Career options include positions in digital media, information architecture, interaction design, new media, web design, web development and web project management, animation, including animation for the Internet, architecture, character design, computer game software design, experimental animation, feature film production, film and television graphics, special effects and storyboard. Various events are organized throughout the year to give students the opportunity to interact with industry professionals, including recruiters.

This graduate programme introduces students to multimedia techniques and methods for an in-depth understanding of development life-cycle and sequencing in relation to animation and game design along with management, marketing and entrepreneurship. The programme is project based, in which students work individually or in team using knowledge and skills acquired to develop a product. The students are required to obtain 30 credit hours with a minimum GPA of 2.67 for degree eligibility. These credit hours are distributed over 3 semesters in a period of 1.5 years. 

To produce culturally aware multimedia professionals who can apply professional skills creatively and ethically for problem-solving through applied research with a comprehension of theoretical and philosophical underpinning.

The programme has been designed with following objectives in view, catering both to the student’s expectations and disciplinary requirements within artistic, cultural and industry-oriented perspectives:

• To design and implement new digital products in consideration, responding to social, urban, environmental, cultural issues.
• To address the demands of the market in relation to ever changing technologies, creation of new platforms and development of new services in creative industry.
• To invoke critical approach through the concepts, theories and methodologies of multimedia art with emphasis on visual culture for bridging the gap in the realm of cultural representation.
• To establish the Pakistani image in multimedia industry from both cultural and economic perspectives.
• To explore new avenues of collaboration with other disciplines and invent new modes of integration and appropriation of arts and crafts, modern or traditional.

• Total Number of Credits  30
• Taught Subjects (Credits)  24
• Thesis (Research & Design Credits) 06
• Total Number of Semesters  03
• Semester Duration   18 Weeks
• Classwork    16 Weeks
• Examination   02 Weeks
• Course Load /Semester  9-12 Credits
• Studio Courses   70 %
• Theory / Seminar Courses  30 %

MULTIMEDIA STUDIO-I
The course discusses Graphic Concepts, Multimedia Design, Theory & Practice of Interactive design in a step by step manner. It also takes into account a brief introduction to the elements and the principles of design taught alongside design process, i.e. research to design layout.

THINK, EDIT, CREATE-I (ANIMATION-I)
The course objective is to introduce students to preproduction process of creating animated short film. Main goal of this course is to teach them to develop unique visual vocabulary for animated content. Students will demonstrate an advanced knowledge of design concepts, storyboard, Concept art, characters and environment development. The course will deal with the cultivation of ideas and problem-solving strategies for the individual/group projects. Students will produce inspirational sketches, descriptive character sketches, object and environmental design. The use of composition and frame, color and shape and other design elements will be explored.

THINK, EDIT, CREATE-I (DIGITAL PRODUCTION-I)
The course aims to train students in pre-production and post production of digital interactive video and give hands on experience of all three phases of digital interactive video production. The projects emphasize brainstorming, story concept & development, storyboards and animatic / pre-visualizations, editing with sound/FX, dialogue and music.

THINK, EDIT, CREATE-I (GAME DESIGN-I/VR-I)
The course examines practices and methods involving game design and offers a contemporary perspective with reference to fundamental components involved in game design and human perspective as opposed to a technology centric one. The objectives of this course are to develop an appreciation for concepts and sensibilities of user experience design and nurture skills in the use and application of specific methods and techniques. Furthermore, it will improve individual and collaborative skills in design problem solving. The focus of the course is to develop effective solutions based on the needs of users.

DRAWING
This course is about understanding of form and its identification of its core elements while learning basic drawing, perspective, and sketching techniques using various media.
The course introduces character drawing, creating light and dark shading, and use of perspective to represent still life and figures.

TECHNOLOGIES AND DIGITAL CULTURE-I
The course provide skills and knowledge to become digital media and web designers, game designers, app designers and developers. The course develops an understanding of mediums as art forms, multimedia concepts planning and implementation, research methodologies for new media projects, critique and evaluation of technology in academic and artistic scopes.

