BA (Hons) Animation

This mixed-media course is designed to give new and emerging animators a competitive edge when entering the world of work. Course highlights include character design and model making as well as motion graphics, augmented reality and special effects. Hone your craft with a combination of one-to-one tutorials, seminars, demonstrations and independent research. With insights into a range of animation techniques and new technologies, you’ll be well equipped for a future career in the creative industries. 

Facilities and specialist equipment

• Spacious studios and facilities in Alexon House, the previous home of the Alexon and Eastex fashion company
• Industry-replicating stop-motion suite with three-point lighting
• Mac computers with access to Creative Cloud, Dragonframe and TB Paint software
• Creative Cloud for personal use
• Equipment including drawing tablets; cameras; C-stands; and coloured gels
• 360° green-screen room with motion-capture suit

Industry links

• The course partners with a graphics arts course at MSA University in Cairo, Egypt, for international student collaboration. 
• Project collaborations include with our official education partner Luton Town Football Club; the NHS; and Luton Council.

Student experience

• Work the way you would in the creative industry, collaborating in teams across disciplines, in a studio environment.  
• Engage with a wide range of graphic and animation work, from street art to visual identities, character design to motion graphics, and beyond. 
• Take the opportunity to work on live projects through entering national competitions and awards such as D&AD, RSA Student Awards and Penguin Design Award, alongside local collaborations and University-wide initiatives.
• Our in-house studio, Guildford Street Press, which is led by one of our alumni, offers internships that allow you to get live experience working on projects for external clients. 

Benefit from regular visits to galleries, studios and exhibitions. 

• Attend talks from designers and animators from across the world, broadening your understanding of what is possible in the creative industries.

Why choose the School of Arts and Creative Industries

• Our animation courses rank 6th in their subject area for ‘value added’ progression - how students’ entry qualifications compare with their degree results (Guardian, 2024).  
• Artist, designer and course leader Noel Douglas has 30 years' experience running a design studio. His work has been exhibited in The Design Museum and the V&A Museum, and is in the collections of the V&A Museum, the Museum of London, and British Museum.
• 100% of our computer games and animation students were satisfied with the academic support they received while studying with us (NSS, 2024).

What will you study?

• Studying our Animation BA (Hons) course aims to provide you with the core knowledge and skills in animation, graphic design and illustration on exciting taught and self-driven projects in a beautiful old factory building in Luton’s Hat District located in the Creative Quarter, that is 20 minutes from Central London. Beginning with our Context and Ideas unit, you will be introduced to key theories on animation and art and design in general as well as its effect on culture and society. In more practical areas of art and design, our unit in Thinking Through Making will encourage you to take creative risks and develop an aesthetic sense through using various technologies, software, print, RISO, web, AR and different work processes and ideas. You will have the freedom to discover your own creative processes through experimentation and, as a result, use a range of media to communicate your ideas.  
• To diversify your skill set, our Introducing Studio Practice unit will allow you to develop discipline-specific skills and experience such as independent learning, self-confidence, collaborative working and reflection, and apply them in other areas of study. Similarly, you will learn to manage these creative risks in our Animation and Illustration: Developing Materials and Methods unit. Here, you will develop the technical skills for image making and storytelling using animation and illustration digital and analogue 2D and 3D processes. These skills will help you significantly in our Communication Design: Exploring Materials and Methods unit, where you will look at new ways of experimenting with creative production methods to develop your studio practice.   
• To further deepen your insight on contemporary art and design practices, our unit in Critical and Creative Contexts will allow you to explore issues and critical debates around art and design that you will use to inform your Final Major Project in Animation. This research-based project will allow you to pursue your creative interests as you demonstrate your skills and abilities through production. Another area of project work involves our Collaborative Enterprise unit, where you will collaborate in group settings to apply your knowledge and expertise in a wider professional community. To help you with the research and analytical skills needed for project work, our unit in Context and Meaning will allow you to critically examine a range of texts on art, design and visual culture while placing this theory and practice into global contexts. This will also be helpful in critically evaluating your own creative work.   
• To prepare you for your career in animation, our unit in Creative Futures will provide you with the skills and knowledge you need for a professional creative role. Whether you aspire to become a freelance artist, designer, teacher or pursue further study, this unit will support you in developing a career that suits your ambitions and interests. Furthermore, this unit will encourage you to participate in live projects, competition briefs and other group work while developing your creative persona online, in exhibition and elsewhere. You will be taught how to market and self-promote your work using online media tools. To add to this, our unit in Developing Professional Practice will teach you to incorporate independence and professionalism in the presentation of your work while also developing your confidence to take creative risks through live projects solving real world needs, from local community engagement to global problems such as the climate emergency. Finally, you will also have the opportunity to undertake a Professional Practice Year (Art and Design) that will give you the career-related experience you need to make informed decisions about your chosen field.   

How will you be assessed?

• A range of appropriate assessments will enable you to grow in confidence and demonstrate your acquisition of knowledge and skills. The formative and summative assessment methods used across the course include: In the first year the focus is to develop creative thinking skills to allow you to engage with study skills in general preparing you for assessments in units. Research is introduced as an important element in studio practice. This relationship between research and practice allows you to develop critical thinking reflection and higher education learning practice including referencing note taking essay and report writing - including virtual learning environments. Assessments based on individual and group presentations. Portfolio reviews are a key means of assessing but they are also important for collating work for a professional portfolio. This instills in students the right attitudes towards professional work whereby you can use your portfolio to promote yourself in professional contexts. Essays and reports feature in developing your writing skills helping you to express ideas in a variety of ways and styles and to develop academic writing skills that are of particular benefit in producing the final year contextual rationale for your major project. An online blog/personal website A midpoint Formal Formative Assessment to review all work in progress.
• Key making skills relevant to communication design and creative enterprise are embedded in the teaching and learning of the course and will be taken into account in all assessments. The assessments will develop incrementally across the course and allow you to gain skills confidence and knowledge receive feedback and develop as a practitioner thus allowing you to implement this knowledge and feedback into subsequent assessments. At the end of the course completion of the assessments will demonstrate your ability to analyse current animation practice - and communicate this in both visual and written formats as well as demonstrate a range of transferable skills relevant to your professional employability 

Careers

• Employability skills and professional practice are integrated into the course and provide you with an awareness of the real-world context of the creative industries in general and animation in particular. You will be helped to develop a strategy for obtaining appropriate employment at the end of your course and there is a work-related learning unit that will especially help you to become more focused on managing your career. You will be helped with the preparation of a professional portfolio including a CV and learn the social-media skills needed to promote yourself in a social-mediated art and design world.
• Typical graduate destinations for Animation students include various roles within design and creative industries: animation; film and television; advertising; music videos; interactive digital design; and games design.
• You can also progress to further study at Master's level (Level 7) in areas such as animation illustration visual communication and motion graphics.