MA Animation

Duration

1 year full-time / 2 years part-time

Institution code

L28

UCAS Code

N/A

An illustrated image of a character wearing a yellow dress and red shoes, with a bun hairstyle and a red bird perched on top of their head. They are standing on a musical stave, their foot squashing the lines together, and musical notes are falling inward. They are reading a book titled: How to Learn Piano in One Hour.

Nasiba Alhusain

An illustrated living room featuring an orange armchair in one corner, next to a blue table with a vase of red flowers on top, and a large blue vase with a green plant on the other side. In the opposite corner, in the shadows, is a black and white piano.

Nasiba Alhusain

An illustration of a person wearing a purple top contorted inside a small red square. The square is set against a black background with green abstract patterns.

Aseel Deen

A character development board for an animation character named Maggie, titled: Maggie – Gesture. She has light orange hair in a plait and wears a red cardigan, grey trousers, and a green bag. The board shows her in various poses, including sitting with her head in her hand and jumping with arms outstretched. The board includes sections titled: With Shading, Original Concepts from Pitch Desk and Without Shading.

Amy Evans

An illustration of a person with light orange plaited hair sitting on a train with a purple interior. The character is gazing out the window, looking at a bright pink sketched outline of another train.

Amy Evans

An illustration of a raccoon in a grey and green t-shirt and shorts, lifting their leg up so you can see a close up of the sole of their foot, as if they were going to stamp it down. The background behind them is purple and blue.

Nadya Girendroheru

An animated still featuring a person in a suit and a bear tied to a tree trunk, floating upright in a vast blue sea with lush green trees in the background.

Alfred Kumwenda

An animated still of a person in a suit and a bear tied to a tree trunk, splashing through water with expressions of alarm.

Alfred Kumwenda

An illustration of a green fly in a bathroom, sitting on a plastic duck and holding a tube of toothpaste. It’s squeezing the tube in the position of a cup holding a toothbrush inside.

Kieran Leppington

A close-up illustration of a person’s face wailing, with tears coming from their eyes and snot coming from their nose.

Luke Mason

An illustration of a person with light orange hair in pink clothing on the floor in a press-up position with an unhappy expression. Behind them are grey steps with rails, and orange grass beneath them.

Luke Mason

An animated still of three people on a balcony with colourful blocks of flats in the background. Two of the people sit at a red table, while the third person stands with their hand resting on their head.

John Ngige

An illustration of two buildings side by side. One is a small block of flats and the other is a Japanese-style house with a wooden bridge leading from the front door to the foreground of the image, over a body of water. The scene is coloured pastel purple and pink.

Jack Richards

An illustration of a robin with a red breast singing on a branch with musical notes floating out of its beak. The image has a blue tint with curved blue shapes in the background.

Dominic Inman Robin

An illustration of a grey and green army-patterned helmet and hands underneath holding a gun. The illustration is repeated three times, gradually fading from right to left. The illustrations are set against a black background.

M Tejeshwar Vasu

The Course

This course gives practitioners a year to create an animated film, technical showreel or other animation-related outcomes from start to finish.

You will engage in a critical dialogue that integrates practice, theory and the professional aspects of animation.

The course provides space for animators to produce work of cultural value and explore their practice across creative, commercial and industry-based contexts. The curriculum is designed to allow both individual and collaborative practice to take place. We positively encourage collaboration as it is a key part of the animation production process, enabling you to undertake ambitious projects.

The course will provide you with the opportunity to develop your understanding and knowledge in relation to animation practices, to consider what the medium of animation has the potential to be, and how it communicates to an audience. Depending upon your own direction, you will also have the opportunity to explore emerging technologies and new approaches to storytelling such as the use of VR and real-time technologies.

You will be supported by teaching staff with diverse research and practical interests within the field of animation. The course will present you with the opportunities to work with other creatives on the programme and across other MA courses within the institution. Students will be enabled to produce engaging work across all forms of animation from animated shorts to documentary and experimental practices.

With an emphasis on creativity and developing a deeper understanding of animation as a multidisciplinary practice, the course will develop animation specific pre-production, production and post-production skills. This course will appeal to animation graduates, or those who are seeking to bring stories to life with their own unique vision.

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The Structure

Our postgraduate courses include both specialist subject modules and transdisciplinary core modules. Both are underpinned by independent learning. You will be supported with a variety of teaching and learning methods, including individual supervision, group tutorials, live briefs and project proposals, as well as being encouraged to collaborate with students from other postgraduate courses.

Our academic staff are engaged in contemporary practice in their specialism and will support, encourage and challenge you during your studies. All postgraduate students are taught together for research methods and business-related modules. Postgraduate courses can be studied either full-time over one academic year or part-time over two academic years. Teaching is broken down into three teaching blocks per year.

Specialist Resources

Students are able to access our dedicated animation studios which include high specification PCs, Wacom Cintiqs and industry standard 2D and 3D animation software, bookable stop-motion facilities and more traditional equipment such as rostrum cameras. Access can also be arranged to 3D workshops including 3D scanning, 3D printing and professional quality digital print facilities.