Animation and Games Art via Study Centres BA (Hons)

Apply now

Get the opportunity to develop skills in traditional and digital animation and games art. Gain expertise in industry-standard digital software. Realise your dream of working on the next big animated movie or game.

Register your interest

Overview

The animation, games and visual effects (VFX) industries are always searching for new talent. BA (Hons) Animation and Games Art allows you to explore and develop traditional animation techniques, key digital skills in 2D and 3D, and learn the core principles of character-led animation.

We place Animation and Games Art within the broader context of design to help you keep your career options open. You'll also have the creative freedom and flexibility to develop your specific areas of interest, gaining transferable skills crucial for employability.

Why us?

Gives a strong foundation in traditional animation principles while also teaching key digital skills in both 2D and 3D

Allows you the creative freedom to work in any medium and technique

#WeAreAnimationAndGamesArt

#WeAreCreativeIndustries

Course structure

Teaching is almost entirely practical and studio-based, supported by lectures, seminars and tutorials. Our academic team encourage you to express ideas and push the boundaries of creativity. Assessment is mainly through coursework.

In the first year you'll learn classical animation techniques and core digital skills. You'll also learn about the broader context of design with students from other design subjects. In the second year you'll be introduced to more advanced approaches such as 3D, character rigging and motion capture. In your final year you'll build your portfolio, undertake a personal research project that will lead into your Final Major Project. You'll exhibit your work at our Design Degree Show, which will be visited by industry experts and potential employers.

Year 1 (national level 4):

Introductory Classical, Digital and Performance Practice (60 credits)

Learn the fundamental principles of animation using traditional studio practices in 2D drawn animation through weekly character-based exercises. This will culminate in a short animated film that you will complete using ToonBoom Harmony software. You will also be introduced to the Adobe Creative Suite in a separate creative brief.

You will have weekly life drawing classes to enhance your figurative and imaginative drawing skills and engage in contextual and visual research to support and enhance your practical work.

Animation Techniques (40 credits)

Working in teams, you will create short sequences using a variety of traditional techniques such as Pixillation, direct animation, smudge n click, cut-out and stop motion, building on the principles and skills learnt in semester 1 and exploring visual storytelling further.

You will also produce a short film for a student-led competition and public screening to showcase your first year’s work.

You will continue to attend weekly life drawing classes looking at expressive and experimental drawing techniques.

You will also be introduced to 3D software and tools in a series of creative workshops and be given the opportunity to collaborate with BSc Game Development students and participate in local Game Jams.

Design Theory 1 (20 credits)

Through lectures and seminars, you will gain an understanding of the wider application of design theory and principles as well as having the opportunity to study the context, development and theories behind your own chosen specialism. You will be encouraged to debate and engage critically with the topics discussed.

Some modules have prerequisites. Read more about what this means in our Help and Advice article.

Year 2 (national level 5):

Animated Performance – Dialogue (20 credits)

Building on the principles and skills learnt in Stage 1 using character-led animation, you will study animated performance and work with a number of pre-recorded sound clips in order to gain a thorough understand of staging, dialogue/lip sync and acting. You will draw directly into 2D digital software to complete the animated performance exercises using the Wacom Cintiqs.

Maya for Beginners (20 credits)

From weekly life drawing exercises to support your understanding of the human form you will look at modelling in 3D to create a model of your own design. You will then look at rigging, textures and lighting in the 3D environment.

There will be a choice of pre-rigged characters for you to animate and you will demonstrate skills and techniques learnt to give personality and weight to walk and run cycles using a variety of characters. You will work with the Motion capture suit to gain an understanding of its applications in character animation. You will also be introduced to Unity and VR workflows.

Preproduction Practice (20 credits)

This module follows the preproduction pipeline for creating either a pitch bible for a children’s tv series or a Games Document for a 7-PEGI game. You will follow the process from visual and contextual research through concept art, story art, character design, environments, assets, linear and non-linear storytelling. You will create an animatic or walkthrough to demonstrate your concept’s viability. You will get to pitch your idea in a short presentation at the end of the module. You can work individually or as part of a creative team.

