Frequently Asked Questions

There are 6 classes, which are divided into two sections.  3 intro classes and 3 advanced classes. We advise you to take the intro classes if you have experience in drawing, designing, and painting and have basic knowledge of using tablets and 2D software like Photoshop. Intro classes mainly focus on fundamental skills. And if you are seeking to kickstart with confidence, all the skills that are necessary in the industry.

We advise you to sign up for advanced classes if you have several years of experience in drawing, designing, and painting but still need the upper edge to compete in the entertainment industry. These classes are recommended for aspiring/junior concept artists to professional individuals. During the advanced classes, we not only go deep with the knowledge of fundamentals but all the other skills necessary (3D skills, photobashing, etc.) in order to stand out and catch up with our demanding industry.  

The less clicks you are away from your learning experience at Focal Point, the better for you and us! We will aim to keep the process of signing up as streamlined as it can be. It is mandatory to register with your basic details upon signing up. We need student data to keep the organizational aspect in order to run our school as smoothly as we can.

We strictly prohibit students to share classes. Each student must sign up for their own seat. This is due to the structure of our program, fairness for both students and the school, and to avoid of any legal issues.

Yes, Companies and Studios can sign up their employees. Sharing classes is not possible due to our lecture program we also care highly for the individual interaction aspect with each of our students. 

At the beginning of 2019, we set up a new payment system in order to achieve the best results by offering our students the most common and accessible forms of payment. The moment you sign up for a class is the moment you pay and secure your course(s) seat. Pre-orders and payment through installments are not possible at that moment.

The following states our refund policy, which we adhere to:

• 100% refund deadline: 31 days prior to class start date

• 50% refund deadline: 10 days prior to class start date

• 0% refund within 9 days of class start date

Focal Point School is not responsible for covering transactional fees, administration fees, currency exchange fees, and other fees for which we are not responsible.

Please refer to the class tabs on the website as details per class differ, such as length, price, and class structure. However, in general, what you can expect from each class (but not limited to) are: lectures, presentations, weekly assignments, live demos, portfolio reviews, paint and sketch overs, guest lecturers, critique, and feedback sessions.

It is not mandatory to present your portfolio; however, we highly recommend sending in your portfolio (links to websites only). This is to calibrate the students’ needs so that the instructors can know what to focus on to help you in your professional career.

We recommend signing up for 1 of the full terms, ‘’Intro’’ or ‘’Advanced’’. The learning curve increases with huge leaps, as it allows the student to absorb more knowledge when three classes are taken versus one class. The classes are structured in a way where knowledge obtained in one can be used in the other and the other way around.

We advise that you assess your workload and make sure you will be able to complete the homework for all classes you sign up for in order to benefit the most from each class the most.

We completely understand that unexpected things can happen during the course time. If you are not able to make it to one of your classes, you will receive all the materials we covered during that class. We also offer 1 time individual online feedback sessions from the class instructor.

Each class at Focal Point School is packed with knowledge for you to absorb. The instructor of the class is responsible for delivering to you the best learning experience possible. Every individual absorbs knowledge at his or her own pace. Retaking classes, for this reason, is common and sometimes necessary to fully learn and understand the content taught in class. The term ‘’mastering a skill’’ is dependent on practicing long-term, which is something that usually every industry professional has to continually do. At Focal Point School, we help you get better faster by integrating you into a disciplined environment with industry-experienced professionals where you will be motivated and challenged to deliver your best work. 

We do not offer any visas. We recommend students coming from abroad to apply for the tourist visa. Students coming from the EU and the USA do not require a VISA application when traveling to Poland. We do offer letters of approval and reference letters to smoothen the process of certain visa applications that require such letters.

On our Discord Server, we have a "housing-and-roommates" channel where you can ask our community about accommodation or look for roommates. We do not cover the cost of students’ accommodation while they are taking classes.

Disclaimer:  Please note that Focal Point School is not responsible for housing choices and quality of accommodation.

At Focal Point School, it is our mission to provide you with as much knowledge as we can to give a boost in your learning curve, which is guaranteed by our instructors; you will, therefore, by default, increase your chances. The second important thing to do is network. You will be put in an environment where you are surrounded by industry veterans and fellow students, and we advise that you use that community to forge friendships and network and hopefully increase your chances of landing a job in the industry field with the more people you know. So far, our students have been hired by a significant number of well-established studios in the video game industry.

Our Core program always guarantees the possibility of taking it on-site and/or online.
Even though we always recommend students to be with us physically, we aim to provide comfort for those who are limited in their traveling options while always providing the best knowledge channeling to all our students!

Our additional courses and/or workshops are subject to change when it comes to what format they will be held. Please make sure to familiarize yourself with the course/workshop you are interested in in order to obtain the full information, This can be found on our website. Each course and workshop always provides the full information upon its announcement.

We provide certificates for students who attend and complete the course fully.

Please find below how we structure the handouts of certificates to our students. We have 2 tiers of certification: Silver and Gold.

1. Certificate (Silver) - electronic (pdf) - for those who attended classes and did their homework (both physical and/or online)

2. Certificate with the Instructor’s signatures (Gold)- physical on paper- for those who adhere and commit fully to our program. You have attended all the classes you signed up for and finished the weekly tasks assigned on the best possible level you can.

Please also note that ‘’Focal Point School Certificates’’ are no diplomas that are approved by any government and/or institution. We are a private school mainly focusing on providing our students the best we can in terms of obtaining concept design and illustration skills for the entertainment industry in order to be successful in their careers. 

Our track record, however, shows that the certification yields value solely as a symbolic reflection of the skill of the students who attended FPS

The ‘’Silver’’ tier certificate is exclusively sent in an electronic form as a .pdf file to the email address you have provided us.

We will send you the “Gold” tier certificate to the address you provided during registration. All certificates are sent as ‘’priority mail’’. You will receive a tracking number to monitor your certificate, this also serves as proof. 

The responsibility of receiving the certificate or picking it up from the nearest postal service point lies on our student’s side. 

Sometimes, certificates bounce back to our school address for certain issues out of our control. Students will be notified. In such cases, certificates will be held at our faculty for one year. Certificates can then be personally picked up when our courses run before or after class hours. 

In case of failure to pick up the certificate within a period of one year, we will no longer be responsible for keeping certificates that were not picked up within that given time frame.