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The facilities have allowed me to balance freelance work with my degree, especially the software and the drawing tablets.
From Self-Taught Creative to Animation Student
I was homeschooled growing up, so I never really had traditional schooling or formal arts education. Instead, I taught myself different creative subjects, spending a lot of time making strange artwork and then posters for films and shows I loved. That sparked a real fascination with how films and series are made, especially animation, and when I went to college and studied a range of creative courses, I kept gravitating back to animation and animated short films. Eventually I realised I wanted to study it full time at university, and when the time came, I was instantly drawn to Cardiff, because so many shows I grew up with, like Doctor Who, were made here and it felt like the right place to be.
I came to a big animation open day at USW and also looked around courses like Games Art and CG Animation. Those events helped me get familiar with the university, the city and accommodation, and made it much easier to picture myself living and studying here. Since joining the course, I have already had opportunities to link up with industry, including volunteering with Cardiff Animation Festival and collaborating with a classmate on an ident for the festival, created in partnership with a Japanese animation festival that runs at the same time. Working on something that will sit alongside a programme of screened short films has been a really exciting first step into the professional world, and there are more opportunities on the horizon.
Find your courseBuilding confidence, connections and a future in Cardiff
Cardiff feels like a great fit for creative students. It reminds me of places like Brighton and Manchester in how open, diverse and proudly queer it is, but it also has its own mix of cultures, with Welsh culture sitting alongside people from across the UK and international students. That blend makes it a really inspiring place to study animation. On campus, the facilities have allowed me to balance freelance work with my degree, especially the software and the drawing tablets. Being able to work on my own projects while using the same tools and spaces I rely on for my course means there is no real divide between what I do inside and outside university, which has been really reassuring.
The biggest skill I have developed at USW so far is social confidence. Having been homeschooled, it could be hard to build social skills or feel part of a wider creative community, but coming to university has given me a mature environment to meet so many different people who share my interests and experiences. Being surrounded by like-minded animation students who genuinely love the craft has helped me feel more secure, more open and more comfortable being myself. I would encourage anyone considering the course to come and see it in person, speak to lecturers and students, and experience the atmosphere for themselves so they can feel whether this is the right place for them.
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