Program Overview

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Animation and Games Art via Study Centres BA (Hons)

Overview

The animation, games and visual effects (VFX) industries are always searching for new talent. BA (Hons) Animation and Games Art allows you to explore and develop traditional animation techniques, key digital skills in 2D and 3D, and learn the core principles of character-led animation.

We place Animation and Games Art within the broader context of design to help you keep your career options open. You'll also have the creative freedom and flexibility to develop your specific areas of interest, gaining transferable skills crucial for employability.

Why us?

• Gives a strong foundation in traditional animation principles while also teaching key digital skills in both 2D and 3D
• Allows you the creative freedom to work in any medium and technique

Course structure

Teaching is almost entirely practical and studio-based, supported by lectures, seminars and tutorials. Our academic team encourage you to express ideas and push the boundaries of creativity. Assessment is mainly through coursework.

Year 1 (national level 4):

• Introductory Classical, Digital and Performance Practice (60 credits)
  • Learn the fundamental principles of animation using traditional studio practices in 2D drawn animation through weekly character-based exercises.
  • This will culminate in a short animated film that you will complete using ToonBoom Harmony software.
  • You will also be introduced to the Adobe Creative Suite in a separate creative brief.
• Animation Techniques (40 credits)
  • Working in teams, you will create short sequences using a variety of traditional techniques such as Pixillation, direct animation, smudge n click, cut-out and stop motion, building on the principles and skills learnt in semester 1 and exploring visual storytelling further.
  • You will also produce a short film for a student-led competition and public screening to showcase your first year’s work.
• Design Theory 1 (20 credits)
  • Through lectures and seminars, you will gain an understanding of the wider application of design theory and principles as well as having the opportunity to study the context, development and theories behind your own chosen specialism.

Year 2 (national level 5):

• Animated Performance – Dialogue (20 credits)
  • Building on the principles and skills learnt in Stage 1 using character-led animation, you will study animated performance and work with a number of pre-recorded sound clips in order to gain a thorough understand of staging, dialogue/lip sync and acting.
• Maya for Beginners (20 credits)
  • From weekly life drawing exercises to support your understanding of the human form you will look at modelling in 3D to create a model of your own design.
  • You will then look at rigging, textures and lighting in the 3D environment.
• Preproduction Practice (20 credits)
  • This module follows the preproduction pipeline for creating either a pitch bible for a children’s tv series or a Games Document for a 7-PEGI game.
  • You will follow the process from visual and contextual research through concept art, story art, character design, environments, assets, linear and non-linear storytelling.
• Animation for Music, Titles and Idents (40 credits)
  • You will get to create a music video for an artist of your own choosing either as part of a collaboration, or working alone.
  • You will study the application of advanced After Effects – e.g. rotoscoping, tracking techniques, using green screen and keylight - and you can choose to apply any creative technique to your work.

Final year (national level 6):

• Applied Animation (20 credits)
  • You will work with a charity or other organisation in order to create an animation (or interactive piece) to highlight a campaign or social issue that is educational, informative, even therapeutic and will promote a good cause.
• Professional Practice (20 credits)
  • You will work on a chosen live brief as well as a piece to showcase your skills and enhance your showreel/portfolio.
  • Employability Day will enable you to meet successful alumni from this and other Design courses and hear about their experiences after graduating and tips on employability.
• Dissertation (20 credits)
  • You will research an approach, concept or practice relevant to your specialism that is intended to support your practical work in your final major project.
• Final Major Project (60 credits)
  • You will build on the skills and knowledge, both technical and creative, that you have gained across all previous modules to create a piece of work that best reflects your specialism and will, hopefully, take you into professional employment.

Entry requirements

We don’t currently display entry requirements for Ireland. Please contact the Student Admin team on or .

Please contact the study centre for more information on their specific requirements and equivalent qualifications from outside the UK.

Fees and finance

Please contact the study centre directly for information on fees, finance and start dates.

Career ready

Our graduates have gone on to work throughout the film, special effects, games, and television industries, and worked on projects including The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Grand Theft Auto, Creature Comforts, Miffy and Hey Duggee.

Recent employers have included:

• Animation studios such as Blue Zoo, Aardman and Studio AKA
• TV companies such as Cartoon Network, CBeebies and CITV
• Games companies such as Rockstar, Ubisoft and Sumo Digital