Game Art
Learn how to bring worlds and characters to life and give you the potential to progress into some of the world’s top games studios
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Key Course Details
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UCAS Code
W281
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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.
Working on live projects across various gaming media, you will have the opportunities to master industry standard tools such as Unreal Engine. You’ll develop the technical, creative and 'soft’ skills demanded by the world’s top computer game studios, setting you up for your dream role in game art.
DESIGNED FOR
If you have a background in art and love video games, this course helps you combine those passions in a varied, dynamic and rewarding career. You’ll see the quality of your work improve and your knowledge of the industry grow until you’re ready for a role at a top studio.
Career paths
- Environment artist
- Character artist
- Concept artist
- Hard surface/ vehicle artist pre-visualisation art
- Prop artists
- Career specialisations include clothing, hair, foliage and organic art roles
Skills taught
- 3D modelling
- 2D previsualisation
- Rendering
- Project management
- Collaboration and teamwork
2024 Game Art Showreel
Course Highlights
Module Overview
Develop the foundational game art skills and concepts and get to grips with key software, then familiarise yourself with industry practices through live projects and placements. Finally, identify your career path and build a portfolio that wows top studios and lands you your first job in game art.
Get an introduction to core game art skills such as drawing, sculpting, 3D modelling and texturing, before progressing to technical software. You’ll study comparative anatomy, architecture, environmental art and vehicle modelling through a range of projects.
Introduction to Game Art
Understand the game art process as you learn how to interpret briefs, generate ideas and organise projects. Get to grips with game engine software and content creation tools.
2D and 3D Game Art Production
Learn a range of 2D and 3D game creation software, using industry-standard processes and critically analysing your own and others’ work.
Game Art Studies 1
Explore the evolution of art and games while building essential research, writing, and analytical skills to help you succeed academically.
World Creation
Real world simulation is introduced and allows teams to be built and worlds to be created within industry practices and processes.
Visual Studies for Game Art
Develop your visual language and representation skills with both traditional and digital drawing, enhancing your understanding of form. This module runs throughout the year.
Start to simulate industry practice and methods as you develop skills in concept art, advanced modelling and sculpting, 3D printing, motion capture and more. Identify your preferred skill sets and develop these through competitions, live briefs and professional placement within the industry.
Advanced 2D and 3D Game Art
Step it up a level as you apply more advanced skills and principles to environments, vehicles, characters and props for different platforms, developing effective workflows.
Game Art Studies 2
Explore game art and research varied concepts underpinning practical modules, such as architecture, engineering, character and narrative in computer games.
Practice Based Techniques
Begin to specialise as you develop a body of work demonstrating skill in a specific set of digital techniques, and professionally plan a project in response to a brief.
Professional Practice
Get real-world experience, work in collaborative teams and identify gaps in your development as you undertake an industry placement, live brief or enter a competition.
This is the year when you open doors to your dream career in game art. You’ll have the space and support to produce a specialised portfolio and collaborate with students from other disciplines, just as you’ll need to do in the real world. A range of guest speakers offer insights into the industry.
Commercial Project
As you return for your final year, this immersive module will sharpen up your skills to a professional standard, build your portfolio and prepare you for the major project ahead.
Game Art Project 1 – Preproduction
Design, research and plan a body of work that highlights your expertise in your chosen specialism, outlining the ideas and workflows that will shape your final year.
Game Art Project 2 – Development
Prove you’re industry-ready by completing your project with polished assets for your portfolio, ready to share online.
Future Ready
Prepare for the industry by exploring career paths, building your CV, portfolio, and network, and learning to market yourself like a pro.
Critical Research: Computer Games
Dive deep into a key issue in your game art specialism with your research project , using independent research to support your arguments.
ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
96 UCAS Points (or above)
Typical qualification requirements:
- A Level: CCC to include a relevant art and design subject
- Welsh BACC: Pass the Advanced Welsh Baccalaureate Diploma with Grade C in the Skills Challenge Certificate 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:
GCSEs: 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*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
Supplied via library. Students can opt to invest with books if they want to have personal copies.
We often organise social events and trips that some payment may be required for.
Cost: Up to £20 per trip
Sketchbooks, pencils, pens are required.
Cost: Up to £100
PC's are available in class. However, we do advise that students invest in a gaming PC but this is optional.
Cost: Up to £1000
Students may be expected to travel to master classes/ conferences / events/ performances at their own cost (all academic years).
Cost: Up to £10 per visit
Cost: £100
Costs: £60
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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Course Highlights
How you’ll learn
Most of your teaching involves practical workshops where you’ll get to grips with the tools and processes used by game artists in the industry. Assessment is all about growing your skills, and your portfolio and journals form a large part of this. We'll teach you the theory-based Game Studies modules through interactive seminars, and you’ll have options to deliver your assessed work through presentations rather than traditional essays. There are no formal exams. You’ll take part in group projects that mirror the collaboration required in the industry, and we’ll assess your contribution to these. 94 words 603 characters
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Teaching staff
All our teaching staff have a broad range of specialisms that ensure outstanding teaching in every aspect of game art. They have a track record working for big studios in the video game industry such as Codemasters, and adjacent fields such as animation, TV and Film with the likes of Nickelodeon and the BBC. Our staff are not so much academics as they are industry experts, bringing your learning to life by linking everything to a real-world application so you’re prepared for employment. They know what studios are looking for and use their industry experience to identify your strengths and guide you down a path where you can thrive.
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Placements and work experience
To get you industry-ready, we make sure everything you do reflects working in a real studio. In Year 2, you’ll take part in a live project alongside a big-name studio, where you’ll do all the things professionally expected of a game artist. You’ll also have opportunities for placements – our partners include Tiny Rebel Games, Cloth Cat and Painting Practice. Industry pros deliver masterclasses and share industry insights, and you’ll see digital art in practice on a range of field trips. All the work you do on campus uses industry-standard tech and methods, so you’ll be able to dive straight into your first role after graduating.
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Facilities
You’ll have full access to all the software used by industry to bring worlds to life. These include Unreal Engine, Adobe, AutoDesk, SpeedTree, Marmoset, Maya, 3D Max and more. You’ll have full licenses at no extra cost. With four studios containing 100 PCs, you’ll have everything you need to deliver outstanding individual and collaborative game art projects. We have an IT support suite right next to our studios, so you’ll always have technical support on hand. Based at the creative hub of our Cardiff campus, you’re surrounded by all manner of creative students, including the Game Design students you'll collaborate with throughout the course.
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Top in the UK
Animation and Game Design at USW is top for Teaching Quality and Assessment in the UK (Guardian University Guide 2025).
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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.
