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3D Game Art with Foundation Year

Entry requirements


UCAS Tariff

32-56

A typical offer will require a UCAS Tariff score between 32 - 56. Every application is considered on an individual basis. For further details of our international English entry requirements, please visit our General Entry Requirements pages.

About this course


Course option

4years

Full-time | 2024

Subject

Computer games design

Do you love computer games? Kick-start a career designing the animations that bring them to life with a degree in 3D Game Art. You’ll have access to up-to-date hardware and use industry standard software, ensuring everything you learn is current. Taught by industry experts and split between our High Wycombe Campus and BNU teaching base at Pinewood Studios, you’ll study in a world-renowned working studio and graduate with a portfolio of work.

This course is offered as a four-year programme, including an initial Foundation Year. The Foundation Year will allow you to develop your academic study skills and build confidence in your abilities, identifying your own strengths and development needs for progression onto an undergraduate programme.

**Why study this subject?**
The global gaming market continues to expand, offering a world of opportunity. Your love of gaming together with your creative and modelling skills could see you in numerous roles - from 3D Artist and Animator to Environmental Artist or Technical Animator.

**Why study at Buckinghamshire New University?**
At BNU we focus on preparing you for work in the industry, helping you to stand out when you graduate. Led by our enthusiastic and dedicated team of industry-savvy practitioners and experienced academics, you will have the freedom to explore all areas of 3D Game Art. You may also have guest lectures and can benefit from live project briefs, masterclasses, and plenty of networking opportunities.

You’ll have access to all the software you need to bring your ideas to life. Our small group sizes enable staff and students to work together as a friendly and collaborative community of learners. It also means you’ll benefit from more one to one support with your lecturer.

Opportunity modules are a key part of the BNU curriculum. You’ll choose modules in both your first and second year from a broad selection in areas such as sustainability, entrepreneurship, creativity, digital skills, personal growth, civic engagement, health & wellbeing and employment. Opportunity modules are designed to enable you to develop outside the traditional boundaries of your discipline and help you to further stand out from the crowd to future employers.

**What facilities can I use?**
We’ve made sure you have access to industry-standard equipment and software, including:
*State-of-the-art Motion Capture Equipment
*Unreal Engine
*Unity
*Maya
*3DS Max
*Substance Suite
*Zbrush

You will also use our BucksAnywhere web service, which provides access to many of the software applications you use for learning and studying and can be used from your own device or from a University owned PC or laptop, from any location.

**What will I study?**
You will be taught the fundamentals of 3D modelling and animation, and as your studies progress, your skills with modelling will also improve, and you will also learn about games engines and design.

The focus of this course is on professional workflows for creating 3D assets such as characters, props and environments. You will learn how to export and set these up in a games engine and learn the fundamentals of interactivity and gameplay elements. The course has been intentionally designed to be flexible, to allow you as a student to select and pursue your own specialism within the field.

You’ll discover both the animation and modelling aspect of the field, which you will then develop to include more advanced aspects such as organic sculpting, hair and clothes. You’ll undertake individual and project work, having the opportunity to take a set industry style project and a creative project to develop your specialist skills and build an industry ready portfolio.

You’ll also be invited to join online groups where you'll meet the other students taking our animation, visual effects, game art and visualisation courses. These help to foster a sense of community and are places where extra-curricular collaborative projects, such as game jams, take place.

Modules

**Foundation Year**
**Core**
Preparing for Success: Knowledge and Creativity
Preparing for Success: Self-development and Responsibility
Inquiry and Research Skills
Digital Media
Computing Essentials

**Year one**
**Core**
Introduction to 3D Modelling;
Texturing and Look Development;
Lighting and Rendering;
Animation Principles and The Moving Figure;
Visual Narrative.
**Opportunity**
2 x 10 credit year one Opportunity modules

**Year two**
**Core**
Game Engines;
Virtual Environments for Games;
Digital Sculpting;
Simulated FX.
**Optional**
Plan Your Showreel (Placement);
Rigging;
Project;
Character FX.

**Year three**
**Core**
Industry Production Project;
Portfolio;
Showreel.
**Optional**
Creative Project: Preproduction
Creative Project: Production.

Assessment methods

On our course the teaching will feature a variety of approaches and technology, blended together to engage your learning in class and beyond, and to encourage your full participation. The teaching and learning strategies have been designed to ensure that there is progression from formal teaching through to independent learning as you progress through the levels of the programme.

You will be taught by tutors and lecturers who are current or former industry practitioners, meaning they have in depth knowledge and experience that you can benefit from and in addition, you will experience industry guest masterclasses.

You will be supported with workshops, lectures and seminars that introduce you to a range of topics around 3D development. What you learn will be assessed through a variety of means including coursework that is created with 3D software, presentations and writing a series of reflective journals.

You’ll spend time learning and practicing the skills required by each unit before undertaking summative assessments the form of projects which will enable you to apply and combine their newfound skills together in a meaningful way while tackling tasks commonly found in the industry.

