School of Visual Development

We Make Art Work

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Building Worlds, One Frame At A Time.

Visual Development artists set the tone, mood, and look of film, games, and media. You’ll sketch characters, sculpt maquettes, and capture form, weight, and personality. You’ll design environments, props, and the visual language of storytelling—shaping color, light, and perspective. Every project builds production-ready assets and a portfolio that proves you have the creative vision to shape the worlds that audiences experience.

Join us: On campus in San Francisco, online, or virtually via Zoom (select classes)

Companies that Employ Our Students

Students & Alumni

Always Creating. Always Moving Forward.

At the Academy, creativity doesn’t pause at graduation. It accelerates. From day one, students bring bold ideas and leave with portfolios that speak louder than résumés. And when they graduate, they launch into creative careers.

This is where passion meets purpose—on campus, in studios, and on global stages.

Our alumni are out there now winning awards, leading teams, and shaping culture.

See More Success Stories

Anna Avigad

“I enjoyed my courses very much. I think it’s a great facility, even though I study online. It’s exciting to be part of a school based in San Francisco. I feel like I’m part of a community, even as an online student. It’s so fun to meet talented people from all over the world and learn from them. I couldn’t have done it by myself. The Academy gave me the skills to create a strong portfolio and prepare for real opportunities.”

online MFA Visual Development Student

Chaowat “Pong” Lertsachanant

“The Academy’s Spring Show completely changed my career. It’s where I met industry professionals and landed my job at EA. The instructors were a huge reason I chose the Academy; many of them work in the industry, and their guidance and connections opened doors for me, including an internship at Zynga. The foundation here is strong, and if you work hard, real opportunities happen.”

MFA Visual Development Alumni, Concept Artist at EA

Liz Gerger

“This school showed me that my story is the most valuable thing I have to offer. It’s our unique perspective and human crunchiness that make our work distinctly ours. … If that’s true, my time at ArtU has made me so grateful for the years I spent doing the wrong thing. For the pain and deep insecurities that made me feel like I needed to be something I wasn’t. There’s no algorithm for that experience.”

MFA Visual Development Alumni & 2025 Valedictorian, Designer at Disney Theatrical Group

Facility Highlights

Equipment Lab

Our equipment lab features state-of-the-art equipment like a jet-milling machine for cutting metal, a McEnglevan MIFCO forge machine, a plasma cutter, and 250-amp welders. The lab also features the only complete art and sculpture neon studio in California, and a mold-making studio for one-, two-, and three-piece plaster and rubber casts.

Painting Studio

Our painting facilities include full-time anatomy studios and a full-time multimedia room. All classrooms and studios are equipped with easels, tabourets, model stands, spotlights, cleaning stations, and painting storage racks to accommodate any style of painting. The prop room is well-stocked with over 100 fabrics and over 2500 different props for your reference. We also have a dedicated room for framing and photographing art.

Printmaking Studio

Our main printmaking facility includes six presses for intaglio, relief, and monotype printing. The intaglio and relief studio embraces both traditional and sustainable approaches, with support for both zinc and copper etching. The silkscreen studio concentrates on the photo emulsion process and includes a dedicated darkroom. The studio is equipped with ink, screens, a light table, and digital output capabilities.

Sculpture Center

Our sculpture center houses a complete wax studio with gating and sprue stations, as well as a ceramics room with slurry tank, silica sand stations, front-loading computer programmed electric and gas kilns, a slab roller, extruder, and a pug mill.

Seven Skutt Electric Kilns
Mid-sized, top-loading, and digitally controlled, these Skutt kilns offer precise, repeatable firing for bisque, glaze, and mid-range ceramic work—ideal for student projects.

One Large Cress Side-Loading Kiln
Our largest electric kiln features a side-hinged door and spacious chamber, perfect for large-scale or high-volume firings, with digital precision and ergonomic loading.

Two Toki Test Kilns
Compact and fast, the Toki kilns are built for glaze tests and small projects—speeding up experimentation with quicker heat cycles and efficient results.

Welding Studio

Our welding studio features industry standard TIG, MIG, stick, and gas welders; power tools; a sand blaster; and patina stations.

Wood Shop

Fabricate objects and jigs on both natural and artificial wood in our wood shop. Work with band saws, drill presses, a jointer, a planer, miter saws, a panel saw, wood shapers, and table routers. Two wood lathes, two isolated sanding rooms with spindle and disc sanders, and one more lathe for working foam plastics give you the control to polish your designs. The wood shop also features four SawStop table saws as part of our ongoing commitment to safety.

Bronze Foundry

Located in South San Francisco, our bronze foundry is forged for full-process casting. Multiple crucibles, a hydraulic crane, burnout kiln, sandblaster, and a Laguna Raku kiln give students the tools to transform molten metal into masterpieces.

A person wearing a paint-stained apron operates a large printing press wheel in an art studio. Tables, tools, and equipment surround them, with visible pipes on the ceiling.

Framing Shop

Frame It Right.

The framing shop is open to all students and is equipped for paintings, works on paper, and more. Turn your work into professionally finished pieces suitable for display.

Supervised sessions available by appointment only.

Your work. Professionally finished.