Illustration and Animation MA

Program Overview

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Illustration and Animation MA

Course overview

This MA course helps visually creative professionals enhance their illustration and animation skills, explore new applications, and develop creative thinking for a sustainable career in the rapidly evolving creative industries.

Key course content includes:

• Time and storytelling: explore narrative techniques and the creative use of time in visual applications across various fields.
• Collaborative and professional practice: develop teamwork and project management skills, and benefit from industry insights through real-world projects and RSA fellowship opportunities.
• Creative portfolio development: take part in a major project showcasing your skills and vision for a professional portfolio.

5 QS Stars for Teaching and Facilities

QS Stars University Ratings

Ranked 9th Modern University in UK by the Times

The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2025

Ranked 8th for Overall Satisfaction in PTES

Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES) 2024

Why you should study this course

• Focus on both illustration and animation, together with associated typographical, graphic design, photographic and communicative disciplines.
• Study traditional artistic disciplines alongside digital and other emerging media types to gain a unique approach to visual creativity.
• Adopt an international outlook in your studies by considering the global impact of the creative, professional, and academic fields of illustration and animation.
• Examine the similarities and differences of illustration and animation – something which forms the basis of ongoing research and practice, exploring both emerging, traditional and hybrid approaches that combine both analogue and digital techniques.
• Participate in exploratory projects that benefit from the input of external creatives, including music producers and artists.

Collaborations

Endorsement: Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA)

Coventry University and the RSA have collaborated on a module concerning social and ethical responsibility. You will be entitled to a 12-month fellowship of the RSA so you can access all RSA resources and platforms during your period of study. Once you have successfully passed the Professional Practice and Innovation module , you will receive an RSA digital credential.

What you'll study

Explore 2D and 3D creation, animation, film editing, camera tracking, and immersive technologies such as virtual and augmented reality. Learn how to produce content for print, online media, exhibitions, and interactive and immersive experiences across various creative industries.

Modules

• Time-Based Narration - 30 credits
  • Explore time as a creative, scientific, historical, philosophical, and artistic element in film, text, and visual art. Learn how time-based storytelling works in different fields and how to apply these narrative techniques in various visual formats. Benefit from relevant discipline awareness that applies to the design and depiction of three-dimensional artefacts and spaces across a whole range of professional, historical, archaeological and scientific arena.
• Co-Create - 30 credits
  • Collaborate on a simulated or real-life project created by industry experts. Work with students from other postgraduate courses in the School of Arts and Creative Industries, applying your specialist discipline knowledge to form an essential part of a wider team. Explore design theory and practice, research methodologies, and build professional development skills like project management, delegation and problem-solving. Build strong relationships, foster a supportive community and develop a resilient skillset based on agility, flexibility and emotional intelligence.
• Space, Place and Visualisation - 30 credits
  • This specialist illustration and animation module explores the relationship between science, myth, culture and philosophy as related to space. Addressing the creation, gathering and alignment of visual elements, underpinned by relevant and effective research, together with the conceptual and aesthetic aspects required by such work as applied to the depiction of spatial locations.
• Professional Practice and Innovation - 30 credits
  • Explore ecologies of the creative industries, considering the interrelations between independent, commercial, and public sectors. The module is designed in collaboration with The RSA (Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) from which you’ll have 12 months Fellowship so you can access all RSA resources and platforms during your period of study. Receive an RSA digital credential once you have successfully passed the module.
• Major Project: Illustration and Animation - 60 credits
  • Employ all previously acquired techniques and methodologies in the creation of a major project production that allows for personal and professional decision making, critical reflection and direction. This will be a significant contributor to your practice-focused portfolio. This module is inherently practical in nature with an emphasis on the researching, designing and proposing and creating the major body of work within the MA Illustration & Animation course.

How you'll learn

Teaching and learning methods may include:

• lectures
• seminars
• tutorials
• presentations
• group projects
• workshops
• practical laboratory sessions.

Teaching and learning hours

As a full-time postgraduate student, you will study modules totalling 180 credits each academic year. A typical 30-credit module requires a total of 300 hours of study. Study hours are made up of teaching and learning hours, and guided and independent study.

