Animation (2D and Stop Motion)
Join the fast-growing Animation industry with this ScreenSkills accredited course. Focus on 2D or stop motion animation and start an exciting career as a director, producer or studio artist. Work on industry briefs, visit studios UK-wide and become career-ready. Discover your creative voice at USW.
Apply Direct Apply Through UCAS Book an Open Day Chat to Us/prod01/channel_2/media/university-of-south-wales/site-assets/images/03-courses/animation-and-games/ba-animation-2d-stop-motion-1.jpg)
Key Course Details
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UCAS Code
23X6
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Start Date
September
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Location
Cardiff
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Campus Code
B
Fees
Home students
£9,535*
International students
£15,850*
- Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits.
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Start Date
September
-
Location
Cardiff
-
Campus Code
B
Fees
Home students
£785*
- Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits.
Discover your creative voice and prepare for a career in 2D and stop motion animation through hands-on projects and studio visits across the UK.
Designed for:
Are you a creator? Animation is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world. Study 2D or stop motion animation and get ready for a career as a professional storyteller. Join a community of creative individuals, improve your drawing skills, and bring your ideas life.
Accreditations:
- ScreenSkills
Career paths:
- Pre-viz storyboard artist and concept design
- Animation content scriptwriter
- Animator
- Line producer
- Animation director
Skills taught:
- Animation and stop motion
- Communication
- Business acumen
- Scriptwriting and storytelling
- Drawing and visualisation of ideas
Course Highlights
Module Overview
The BA Animation (2D and Stop Motion) prepares you to create animated content for everything from indie films to preschool and Adult Swim shows. You’ll also master short-form content for social media. You can choose pathways in directing or producing and turn your creative vision into reality.
Year one
Drawing and Visual Language
Introduction to Animation
Exploring Animation
Further Adventures in Animation
Narrative Strategies
Animation and Design
Year two
Design for Animation
Technical Practice in 2D Stop Motion
Applied Animation Practice
Critical Studies
Animation Pipeline
Year three
Scriptwriting for Animated Television and film
Critical Research in Animation
Specialist Advanced Animation projects
Major project pre-production
Major project production
Business and Employability
Advanced scriptwriting for Animated Film and Television
Animation Dissertation
In your first year, you'll focus on core skills like traditional drawing, visual language, and digital techniques for animation and storytelling. You'll improve your skills and learn to work within a creative team. This year serves as your introduction to the field.
Drawing and Visual Language
Develop your skills with life drawing, anatomy, figure studies and quick sketches. Explore mark-making techniques, visual language, colour, composition and interpretation.
Introduction to Animation
Get hands-on in workshops to study action through drawing, photography and video. Apply theory to short animations and explore abstract sound and image interactions.
Exploring Animation
Explore animation history, art movements, and techniques like Zoetropes. Develop critical thinking, work in group presentations and create a short essay and portfolio.
Further Adventures in Animation
Study animation principles by learning human figure design and movement, plus the form and motion of birds and four-legged animals through hands-on research.
Narrative Strategies
Explore animation narratives through semiotics, film language, and visual storytelling. Assess with an essay and a 2-minute piece: folk tale, abstract, or documentary.
Animation and Design
Work in practical workshops to grasp how strong design enhances animated performance. Learn research, concept development and design skills using software for 2D or 3D animation.
In your second year, you'll develop your skills in specialised areas of animation and discover your strengths within small production teams. Work on live briefs or your own short films, focusing on achieving high levels of skill in both pre-production and production.
Design for Animation
Build your skills in 2D and stop motion. Learn background design, storyboarding, style frames and line work to pursue design or animation routes with strong creative output.
Technical Practice in 2D Stop Motion
Explore specialist skills in 2D and stop motion. Master digital software and puppet-making to create short animated sequences for TV idents.
Applied Animation Practice
Study animation's role across diverse media beyond traditional screens. Cover current and future creative opportunities and employment in cross-media settings.
Critical Studies
Research the history of animation, connect it to current trends, and develop a proposal to guide your final year coursework.
Animation Pipeline
Master the full animation production process from pre-production to post-production, including team collaboration and potential live client briefs.
