Computer Animation and Visual Effects BSc (Hons)

Through industry research you’ll analyse technology shifts alongside socio-cultural currents and gain foresight into macro and micro trends.

You’ll have the invaluable opportunity to advance niche technical knowledge and communicate findings with verbal and written skill.

You’ll practice manipulating still and moving images. During this, you’ll gain crucial technical skills to create realistic shots through hands-on experience.

In the studio setting, you’ll develop your own artistic style, ensuring it meets professional quality standards. This will prepare you to produce high-quality visual effects.

You'll develop pipelines connecting CGI tools to build responsive, rendered environments. Through animation and asset creation tailored for real-time engines, you’ll gain indispensable skills for crafting immersive worlds.

Reflecting on your work, you’ll evaluate technical and artistic approaches, learning to fluidly translate between the languages of creativity and computation.

This module provides hands-on experience establishing robust foundations in real-time 3D tools and techniques for a future in interactive media and emerging technologies.

Practise using industry-standard techniques and learn to create models for different production types.

By studying outstanding examples in the field, you’ll understand what’s expected in professional workflows, helping you to confidently meet creative briefs.

You’ll finish this module with enhanced technical skills and knowledge of the latest tools. Get ready to take your models from the initial concept right through to their integration into the final scene.

The module builds the visualisation abilities and technical knowledge you need to communicate visually. You’ll draw inspiration from the world around you and use computer animation tools to bring your visions to the screen.

You'll sharpen your artistic eye through practical workshops that teach fundamental skills like observational drawing. Generating original ideas and concepts will spark your creativity.

Acquire basic 3D modelling, texturing, and animation techniques to translate imagination into virtual worlds and by researching and designing an animated narrative, you’ll put new software skills into practice.

The projects you’ll do in this module provide valuable practical experience—from taking the seed of an idea to growing it into a fully realised animated short.

You’ll combine creativity and technique to explore the key VFX skills of a Lighting Technical Director. Study how to film scenes and train your artistic eye to make realistic CG images. Improve your technical skills by developing efficient pipelines between applications. You’ll show your aesthetic style by balancing texturing, shading, lighting, and rendering.

This module helps you to light CGI with imagination and precision, getting you ready for different jobs in the global VFX industry. You’ll talk about your work using both creative and technical languages.

In the end, you’ll have the experience and confidence to shine with your CGI lighting talents.

You'll discuss research approaches and gain skills to strategise methods for independent study.

You'll formulate plans tailored to your goals, create research proposals and hone your scholarly writing. Investigating your chosen career path, you'll identify opportunities, appraising your skills and interests. This experience provides a robust foundation to initiate an impactful creative project aligned with your aspirations

You’ll use virtual production tools to quickly create assets that meet professional benchmarks, ranging from creatures to environments. This joint effort will involve elements of staging, cinematography, and VFX compositing, pushing you to intuitively combine these aspects within strict deadlines.

This module also introduces you to technologies that improve efficiency. From this, you’ll gain a deeper industry understanding and enhance the quality of your project work.

You’ll research, design, and develop a character and environment following an industry-standard brief. Create model sheets and mood boards to guide your 3D workflow and visualise your concepts as you take your asset from concept to finish. Finally, you will use professional real-time techniques to create a demo reel that shows your technical excellence.

This module will equip you with practical experience and key skills in creating triple-A game assets, VR/AR content, and other real-time 3D applications.

You’ll get to spend a semester at one of our global partner universities, giving you a unique international spin on your learning. This experience is perfect for building professional skills and a global outlook, preparing you for work anywhere in the world. You’ll also get the chance to study and work on your own in a new setting, which will boost your personal growth and relate to your degree.

When you come back, you’ll be full of fresh ideas to energise your work.

This module gives you the chance to explore different approaches and build international networks in creative technologies.

It will help develop your practical knowledge and collaborative abilities to thrive in the film and games industries.

You’ll use drawing to capture animal forms, structure, texture, and proportions. Relating visual research to the design process, you’ll develop industry-standard workflows, put your skills into practice through industry-led briefs and create professional-quality concepts and assets.

You can immerse yourself in the production pace and pipelines of entertainment studios through collaboration in a simulated studio environment.

You’ll finish this module with real-world creative experience and a portfolio of your design talents.

In this module, you'll generate and evaluate ideas that bring narrative concepts to life.

In the design process, you'll express your vision through composition, observation, and interpretation. Experiment with software to advance your surfacing, lighting, and rendering techniques, then use your new technical and creative skills to craft an animated short through performance and visual storytelling.

