Expertise
Dr. Scott L. Smith is an Assistant Professor of Digital Media Design at Florida Gulf Coast University, where he teaches across animation, visual effects, graphic design, games, and interactive media. His creative practice and research explore the intersection of digital media, animation, emerging technologies, and visual storytelling.
Prior to joining FGCU, Dr. Smith spent over two decades in higher education in the United Kingdom and United States, where he taught and led programs in animation and digital media at the undergraduate and graduate levels, as well as lecturing in contextual practices for the wider art and design fields. He has also worked professionally in the visual effects and animation industries, contributing to projects with internationally recognized studios including Framestore and DNEG/ReDefine, working out of London, Montreal, and Mumbai.
Dr. Smith holds a PhD from the University of Dundee, where his research examined the use of digital technologies in the interpretation and visualization of cultural heritage, specifically in sense of place visualization. He also holds an MFA in Computer Animation and has exhibited and published both creative and scholarly work internationally.
His current interests include animation, visual effects, photogrammetry/gaussian splatting, immersive media, digital cultural heritage, and the creative applications of artificial intelligence as well as classical rhetoric. At FGCU, he is particularly interested in developing interdisciplinary approaches to digital media education that connect creative practice, emerging technologies, and industry-focused production.