Game Art

Become an industry-ready game artist.

On this Game Art degree, you'll master the creative and technical skills to succeed as a digital artist. Using industry-standard tools including Adobe Photoshop, Maya, ZBrush, Substance Painter and Unreal, you'll develop expertise in character, concept and environment art, 3D modelling, UV mapping, baking, composition and shading.

In the second and third year of the Game Art degree, you’ll showcase your skills as you contribute to a major game development project. You’ll graduate from the course as a confident, industry-ready game artist, equipped to join one of the fastest growing sectors of the games industry.

Why study this course at Falmouth?
We’re experts in our field – Achieving a top ranked status for Concept Art and Game Design and Development (Rookies Global Rankings 2024)
You’ll study in one of the largest and best-equipped dedicated game-making spaces of any UK university, with access to industry standard hardware and software
Our industry-focused approach means you’ll team up with creative talent to produce real games while you study, and you’ll keep the Intellectual Property (IP)
You’ll learn from professional artists, game art practitioners and developers who have worked on titles such as Grand Theft Auto, World of Warcraft, Project Gotham Racing and the Total War series
You’ll have opportunities to network with industry giants and games fans through our epic guest speaker programme and annual Games Academy Expo
Our graduates have worked at studios including Build A Rocket Boy, Fireproof, Free Radical Design, Frontier Developments, Splash Damage and 10:10 Games

You'll study the principles of game art in the context of traditional art practice, combining subjects like life drawing and composition with digital 2D and 3D modelling. We'll also build your expertise in concept, character and environment art, agile project management, and game development pipelines and processes.

Focused on industry practices, much of your learning will come from working in game development teams – devising and developing real games using real-world practices.

Year one
During the first year of your Game Art degree, you'll build the basic skills demanded by the industry, and learn about game artists' major roles and techniques. Working with industry-standard software, methods and processes, you'll develop your drawing skills, better understand anatomy, and apply these abilities to 3D modelling and related elements.

You'll learn traditional and digital art skills – both 2D and 3D – alongside concept, environment and character art to build digital worlds and characters.

Modules:
Concept Art 1
Character Art 1
Environment Art 1
Concept Art 2
Character Art 2
Environment Art 2

Year two
You'll grow your confidence in game art and your skills in using professional digital tools. You'll provide art assets to a collaborative project with game students of different disciplines, giving you valuable experience in an industry-style development pipeline.

An additional specialist practice project lets you hone your skills in a particular area of game art and create high quality work for your portfolio.

Modules
World Building: Pre-production
Developing Concept Art Vocabularies
Developing Character Art Vocabularies
Developing Environment Art Vocabularies
Art Research Practice
World Building: Production
Portfolio Development

Year three
With specialism, independence and professional practice at the front and centre of this year, you'll join a multi-skilled team on a game development project. Working in a studio, you'll contribute art assets using industry-standard methods and pipelines.

You'll also create distinctive and polished work for your growing portfolio by working on specialist game art. We'll then help you commercialise this work and prepare you for the transition to professional life.

Modules
Future Skills
Professional Portfolio
Technical Art Practice
Future of Games
Major Collaboration

As part of our process of continuous improvement, we routinely review course content to ensure that all our students benefit from a high-quality and rewarding academic experience. As such, there may be some changes made to your course which are not immediately reflected in the content displayed on our website. Any students affected will be informed of any changes made directly.

100% of your assessment will be coursework.

Assessment methods
Continuous assessment with no formal examinations
Visual, verbal and written assignments
A portfolio of personal and group project work is developed over the course of the degree to boost your employability