Our Animation BA (Hons) is based in narrative and storytelling for short-form film, the moving image industry and communication design. Students work on live briefs, submit for national competitions and work on projects with our expert academic team.
You learn your craft through practical workshop sessions, sustained practice in the studio, some work-related learning opportunities with ‘live briefs’, one-to-one tutorials, seminars, demonstrations and independent research. All your instruction takes into consideration professional and work-related practices.
In the first year, we introduce the key skills in animation, building a close relationship between practice and theory. In your second year, you work more independently, taking ownership of your creativity and its outcomes.
At the end of the course, you take on a creative project of your own, demonstrating your insight into the critical, cultural and professional contexts in which your work is placed.
Why choose this course
- It enables you to study, develop and apply critical enquiry skills to a wide range of key ideas and contemporary professional practice
- Practical learning activities give you the opportunity to tackle visual problems and explore ideas relevant to animation
- It builds your understanding of animation’s different contexts, and its wider global impact on social, environmental and political issues
- It equips you with the knowledge, experience and understanding of design environments you need to communicate and present ideas and work to audiences in a range of situations
- It gives you the skills to work effectively with others, through collaboration, collective support and negotiation
- It offers insights into professional practice that will prepare you for a future career in the creative industries as well as the world of work generally
- You have the option to take your degree over four years and include a fee-free placement year in industry when you can gain practical experience, build your CV and make valuable contacts
Unit Information - What will I learn?
Units
- Communication Design: Exploring Materials And Methods (ART058-1) Compulsory
- Context And Ideas (ART057-1) Compulsory
- Introducing Studio Practice (ART063-1) Compulsory
- Thinking Through Making (ART064-1) Compulsory
- Animation And Illustration: Developing Materials And Methods (ART057-2) Compulsory
- Collaborative Enterprise (ART052-2) Compulsory
- Context And Meaning (ART053-2) Compulsory
- Developing Professional Practice (ART051-2) Compulsory
- Creative Futures (ART029-3) Compulsory
- Critical And Creative Contexts (ART030-3) Compulsory
- Final Major Project: Animation (ANM002-3) Compulsory
How will I be assessed?
A range of appropriate assessments will enable you to grow in confidence and demonstrate your acquisition of knowledge and skills. The formative and summative assessment methods used across the course include: - In the first year, the focus is to inculcate creative thinking skills to allow the student to engage with study skills in general, preparing students for assessments in units. Research is introduced as an important element in studio practice and all studio units have an assessed research portfolio, or viva. This relationship between research and practice allows student to develop critical thinking, reflection and higher education learning practice including referencing, note taking, essay and report writing - including virtual learning environments. - Assessments based on individual and group presentations. - Portfolio reviews are a key means of assessing but they are also important for collating work for a professional portfolio. This installs in students the right attitudes towards professional work whereby you can use your portfolio to promote yourself in professional contexts. - Essays and reports feature in developing students writing skills, helping you to express ideas in a variety of ways and styles and to develop academic writing skills that are of particular benefit in producing the final year contextual rationale for your major project. - An online blog/personal website - A midpoint Formal Formative Assessment to review all work in progress. - Key Skills relevant to Illustration and creative enterprise are embedded in the teaching and learning of the course and will be taken into account in all assessments. - The assessments will develop incrementally across the course and allow you to gain skills, confidence and knowledge, receive feedback and develop as a practitioner, thus allowing you to implement this knowledge and feedback into subsequent assessments. - At the end of the course, completion of the assessments will demonstrate your ability to analyse current design practice in relation to photographic practices - and communicate this, in both written and visual formats, as well as demonstrate a range of transferable skills relevant to your professional employability
