Illustration and Animation
Shaping your creative expression as a way to tell emotions through visual communication
Rome
On campus
ITA
First Level Academic Diploma in Illustration
Language
Italian
Start date
October 2025
Frequency
Full time
Fruition
On campus
Duration
3 Years
Credits
180
Course Coordination
Stefano Bessoni
Use signs, colours and shapes to communicate and create your personal and unique style. That’s what is waiting for you if you join our three-year degree programme in Illustration and Animation at IED Roma
We believe that illustration and animation of pictures are arts and we want to share all that with you on this degree programme. Together, we will learn how to show to others something that seems to not exist: a creative, lively and exciting world, coming from your inner self to catch the magical language of imagination.
On the three-year programme in Illustration and Animation at IED Roma, you will develop your intuitive skills and explore design and experimentation across a variety of areas: character design and portraits, stop motion, comics, editorial illustration, poster design and children’s illustration.
Since the early days, you will move your steps into new, original and creative solutions, learning how to interact with other professionals of communication and content production. You will work independently to manage the timing of your projects and learn more about new tools and software.
Issued Degree:
Diploma Accademico di Primo Livello (DAPL), corresponding to a Bachelor of Arts Degree (BA) – EQF6 Level (European Qualification Framework).
Credits:
The course awards 180 CFA (Academic Formative Credits), corresponding to 180 ECTS (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System).
Information to decide
Find your own voice and style as a creator of visual storytelling
Over the three-year programme in Illustration and Animation at IED Roma, you will acquire knowledge of the different methods of life drawing, and you will explore different techniques with the Engraving Workshop. This will be an important opportunity for you to bring out your own personality with even greater emphasis.
You will combine basic theory on history, styles, historical and contemporary authors, with the knowledge of storytelling and visual narration. You will have the opportunity to learn more about digital tools, digital painting and concept art, all of them being key to illustration today.
The aim of the programme is to shape the learning process around your art skills and personal feelings. But even more so, you will focus on your own style and specific identity, working with firms and publishing houses on specific projects where your artistic and creative potential will find its full and complete expression.
The three-year degree programme in Illustration and Animation at IED Roma is designed for students who want to translate their lifelong passion into an exciting, creative job with an original style. This programme will give you the opportunity to start your own career as an author, working closely within a network of professionals who are there to help you move quickly into the market.
You won’t need to have any special drawing skills as a prerequisite for accessing this programme. As we often say, in the end it’s just a matter of doodling, being curious and working hard. Indeed, we believe that all people bring with them some instinctive drawing abilities: they can improve their mark, practice with it and use it for many different applications.
Specifically, this programme is designed for anyone with basic artistic skills from an art high school, an art institute or other similar high school types, but also for students with different education backgrounds who want to develop their passion for drawing to work as Publishing Illustrator and Portrait Artist, Author of comics and graphic novels, Character Designer and Storyboard Artist for cinema, videogames and advertising. Puppet Maker, 2D and stop-motion Animator.
The three-year programme in Illustration and Animation at IED Roma will give you the opportunity to gain initial professional experience in the areas of fiction and non-fiction illustration, comics and graphic novels, concept art for cinema, TV and videogames, visual communication and 2D drawn animation, stop-motion and puppet making.
The city of Rome will play an important role over the three years of training. Its lively and stimulating environment will bring you into direct contact with the film and television production industry, as well as with important publishing companies, museums and exhibitions that regularly offer opportunities for collaboration on real projects, for example Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Musei Vaticani, MAXXI, Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, MACRO, Cinecittà.
While attending this programme, you will come into contact with a community of lecturers, professionals and peers, sharing with them a lab-based work environment open to experimentation and contamination between different forms of expression and communication. They will be the ones to give you the motivation to take on the challenge. With their support, you will be able to complete your projects as required by the customer, and have access to key contacts useful for a smooth move into your future career.
Over three years you will develop a proactive, creative and opportunity-driven mindset, which is highly appreciated in a constantly evolving market. This will be your basis for merging narrative skills, visual intuition and ideas into new, interactive and powerful communication projects.
The main software you will need during your course is provided by IED!
On this page you will find all the features you need for your computer.
Syllabus
first year
On your first year, you will be introduced to both traditional and digital techniques, acquiring a background knowledge of historical and cultural factors, storytelling and narration through images. You will begin to learn about the main software applications and tools for illustration.
HISTORY OF CONTEMPORARY ART
DRAWING AND GRAPHIC ART HISTORY
ICONOGRAPHY AND ANATOMICAL DRAWING
COMPUTER GRAPHICS 1
THEORY OF PERCEPTION AND PSYCHOLOGY OF FORM
DESIGN FOR PAINTING 1
DIGITAL ANIMATION TECHNIQUES 1
ILLUSTRATION 1
SEMIOTICS OF ART
second year
On your second year, you will have the opportunity to expand on the knowledge acquired, with a special focus on your personal style and identity that will make you stand out. You will work on hands-on projects and activities that will be your practical training ground in the field.
ELEMENTS OF MORPHOLOGY AND FORM DYNAMICS
DESIGN FOR PAINTING 2
ILLUSTRATION 2
DIGITAL ANIMATION TECHNIQUES 2
COMPUTER GRAPHICS 2
PHENOMENOLOGY OF CONTEMPORARY ARTS
SOCIOLOGY OF COMMUNICATION
FILM AND VIDEO HISTORY
VIDEO PRODUCTION ELEMENTS
DESIGN MANAGEMENT
third year
The third year is the year for professional development: you will work on a challenging dissertation project, which may be focused on a publishing product or a project for a specific customer. You will also develop your portfolio or showreel, which will make you feel more confident as you move into your future professional career.
DESIGN FOR PAINTING 3
ILLUSTRATION 3
THEORY AND METHOD OF MASS MEDIA
TECHNIQUES OF NEW INTEGRATED MEDIA
MULTIMEDIA PROJECT DEVELOPMENT
GRAPHIC DESIGN
ILLUSTRATION 4
Faculty
Stefano Bessoni
Director, Screenwriter and Illustrator.
Course Coordinator
Chiara Rapaccini
Painter, sculptor, illustrator and writer.
Max Giovagnoli
Transmedia Producer & Storyteller
Fabio Magnasciutti
Illustrator and Cartoonist
Riccardo Mannelli
Painter, illustrator and satirical cartoonist
Roberto Frusteri
Maurizio Piraccini
Graphic Designer
Cristina Damiani
Valentina Cestra
Marco Michiorri
Motion Graphic Designer
Barbara D'ambrosio
Sabrina Perucca
Artistic Director and Co-founder of Romics – International Comics, Animation, Games Festival
Valenzia Lafratta
Illustrator
Giulio Castagnaro
Coordinator
Alessandro Martorelli
Illustrator and Cartoonist
Bruno Cannucciari
Grazia La Padula
Chiara Caproni
Graphic Designer
Francesca Crisafulli
Alberto Ruggieri
Michela Rossi
Art director, cartoonist and illustrator
Filippo Foglietti
2D artist
Sergio Riccardi
Animator and Cartoonist
Serafino Murri
Inside the labs
+9
ANIMATION WORKSHOP
+8
ENGRAVING ROOM
+4
SCANNER LASER 3D - G-SCAN
What people say
Special Lesson with Tim Allen
“Coming here today at IED has been wonderful. The students have been so encouraging and you can see they are interested, you can see they are excited and they want to learn about stop motion animation.I had so many questions, so many people show me their work. It has been a really rewarding experience to see how invested everyone is in trying to learn more about animation”.
Director, Actor, Screenwriter, and Stop Motion Animator
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