With this module, you can transform a story from page to screen using 3D animation and visualisation abilities. By the end, you'll have valuable experience in creating captivating characters and animated worlds.

Join a team of creative students and do a project together. Try new things and see how they can help you.

You’ll also grasp how to use your skills with others. Sometimes you’ll be a leader, sometimes a helper. Talk about your ideas and learn from them. You’ll make something to show what you learned and share it with others.

This module helps you gain new skills and understand other fields. You’ll be a smart and creative person, ready to solve real-world problems.

You’ll choose learning tasks that add up to 60 hours, like internships, volunteering, research, or remote study that match your career plans. Workshops will help you make meaningful goals and think about what you’ve accomplished. Through this, you’ll grow the knowledge, skills, and qualities you need to thrive in the workplace.

By looking at your growth through active participation and reading, you’ll become a perceptive, eager job-seeker who stands out.

You’ll master digitally sculpting detailed models, observing their form, shape, and structure for animation. Use industry methods to rig characters that are creatively and technically sound. Come up with your own solutions that fit creative ideas while keeping in line with the workflow.

By working on your own projects, you’ll use what you’ve learned to make sculpts and rigs for your portfolio. Understand your work in the broader context of animation as you lay the groundwork for a career in film VFX.

By the end of this module, you’ll have the essential skills to model and rig any kind of character: human, creature, or alien. Unleash your creativity as you get ready to be part of the new wave of 3D animation artists.

As a team, you will embark on a journey of entrepreneurship, starting with ideation and ending with the launch of your product or service. You will analyse complex factors influencing a successful launch, conduct thorough research to assess feasibility and gain valuable insights into marketing, manufacturing, and sales strategies.

Working together on pitch presentations, you will discover your strengths as an entrepreneur or team member. This module provides transferable skills essential to thrive in creative industries, whether you plan to launch your own company or seek employment with top organisations. You will develop the mindset and abilities to spot opportunities and act on them, which will benefit your career.

You’ll experiment with simulations and procedural methods to tackle typical production issues. The aim of this will be to improve shot flow and deepen audience engagement.

You can study exemplary professional work by developing inventive approaches based on industry research. This analysis will inform your technical choices as you skillfully blend various elements to create cohesive scenes.

You’ll study examples from animation and visual effects in the industry, giving you the chance to choose techniques that will really connect with your audience.

Working together on this project, you’ll share specialist knowledge with others. You’ll improve your technical skills and creative abilities.

You’ll find opportunities that match your interests, and look into different areas and specialities. By learning from professionals, you’ll get how to showcase your talents and past work. The highlight of this module is that it helps you explain your own style and what you want to achieve.

With the right preparation, you’ll be able to confidently show the value you’ll bring to future employers or clients.

Demonstrating project management and problem-solving skills, through critical analysis and experimentation, you'll produce a body of work that advances knowledge in your discipline.

Communicating scholarly outcomes with impact, you'll demonstrate your knowledge and abilities, drawing together your learning into a compelling self-directed showcase.

This is the culmination of your degree journey - proving your readiness for professional and academic challenges ahead.

Dig into anatomy to rig complex models, meeting animation needs as you master FX techniques like muscles, skin, cloth. You'll work in teams, collaborating with modelers and animators, and learn to develop custom solutions, scripts and tools to achieve professional effects. You'll build an impressive portfolio including characters, vehicles, props and more, and use industry terminology to analyse and critique rigs. When you finish this module you'll have advanced expertise in rigging, FX and technical art sought after in film VFX. Let your creativity and problem-solving shine through imaginative rigging and simulations.

You'll implement programming concepts underpinning techniques like character rigging, particles, and simulations. Scripting modelling and animation functions within industry-standard software, you’ll structure efficient programs tailored to animation demands.

By making savvy use of plugins and libraries, you’ll generate stand-alone applications, whether for animation tool building or research. With Python proficiency, you'll gain technical prowess allowing you to breathe life into 3D visuals.

You’ll experiment with various digital design and compositing techniques, learning to blend elements seamlessly into scenes. This will enhance how viewers perceive each scene, thanks to improved visual continuity.

You’ll also look at industry terminology to effectively discuss the aesthetic and procedural aspects of complicated projects.

This module offers thorough training for working in professional environments where creative problem-solving is key to producing visually convincing effects.

