Foundations & Design Tracks overview
Understand the role of a Character Artist
Character artists are the engines that drive the world of 3D animation. In essence they are responsible for translating pre-production and concept art into a solid, workable 3D form for the animation team--but that barely scratches the surface of what’s involved. What is remarkable about this job is the way it combines technical precision with artistic expression, providing a unique opportunity to build the characters and creatures that ultimately define a project. Little wonder the role of character artist is often regarded as the most coveted in entertainment design.
As you complete each course, you will receive a certificate of completion for that course. In order to qualify for a course certificate of completion, students must complete at least 80% of the class assignment during the duration of the course.
Should you have any questions regarding these courses please contact registration@cgmasteracademy.com. Additionally, you only pay for the course(s) you take in a given term.
These intensive courses are designed to take students through the entire process of character creation, developing the skills required to become a character artist capable of producing work to industry standards. Along the way students will become fluent in human anatomy, familiarize themselves with professional character pipelines, and master the tools and techniques used by seasoned professionals when sculpting, modeling, and finessing the surface detail on their creations. While some of the classes emphasize character arts from a games development perspective, the Character Arts track is equally valid for those eyeing a career in animation and VFX for film or television, where the scale and nature of the work typically requires larger teams of artists working in more specialized roles. For such students it provides a unique opportunity to gain a solid understanding of the entire pipeline while refining skills for their chosen specialist role, such as hard surface modeler, prop artist, texture artist, rigging artist, or creature designer.
Foundations & Design COURSES
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As you complete each course you will receive a certificate of completion for that course. In order to qualify for an in course certificate of completion, students must complete at least 80% of the class assignment during the duration of the course.
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Summer
Learn from award-winning artists who've worked at top studios around the world
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Annie Hsu
Fantastic teacher, I definitely appreciated his prompt feedback and willingness to answer any questions and his positive supportive attitude.
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Jagrut Kaptan
I improved very well in terms of Maya modelling and the production workflow. I was not very confident and well learnt in terms of it. I have a better idea of the workflow now.
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Daria Lezucha
The course greatly improved my skills and I would strongly recommend it to others looking to start careers in the field. The personal feedback videos (from Vidya) every week were really helpful and critical for improving even further. I also really enjoyed that all classes were live and we could ask questions during them.
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Pride St. Clair
The personalized feedback was exactly what I needed, plus watching other people's feedback helped fill in gaps I might have otherwise missed.
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Lisa Cowen
Excellent and professional. I really got a lot of value from this course.
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Joshua Kinney
Christian was outstanding. My knowledge gained during this class has multiplied tenfold without a doubt. Christian helped me to understand the human form rather than memorizing shapes and hoping that it turns into a human model.
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JD Gardner
Christian is awesome—he really knows his stuff. I thought he was going to be a bit academic at first, but he has a hysterical sense of humor that occasionally comes through!
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Bethnay Maguire
Christian was a great instructor, who cared about his students, and wanted them to do well. His level of explanation and the depth he could go into was fantastic and really gave me a deeper understanding of human anatomy. I'm very grateful for having the opportunity to partake in a course like it and be taught by someone as talented as Christian.
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Ivan Chan
Very informative and helpful. Always encouraged us to use the forums and such as well and be a class rather than just being individual students.
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Peter Paterson
Chris has a kind supportive way about him while clearly getting across his constructive and thought provoking criticism that support better learning, observation and growth.
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Marque Pierre Sondergaard
"I have done a number of these courses from various providers over the years. This was by far my favourite in all aspects, both in terms of how approachable the teacher was, how knowledgeable he was and how much indepth information he shared with us. Top marks all around!"
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Jorge Adnel Martin
Pete is very talented and has really helped me improve in the past weeks. I learned a lot and always provided very detailed explanations.
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Diego Rodriguez
Pete is the best teacher I've ever had. I learned a lot in the Q&A sessions and his weekly feedback was very useful. There were things I've never done before this class, moments of frustration that I was able to solve thanks to his advice.
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Jared Kuharski
This course was excellent. I have been an environment artist for many years and learning more about the character pipeline was awesome. Character work is significantly different than environment work and the course was very challenging for me.
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Eugene Yanza
Learned how to use multichannel textures in Mudbox and also detailed clothing modeling. Also, Pete has a great eye and provided really positive and helpful critiques for submitted work.
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Mario Cortez
It's been the best character class I've taken and I've taken many. Knows the material very well and sets the bar high which helps with my improvement.
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Emmanuel Gonzalez
Would definitely recommend this course to anyone that has a good experience with 3D Characters and wants to take their skills to an expert level.
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Stephen Ytuarte
This guy knows his stuff! I would recommend and sign up for any class John teaches. I haven't had a workshop or instructor teach me as well and as thoroughly since Art School.
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Jessica Anderson
I can't believe how much I learned during this course. I would definitely take any course he teaches in the future.
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Rico Buehler
He taught students how to USE the ENTIRETY of Zbrush in 6 weeks! The reason I could never get into Zbrush, was that no instructor I found, ever, used or explained all the tools in Zbrush. I can’t believe I'm box modelling with Zbrush now, I mean, WOW. This is a skill I know very few Zbrush users have, because very few artists know how to use it. Thanks to Michael I do. No more need to import box modelling from other programs like Maya, or Blender. I can do it in Zbrush!
