Master of Arts [M.A] Animation Featured Image

Universities United Kingdom Royal College of Art Courses Master of Arts [M.A] Animation

Master of Arts [M.A] Animation
at Royal College of Art

London, United Kingdom

Tuition Fee £ 32,000
Country Rank#123
Duration12 Months
Score IELTS: 6.5

Program Overview

At the MA Animation programme at the Royal College of Art we are dynamically responsive to how animation is now central to contemporary debates in visual culture. Animation is a pervasive interdisciplinary moving image form that extends across a global landscape of technologies, cultures and media and human/nonhuman relationships. We engage in animation's gaining proximity to contemporary discourses on aesthetics, socio-politics, consumption and techno-cultural progression in the arts, sciences, heath and commerce. As a Programme situated in the School of Communication, we are committed to our students’ development in and expansion of this new visual communication paradigm into these and other fields, and to their potential to influence intellectual, artistic, political and cultural agendas, that in turn can transform our daily lives. As screen access increases globally, and with this the animation that can be watched on them, so too do opportunities to create meaningful works in social contexts to affect change, improve knowledge, redistribute power and build communities and participatory cultures.

The MA Animation Programme has a world-class reputation for artistic, director-led creative practice and innovative risk-taking and our students also explore the increasingly porous borders between animation, virtual reality, augmented reality or new media art. The programme maintains an ethos and environment of experimentation and creativity built on a foundation of social and cultural interrogation and contextual and critical thinking. We are committed to a critical potency of animation that can challenge and offer alternatives to industry's dominant digital realism and inherent ideologies. We offer you a singular approach to a community of learning and teaching for developing your creativity and skills to negotiate rapid cultural and technological change. Within a continuum of mimetic narrative and playful abstraction, you will find your own meaningful fit or stance as an artist within an array of techniques, concepts and canons to position you to contribute to a greater collective intellectual and creative capital.

Course Content
This programme is subject to validation

The programme is delivered across three terms and includes a combination of programme, School and College Units that enable you to build a clear sense of communication methods, practices and contexts in relation to your own work.

Term 1

In Term 1, you will study the Animation Forms, Methods & Contexts unit which enhances your knowledge and expertise in key critical contexts and a range of practice methods and approaches within animation moving image practices.

Across Terms 1 and 2, you will participate in the College-wide unit. This unit aims to support students to meet the challenges of a complex, uncertain and changing world by bringing them together to work collaboratively on a series of themed projects informed by expertise within and beyond the College. These projects will challenge you to use your intellect and imagination to address key cultural, social, environmental and economic challenges. In doing so, you will develop and reflect on the abilities required to translate knowledge into action, and help demonstrate the contribution that the creative arts can make to our understanding and experience of the world.

Term 2

In Term 2, the Exchange and Engage School-wide unit allows you to work alongside students within and across the School. You will also study the Critical Non/Fiction and Experimental /Expanded Practices unit which is designed to enable you to build on the learning and explorations from Term 1 to situate and refine your practice with appropriate professional, intellectual, technological and creative contexts. Normally at the end of Term 2, you will develop a project proposal and Production Plan that articulates your ambitions for an independent research project.

Term 3

In Term 3 you will apply what you have learned in your engagement in the production of your Independent Research Project which will be completed as a body of work.
Entry Requirement
The programme attracts individuals from a notably wide range of disciplines who wish to explore their fields through animation, including, for example, film, architecture, graphic design, literature, communication arts, performance, art history, computing, illustration, pure and applied sciences and maths or fine art, or a combination of these.

Candidates are selected entirely on merit and applications are welcomed from all over the world. The selection process considers creativity, imagination and innovation as demonstrated in your application and portfolio, your technical animation skills and your potential to benefit from the programme and to achieve high MA standards overall.

Candidates are selected on the basis of a body of work that demonstrates an advanced understanding of the subject and sufficient technical animation and moving image skills to realise intentions, evidence of commitment to the subject, intellectual curiosity, open-mindedness, the ability to collaborate, to engage in debate and respond to constructive criticism, and the ability to engage in sustained and consistent study. We also want enthusiasm for your practice, commitment and a strong sense of personal responsibility for your subject matter and your own learning and development.

Portfolio requirements

You must submit an online portfolio of a selection of still and animated/moving image work, not to exceed 15 minutes in total, demonstrating an aptitude for sequential thinking and experience in and understanding of moving image techniques and sound.

You should curate and create an online portfolio that best reflects your abilities, experience and interests. Your particular role on any collaborative projects should be clearly indicated. Applications without moving-image work cannot be considered.

Additional work demonstrating other relevant aspects of ideas and skills, which may include 3D objects, drawings, photographs, scripts, storyboards etc., may also be included. Relevant interests, engagement and abilities in other disciplines with clear potential to contribute to your creative development will also be considered.

The portfolio must follow College guidelines for uploading work using the College application site and giving a brief description for each piece of work. Links to personal websites or Dropbox folders are not acceptable.

English-language requirements

If you are not a national of a majority English-speaking country you will need the equivalent of an IELTS Academic score of 6.5 with a 6.0 in the Test of Written English (TWE) and at least 5.5 in other skills. Students achieving a grade of at least 6.0, with a grade of 5.5 in the Test of Written English, may be eligible to take the College’s English for Academic Purposes course to enable them to reach the required standard.

You are exempt from this requirement if you have received a 2.1 degree or above from a university in a majority English-speaking nation within the last two years.

If you need a Student Visa to study at the RCA, you will also need to meet the Home Office’s minimum requirements for entry clearance.
Fees & Scholarships
Overseas and EU - £32,000*

Cost Of Studying At Royal College of Art

Interest rates as low as 8.9% ^*

250K+

Students Assisted

800Cr+

Loan Amount Disbursed

5000+

Loans Sanctioned

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Master of Arts [M.A] Animation at Royal College of Art