Animation

This is a Connected Degree

Portsmouth is the only University in the UK with the flexibility to choose when to do an optional paid placement or self-employed year. Either take a placement in your third year, or finish your studies first and complete a placement in your fourth year. You can decide if and when to take a placement after you've started your course.

Overview

With our Animation degree course, you'll gain the sought-after technical skills, artistic insight, and platform diversity to apply your talent to any form of visual arts, media, or communication. You'll develop advanced abilities in character animation, visual storytelling, compositing and editing, and learn from active industry professionals who’ve directed animations for Disney, Warner Bros., and Cartoon Network, and produced special effects for prominent film franchises like Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and Chronicles of Narnia.

At the end of the course, you’ll be primed for a successful career in 2D or 3D animation across multiple industries.

Course highlights

• Practise the techniques that animators use in the film industry, such as the performance capture process used in the film Avatar

• Learn industry-standard software and production methods and use professional animation equipment including Adobe Creative Cloud, Autodesk Maya, TV Paint, and Wacom Cintiq digital drawing displays

• Meet prospective employers and industry contacts by showcasing your work at our student screening in London

• Gain valuable industry experience and knowledge by taking an optional placement year – either with a company or as self-employed

• Demonstrate your technical proficiency to industry peers by earning Adobe Certified Associate (ACA) accreditation

• Impress the public and potential employers by showcasing your final-year work at our annual Graduate Shows

• Put your artistry and skills to prize-winning test by taking part in our annual University GameJam

Accreditation

This Animation degree course is accredited by JAMES (Joint Audio Media Education Services), a group of industry professionals and employers.

The JAMES accreditation lets potential employers know that this course gives you the relevant skills and abilities you need to work in the animation industry when you graduate. This gives you an edge over students who didn’t do an accredited course when you’re applying for jobs.

JAMES reviews our accreditation every 3 years to make sure the Animation course content remains up-to-date with industry trends and developments. So you’ll always be learning skills relevant to your career.

Careers and opportunities

The UK’s animation industry creates pioneering content and visual effects worldwide for commercials, websites, games, and interactive technologies. With the rapid development of future technologies such as virtual, mixed, and augmented reality, animation continues to be a growing sector of the global media and entertainment market.

Upon completing our Animation degree course, you can be part of this vital industry that transcends all sectors.

Graduate roles

Our graduates have worked in a wide range of artistic roles, including:

• animators

• concept artists

• directors

• compositors

• creative directors

• art directors

• modellers

• user interface (UI) designers

• post-production technical directors

Graduate destinations

Our graduates have worked at renowned companies such as:

• Climax

• Framestore

• The Mill

• Sony Pictures Animation

• Kuju Games

• Centroid 3d in Pinewood Studios

• Cartoon Network

Graduate productions

Some of our alumni have worked on high-profile feature films and cartoons, including:

• Avatar

• Life of Pi

• Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland

• The Amazing World of Gumball

After you graduate, you can get help, advice and support for up to 5 years from our Careers and Employability service as you advance in your career.

Year 1
Core modules in this year include:

• Introduction to 2D Animation (20 credits)
• Introduction to 3D Animation (20 credits)
• Introduction to Visual Research for Animation (20 credits)
• Modelling for Animation & VFX (20 credits)
• Narrative (20 credits)
• Signs and Meaning in Animation (20 credits)

Year 2
Core modules in this year include:

• Animation Group Project: Introduction (20 credits)
• Animation Group Project: Production (20 credits)
• Experimental Animation (20 credits)
• History and Theory of Animation (20 credits)

Optional modules in this year include:

• Engaged Citizenship Through Interdisciplinary Practice (20 credits)
• Intermediate 2D Animation (20 credits)
• Intermediate 3D Animation (20 credits)
• Professional Experience (20 credits)
• Real-Time Animation and Vfx Project (20 credits)
• Sound and Visualisation (20 credits)
• Student Enterprise (20 credits)
• Visual Effects (20 credits)

Year 3
Core modules in this year include:

• Employment Preparation (20 credits)
• Major Project: Part 1 (20 credits)
• Major Project: Part 2 (20 credits)
• Written Project (20 credits)

Optional modules in this year include:

• Advanced 2D Animation (20 credits)
• Advanced 3D Animation (20 credits)
• Advanced Pre-Production Methods (20 credits)
• Advanced Visual Effects (20 credits)
• Intermediate Visual Effects (20 credits)
• Motion Capture Applications (20 credits)

Placement year (optional):
On this course, you can do an optional work placement year after your 2nd or 3rd year to get valuable experience working in industry. We’ll help you secure a work placement that fits your situation and ambitions. You’ll get mentoring and support throughout the year.

We use the best and most current research and professional practice alongside feedback from our students to make sure course content is relevant to your future career or further studies.

Therefore, some course content may change over time to reflect changes in the discipline or industry and some optional modules may not run every year. If a module doesn’t run, we’ll let you know as soon as possible and help you choose an alternative module.

You’ll be assessed through animation design projects, a showreel and portfolio, written coursework (one module per year) and a dissertation. You’ll be able to test your skills and knowledge informally before you do assessments that count towards your final mark. You can get feedback on all practice and formal assessments so you can improve in the future. The way you’re assessed may depend on the modules you select. As a guide, students on this course last year were typically assessed as follows: [Year 1 students]: 100% by coursework; [Year 2 students]: 17% by practical exams and 83% by coursework; [Year 3 students]: 17% by practical exams and 83% by coursework.

Professionally accredited courses provide industry-wide recognition of the quality of your qualification.

• The Joint Audio Media Education Services