Program Overview

Our MA in Worldbuilding with Creature Design was created in response to industry demand for pre-production specialisms and will enable us to bring together practitioners who want to create immersive worlds along with opportunities to develop creatures that can interact with imaginative, yet to be explored environments.

The course is the first of its kind in the UK. The Creature Design aspects open career opportunities in film, game and comic industries as well as work supporting scientific research, such as visualising prehistoric life or paleo reconstruction, evolution and life on other planets, known as speculative biology. The Worldbuilding aspects invites students to create richly-detailed cultural, historical and futuristic worlds for careers in the entertainment industry, production and research.

Candidates are encouraged to position their work within a professional context to help inform the visual output and appropriate production method. There may be opportunities for cross-disciplinary influences and peer review.

The course provides the critical and progressive space to explore the processes and contexts to visualise and build immersive, believable and sustainable new worlds and creatures.

Developing a body of self-negotiated work, you will be supported by a team with diverse research and practical interests and work closely with visiting industry professionals.

The course provides formal opportunities where you will be taught with students from other postgraduate courses. This rich transdisciplinary approach is practice-research led and uses a range of research methods to expand your critical thinking, helping you to deliver innovative creative outcomes. The shared entrepreneurial modules aim to enhance your analytic and presentational skills, giving you the opportunity to position yourself professionally to a range of audiences.