Illustration and Animation (MA)

The illustration and animation ma aims to expand the digital and physical knowledge of your craft, helping you find your own ‘voice’ and style. 

• If you are seeking to enhance your professional portfolio and understanding of emerging practice, we offer a vibrant, creative community in which to progress your personal research and practice, in order to make your own unique contribution to illustrative and animated visual communication.
• You’ll also be encouraged to develop a unique visual signature and a compelling visual voice that will help you to effectively communicate with intended audiences - both are essential for success in professional practice.

Why you should you study this course

• This course provides illustrative and animated input into many areas of professional practice including the publishing, scientific, technical, marketing, publicity and advertising, medical and cultural arenas - all of which provide opportunities to help you stay abreast of emerging trends and the challenges of contemporary professional practice2.
• This practice-based course provides opportunities2 to develop a broad range of traditional and digital skills, including drawing, etching, screen-printing, typography, film effects, and working with sound; all using industry-standard practices and toolsets.
• Your studies will take place in a studio environment with access to our range of specialist facilities4, including laser cutters, 3D rapid prototyping, screen printing, computer suites and clay modelling to enable you to produce original informative artefacts.
• Internationally acclaimed for their own creative practice, some of our faculty staff have exhibited in national and international locations and venues (staff are subject to change).
• You will have the option to apply for a ‘professional experience’ opportunity2, designed to further develop your skills and knowledge with the aim of maximising your employability prospects. 

What you'll study

• The course explores illustration, publishing, photography, image generation and animation. We will help you achieve a deeper understanding of your role as a visual interpreter, the importance of adapting to market needs and to a developing field.
• Through practical exploration and reflection of digital and traditionally physical forms, you will develop an appropriate synergy between practice and theory, establishing your specialist signature of work. Your final project will be tailored to your own area of professional practice and your personal creative passion, culminating with an exhibition of your work in the end-of-year MA Degree Show.

Teaching methods include:

• Lectures
• Seminars
• Tutorials
• Presentations
• Group projects Workshops

Teaching contact hours

• The number of full-time contact hours may vary from semester to semester, however, on average, it is likely to be around eight contact hours per week in the first year. The contact hours may be made up of a combination of face-to-face teaching, individual and group tutorials, and online classes and tutorials.
• Additionally, you will be expected to undertake significant self-directed study of approximately 24 hours each week, depending on the demands of individual modules. In these hours you will be applying that knowledge to your ongoing assignments. Every student is different and manage workloads differently so this can vary across students and times of year.
• Part of university life is undertaking self-directed learning (SDL). Across the course of the week you will have non ‘taught’ time that allows you to work independently to apply the skills you have learnt in taught or facilitated sessions to your projects or assignment briefs. This is particularly important in the school of art and design as it allows you to put into practice making in workshop and studio spaces.
• This self-directed learning allows you to monitor and self-evaluate your development and how best to manage this time to best impact your creative work. SDL is key to designing and making as it is a process that takes discipline and repetition. This mode of learning under pins our community of practice approach.
• The contact hours may be made up of a combination of face-to-face teaching, individual and group tutorials, and online classes and tutorials.
• As an innovative and enterprising institution, the university may seek to utilise emerging technologies within the student experience. For all courses (whether on-campus, blended, or distance learning), the university may deliver certain contact hours and assessments via online technologies and methods.
• Since COVID-19, we have delivered our courses in a variety of forms, in line with public authority guidance, decisions, or orders and we will continue to adapt our delivery as appropriate. Whether on campus or online, our key priority is staff and student safety.

Assessment
This course will be assessed using a variety of methods which will vary depending upon the module.

Assessment methods include:

• Group work
• Presentations
• Portfolio
• Projects
• Coursework
• Individual assignments

The Coventry University Group assessment strategy ensures that our courses are fairly assessed and allows us to monitor student progression towards achieving the intended learning outcomes.

Careers and opportunities
Upon successful completion, you will be able to:

• Demonstrate through practice, an advanced understanding of the creative production of animation and illustration genres
• Analyse problems of a creative nature and provide appropriate solutions
• Describe, interpret and evaluate artefacts, artworks, designs and events from a range of critical perspectives, taking account of the context of their production, consumption and critical positioning
• Research and synthesise information to make presentations
• Prepare a working brief in keeping with the creative business practices associated with the field
• Apply with a high degree of confidence and mastery the conceptual and practical elements of hybrid techniques as appropriate
• Participate in, and engage with practice surrounding new and traditional media
• Engage creatively when applying differing and various media and techniques in the pursuit of a successful answer to client/brief requirements
• Engage with the needs of a client which aids both client and practitioner to create a successful brief.

National and international graduate career prospects are many and varied and include education, curation, film and television, games disciplines, print and publishing, animation, film, scientific and technical illustration, storyboarding and character generation in 2D and 3D for traditional and emergent media.

We help you develop a wide range of transferrable skills associated with the use of information gathering, communication technology, professional practice, time management, project management and self-promotion. This could open up career opportunities that include education, television production and web-based media. You may also wish to continue your studies at PhD level or establish a freelance business.

Where our graduates work

• Some of our recent graduates have gone on to work in games-based, scientific, televisual and educational areas.