MULTIMEDIA STUDIO-II
The objective of this course is to impart the knowledge of basic needs for digital production; students will learn to collect data for their final project. This project will make realization, culmination and consolidation of studies. The content of the course will be a resolved piece of theoretical work demonstrating evidence of advanced conceptual and technical capability over an extended period of self-directed study. This outcome should show coherence and innovation in the development of a professional level thesis proposal for final production. Students will make presentations of their conceptual concern in this course which will be pitched and concluded for their thesis work.

TECHNOLOGIES AND DIGITAL CULTURE-II
The course instills an appreciation of the technical and artistic contributions of animators throughout the history of the art and builds a critical vocabulary by encouraging reflective works of animation. The course also imparts an understanding of the economic, social, and technological contexts that have shaped the development of animation around the world and through various lectures discover lesser-known work from under-represented genres and cultures, and the value of their diversity. The course also explores the varied potential of
animation as an entertaining, expressive and meaningful art form.

THINK, EDIT, CREATE-II (ANIMATION-II)
This course will focus on creating 2D & 3D spaces, and 2D & 3D animations. Students will learn to use Animate CC/ Toonboom/anime studio pro(Moho), Autodesk Maya/Max, Zbrush and after effects. The course aims to introduce students to 2d and 3d tools and their pipeline to produce animations, which they will use to develop a short animated film.

THINK, EDIT, CREATE-II (DIGITAL PRODUCTION-II)
Students will be introduced to the concepts of sequential art and visual storytelling. The course will elaborately introduce the process of constructing the linear and non-linear visual narratives. It will develop the skill-set of sequentially arranging and distributing the varied images in a functioning and communicative format. The course will include overviews of classic and contemporary narrative techniques applied in photography and comics, film and animation. The course will focus on developing the ability of students to apply the learned techniques during the course and will encourage them to explore the new narrative formats through exercises.

THINK, EDIT, CREATE-II (GAME DESIGN-II/VR-II)
This course aims to help students understand how computer games are evolving as global phenomena in the world and what are the latest dynamics of the field that they need to follow. The topics covered include an advanced understanding of game design / level design and processes including pitching of ideas, preparation of a design document and application of game design principles. The course will equip the students with rudimentary skills in game technology and game prototyping tools, allowing prototyping their own game ideas.

RESEARCH METHODS
The course will focus on methods of scholarly research and critical evaluation of research and writing in the field. The students will be introduced to the thesis proposal writing process and conducting research. Emphasis will be placed on preliminary research, applied, and analytical aspects of design projects and processes. Students will develop design research prototypes and evaluate the effectiveness of designed projects using appropriate research strategies.

A body of work presented for the degree (Thesis Project)
Research Report (10,000 words)
Coursework: theoretical & practical with Cumulative GPA 2.67

• Applicants with minimum 16 years of education or equivalent qualification in the relevant fields with minimum 60% marks from an HEC recognized institute are eligible to apply.
• Candidates must pass NCA’s own aptitude test at par with GAT.

1.  In theory courses, which comprise of 8 credits, the students will be required to work on assignments and presentations which will count for 50% of the total marks. The rest of the 50% marks will count Final exam. The students will be assessed according to the following criteria:
• Knowledge and Understanding of the Subject
• Research Skills

2.  In Studio courses (16 credits), students are required to work on individual/group projects, which will consist of a body of work to be progressively marked. The assessment criteria will be as follows:
• Communication
• Skills
• Originality
• Coordination
• Production Management
• Time and Resources Management

3.  By the end of the programme, students will be required to produce a substantial body of thesis work and write a Thesis Report (8000-10000 words), which will be assessed on the basis of 1) Conceptual Clarity, 2) Idea Development, 3) Comprehension and Understanding, 4) Critical and Analytical abilities, 5) Originality and Creativity, 6) Consistency in Style (Chicago)

NCA maintains a highly qualified and diverse faculty with a strong emphasis on multimedia production experience. Experienced instructors, industry professionals with varied and extensive backgrounds in multimedia and guest artists from local broadcast, games and visual effects studios form the core of the instructional staff.