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Ben Donely
He did a great job of showing us all the possibilities that exist from different workflows to different artists and really set us on a path for success following the courses conclusion.
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Luciano Zadikian
The course gave me tons of knowledge of how to flesh out and create my ideas in zbrush, I now feel proficient in the program and am able to create artwork of my own.
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Calvin Verhoolen
Johan is a great instructor.
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Cody Grech
Awesome teacher—I would take other classes taught by David without giving it second thought. Very knowledgeable and friendly, assignments are paced very well, lots of great info that is useful with real applications.
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Laura Meijer
David Mooy speaks in a relaxed manner and doesn't sound rushed, which is a big plus for students who are not native English speakers.
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Brittney Rose
He was great and very helpful!
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Russel Aronchick
David presented the material in a very easy to understand way and the course itself was definitely a good kickstart into learning the basics of Maya.
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Nathanielle Onchengo
Mr. David Mooy, is a great instructor. Really shows that he loves teaching, and can teach effectively.
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Guido Tinagli
David is really a great teacher, one of the best I've ever had
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Nicole Jackson
The instructor was fantastic and I absolutely loved his class!
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Michka Mouret
Best instructor ever!
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Khaldoun Jreisat
Amazing, phenomenal instructor. This is the best CGMA fundamentals course, and I believe it is the single most important for 3D Character Artists.
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Diego Rodriguez
Gael is a great teacher, he explained his workflow in great detail and provided even more information in the Q&A sessions. He also encouraged us to help each other, creating a great rapport between the students. I really enjoyed the course.
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Jesse Pruitt
Gael was knowledgeable and passionate about anatomy, and conveyed that knowledge clearly at an appropriate level.
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Armando Durruthy
Hannah Kang is an exceptionally talented artist that brings a real world perspective on how to execute at the highest levels of the entertainment industry. Hannah gives excellent instruction, insight and direction on what principles to focus on when articulating aesthetics and design in 3D space. Being able to learn from Hannah in a live Q&A environment with weekly dialogue has really helped expedite my learning and progress. Hannah’s class is much appreciated and highly recommended.
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Christian Gonzalez
Honestly, Hannah is the best instructor I've had since graduating university.
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Joseph Ventura
Ben has been one of the most accommodating, engaged instructors I've ever had, always enthusiastic about our work and making sure things are clear. And on top of that, he's very open about career advice and provides high-level artistic critique.
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Daniel Hiew
Ben was a wonderful teacher who showed interest in his students and gave insightful critiques and Q&As.
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Pablo Areosa
He’s great at teaching everything you need to know about Hard Surface.
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Jayleen jackson
"Ben is a fantastic instructor. Hard surface modeling felt like math to me but he made the workflow easy to understand. "
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Johnathan Boorman
It was actually really helpful to see Saurabh demonstrate mistakes and then correct himself during his videos. It helped me to realize things I should avoid but also made him relatable.
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Stephen Ytuarte
Saurabh is a really good instructor, I would take another class of his in a heartbeat. It's his genuine love of learning different methods and citing sources that i like the most.You can tell hes going out and finding the best answers and sharing everything he's picked up.
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Myoungjun Choi
I liked the range this course offered. Especially the q&a sessions went much further than the original course outline. Saurabh is very knowledgeable and a great instructor to learn from.
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Alex Wink
Dmitrij Leppee offers a state-of-the-art course and it was beyond my expectations. He's also a brilliant artist and teacher, really generous indeed. The feedbacks were extremely helpful with a lot of detailed explanations. Although I was not able to follow all the lessons so far because of my work, I intend to continue studying with the videos and materials Dmitrij's prepared to us. I can say that I've learnt a lot by now and I'm sure I'll find much more precious knowledge through this learning path. Congrats Dmitrij and CGMA on this outstanding course!
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Jacek Krzesinski
Dmitrij's dedication is amazing. He really cares about the students and provides thorough feedbacks and explanations
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Miria Kutzner
I attended a 3D school before but through this course I learned so much more technical stuff, it really helped that we had such an experienced instructor!
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Felix Benjamin Bader
Always available to answer questions thoroughly and in-depth. Seemed to really care about the issues students had. Honest feedback.
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George Schneider
We always got really helpful feedback. I only watched a few feedback videos of the other students but I think I can say that the instructor knows exactly how he can help everybody individually at the right knowledge level.
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Carsen Kelliher
Patrick was a great instructor. An excellent teacher and a very positive and enthusiastic motivator.
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David Reynolds
Patrick went above and beyond to give me the guidance and instruction I needed despite my difficult personal schedule
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Flavia Merlino
The course give me the opportunities to work on the correct production pipeline for a game character. All the process now is more clear
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Megan Sheldon
I never used Marvelous Designer before starting this course, but I felt very comfortable using the program by the end of the curriculum. Clothing pieces that seemed much too complicated to make are now much easier to break down and construct.
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Mariia Aleksiienko
Really helped to bring my technical skills on a new level.
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Spencer Gindraux
The best improvement for me was the clarity in pipeline and technique. Typically Marvelous Designer tutorials can have a lot of technical secrets hidden but Laura shows everything and it helps immensely.
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