Classes will take place in appropriate computer labs which are equipped with advanced computers and will allow you to explore the subject to the standard that a junior professional will be able to achieve. You’ll attend classes each week with a lecturer present and during these sessions you will have the opportunity to ask questions and get real time responses and feedback from both lecturers and other learners. Normally these will begin with a group seminar or demonstration and then break into 1:1s where you will have the opportunity to discuss your individual progress directly with your lecturer. Sometimes these seminars will be used for presentations and review in a manner that mimics the dailies process in industry.

In addition to this there will be video based lecture content that will be focused on the demonstration of essential skills and clarification and expansion of key concepts and techniques. This will be facilitated via our online learning platform, where you will be able to access sets of recorded lectures which will each be on average 10 minutes long.

Other learning techniques that will be employed appropriately to the situation include:
*Demonstrations for new techniques
*Group work
*Video feedback
*Peer review
*Use of books, magazines, video and online resources
*Research methods

Tuition fees

Select where you currently live to see what you'll pay:

Channel Islands
£9,250
per year
England
£9,250
per year
EU
£15,000
per year
International
£15,000
per year
Northern Ireland
£9,250
per year
Republic of Ireland
£9,250
per year
Scotland
£9,250
per year
Wales
£9,250
per year

Extra funding

Buckinghamshire New University offers a range of bursaries and scholarships. For more information, please visit https://www.bucks.ac.uk/study/fees-and-funding/financial-support-bursaries-and-scholarships

The Uni


Course location:

Buckinghamshire New University

Department:

School of Creative And Digital Industries

Read full university profile

What students say


We've crunched the numbers to see if overall student satisfaction here is high, medium or low compared to students studying this subject(s) at other universities.

70%
Computer games design

How do students rate their degree experience?

The stats below relate to the general subject area/s at this university, not this specific course. We show this where there isn’t enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.

Computer games and animation

Teaching and learning

70%
Staff make the subject interesting
90%
Staff are good at explaining things
90%
Ideas and concepts are explored in-depth
90%
Opportunities to apply what I've learned

Assessment and feedback

Feedback on work has been timely
Feedback on work has been helpful
Staff are contactable when needed
Good advice available when making study choices

Resources and organisation

40%
Library resources
50%
IT resources
90%
Course specific equipment and facilities
50%
Course is well organised and has run smoothly

Student voice

Staff value students' opinions
Feel part of a community on my course

Who studies this subject and how do they get on?

80%
UK students
20%
International students
98%
Male students
2%
Female students
60%
2:1 or above
30%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

B
C
E

After graduation


The stats in this section relate to the general subject area/s at this university – not this specific course. We show this where there isn't enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.

Computer games and animation

What are graduates doing after six months?

This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.

£20,000
low
Average annual salary
83%
med
Employed or in further education

Top job areas of graduates

22%
Information technology and telecommunications professionals
11%
Artistic, literary and media occupations
11%
Design occupations

This is a relatively new subject area for this kind of data, so we don’t currently have very much information to display or analyse yet. Gaming is a growing industry, and if it continues to grow we should see the rather high unemployment rate coming down over the next few years. Much the most common jobs for graduates who do get work after six months are in programming roles - but as things stand, be aware that jobs in the field are very competitive and personal contacts - either through family, friends or via specialist employment agencies - are a crucial way into the industry so be prepared to talk as well as code!

What about your long term prospects?

Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.

Computer games and animation

The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.

£22k

£22k

£21k

£21k

£26k

£26k

Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.

Explore these similar courses...

Nearby University
University of the Arts London | Camden
Games Design
BA (Hons) 3 Years Full-time 2024
UCAS Points: -
Higher entry requirements
Buckinghamshire New University | High Wycombe
3D Game Art
BA (Hons) 3 Years Full-time 2024
UCAS Points: 88-112

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This information comes from the National Student Survey, an annual student survey of final-year students. You can use this to see how satisfied students studying this subject area at this university, are (not the individual course).

This is the percentage of final-year students at this university who were "definitely" or "mostly" satisfied with their course. We've analysed this figure against other universities so you can see whether this is high, medium or low.

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This information is from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), for undergraduate students only.

You can use this to get an idea of who you might share a lecture with and how they progressed in this subject, here. It's also worth comparing typical A-level subjects and grades students achieved with the current course entry requirements; similarities or differences here could indicate how flexible (or not) a university might be.

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Post-six month graduation stats:

This is from the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Survey, based on responses from graduates who studied the same subject area here.

It offers a snapshot of what grads went on to do six months later, what they were earning on average, and whether they felt their degree helped them obtain a 'graduate role'. We calculate a mean rating to indicate if this is high, medium or low compared to other universities.

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Graduate field commentary:

The Higher Education Careers Services Unit have provided some further context for all graduates in this subject area, including details that numbers alone might not show

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The Longitudinal Educational Outcomes dataset combines HRMC earnings data with student records from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.

While there are lots of factors at play when it comes to your future earnings, use this as a rough timeline of what graduates in this subject area were earning on average one, three and five years later. Can you see a steady increase in salary, or did grads need some experience under their belt before seeing a nice bump up in their pay packet?

Have a question about this info? Learn more here