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Visual Effects Art

  • BA (Hons)
  • 3 Years
  • Full-time
  • September 2026
  • Undergraduate
City Campus
More about Nottingham Trent University

Course options

2025-20262026-2027
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Course summary

If while watching a movie you have ever marvelled at the seamless integration of live action and digitally created assets, BA (Hons) Visual Effects Art is the course for you. Teaching you on state of-the-art, industry-standard hardware and software, with opportunities to work collaboratively with game artists, animators, live action filmmakers, and VFX tech artists, this course will advance your artistic VFX skills preparing you for your career as a visual effects artist with 100% coursework. Working alone, in teams or in industry focused workshops, you’ll develop the digital toolset, creative invention, and contextual knowledge to bring your visual imagination to life. You’ll graduate with an industry-ready reel demonstrating your invention and artistic prowess.

What you'll study
Develop your artistic creativity to gain skills and knowledge for working collaboratively in the screen arts fields, specifically in creating visual effects for the movie, games and animation industries. You will gain the tool skills to produce immersive worlds and dynamic effects through the seamless integration of digital assets into live-action worlds. Additionally, working alone, in teams or on industry-focused projects, you will develop your creative invention and contextual knowledge to bring your visual imagination to life.

Employability

Graduates will be prepared for a broad range of careers in visual effects. This could include roles such as 3D modeller, 3D LookDev artist, effects artist, compositor, previs artist, VFX layout artist, VFX concept artist and Matchmove artist.

Facilities
We’re committed to helping you explore, expand and refine your craft, as you discover new creative horizons with some truly great tools, equipment and workspaces. Visit our facilities hub at www.ntu.ac.uk/artfacilities to find out more.

We are also proud to be launching the new Design & Digital Arts building to prepare our graduates for success in professional, technical and commercial careers in the growing cultural and creative industries. This landmark building will place Nottingham as a UK hub for film, television, animation, UX design, games design, graphic design and more.

Facilities include:

Collaborative studio spaces for each discipline
Digital Innovation Lab and VR/Mixed Reality Studio
Exhibition spaces
TV and Film Studio
Black Box studio
Film Production editing suites
Screen printing room
Sound studios
Stop Motion Studio
Café

Modules

[Year one]
Principles of Screen Arts (40 credit points)
Visual Effects Studies (40 credit points)
Introduction to VFX Compositing (40 credit points)
Introduction to 3D Digital Art (20 credit points)
[Year two]
Progressing VFX Compositing (40 credit points)
Progressing 3D Digital Art (40 credit points)
VFX Art Studio (40 credit points)
CoLab: Research, Exploration and Risk-taking (20 credit points)
Optional module. You will also choose one optional 20-credit module from:
Storyboarding
Experimental Animation
Telling Stories
Motion Graphics
Digital Matte Painting
Performance for Motion Capture
Music Video
Sound Art & Design
[Year three]
Optional Placement Year (Sandwich)*
We have an option for all of our students to undertake a placement year (Sandwich) and allow you to decide whether this is right for you once you have completed years 1 and 2 of your course. This time spent working in industry provides our students with crucial work experience, which is highly prized and much sought after by employers upon graduation. If you are successful in securing a placement you will have the chance to gain an additional Certificate or Diploma in Professional Practice, dependent on duration.

  • If you choose to take the sandwich route option, you will still need to apply for this course with the full-time UCAS code.
    [Final year]
    VFX Art Project (60 credit points)
    Screen Arts Collaboration (40 credit points)
    VFX Professional Futures (20 credit points)

Assessment method

Year 1 coursework (100%)
Year 2 coursework (100%)
Year 3 coursework (93%), practical exams (7%)
People excel in different ways, and we want everybody to have the best possible chance of success. On this course you will be assessed on a range of individual and group presentations, and your final year project. Your work in Year Two accounts for 20% of your final degree mark, and your work in your final year accounts for the other 80%

Ways to study this course

Campuses

  • City Campus

Study options

  • BA (Hons) • Full-time • 3 Years

Start dates

  • September 2026

Apply by
14 January

This is the equal consideration deadline. You can still apply after this date, but your application may not receive guaranteed consideration.

Application codes

Course code:
W204
Institution code:
N91
Campus name:
City Campus
Campus Code:
1
Points of Entry:
Year 1

Nottingham Trent University has participated in the Teaching Excellence Framework. These ratings were awarded in 2023, for four years.

See why these ratings were awarded
What does this TEF outcome mean?

How to apply

Apply by
14 January

This is the deadline for applications to be completed and sent for this course. If the university or college still has places available you can apply after this date, but your application is not guaranteed to be considered.

Application codes

Course code:
W204
Institution code:
N91
Campus name:
City Campus
Campus Code:
1

Points of entry

The following entry points are available for this course:

  • Year 1

Open days

Entry requirements

UCAS Tariff 104 - 112 points

104 - 112 UCAS Tariff points from up to four qualifications (two of which must be A-level equivalent)

A level

104 - 112 UCAS Tariff points from up to four qualifications (two of which must be A-level equivalent)

Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016) DMM

DMM from a BTEC Extended Diploma

Access to HE Diploma

Pass your Access course with 60 credits overall with a minimum of 45 credits at level 3

Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)

104 - 112 UCAS Tariff points from your BTEC Level 3 National Diploma and up to two other qualifications.

Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Certificate (first teaching from September 2016)

104 - 112 UCAS Tariff points from your BTEC Level 3 National Extended Certificate and up to three other qualifications (one of which must be A-Level equivalent).

T Level

We will consider T Levels for entry to this course, either as stand-alone qualifications or in conjunction with other Level 3 qualifications, in accordance with the specified course tariff points.

A lower offer may be made based on a range of factors, including your background (such as where you live and the school or college you attended), your experiences and individual circumstances (you may have been in care, for example). This is called a contextual offer and we get data from UCAS to make these decisions. NTU offers a student experience like no other, and this approach helps us to find students who have the potential to succeed here, but may have faced barriers that can make it more difficult to access university.

We also consider equivalent qualifications and combinations. Please contact Nottingham Trent University Admissions team for further information.

Contextual admissions

Universities and colleges consider more than grades when assessing applications and may make offers based on a range of criteria. Learn more about contextual offers.

NTU makes contextual offers for this course to give everyone a fair chance to access their chosen degree.

Contextual offers are lower than our standard entry criteria or may be an unconditional offer for courses that require a portfolio. We also take individual circumstances into account when we receive results and may accept grades lower than our published criteria.

We use a range of data from UCAS to make our offers and more information on our approach is available at the link below.

Learn more on the Nottingham Trent University website

Historical entry grades data

This section shows the range of grades students (with UK A-Levels or Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diplomas) who received offers were previously accepted with (learn more). It is designed to support your research but does not guarantee whether you will or won't get a place. Admissions teams consider various factors, including interviews, subject requirements, and entrance tests. Check all course entry requirements for eligibility.

Not enough data available

We are unable to show previous accepted grades for this course. This could be because the course is new, it's a postgraduate course, there isn't enough historical data, or the provider has opted out of sharing their entry grades data for this course - learn more.

Fees and funding

Tuition fees

No fee information has been provided for this course

Tuition fee status depends on a number of criteria and varies according to where in the UK you will study. For further guidance on the criteria for home or overseas tuition fees, please refer to the UKCISA website.

Additional fee information

Tuition fees for 2026 entry are yet to be confirmed. As a guide and to enable you to plan your finances, the fees for Home undergraduate students for 2025 are £9535 .The current expectation is that the University may increase this for future and subsequent years of study in line with inflation and as specified by the Government.

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