New Macbook Air or Macbook Pro for media art student?

I am entering university next year and will be studying media arts and design. I will be travelling a lot by public transit and I am worried that the Macbook Pro might be heavy to carry around in a bag. First I was considering the 15" MBP, but it was more on the expensive side (around $2000). The 13" MBP is really nice too, but I think it lacks the screen real estate. I was wondering if the new Macbook Air's graphics and specs will be powerful enough to manage those tasks well. I might be working with 3D animation so I'm not quite sure which Macbook is the right choice for me. I want a Macbook that is portable, powerful enough to manage my tasks, and not too expensive. Please tell me more information about the differences between the 13" MBA, 13" MBP, and 15" MBP because I am not really familiar with them.

If you're going to be studying media arts and design you are probably going to want to go with the 15" MBP. It has a discrete graphics card, which neither the 13" MBA or MBP have.

While the MBA and MBP will run photoshop and other related applications decently from what I've seen/read, I'm not sure how well it will handle 3d animation. You'd also be stuck with the restricted screen real estate on the 13" MBA and MBP, though the MBA had a higher res screen.

Final recommendation: go to an apple store, handle the 15in and see if it really is too heavy for you. But at the end of the day the 15in will probably get you through university without a hitch.

I have to agree on the advice to go 15in MBP. Sometimes you have to accept the tradeoff of higher cost and weight because you really NEED the additional horsepower. In your case I think that applies.
You can get more screen realestate by using a second Monitor, but that won't give you the dedicated Graphics Card.

EDIT: If you can hold out till the end of the year, there are rumors that Apple is coming out with a lighter 15in MBP (or possibly 15in MBA). Might be worth waiting to see.

Let me assure you, the 15" is not "difficult" to carry around.

Obviously it is heavier than the MBA or the 13", but it is not like you are carrying a ton of extra weight. I carry my 15" and have never said to myself "wow, this is kind of heavy, maybe I should get a MacBook Air!"

It is more like "wow, those MacBook Airs are sexy, I would love one...too bad I have a 15" MBP in beast mode"

hey mate, listen to what these guys say. Go with the 15MBP. I do some animation as well using lightwave, cinema 4d and Maya, not to mention running cs5 and other apps and no problems with mbp. i don't think mba can handle or will be smooth in handling heavy 3D animation renders. (not 100% sure about this though)

15mbp is not that heavy trust me. i carry it in my bag and it's in a Book vyper sleeve as well for added protection, not light but definitely not heavy.

Which 15" MBP model should I get and which upgrade is suitable? Is a 128gb SSD worth it or should I stay with the stock 500gb HDD. Will a SSD really show a significant speed increase when I do my work. I really want to upgrade to the glossy Hi-Res display, is this a good upgrade?

It depends on the graphics capability you would need.
@jaskaeyes-which graphics chipset is in your 15in?

Regardless of which model you end up with-
Do a RAM upgrade yourself. Purchase an upgrade from OWC or Crucial. This will give you a good speed bump especially for multitasking.
I would consider upgrading to at least some sort of 7200 rpm drive.
If you decide to get a 128gb ssd, you will see a big performance increase when launching applications and such, but I would think most of your projects would need to be exported off to an external drive once you're no longer working with them. (External is a MUST regardless of which drive you get)
In regards to the screen- yes the added res will effectively give you more screen real estate when doing projects- so it is probably worth it, but I would try to go to an Apple Store or something try out both options. Keep in mind you said Glossy though. I have an iMac and it too has a glossy display, which looks fanatastic but has glare sometimes. If you don't mind dealing with that then go for it. Else you may want to consider the extra 50$ upgrade to an antiglare.