In your final year, you'll focus on becoming a professional animation producer and director. Perfect your skills by working on short-form animations, adopting studio production techniques, and managing time and budget limits. By the end of the year, you'll produce your own animated content.
Scriptwriting for Animated Television and film
An optional module to develop scriptwriting skills tailored for TV and film, focusing on commissioning agencies and broadcasters.
Critical Research in Animation
An optional module for writing a dissertation or critical analysis, focusing on in-depth research and critical evaluation of a chosen topic.
Specialist Advanced Animation projects
Create projects using advanced software to produce industry-focused briefs, title sequences, promotional material, and idents.
Major project pre-production
Develop and research materials and refine professional skills for your final major film or concept portfolio project.
Major project production
Create a film or concept showreel for your final project. Get industry experience by working in production teams and producing high-quality 2D or stop motion animation.
Business and Employability
Build a portfolio and showreel, create promo materials and boost your social media presence. Research the industry and join studio trips to London, Bristol and Cardiff.
Advanced scriptwriting for Animated Film and Television
Dive deeper into scriptwriting to create a full script for a film, animated TV series, or other animated projects.
Animation Dissertation
Carry out in-depth research and analysis on a topic related to animation, tailored to your interests.
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ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
Typical qualification requirements:
- A Level: CCC to include a relevant art and design subject
- Welsh BACC: Advanced Skills Baccalaureate Wales Grade C and CC at A Level with a relevant art and design subject.
- BTEC: BTEC Extended Diploma Merit Merit Merit in a relevant subject
- Access to HE: Pass the Access to HE Diploma with a minimum of 96 UCAS tariff points.
- T Level: Pass (C and above)
Additional requirements include:
The University normally requires a minimum 5 GCSEs including Mathematics/Numeracy and English at Grade C or Grade 4 or above, or their equivalent, but consideration is given to individual circumstances.
International applications welcomed:
We welcome international applications with equivalent qualifications of our entry requirements. For more details related to your country of residence, please view our dedicated country pages.
English language requirements
International applicants will need to have achieved an overall of IELTS 6.0 with a minimum of 5.5 in each component/TOEFL 72 overall and a minimum of 18 in reading, 17 in listening, 20 in speaking and 17 in writing or equivalent.
Equivalents can be located on our English Language pages.
If you have previously studied through the medium of English, IELTS might not be required, please visit our country specific page for further details. If your country is not featured, please contact us.
If you do not meet the English entry criteria, please visit our Pre-Sessional course pages.
Contextual offers
We may make you a lower offer based on a range of factors, including your background (where you live and the school or college that you attended, for example), your experiences and individual circumstances (as a care leaver, for example). This is referred to as a contextual offer, and we receive data from UCAS to support us in making these decisions.
USW prides itself on its student experience and we support our students to achieve their goals and become a successful graduate. This approach helps us to support students who have the potential to succeed and who may have faced barriers that make it more difficult to access university.
We're here to help
Whether you a have a question about your course, fees and funding, the application process or anything else, there are plenty of ways you can get in touch, and we'd love to talk to you. You can contact our friendly admissions team by phone, email or chat to us online.
Fees and Funding
£9,535
per year*£15,850
per year*£785
per 20 credits*Additional Costs
As a student of USW, you’ll have access to lots of free resources to support your study and learning, such as textbooks, publications, online journals, laptops, and plenty of remote-access resources. Whilst in most cases these resources are more than sufficient in supporting you with completing your course, additional costs, both obligatory and optional, may be required or requested for the likes of travel, memberships, experience days, stationery, printing, or equipment.
* Obligatory
If you want to work at home on your own computer, you will need a high spec PC or Apple Laptop with at least 8GB of ram and a good graphics card, (NVIDIA) External SSD card, and an external plug and play, hard drive at least 1 Tbyte. You will have access to our animation labs, hardware, and software to work on your projects on campus.
Cost: £1000 - £2500
Students may want to buy extra materials such as clothing materials for puppets, wires, bulking out materials and set building materials.
Cost: £0 - £100
Students can use ToonBoom and Storyboard Pro in our computer labs on campus, but they will need to purchase licenses for home use if they choose to work on this software elsewhere
Cost: £0 - £200 yearly
Media Loans
You can hire a range of equipment, for your assignments and practical work, for free from our Media Loans facility.
