A Message from Professor Peter Ratner
Normally these courses are restricted to art majors, but I'm willing to give overrides to anyone interested in animation. The following courses are available to you. You can take them in any order that you want. Higher numbers don't necessarily mean harder courses. For example, some students find Art 349 Animation easier than Art 348 3D modeling, while others think a class such as Art 448 Independent Study allows them to work at their own speed with greater flexibility.

The courses available to SMAD majors are:

Art 348 3D Modeling
Art 349 3D Animation
Art 448 Independent Study

Many of the SMAD students that have taken the animation courses have said that most SMAD majors are unaware that 3D animation is even available at JMU. This is unfortunate because so many SMAD majors could benefit greatly from these courses. Most jobs in broadcasting make great use of 3D animation especially using Maya software which we teach in our animation program. Combining 3D animation skills with what you have learned in SMAD, will greatly increased your chances for finding jobs.

• Did you know Animators and Multi-Media Artists held 94,000 of the 208,000 total jobs in art? (That’s almost 50% percent of all art related jobs).
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Dept. of Labor, 2004

• An Animator’s Median Annual Income was $67,390 and the top 10% earned more than $94,260.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Dept. of Labor, 2004

• Employment and salary increases in the motion picture and video industries is projected to grow 17% between 2004 – 2014 while all other industries combined will have a 14% growth.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Dept. of Labor, 2004

Best Regards

Professor Peter Ratner
3D Animation Professor
School of Art and Art History
James Madison University