Bachelor of Science in Entertainment Design Degree

student drawing on a tablet

Create stunning visuals and captivating storytelling with the Bachelor of Science in Entertainment Design at ArtCenter. You bring the passion and imagination; we’ll provide the technological tools, industry expertise, and Hollywood connections. Craft conceptual worlds, spirited animated characters, immersive games, and high-flying theme parks using leading edge software, 3D and 2D techniques, and dynamic design principles. Launch your career with a robust portfolio and a stellar network of entertainment design professionals.

Program Overview

Learn from leading Hollywood concept designers, animators, and game designers in ArtCenter’s entertainment design major. Our faculty of creators are working at the top of their game for the most sought-after companies in the gaming, animation and film industries, including Blizzard Entertainment, Riot Games, Disney, DreamWorks, Marvel, Nickelodeon, Sony Pictures Animation, Treyarch, Santa Monica Studio, and Insomniac Games (to name a few).

These industry experts equip you with leading edge techniques and systems straight out of blockbuster films, AAA games and your favorite theme park experiences. Working independently and in collaboration with peers within our creative ecosystem, you’ll develop your portfolio, establish broad theoretical and practical skills, and produce entertainment projects that ignite passion in your audiences.

What You’ll Learn

In the entertainment design program, you’ll create media that engages people’s bodies, hearts, and minds. Fuse visual storytelling with the latest technology using traditional and digital media practices. Prepare for career opportunities in just about any place that brings narratives to life, from major production companies to up-and-coming independent studios and from toy workshops to theme park design. Concentrate your studies in the concept, animation, or game design track with robust studio courses, and flesh out your appreciation for the world—and how it informs your art—in humanities and sciences electives.

Entertainment Design Tracks

Generate excitement and intrigue as an animator, artist, filmmaker, game designer, performer, storyteller, theme park designer, and more through courses that equip you to succeed in the things you’re most passionate about. In both traditional and digital media, you’ll excel as a technically skilled and highly imaginative creative.

Concept Track

Blend visual and conceptual design with thorough knowledge and practice in drawing, rendering, building models, sculpting, and using 3D digital tools. The concept track introduces you to everything from animal anatomy to costume design, light and color to digital painting, visual structure to world building.

Animation Track

Draw out the heart and passion of stories, interactive experiences and immersive games in the animation track. From concept art and previsualization to 2D, 3D, and CGI animation, you will hone your creative craft and technological expertise into the state-of-the-art skillset necessary to thrive in this lively, collaborative industry.

Game Design Track

Level up your creative and competitive mindset in the game design concentration. Explore, design and prototype in all aspects of game development, from software and user experience to immersive design and alternative controllers.

Careers in Entertainment Design

The entertainment design major equips you with rigorous practice in drawing, sculpting, building models, rendering, and using leading edge 3D digital design tools. You’ll learn to ignite that spark of life in your characters, settings, vehicles, and worldbuilding—a skill sought out by leading companies like Pixar, Disney, Dreamworks, Sony, Blur, 343, and Riot. As a storyboarder, modeler, animator, lighter, concept artist, production designer, or other vital creative collaborator, you’ll join ArtCenter’s prestigious alumni in top studios (including Paramount, Activision Blizzard, Netflix, and Marvel) and in fields like:

  • Video Games
  • Live Action Films
  • Animated Films
  • Animated Television
  • Television
  • Theme Parks
  • Toys
  • Visual Effects

Learn more about Entertainment Design at ArtCenter

Get feedback on your admissions portfolio and receive guidance throughout your application process.

The Joys of World Building: Entertainment Design Shines

Chair, Entertainment Design
Ken Bielenberg, Chair, Entertainment Design

Ken Bielenberg

A pioneer in the field of computer animation, Ken Bielenberg participated in its evolution from broadcast graphics to commercials to music videos to film effects and feature animated films.

A player interacts with Kitchen Kauldron
Advanced Game Writing Studio

Kitchen Kauldron

In Kitchen Kauldron, an immersive game designed by a team within ArtCenter's Game Design program, players dare to join Wendy the Witch's kitchen crew to save her failing food truck.

Student Gallery

Entertainment Design

game mock up
Featured Course

Game Development 3

Students create prototypes of sophisticated 3D games using industry standard development tools.

Sponsored Projects

Sponsored Projects bring industry professionals into the classroom

How alumna Lizzie Nichols helped The Mitchells vs. The Machines show ‘it’s normal to be queer’

Earn Your Bachelor’s in Entertainment Design at ArtCenter

Expand the possibilities of interactive narratives and immersive worldbuilding with ArtCenter’s Bachelor of Science in Entertainment Design. Build your degree around your passions in one of three tracks: concept design, animation, or game design. When you graduate, you’ll carry your strong portfolio and broad industry connections into invigorating design careers.

Entertainment Design student work

Take the first step toward a career in entertainment design.