Visual Effects and Motion Graphics
Do you dream of seeing your name in the credits of the world’s biggest movies and TV shows? This course will make you ‘studio-ready' as soon as you graduate. Master the tools and techniques used by the world’s top studios, learn how to collaborate with others and bring your creative ideas to life.
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Key Course Details
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UCAS Code
W280
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Start Date
September
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Location
Cardiff
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Campus Code
B
Fees
Home students
£9,250*
International students
£15,850*
- Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits.
Embrace creative freedom and a sense of belonging as you develop the skills and experience desired by the world’s top film, TV and commercial studios.
DESIGNED FOR
If you love the digital visual arts and aspire towards a career in film and TV, this course is for you. In this course, you’ll find a sense of belonging among fellow creatives and experience award-winning training that leads you to your dream role at the world’s top VFX and motion design studios.
Career paths
- VFX in film and high-end TV
- Motion design in commercial and TV
- Motion design online and social media
- Producing/coordinating within TV studios
- Multi-disciplinary freelance career
Skills taught
- VFX compositing, including green screen and CGI integration
- 2D and 3D motion design
- Environment design
- Design and illustration
- Collaboration and problem-solving skills
Course Highlights
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Module Overview
This course prides itself on helping you find your own path within the moving arts, from creating 3D motion design for high-end commercials, and title sequence design for television series, to digital matte painting environments within the latest blockbusters.
Year One
Contextual Studies
Image Acquisition
Concept Development
Motion Design
Visual Effects
Motion Production
Year Two
Professional Practice
Critical Studies
Brands in Motion
Visual Communication
Creative Industries
Year Three
Critical Research
Minor Project
Professional Development
Collaborative Brief
Final Major Project
Build a solid foundation within all critical areas of the field. You’ll have an introduction to both Visual Effects and Motion Graphics within dedicated modules, spending plenty of time in our state-of-the-art studios. A contextual module runs throughout the year, supporting the practical elements.
Contextual Studies
Learn the fundamentals of key concepts within VFX and motion design, including composition and editing, colour theory, genre and advertising, and look at its historical context.
Image Acquisition
Get to grips with camera and lighting equipment in our green screen and virtual production studios and on location. Learn how to record sound, edit and colour grade.
Concept Development
Learn how to develop concepts through research and storyboarding using tools such as Photoshop and Premiere Pro, considering filmic language and cinematic convention.
Motion Design
Get a grounding in 2D and 3D motion design using tools like Adobe After Effects, Illustrator and Cinema 4D, growing your understanding of animation principles and design language.
Visual Effects
Learn the fundamentals of green screen and VFX practices such as 2D and 3D compositing, 2D tracking, CGI integration and rotoscoping.
Motion Production
Plan and produce original and innovative motion design content for TV and Film, studying the art of title sequences, typography and mixed media approaches.
Apply the skills and context obtained from the first year to various relevant industry areas. You'll get to grips with professional practices and processes as you’re introduced to the commercial industry, as well as exploring the music, storytelling and collaborative side of the sector.
Professional Practice
Take the first great step along your career path as you engage in a live project alongside industry professionals, exploring potential roles and gaining real insights.
Critical Studies
Engage in historical and critical analysis in preparation for the next year’s dissertation, with a focus on creating believability in visual effects design and application.
Brands in Motion
Explore visual identities in commercial industries and how people respond emotionally to visual media. Learn about brand guidelines, TV standards and social media platforms.
Visual Communication
Learn how to use visual effects approaches to tell stories, create environments, visualise music and create abstract representations, using industry leading software such as Nukeand developing project management skills.
Creative Industries
In this open-brief project, you’ll work collaboratively using and use approaches specific to your career aspirations before presenting to the class.
Refine your understanding of your chosen career path and convert your studies into employment in the industry. This year focuses on professionalism, individuality, and creating an online presence and portfolio that will help you land your first role in VFX and motion design.
Critical Research
Expand on your year two proposal with in-depth research, exercising showing off your specialist knowledge and diving deep into your chosen topic.
Minor Project
Focus on your chosen speciality within the digital arts, with guidance on pitching, scheduling, and budgeting.
Professional Development
Get ready to enter the industry as you develop your online portfolio, CV and cover letter, identify career paths and prepare for interviews.
Collaborative Brief
Respond to a project brief from a nationally recognised competition, coordinating the project in line with client specifications and delivering work to a professional standard.
Final Major Project
Manage a large-scale project that’s tailored to your career direction with potential opportunities to collaborate with major external studios in this project.
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Course Highlights
How you'll learn
You’ll gain hands-on time in our state-of-the-art studios and computer suites, guided by our experienced team. Develop key technical software skills and learn industry-standard VFX and motion design techniques, along with an underlying theory. Present your ideas and concepts to peers along with leading VFX professionals in an environment that reflects real-world studio life. Assessments include practical work, class presentations, project journals, interviews, essays and dissertations, all designed to mirror tasks performed by VFX and motion design experts.
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Teaching staff
Our team offers you direct insights from the world of VFX and Motion Graphics, including film, TV, and the commercial industry. With experience on award-winning projects and collaborations with top brands like Google, BBC, and Sky, they provide invaluable knowledge to help you refine your skills and find your creative voice. Their real-world expertise helps you gain a competitive edge and prepares you for a successful career in the industry.
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Facilities
From day one, you'll get hands-on experience with our specialist filming studios and a range of camera and recording equipment. You'll receive direct instruction and can book the facilities and equipment as needed throughout your studies. Our resources include a green screen studio, a brand-new virtual production suite, two classroom studios with high-performance machines, cinema-grade cameras and lighting, a full-scale TV studio, a performance capture studio, and our own theatre and cinema. Everything you need to get studio-ready and bring your creative ideas to life is here.
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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Placements and work experience
While there's no compulsory placement, you may have chance to work on live industry projects during your studies. Practical modules mirror top studio techniques, preparing you for a smooth transition into your career. There may be opportunities to work with students from graphic communication, fashion promotion, and film. We can help you secure short-term placements with our studio connections, giving you valuable real-world experience.
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ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
UCAS points: 96 (or above)
Typical qualification requirements:
- A Level: CCC
- BTEC: BTEC Extended Diploma Merit Merit Merit
- 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.
- Access to HE: Pass the Access to HE Diploma with a minimum of 96 UCAS tariff points.
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 to talk to you. You can contact our friendly admissions team by phone, email or chat to us online.
Fees and Funding
£9,250
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.
£1000
(500gb minimum. Solid state SSD recommended).
Cost: £60
Cost: £500
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.
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92%
of BA (Hons) Visual Effects and Motion Graphics students at USW were satisfied with their course.
(National Student Survey 2024)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.
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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