BA (Hons) Computer Animation Art & Design (with Foundation Year option)

Core units

• Art & Design in Creative Industries: This unit is intended to give you the drawing and design skills required in order to maximise your potential on your chosen undergraduate degree. You will be introduced to the concepts of critical feedback and continuous improvement within a visual arts context. 
• Algorithmic Thinking: During this unit you will develop your understanding of mathematical and logical concepts that are the foundation of computer animation, games and visual effects.
• Digital Tools: You will gain the fundamental knowledge and understanding of computers and the digital tools available in order to maximise your potential on your chosen undergraduate degree. As such, it will provide a platform between prior and future learning and enable you to gain an understanding of digital tools in the context of your career aspirations.
• Study Skills for Creative Industries: You will develop practical skills in the production, manipulation and editing of visual media and be able to demonstrate an ability to search, locate, read and understand literature and techniques relevant to the creative industries.
• Foundation Project: This unit allows you to develop a personally defined project, you can choose to focus on either a specialist area of practice, a generalist project or a complementary skill/technique that will benefit your ongoing development.You will gain essential knowledge and experience in scheduling and identification of clear milestones within your personal projects and you will benefit from communicating with an assigned supervisor throughout.

Core units

• Introduction to Production Tools: Employing the principles and practices of software tools, you will complete an effective, realistic, visual effects and computer animation project.
• Design for Production 1: You will gain skills in effective design and planning in pre-production for both games and film; and hone your 2D and 3D design skills. You will present your original concepts and designs for a specific audience.
• Fundamentals of Design: the basic building blocks which form the foundations of design for animation and games. You will study fundamental design principles and practice drawing, perspective, colour theory, composition, form and shape language relating to character and environment design, drawing from historical and contemporary examples of good practice.
• Character Animation Production: You will build on the knowledge you gained of 3D animation and visual effects tools in the Introduction to Production Tools unit.
• Moving Image Theory & Practice: Lectures will include film screenings as a basis for discussions of the theory & perspectives in moving image studies and practices in filmmaking.
• Narrative Strategies: This unit provides you with the foundation skills for writing, direction, performance and cinematography that you will use in all animation or film productions that you develop and present throughout the course.  

Core units

• Advanced Moving Image Theory & Practice: This unit will advance your knowledge of theories and practice in moving image studies and film making.
• Design for Production 2: Building on your design skills to an advanced level to complete a pre-production pack with supporting materials.
• Lighting & Rendering: This unit will further your knowledge of lighting and rendering for visual effects.
• Group Project: You will work as part of a team in the conception, planning, management and presentation of a piece of work that demonstrates your technical and creative skills.

Option units (choose 2)

• Character Rigging: Providing you with the fundamental skills for rigging characters for animation. You will produce a short artefact in the form of a reusable rigging tool or rig.
• Visual Effects Acquisition: Gain a range of practical skills, including camera operation, lighting, tracking and set survey, and become familiar with the procedures and protocols for safely setting up and executing live action studio or location shoots.
• Personal Inquiry: You will be able to focus on developing a specialist area of practice, or a complementary skill or technique that will benefit your career aspirations.
• Real Time Graphics Systems: Using state-of-the-art game engines, you will be introduced to the fundamental principles of real-time graphics engines.
• Scripting for DCC: The purpose of this unit is to ensure you are equipped with the programming and scripting skills necessary to use modern Digital Content Creation (DCC) tools such as Maya, Houdini and Nuke. Using a “test driven design” (TDD) approach, you will learn core software engineering and programming skill to help understand and utilise the architecture of modern DCC tools in the development of pipeline tools and techniques.
• Modelling & Texturing: You will learn more advanced creation techniques for hard surface and deformation modelling, UV unwrapping for multiple tile workflow and texturing. You will further develop abilities to work to specific asset requirements and limitations, specifically with regards to the creation of photo-real assets for use in the visual effects live action integration pipeline. 
• Technical Effects:  Looking at visual effects technical effects creation and integration pipeline, you will be introduced to areas of technical effects such as rigid body dynamics, particle systems, fluid dynamic systems, fire and smoke simulation, and character effects systems like fur and cloth.

