Animation and Illustration

Animation and illustration are two disciplines that have always been closely related and which are increasingly converging in professional practice. Illustration is the art of visual storytelling and communication through image, creating work that interprets, decorates, or extends a narrative or concept across a wide range of media. Animation adds the dimension of time and movement, bringing characters, worlds, and ideas to life through sequences that can be hand-drawn, digitally crafted, or produced through any of a growing range of hybrid techniques.

At Anglia Ruskin University you will study across three years on a full-time programme. The curriculum is deliberately broad in the range of methods and media it explores: you will work with puppet making and stop-motion animation, traditional 2D animation, digital 2D and 3D animation, character design, and graphic novel and sequential art design. This breadth is intentional, reflecting the reality that contemporary animation and illustration professionals need to move between techniques and formats as projects and industry demands require.

You will develop your creative voice and visual identity alongside technical skills, building a portfolio that demonstrates your range and depth across different approaches. Critical and contextual study of animation and illustration history and theory informs your practice, giving you the intellectual framework to make deliberate creative decisions.

Graduates of animation and illustration work in animation studios, games companies, publishing, advertising, film and television production, educational media, and digital content creation. Character design, storyboarding, concept art, editorial illustration, children's book illustration, and motion graphics are all common professional directions. The combination of traditional and digital skills the degree develops is particularly valued in a professional landscape where the ability to move between analogue and digital approaches gives you real versatility.

Further study at postgraduate level in animation, illustration, or visual arts is available for those who wish to develop a research practice or pursue more specialist roles in the industry.