Animation
With our MA Animation course, you will embark on a journey of creativity and invention.
Apply Direct Book an Open Day Chat to UsKey Course Details
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Start Date
September
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Location
Cardiff
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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.
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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
Course Highlights
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:
- Portfolio – for students who want to display an image-based skill (e.g., concept art, character design, storyboarding).
- Showreel – for students who want to display a specific moving-image skill (e.g., character animation, rigging, texturing, environment/prop design).
- 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 to talk to you. You can contact our friendly admissions team by phone, email or chat to us online.
Fees and Funding
£10,800
per year*£16,900
per year*£1,200
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
£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 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.
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
Graham Griffiths, Lecturer
Gustavo Arteaga, Technical Instructor
Jonathan Edwards, Hourly Paid Lecturer
Leonie Sharrock, Senior 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.