Please note that option units require minimum numbers in order to run and may only be available on a semester by semester basis. They may also change from year to year.

You will have the option of undertaking a short 8 week placement or minimum 30-week placement at the end of your second year. Visit the placement section below for more information. 

Core units

• Final major project & dissertation: This unit is the culmination of your studies. Working as either an individual or in a group, you must produce a significant body of work (typically a short animation, game or software artefact). This must be accompanied by a dissertation demonstrating your ability to communicate evidence of problem solving.
• Master Class: You will undertake an industry set and supervised brief, in which you demonstrate your chosen area of specialism.
• Research & Development Project: Choose an academic, practice based or production oriented project to produce a research paper or industry-standard professional report.

Option units (choose 1)

• Digital Fabrication: Providing you with hands-on experience of 3D printing technology and its applications in art and design.
• CG & Animation for Cultural Heritage: This unit will investigate the different forms of cultural heritage and the ways in which computer graphics and animation techniques and methods can be applied in their interpretation and preservation. We will cover their application to interactive visualisation such as virtual museum exhibits and also HCI and 3D printing.
• Non-fiction Animation: Explore, consider or challenge non-fiction animation, documentaries and live-action film at on-campus screenings.
• Digital Matte Painting: Develop different techniques for creating photo-realistic digital environments and apply them to 2D, 2.5D and 3D digital matte painting.

Please note that option units require minimum numbers in order to run and may only be available on a semester by semester basis. They may also change from year to year.

Programme specification

Programme specifications provide definitive records of the University's taught degrees in line with Quality Assurance Agency requirements. Every taught course leading to a BU Award has a programme specification which describes its aims, structure, content and learning outcomes, plus the teaching, learning and assessment methods used.

Whilst every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the programme specification, the information is liable to change to take advantage of exciting new approaches to teaching and learning as well as developments in industry.

If you have been unable to locate the programme specification for the course you are interested in, it will be available as soon as the latest version is ready. Alternatively please contact us for assistance.

Our aim is to prepare you for work in the computer games and animation industry, which is why we regularly update our software to give you access to the production tools used by the professionals. On the standard build, we have the following installed:

• Autodesk Maya, Mudbox and MotionBuilder
• PIxologic ZBrush
• Foundry Mari and Nuke
• SideFX Houdini
• Adobe Photoshop and Premier
• Unreal Engine 4
• Unity 5.

There are several plugins available, including RealFlow, VRay, Shotgun and Golaem. The software development tools we use are open source and/or freely available, and include g++, clang, CUDA, Qt 5 and SDL 2.

Placements provide a great opportunity to make your first career steps and enhance your employability while you’re completing your studies. You’ll get the opportunity to:

• Put the theory learnt throughout the course into professional practice
• Enhance your study and help you decide on subject options (where appropriate)
• Learn a wide range of skills such as time management, problem solving and team work (all of these are important to succeed in any career)
• Make contacts, as it is not uncommon for our students to be offered permanent positions to return to after graduating
• Gain a real insight into how the industry operates in roles that would be almost impossible to achieve for an outsider
• Many of our students, during their placement, are given responsibilities normally associated with graduate trainees.

If you choose to complete a placement as part of your course, it will begin after completion of your second year of study. You'll have the option to complete either a short 8 week or 30 week placement.

However, your work placement doesn’t have to be with the same employer and, in the animation industry, it’s often more common that you’ll find a placement for around three months at a time, allowing you to gain experience with several organisations during the year. This is largely due to the timeframes many production studios work to.

The faculty running your course will offer the support of a Placement Co-ordinator. 

They’ll help you plan your placement to make sure you get the right experience for you. That includes offering help and support if you need to move to another part of the UK – and even another country – to get the most out of your time.

We’ve also built close industry links over the years – so our network of employers that are keen to work with placement students is always growing. Or if you’d prefer to arrange your placement independently, we can offer advice on how to do that too.

• CooCoo Squeaky (games)
• Sumo Digital (games)
• Base FX (animation and visual effects)
• Encore FX (visual effects).

