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MA

Animation

With our MA Animation course, you will embark on a journey of creativity and invention.

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Key Course Details

  • Start Date

    September

  • Location

    Cardiff

  • Campus Code

    B

Fees

  • Home students

    £10,800*

  • International students

    £16,900*

  • Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits.

  • Start Date

    September

  • Location

    Cardiff

  • Campus Code

    B

Fees

  • Home students

    £1,200*

  • Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits.

Whether you want to be a 2D animator, CG rigger, or Stop Motion model maker, our course provides a comprehensive and immersive learning experience that will elevate your current skills and equip you with innovative tools to redefine the boundaries of storytelling and bring your artistic visions to life.

DESIGNED FOR

Our MA Animation course is intended for a wide range of individuals, including animation graduates looking to specialise and expand their portfolio, graduates from related fields looking to transition into animation, industry professionals looking to upgrade their skills for career advancement and researchers and educators pursuing teaching roles or higher qualifications such as a PhD or research degree.

Career Paths

  • Animator (2D, CG and Stop Motion) 
  • Director/Producer 
  • Layout Artist 
  • Modeller and Rigger 
  • Teacher/Lecturer

Skills taught

  • Animation Production 
  • Collaboration and Communication 
  • Networking
  • Project Management 
  • Research and Innovation

still of animation film created by USW students - profile of a persons face putting their hand up to a yellow flower

Course Highlights

Networking Opportunities

Students advance their careers by expanding their professional networks and mastering new and current skills. Teaching staff have strong connections in the animation industry, both in Wales and across the UK, and are in regular contact regarding internships and work placement opportunities.

Find your Speciality

Students are kept up to date on industry trends and technological advancements, while also fulfilling the demand for specialised animation knowledge, allowing them to remain competitive and focused in a rapidly evolving field. Whether the student wants to be a character designer, storyboard artist or independent filmmaker, we allow them to specialise in an animation area of their choice and create

Life-changing Research

Students work in a supportive environment where they explore their artistic interests and discover what kind of creative artist they want to be. As the animation industry thrives on innovation and individual creative expression, we encourage students to develop their ideas through in-depth research activity, experimenting with emerging technologies, and pushing the boundaries of animation as an ar

Module Overview

From idea to final rendering, our MA Animation course equips students with in-depth knowledge and abilities in essential components of animation production. The course curriculum, which covers historical, practical and theoretical aspects of animation as an art form, is presented weekly on-campus to allow for hands-on learning, collaboration and support.

Animation Exploration
This module assists students in establishing concepts that can target future career goals. Students are encouraged to develop their own distinct voice as they take their ideas through essential pre-production stages (e.g., script, character design, storyboard) culminating in an industry standard pitch proposal.

Professional Practice: Animation
This module assists students in determining their position in the animation industry after graduation. Students will be exposed to current animation pipelines for a variety of projects and techniques, before deciding on a specific position to pursue professionally. Students develop a thorough understanding of their chosen profession, including current trends and skill requirements.

Animation Application
This module assists students in discovering their own feasible production process for their chosen specialism (e.g., character design, modelling, rigging, storyboarding) and medium (2D, CG, and/or Stop Motion). Students will be introduced to crucial production stages (e.g., layout, live action reference, clean-up) before finishing a series of practical outcomes using industry-standard software and technology.

Animation Specialisation
This module assists students in deepening their understanding of their chosen profession via in-depth research activity. Students are encouraged to communicate and network with industry professionals through internal and external events such as conferences, festivals, seminars, presentations and workshops. Research for this subject may also include arranging an internship, job placement or work shadowing opportunity.

Major Project: Animation
This module assists students in fully exhibiting their aesthetic, technical and intellectual abilities in their chosen specialism (e.g., character animation, directing, environment design, producing) and medium (2D, CG, and/or Stop Motion). Students select one of the following outcomes to demonstrate their capabilities: 

  1. Portfolio – for students who want to display an image-based skill (e.g., concept art, character design, storyboarding). 
  2. Showreel – for students who want to display a specific moving-image skill (e.g., character animation, rigging, texturing, environment/prop design). 
  3. Short Film – for students who want to display a variety of skills (e.g., directing, producing, collaborating). This can include creating a documentary, music video, pilot, trailer, etc.

Animation Review
This module assists students in fully contextualising their Major Project, focusing on the challenges that arose during its conception, development, and completion. Students will be able to critically assess a wide range of research activities that were carried out, while rationalising their involvement in the production and realisation of practical outcomes.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS

Typical qualification requirements:

A good Honours degree in a relevant discipline or appropriate professional qualification; or an HND/HNC and relevant experience; or equivalent international qualifications. Those without such qualifications will be considered on an individual basis, where prior experience will be taken into account. All applicants will be invited to a portfolio-based interview, which should include a showreel of recent work. During the interview, applicants will be expected to outline and discuss the project proposal for the Independent Study module and/or major project.

 

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

UK Full-time Fee

£10,800

per year*
International Full-time Fee

£16,900

per year*
UK Part-time Fee

£1,200

per 20 credits*

Further Information

Studying at university is one of the most significant investments you'll ever make. Whilst you’re studying, you’ll have two main financial obligations – tuition fees and living costs. There’s lots of financial help available from the University of South Wales and external funding sources, that may provide loans (which have to be paid back) and grants, scholarships and bursaries (that don't).

*Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits. Once enrolled, the fee is anticipated to remain at the same rate throughout the duration of your study on this course except as described below.

Please be aware that we may increase the maximum fee for home students on full-time undergraduate courses only where the Welsh Government increases the permitted level of inflation of fees. Fees for all students (including part-time, postgraduate and international students) may be amended in accordance with our applicable Fees and Debt Management Policy.  We will ensure that students are given clear, intelligible, unambiguous and timely information about our courses and costs in good time, ahead of the next academic year.

