques and addresses issues artists face (Perfection vs. Efficiency)in the industry which is very important.
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Eduardo Brito
Ricardo is an amazing teacher and I would recommend this course to anyone that is interested on breaking into the movie industry. I enjoyed it a lot!
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Jane S. Kim
Ricardo is one of the few rare brilliant professional instructors who has such an excellent eye and gives so much to you. His critiques are always on point and he is also tremendously kind and so humble.
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Jonathan Dockal
Brent is very encouraging and committed to his students. One of the best instructors I've had at CGMA.
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Mike Patten
Brent used his own experiences and industry know how to help us further our craft. All his critiques were thorough and on time. I only wish I had taken the course at a less busy time in my own life so I could spend more time on my assignments.
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Isabella Santiso-Murray
Absolutely amazing teacher!! I couldn't have asked for a better class!
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Richard Le
Brent is a great instructor. His feedback was always great and well-thought out.
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Maureen Catillaz
Brent was great, went above and beyond to teach us about the industry. He has a great ease at motivating and communicating with his students.
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Khang Nguyen
Brent is the best, his knowledge in modern 2D Flash Animation is up-to-date to the industry standard. Brent's techniques and tips are the most valuable of the course. They are valid even to artists who are already working in the industry.
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Yaara Maimon
Yes, I had no previous knowledge in animation and now after the course I'm able to create a short animation by myself!
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Allen Fatimaharan
Great instructor! Felt I learnt a lot within a month. I could see the improvement in my work and the methods that I use.
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Ellie Crane
He's been very informative and was accommodating. Easy to follow, solid feedback and lectures made me think outside of the box.
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Brendan Loscar
He was always very encouraging but also offered great draw-overs showing potential for growth.
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Rosana Iarusso
I was very happy how my work came out with the guidance I received!
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