We select candidates for this course by looking at your application. For that reason, make sure your application really stands out from the crowd, and leave us in no doubt as to why you should be joining BU. We will ask you to provide a portfolio in support of your application which will be reviewed by one of the tutors on the course. You can find some handy hints about filling in your UCAS form on our how to apply web pages.

We look at individual applications and make a tailored offer based on your potential to succeed on the course considering a range of factors, including your portfolio, your academic achievements, work and other experience, reference and personal statement, and in some cases, your performance at an interview. Typically, we make an offer at the bottom of the tariff range.

AccessBU gives you the chance to tell us more about you and your life experiences if you haven’t had the same educational opportunities as other applicants. If you are eligible for AccessBU, your offer could be up to 16 UCAS Tariff Points below the published tariff.

If your application meets our academic entry requirements, we will ask you to upload a portfolio to support your application. Please note you will have 14 days to provide your portfolio from the date of the request. Portfolios could include, but are not limited to:

• Observational studies in any medium - Still life, environments (interior, exterior, architectural studies, perspective studies), lighting studies, colour studies, anatomy studies
• Sketchbook and works demonstrating self-motivated study and research. We need to see work that the applicant has done outside of their studies and courses, and can discuss with keen interest and enthusiasm
• Life drawing
• An appropriate application of detail. Adding detail to artwork should not be at the expense of strong form and structure
• Work that demonstrates creativity and proficiency in composition, form, structure, colour and design, in both 2D or 3D.  For example - character design, environment design, illustration, graphic design, product design, media design, photography, sculpture
• A showreel of moving image work (but this is not essential)

Applicants should demonstrate a keen interest in areas of moving image/animation/visual effects.

Your portfolio will be reviewed by one of the tutors on the course.

Our offer-making will typically be based on your most recent qualifications, including any required subjects where applicable. We'll consider all qualifications when assessing your application, although these may not be part of our offer.

If you do not meet the criteria of your original offer, we may still offer you a place. We will review your whole application, along with your portfolio and consider all academic qualifications (including those not in the offer) to see if you have the academic potential to succeed on the course. If we feel the answer is yes, we will confirm your place.

The entire process of computer animation production is underpinned by technology. The visual and technological aspects of the field are inseparable. To produce visual work in the field does not necessarily require a deep-rooted understanding of technological issues.

However, the ethos of the course, and one of the aspects that commands respect from employers of its graduates, is that a greater understanding of the technologies underpinning the visuals contributes to the practitioner's ability to produce work more effectively.

A desire to understand and develop a command of technology is of great benefit to any candidate for the course. While the majority of graduates tend to enter the computer animation, visual effects and games industries as visual artists, some specialise as software producers during the course, but in all cases a strong grasp of technological issues affecting computer animation and digital media production is a hallmark of the course's graduates.

This course has compulsory elements involving practical production activities. When required, students must complete a health and safety risk assessment to take part in these activities, for their safety and that of others. As part of that assessment students provide information about any conditions or disabilities that might affect their ability to undertake these activities fully or safely. 

If you have such a condition or disability, please let us know as soon as possible. You can contact our Additional Learning Support (ALS) service about this before or after making an application. We will then work with you to identify any support or adjustments you would need. Our ALS team works with the Faculty to seek to put in place reasonable adjustments and health and safety plans.

Exceptionally, it may not be possible to arrange for a student to access these courses without either over-riding their core standards or competencies or creating unacceptable risks to health and safety. If that is the case we will help you explore alternative course choices.

AccessBU

AccessBU provides you with the opportunity to tell us about your circumstances that are not always evident in your UCAS application. This widening access initiative also considers relevant criteria such as being in care or if you live in an area with a low participation rate in Higher Education - if you are eligible, your offer could be up to 16 UCAS tariff points below the published tariff.

Apprenticeships

We recognise the transferable knowledge and skills gained through apprenticeships and welcome applications from students with a Level 3 Advanced Apprenticeship recognised by the Institute for Apprenticeships. Each application will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Deferred entry

We are happy to consider eligible applicants for deferred entry. If you have already submitted your application, please submit your deferral request through our website. 