 

Fees and Funding Scholarships and Busaries Alumni Discount

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 

£200-300

Optional – Students have access to a wide range of industry standard and specialist software on campus. UniApps also provides students with on-demand access to a wide range of software licences on any device at any location.

 

£150-£250

Optional – Students have access to a variety of art materials that are specific to each module.

£200

Optional – The library provides access to a wide range of recommended books, DVDs, journals, magazines and online resources.

£1,000-£2,000

Optional – Students have access to high-spec PCs and Wacom Cintiq tablets on campus. Equipment Loans also allows students to hire out equipment, including iPads, laptops and Wacom tools. All assignment work can be completed using the facilities provided.

£40-£100

Recommended – Students are encouraged to constantly back up their work to their own personal storage device/service since university computers are regularly cleaned to maintain maximum performance. The cost is determined by the size of the digital files that must be stored.

£50-£100

Optional – Trips do not feed directly into the learning required in any given module. Students who do not take these opportunities will not be disadvantaged.

£200-£1000

Optional – Trips do not feed directly into the learning required in any given module. Students who do not take these opportunities will not be disadvantaged.

£200-£300

Optional – Stop Motion students may incur additional costs depending on the material they choose for fabrication. However, this is determined on an individual basis.

Media Loans

You can hire a range of equipment, for your assignments and practical work, for free from our Media Loans facility.

Media Loans

University 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.

Studying at USW

Our courses are designed with industry leaders and provide the practical skills and experiences industry demands. Our flexible courses reflect the need for life-long learning. If you value education in practice, not just in theory, then USW is for you.

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Postgraduate fees and funding
Exterior view of the University's Cardiff Campus.
Cardiff Campus
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Postgraduate Open Events

Course Highlights

How you’ll learn

The course is divided into three semesters for full-time students and six semesters for part-time students. Students will be exposed to a range of lectures, seminars, workshops, tutorials and critiques throughout each semester. A sizeable portion of the student's time will be spent on completing practical work in our dedicated animation studios. Assessment methods are designed to examine students' understanding of how to apply current information to practical outcomes, including the development of soft skills in accordance with industry practices. Students receive formative input on a regular basis through informal presentations to teaching staff and peers.

Teaching staff

Our highly skilled and experienced staff are active practitioners and researchers. Teaching staff have vast industry experience and have worked on a variety of animation projects in a range of techniques (2D, CG and Stop Motion). Continuous staff development and regular connection with industry partners ensure that all staff members are up to date in their areas of expertise, and that students are exposed to curriculum that reflects current industry practises.

 

MA Animation Teaching Staff: 

Dr Brian Fagence, Course Leader

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

Placements

We encourage work placement opportunities through our strong industry connections with the animation industry and are directly associated with numerous award-winning companies on our doorstep in Cardiff, including Beryl Productions International, Bait Studio, Picl Animation and Winding Snake Productions. Students have secured work experience at notable UK animation companies, including Aardman, Animortal Studio, and Calon. Local excursions are scheduled to exhibitions, festivals and studios, including Bad Wolf Studios, Cloth Cat, Painting Practice and Wales Interactive. Student participation at Cardiff Animation Festival broadens exposure, while live briefs and competitions provide valuable mentorship, networking and promotional opportunities.

Facilities

Cardiff Campus is situated in the heart of a thriving arts industry, providing students endless opportunities both during and after graduation. Our cutting-edge facilities include a dedicated animation floor featuring studios with high-spec PCs and Wacom Cintiq tablets, collaborative networking spaces, Green Screen and Life Drawing rooms, Motion Capture suite and 2D and Stop Motion filming rooms. Students have access to industry-standard software, including Adobe Creative Cloud, Autodesk Suite and TVPaint, while UniApps allows software access on any device at any location. Equipment Loans provide a range of equipment for hire such as cameras, iPads, computers, lightboxes and Wacom tools.

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.

Careers and Employability

Graduate careers

The MA Animation course has a long history of accomplished alumni who have created award-winning work, receiving prizes and nominations at award ceremonies and animation festivals worldwide. Graduates have been hired by internationally recognised studios, including A Productions, Blue-Zoo, Bomper Studio, Celf Creative, Cubic Motion, DNEG, DreamWorks Animation, Passion Pictures, Rare, Rockstar North, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Supermassive Games and TT Games. Graduates have worked on animated shots for feature films and television shows, including Chernobyl (2019), Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018), Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), The Sandman (2021), The Witcher (2019) and Thor: Love and Thunder (2022).

Possible career paths

MA Animation graduates have gone on to work in the Animation, Film, Games, TV and VFX industries in a range of professional roles, including CG Modellers, Lead Animators, Layout Artists, Model Makers, Production Co-ordinators and Riggers. Other graduates, such as Leon Dexter, Toke Jespen and Samuel Wright, have established their own successful animation studio called BumpyBox in Cardiff. The course also serves as a steppingstone to a career in academia, with several of our graduates now teaching in colleges and universities around the world, including Colombia, Indonesia and the United States. 

Careers support

The University’s Career Services offers a range of advice and guidance to students, and references to the services available to all listed at southwales.ac.uk/careers will be added to the course website by default. However, if there are other important course or subject specific initiatives run at local a level, there is an opportunity to add further details here. Whether this includes connecting with professionals, industry experts or mentors, or strategies to enhance their competitiveness and aspirations in the job market, further details will provide prospects with the confidence, encouragement, and motivation to commit to applying. 

How to apply

There is an online application process for this course. Please choose the application form for your preferred start date and mode of study (i.e. full-time or part-time).

International admissions

Please see our international admissions advice for further information about how to apply as a prospective international student.

Next Steps

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