Media LoansUniversity Quality Assurance
At USW, we regularly review our courses in response to changing patterns of employment and skills demand to ensure we offer learning designed to reflect today’s student needs and tomorrow’s employer demands.
If during a review process course content is significantly changed, we’ll write to inform you and talk you through the changes for the coming year. But whatever the outcome, we aim to equip our students with the skillset and the mindset to succeed whatever tomorrow may bring. Your future, future-proofed.
Life at USW
Halls are a big part of your student experience and there’s accommodation at all three of our locations. If you don’t want to live near the campus, there are great transport links to keep you connected.
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Learning and Teaching
How you’ll learn
In this BA Animation (2D and Stop Motion) degree, you'll be assessed through a mix of regular coursework, practical assignments, presentations, and collaborative projects with other courses. These assessments are designed to support your learning journey, providing feedback and opportunities to develop your skills. This approach helps you reach your academic and career goals while gaining practical experience.
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Teaching staff
Our teaching team is made up of industry professionals and technical experts who will mentor you as you develop your unique identity as a designer. You'll learn essential skills and professional attributes needed to lead in the industry. Expect a blend of online and in-person lectures and workshops tailored to your learning style. From day one, you'll experience hands-on work in our busy and active studio, so you apply what you learn immediately. This immersive approach ensures you’re well-prepared for a successful career in design.
Dr Brian Fagence, Lecturer
Dr Leonie Sharrock, Senior Lecturer
Charles Rawlins, Technical Instructor
Graham Griffiths, Lecturer
Gustavo Arteaga, Technical Instructor
Jonathan Edwards, Lecturer
Matthew Gravelle-Eagles, Senior Lecturer
Nick Hood, Lecturer
Stan Evens, Technical Instructor
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Placements and work experience
You’ll have the chance to work with local Cardiff studios through placements lasting 2-4 weeks, where you’ll gain hands-on experience in a real studio environment. You’ll manage your own projects, use professional software, and work on existing shows. These placements are available between years two and three and during year three modules, integrating into your major project production coursework to enhance your learning. You’ll also work on live briefs with projects like the Patagonian Instrumental Charity, the Welsh National Opera, and the BBC Millennium Project, giving you valuable industry experience.
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Facilities
At our Cardiff campus, you’ll enjoy a dedicated floor with a life drawing room, spacious stop motion workshops, filming rooms, and access to 3D printing and laser cutting areas. Our computer labs are equipped with the latest software and large Cintiqs. You can also access software from home, and we provide loans for Cintiqs, pens, light boxes, cameras, and laptops through our Media Loans store. With industry-standard equipment, virtual reality headsets, and the ability to remote desktop to high-spec devices, you'll have everything needed to excel in animation.
Equipment
At our Cardiff Campus we have a vast range of equipment that you will be trained to use as part of your course. To help support your studies we have a Media Loans facility that allows you to hire the equipment, at no cost, for you to then use for your assignments and practical work. We have both basic and high-end film and photography cameras, portable lighting and sound equipment as well as a range of professional studio recording microphones, instruments and associated equipment to use in our music studios or on location. The team of technical officers and instructors are also available to help you with any queries and technical issues.
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Animation and Game Design at USW is top for Teaching Quality and Assessment in the UK
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How to apply
All applications for full-time undergraduate courses or foundation degrees should be made via UCAS. Take the next step: Apply through UCAS. You can apply to us directly for all part-time undergraduate courses, if you’re seeking advanced entry or you’re an international student. To apply directly, please choose the application form below for your preferred start date and mode of study (full-time or part-time.)
Advanced entry
If you already have a relevant qualification or experience related to the course you're applying for, you may be eligible to start at a later stage of the course. For example, students from partner colleges can ‘top up’ their qualifications to a degree by joining us in Year Two or Year Three of a course. This process is known as ‘advanced entry’, you can apply directly to the University for 'advanced entry' using the application forms provided above.
International admissions
International applicants can apply to us directly. If the University has an in-country team in your region, your application will be assigned to them for assistance.