There will also be the chance for further collaborations with BSc Game Development students.

Animation for Music, Titles and Idents (40 credits)

You will get to create a music video for an artist of your own choosing either as part of a collaboration, or working alone. You will study the application of advanced After Effects – e.g. rotoscoping, tracking techniques, using green screen and keylight - and you can choose to apply any creative technique to your work. You will also explore the genre and contextual background to music and animation in film and games, to the title sequence as an art form as well as create an ident for yourself.

You will help to organise a showcase of your work at a public screening at the close of the academic year.

Design Theory 2 (20 credits)

Seminars and lectures will continue the study of the context, development and theories behind your own chosen specialism and support your practical work, helping you to focus on your choice of dissertation topic in Stage 3.

You will also continue weekly life drawing looking at environment and figurative drawing practice.

Final year (national level 6):

Applied Animation (20 credits)

You will work with a charity or other organisation in order to create an animation (or interactive piece) to highlight a campaign or social issue that is educational, informative, even therapeutic and will promote a good cause. You will treat this as a live brief and work to professional and ethical guidelines using any creative technique.

Professional Practice (20 credits)

You will work on a chosen live brief as well as a piece to showcase your skills and enhance your showreel/portfolio. Employability Day will enable you to meet successful alumni from this and other Design courses and hear about their experiences after graduating and tips on employability. You will create a Professional Engagement Document, which will show how you have interacted over the past two years with industry professionals either through placements, social media, visits to festivals and studios or other networking events. This module is aimed primarily at guiding you towards employment and looks at CV writing, interview techniques as well as the creative and technical skills required for your chosen specialism.

Dissertation (20 credits)

You will research an approach, concept or practice relevant to your specialism that is intended to support your practical work in your final major project. An example of this from a recent graduate was the study of Magic Realism, which directly fed into the narrative of their graduation film. You will demonstrate academic research methods, begun in Stage 1, to formulate a written piece of 6,000 words.

Final Major Project (60 credits)

You will build on the skills and knowledge, both technical and creative, that you have gained across all previous modules to create a piece of work that best reflects your specialism and will, hopefully, take you into professional employment. You can choose to work individually or as part of a team.

You will participate in helping to set up and exhibit your work in the final year Degree Show, which is open to the public and industry practitioners.

Entry requirements

We don’t currently display entry requirements for United States. Please contact the Student Admin team on studentadmin@sunderland.ac.uk or 0191 515 3154.

Please contact the study centre for more information on their specific requirements and equivalent qualifications from outside the UK.

Fees and finance

Please contact the study centre directly for information on fees, finance and start dates.

This information was correct at the time of publication.

W221casestudy — Hannah Potter, BA (Hons) Animation and Games Art graduate, CBBC Scream Street Shorts winner

Career ready

Our graduates have gone on to work throughout the film, special effects, games, and television industries, and worked on projects including The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Grand Theft Auto, Creature Comforts, Miffy and Hey Duggee.

Recent employers have included:

Animation studios such as Blue Zoo, Aardman and Studio AKA
TV companies such as Cartoon Network, CBeebies and CITV
Games companies such as Rockstar, Ubisoft and Sumo Digital

Related courses

Contact

Contact the Student Helpline for further information about studying at the University of Sunderland:

0191 515 3000

student.helpline@sunderland.ac.uk

View Programme Specifications for the Faculty of Arts and Creative Industries.

Page last updated: 21 March 2025

We aim to provide clear, accurate and timely information to prospective and current students. We continuously review and enhance course content in consultation with our students and the information provided on our website is the latest available. If you have received an offer from us to start a course, we will communicate any important changes to you in writing. We will always seek to ensure that our prospective students are fully aware of the basis on which they are accepting an offer.