Program Overview

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The Foundation Year

This Foundation Year has been specifically designed to allow you to undertake an additional year of study to build stronger creative footings that ensure successful progression through your chosen degree.

Working in a friendly, lively and energetic environment, you will be given the freedom to expand your knowledge of practical skills, creative exploration and conceptual thinking, underpinned by broad critical understanding, academic writing and emerging theoretical principles.

Dedicated Foundation tutors will support you throughout the year and BA teaching staff from across all the schools within the Birmingham Institute of Creative Arts (BICA) will work closely with you to prepare you for progression.

There will be a range of opportunities to work on collaborative and individual projects, aimed to build your social skills and identify your role as a developing practitioner.

Throughout the year you will be challenged with projects that question your current creative experiences and explore a breadth of experimentation to broaden your technical and critical understanding.

You will be encouraged to analyse methods and materials appropriate for creative development and to question your position in relation to historical, contemporary, and future world scenarios. Both practical and written research tasks will be supported by one-to-one tutorials and small discussion groups to help you constructively build academic and social confidence.

The two first semester modules will form the building blocks for future work and will explore core principles of creative practice focussing on the development of technical confidence, study skills and productivity.

The two final semester modules will encourage a positive integration between research and practice, challenging decision making and technical competency. This semester is designed to empower you with independent learning skills appropriate for your future BA studies.

On successful completion of the Foundation Year, you will have the flexibility to change direction and switch courses onto a related undergraduate degree programme within Birmingham School of Art, School of Visual Communication or the School of Games, Film and Animation.

In order to progress onto your BA Programme, you must successfully pass all four core modules (totalling 120 credits).

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BA (Hons) Digital Animation

This cutting-edge BA programme will develop your skills across the Digital Animation practice conventions. You will be taught by established practitioners, who will provide their knowledge on 2D and 3D animation disciplines.

The course is part of Birmingham City University’s Film suite, designed to develop graduates with knowledge of the theory, practice and industry trends that will enable them to succeed in a rapidly changing industry environment.

This course is

open

to

International

students.

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What's covered in this course?

The course will help you establish the core art fundamentals, such as anatomy, gesture, pose, weight distribution, perspective, composition and an understanding of how they underpin digital animation practice. You will also learn about the 12 principles of animation required to create engaging animation performance, whether you choose a Film/Television or Games/Interactive pathway. The course will introduce you to industry standard project management and pipelines methodologies that mirror industry production procedures.

Depending upon the route you choose to take on the course (Film/TV or Game/Interactive) you will produce a range of assessed material including but not exclusive to:

Storyboards & story-reels

Animation foundation exercises

Performance animations

Specialist portfolios and showreels

Short films, made collaboratively, demonstrating animation principles and pipelines

Game animation sets, demonstrated within the Unity and Unreal game engines

A key focus of this course is developing performance within character animation. You will develop acting techniques that will promote the development on your inner actor to project performance through your characters. You will also develop an understating of and demonstrate visual storytelling, with ‘show don’t tell’ philosophies.

While theoretical and practice-based considerations of animation techniques and principles remain a central focus to the award, the course also provides shared modules within the School’s film and games courses, offering wider collaborative opportunities which help provide core skills relevant to industry.

This course is designed in response to the growing demand within the UK and International animation industries that require job ready graduates who can demonstrate within their showreels, animation foundation principles and skilled use of industry standard tools

Shaun Magher -

Course Director, BA Film Making

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Why Choose Us?

The School of Games, Film and Animation (formerly known as the New Technology Institute) opened in 2005 and is housed within the University’s Faculty of Arts, Design and Media. In this vibrant context, you’ll enjoy the benefits of outstanding resources, at the heart of a thriving creative community in our City Centre campus.

You will be taught by tutors with over 30 years of experience within the UK and International Animation industries.

The BA Digital Animation course is an employment-led programme, so your knowledge and skills will be up to date and relevant, making you industry ready upon graduation.

Our teaching philosophy is practice-led and theory applied in the pursuit of excellence.

We have a partnership with the BFI, which offers students free access to the BFI player.

Top 5 for Animation and Game Design (Guardian League Tables 2023).

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Studying with us during the Covid-19 pandemic

The University has put in place

measures in response to Covid-19

to allow us to safely deliver our courses. Should the impact of the pandemic continue in future years, any additional or alternative arrangements put in place by the University will be in accordance with the latest government public health advice, health and safety legislation, and the terms and conditions of the

student contract

.