Direct entry

We welcome applications from students who have previously studied at degree level at other institutions and wish to transfer onto a BU course. Our Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) procedure enables credit awarded from one institution to contribute to a BU award, subject to an application process. Please visit our RPL webpage for more information.

Mature applicants

​We recognise that mature applicants may have a wealth of experience rather than formal qualifications, so we’ll consider your application on these merits if included in your application. You’ll need to apply to BU in the usual way through UCAS and you may be invited to an interview to discuss your suitability for the course based on the experience you tell us about in your application.

Among the roles you can apply for once you graduate are:

• Technical Director (in computer animation and digital effects)
• Technical Artist (in computer games)
• Visual Artist
• Software Producer
• Game Developer
• 3D Artist
• Visual Effects Tech Developer.

Our graduates work all over the world, and many are employed by the industry’s leading animation and production houses, software houses, and computer game and digital media companies. This includes working in the following industies:  

• Film special effects
• Computer game design
• Animation production
• Scientific visualisation
• Graphics software implementation.

Once you have completed an undergraduate Honours degree, you can further develop your education by studying for a postgraduate degree. Please visit our postgraduate section for further details about our range of Master’s degrees.

What’s included in your tuition fee?

Your tuition fee covers expenses associated with your course including tuition materials, access to facilities, mandatory field trips and the following:

• Materials for laboratory and field-based teaching activity
• Support for finding placements (UK or abroad) and fieldwork, and non-financial support whilst on placement if this is part of your course of study
• A range of student services – advisors, help desks, counsellors, placement support and careers service
• The Library – access to a wide range of electronic resources (databases, e-journals and e-books), print and multimedia collections, subject librarians and study spaces
• Access to Brightspace, our virtual learning environment, which offers a responsive and personalised learning experience with powerful learning analytics capabilities, integrated social media and advanced video features.
• IT labs (some open 24/7), wireless network, AV equipment to borrow
• Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) scheme
• Disability and additional learning support
• The BU Language Centre to help you develop/improve foreign or English language skills
• 24 hours a day, 365 days a year security team.

Additional costs

We are committed to offering you value for money and ensuring there are no hidden costs while you are studying with us, therefore we have listed below any additional costs you may incur that are not covered by your tuition fee:

• Laptops, tablets and mobile devices and any software used on personal devices. Access to a personal computer is strongly recommended for your study. If you are experiencing financial difficulty, visit our website for information regarding hardship funds. 
• Textbooks, general stationery and other supplies. Our award-winning library is stocked with a large range of textbooks and online resources, free of charge. The Students’ Union shops stock a wide range of stationery supplies on both campuses
• Accommodation and living costs. Our accommodation price guide can be found on our website 
• Travel costs for optional field trips, outdoor wear and footwear for mandatory and optional field trips (where applicable)
• Travel costs to and from the University campus. An annual bus pass canbe purchased alongside your rent if you are living in halls of residence/Unilet accommodation or maybe purchased seperately
• Travel costs to and from your placement (both in the UK and overseas) if this is part of your course of study. Information about funding your placement year can be found on our website
• Clothing or equipment costs required for your placement if this is part of your course of study
• SportBU membership.

While all aspects of the programme, including required field trips, are included in the fee, additional, optional or extra curricula activities may be available for which a student contribution is required.

If you need to repeat one or more units during your studies (with or without attendance) the pricing will be pro-rata of the full-time fee.

Once you are have enrolled as a student at BU, there is a wide range of help and support available, depending on your particular needs.

• Library & Learning support
• Additional Learning support
• Peer Assisted Learning (PAL)
• Transport and travel.

Reza has a PhD from the University for the Creative Arts (UCA) in Farnham. He has previously lectured at both UCA and the University of Westminster.

Ari’s background is in the games industry as a programmer (software engineer). He is interested in the fields Genetic Programming (GP), (real time) Computer Graphics, and Fractal Image Compression. He studied painting at the School of Art of the University of Thessaloniki in Greece, and Computer Animation and Visualisation at BU’s own NCCA.