Teaching hours

Teaching hours will vary, depending on where you are in your studies, but on average, you will have between 8 and 12 teaching and learning hours each week. You will also have the opportunity to attend optional sessions, including time with a Success Coach or to meet with staff for advice and feedback.

Guided and independent learning

Throughout your studies, you will be expected to spend time in guided and independent learning which will make up the required study hours per module. You will be undertaking a variety of activities, learning through guided background research, planning and preparation, studio activity, creative practice and making, reviewing what you have learned and completing assignments. This can be completed around your personal commitments. As you progress towards the end of your studies, you will spend more time on independent learning.

Online learning

As an innovative university, we use different teaching methods, including online tools and emerging technologies. So, some of your teaching hours and assessments may be delivered online.

Assessment

This course will be assessed using a variety of methods which could vary depending on the module. Assessment methods may include:

• reports
• essays
• practical coursework
• assignments
• presentations.

Entry requirements

Typical entry requirements:

• UK: An honours degree 2:2 or above (or international equivalent) in a relevant discipline, a recognised relevant professional qualification, or demonstrable professional experience.
• International: An honours degree 2:2 or above (or international equivalent) in a relevant discipline, a recognised relevant professional qualification, or demonstrable professional experience.

Portfolio

No portfolio will be required if the academic qualifications in the subject area as defined above are met.

If a portfolio is required it should feature a maximum of approximately 10-15 examples of work or three to four projects undertaken within the past two years. These should be substantial, in-depth projects which demonstrate your ability to conceptualise solutions to creative problems and to assimilate and combine written language or content with visuals. This will clearly demonstrate the level of creative, craft and production skills you have achieved, either in a previous course of study, in a professional design studio, as a freelance designer or during an internship.

Projects should ideally be accompanied by a brief summary of the work or projects, notes on the software used, and dated.

English language requirements

• IELTS: 6.5 overall, with no component lower than 5.5.

Fees and funding

Student | Full-time | Part-time ---|---|--- UK, Ireland*, Channel Islands or Isle of Man | £11,200 | Not available EU | £11,200 per year with EU Support Bursary** £18,600 per year without EU Support Bursary** | Not available International | £18,600 | Not available

Facilities

• MAC & PC Studio
• Media Loans service
• Print workshop

Facilities are subject to availability. Access to some facilities (including some teaching and learning spaces) may vary from those advertised and/or may have reduced availability or restrictions where the university is following public authority guidance, decisions or orders.

Careers and opportunities

Successful graduates may seek positions in the following job roles:

• Illustration work for publication, TV, online, game-based, interactive and film production
• Specialist curation
• TV-film-exhibition-conference set design and management
• Teaching and administration in schools, colleges and universities
• Scientific, medical, technical and historical/archaeological illustration and animation works for publication, specialist institutions, TV, interactive, VR, AR and educational outputs
• Animated film series production on online digital platforms
• Creative and influencer agencies.

On successful completion of this course, you will be able to:

• demonstrate a systematic understanding and application of the theoretical and thematic concerns within your chosen area to develop advanced expertise in relevant contexts within illustration and animation
• apply advanced skills, techniques, and emergent technologies with originality and imagination to innovate in illustration and animation practice
• design and deliver complex, original projects tailored to specific contexts within the field of illustration and animation
• actively contribute to the shaping of a global contemporary discourse by engaging with experimental, creative, and hybrid approaches to illustration and animation
• apply solutions to diverse creative, professional, social, and collaborative environments using enhanced tools and methods of social change
• apply systematic knowledge and understanding of the role of creative teams in the realisation of illustration, animation and design projects
• solve complex problems with critical insight, while maintaining ethical standards in illustration and animation, and broader societal contexts.

Where our graduates work

Successful graduates of this course have gone on to work for companies including:

• Danke Games
• Ubisoft
• Amazon Prime
• State of Play Games (BAFTA Award)
• Goat Agency
• Herbert Art Gallery