Learn essential animation skills like rigging, modelling, and lighting through theory and practice. Use data to understand computer animation's history, current state, and future. Improve your art skills by studying ideas such as size and method, helping you make better designs for 3D assets.

After finishing this module, you’ll have an impressive showreel that shows off your technical and creative abilities.

As part of your games industry training, you will work on a project that aligns with your career aspirations. This could involve creating 3D characters and worlds, designing original artwork or animating game levels. You will have the freedom to unleash your creativity and showcase your skills by incorporating real-world elements into your game designs.

In addition, you will learn to make informed design decisions through independent study and proactive feedback, rather than relying solely on classroom instruction. By analysing professional works, you will be able to evaluate your own creations and ensure they meet industry standards.

By the end of this module, you will have built a portfolio that demonstrates your readiness to embark on a career in game development, with projects that reflect your ambitions.

You’ll experiment with physics simulations and procedural methods to significantly improve shot flow and audience engagement.

As you tackle the usual production challenges, you’ll have the chance to study examples from the industry. This research will help guide your artistic and technical choices.

Armed with a deeper industry understanding and digital expertise, you’ll be capable of seamlessly blending unique elements into coherent stories.

In this fascinating module, you’ll delve into this enthralling next-gen realm. Explore the latest techniques for digitally capturing human motion and seamlessly applying it to 3D character animation.

Join us in our futuristic mocap studio and master the entire process — from capturing data to animating it using industry software. Experts will guide you as you critically assess different technologies and develop skills to preserve the authenticity and nuance of performances.

By the end, you’ll have firsthand experience with this powerful storytelling tool, widely used to create captivating virtual characters in films, games, and beyond. Your creativity will soar as you explore the boundless possibilities of bringing digital worlds to life.

You'll prototype concepts while negotiating roles and self-managing workflows. You'll evaluate and bring ideas to life using professional project management approaches.

This module empowers you to translate concepts into tangible prototypes, and put technical and artistic skills into practice — preparing you for the creative challenges of real-world production.

Collaborating in a group, you'll refine and optimise a real-time interactive experience based on the brief from an external client. Through analysis and critical reflection, you'll assess the processes undertaken and trade-offs made between project stages.

The module cements both technical and teamwork skills. You'll gain hands-on practice applying project management methodologies in a professional manner.

Completing this module will provide experience negotiating the realities and demands of commercial production, allowing you to emerge industry-ready.

During this module, you'll spend 6 months working on your own business venture, then 3 months gaining industry experience. This opportunity allows you to apply what you've learned in a practical setting while exploring different career options. You'll also have the chance to develop professional relationships and expand your network.

Assess your personal strengths and weaknesses to set goals for the future. Throughout the module, you'll demonstrate increasing independence while still valuing the support of others. Gain a broader understanding of the world through real-world experiences and insights. Additionally, you'll earn valuable credits for your CV and enhance your skill set.

By the end of this module, you'll graduate with the practical experience that employers are seeking.

This experience lets you learn firsthand how to set up and run a small business. You’ll absorb professional practices and business situations that matter to your entrepreneurial goals. Make important connections while working independently within set rules. Think deeply about your strengths, weaknesses, criteria for success, and future plans.

This opportunity is useful for your career. It lets you use what you’ve learnt in your degree in the real world and helps you understand your capabilities.

After finishing this placement and the related assessments, you’ll get more credits for your sandwich degree. This practical experience is a valuable step in developing an entrepreneurial way of thinking.

You’ll spend 24–48 weeks at a chosen company, learning from professionals and helping out with actual projects. Gain confidence, knowledge, and skills by taking on more responsibility with gradually less help. As you progress, you’ll make professional connections and think about how you’re doing. Take in what you learn about how industries and businesses work.

This placement is an ideal chance to grow in your career. By using what you’ve learnt in a workplace, you’ll understand more about your own strengths, what you need to work on, and your plans after you graduate.

After this placement and the related assessments, you’ll get extra credits for your sandwich degree. This practical experience is a valuable part of your education.

Showcase specialised abilities by completing relevant assignments abroad. Then examine your global experience critically: how has immersion in foreign creative culture expanded your perspective? Identify new cross-cultural transferable skills to empower your continued educational and professional journey.

Evaluating international contexts, you'll critically connect on-site activities to your disciplinary knowledge, gaining global insights. Working independently abroad, you'll complete relevant assignments, honing skills transferable to your future career.

Upon returning, thoughtful reflection will reveal your personal growth as you process new worldviews and cross-cultural competencies.