Blender is an open-source free 3D application. online lessons and tutorials are plentiful
Krita & Gimp free open-source painting applications
Unity you also can use for free as an individual for learning
Start with the Unity Particle system (Shuriken) it is high level, easy to understand simple adjustments for fast results and get familiar with how you assemble complex results. Supplement in textures. RTVFX has a thread for a library of images and you put these on materials with a shader Plenty of textures found in google to play with as well as shaders. Those direct links are the manual but you can dive through other keywords I mentioned such as Animation Timeline, Controller and Mechanim
There’s a Unity project tutorial +ZIP file so you get objects to utilize
RTVFX forum search can show you many tutorials for Unity for other ideas/concepts
Particles by Sirhaian
VFXgraph 1 & VFXGraph 2 by GabrielAguiar
For a degree in Art, I only recommend a 2-year Associates in foundational classes so you can get some instruction when diving into concepts/software for the first time —but I never recommend at 18 American students dive into $20,000 per year of debt.
never underestimate youtube content creators; you can follow many and see what they share