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Games Animation, Modelling and Effects (including foundation year)

Entry requirements


At least one A level (or a minimum of 32 UCAS points from an equivalent Level 3 qualification, eg BTEC Subsidiary/National/BTEC Extended Diploma).

GCSE/National 4/National 5

English Language GCSE at grade C/grade 4 or above or will need to take the University English test.

UCAS Tariff

32

About this course


This course has alternative study modes. Contact the university to find out how the information below might vary.

Course option

4years

Full-time | 2024

Other options

8 years | Part-time | 2024

Subjects

Computer animation and visual effects

Computer games programming

**Why study this course?**

The BSc Games Animation, Modelling and Effects (GAME) degree course is an innovative undergraduate degree that will provide creative game artists with a number of core modules as well specific artistic skills to enable you to develop the specialist knowledge and skills needed by the games industry.

As an artist you will develop your computer graphics skills, both artistically and technically. You'll learn about subjects including modelling, rigging, animation, texturing, lights/cameras, visual effects (VFX) and rendering.

A number of core modules are provided as part of the degree to enable game artists and game programmers to work together and achieve common goals: such an approach is fundamental to the workflow within the games industry. In addition both groups will also work with each other using their specialist art/programming skills to design and produce joint collaborative games.

Successful completion of the course will prepare artists for a range of positions from concept, technical, texture and VFX artist to character/model builder, animator and graphic designer.

**More about this course**

Designed after research and consultation with computer games professionals and games industry body TIGA - www.tiga.org - this innovative degree will enable artists to develop their computer graphics skills, both artistically and technically - including modelling, rigging, animation, rendering, texturing, lights/cameras and visual effects (VFX).

**Key skills covered on the course include**

- Visual Effects (VFX) workflow

You’ll learn how to design and implement visual effects (VFX) in Houdini and Maya, how to composite VFX and 3D content in real life footage in NUKE and how to create procedural content in Houdini to be integrated in Unreal Engine.

- Character artist workflow

After studying human anatomy in great detail you’ll go on to design and model characters in Maya and sculpt characters in ZBrush. You’ll also create realistic clothing in Marvellous Designer and texture your character in Substance Painter and Substance Designer. Finally, you’ll learn how to rig your character in Maya to get it ready for animation.

- Environment/ hard-surface modeler workflow

This will see you design and create environmental assets in Maya, Zbrush and Houdini (such as buildings, furniture, weapons, tools etc.) You’ll then learn how to texture your assets in Substance Painter and Substance Designer.

- Animator workflow

You’ll learn the principles of animation on which all classic animation works are based. You will first learn how to design and create animations in 2D with Adobe Creative Cloud software, before progressing on to animating mechanical objects and characters in 3D with Maya. Additionally, you’ll learn how to export your animation and integrate them in Unity and Unreal Engine, and how to utilise them in order to create in-game cut-scenes. Finally, you’ll integrate your 3D animations with real life footage using NUKE.

- Game Designer / Level Designer workflow

You will study the principles of game and level design, and you’ll be working in teams with our Games Programming BSc students in order to design, project plan and implement your own games. You’ll learn how to optimise your game assets and design levels for games built with DirectX, Unity and Unreal Engine.

- Technical Artist workflow

You’ll be given the option to learn scripting in C# for Unity, MEL and Python for Maya. You will also have the opportunity to learn visual programming in Unreal Engine, the Bifrost graph editor in Maya and procedural asset generation in Houdini.

Modules

Example Year 0 modules include:

Critical & Contextual Studies: Foundation
Formats
Project
Techniques

Example Year 1 modules include:

Game Design and Development
Digital Design and Image Making
Introduction to Drawing and Animation

Example Year 2 modules include:

Modelling and Texturing
Augmented Toy Development
Advanced 3D Modelling & Animation
Moving Image and VFX

Example Year 3 modules include:

Advanced Scripting CGI Techniques
Work Related Learning for Games and Animation
Games Asset Development
Visual Effects for Computer Graphics and Games
Games Asset Development
Creative Technology Project
Research Related Module

Tuition fees

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

Channel Islands
£17,600
per year
England
£9,250
per year
EU
£17,600
per year
International
£17,600
per year
Northern Ireland
£9,250
per year
Republic of Ireland
£17,600
per year
Scotland
£9,250
per year
Wales
£9,250
per year

The Uni


Course location:

Holloway

Department:

School of Computing and Digital Media

Read full university profile

What students say


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

Sorry, no information to show

This is usually because there were too few respondents in the data we receive to be able to provide results about the subject at this university.


Who studies this subject and how do they get on?

93%
UK students
7%
International students
78%
Male students
22%
Female students
87%
2:1 or above
21%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

C
A
C

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
90%
med
Employed or in further education

Top job areas of graduates

This is a newly-classified subject area for this kind of data, so we don’t currently have very much information to display or analyse yet. Over time we can expect more students to study them — there could be opportunities that open up for graduates in these subjects as the economy develops over the next few years. But at the moment this looks to be a good degree if you want to work on the technical side of film and TV and this is the most common industry for new graduates.

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.

£19k

£19k

£26k

£26k

£29k

£29k

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...

Higher entry requirements
Glasgow School of Art | Glasgow
3D Modelling
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UCAS Points: 114-136
Lower entry requirements
University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) | Inverness
Computing
BSc (Hons) 4 Years Full-time 2024
UCAS Points: 21-24

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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?

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