Animation and Games Art with Integrated Foundation Year
Animation and games art sit at the heart of two of the most creative and technically demanding sectors in the contemporary digital economy. Animation is the art of bringing images to life, whether in feature films, television, advertising, games, visual effects or emerging interactive media. Games art encompasses the visual design of game worlds, characters, environments, user interfaces and all the visual assets that make a game's world coherent and compelling.
Both require a combination of traditional art and design skills, digital technical proficiency and an understanding of the particular demands of their respective industries.
This four-year full-time degree at the University of Sunderland includes an integrated foundation year, a sandwich year with a work placement and a year abroad, giving you a supported academic start and substantial professional and international experience embedded in the programme. The integrated foundation year provides the artistic, technical and academic foundations needed before you progress to degree-level work, making the programme well suited to students who want a structured entry into the discipline. Throughout the main degree you will develop skills in character design, environment art, 2D and 3D animation, modelling, texturing and rigging, using the software and workflows employed in professional studios.
The placement year gives you direct experience in the animation or games industry before you graduate.
Graduates work in animation studios, games development companies, visual effects houses, television production, advertising agencies, educational technology companies and the wider digital creative sector. Roles in character animation, environment art, concept art, 3D modelling, rigging, visual effects and technical art are all relevant destinations. Further study in animation, games art or visual effects is an option for those who wish to develop specialist expertise or move into more advanced creative or technical roles.