Games Animation, Modelling and Effects (including foundation year)
Entry requirements
At least one A level (or a minimum of 32 UCAS points from an equivalent Level 3 qualification, eg BTEC Subsidiary/National/BTEC Extended Diploma).
GCSE/National 4/National 5
English Language GCSE at grade C/grade 4 or above or will need to take the University English test.
UCAS Tariff
About this course
This course has alternative study modes. Contact the university to find out how the information below might vary.
**Why study this course?**
The BSc Games Animation, Modelling and Effects (GAME) degree course is an innovative undergraduate degree that will provide creative game artists with a number of core modules as well specific artistic skills to enable you to develop the specialist knowledge and skills needed by the games industry.
As an artist you will develop your computer graphics skills, both artistically and technically. You'll learn about subjects including modelling, rigging, animation, texturing, lights/cameras, visual effects (VFX) and rendering.
A number of core modules are provided as part of the degree to enable game artists and game programmers to work together and achieve common goals: such an approach is fundamental to the workflow within the games industry. In addition both groups will also work with each other using their specialist art/programming skills to design and produce joint collaborative games.
Successful completion of the course will prepare artists for a range of positions from concept, technical, texture and VFX artist to character/model builder, animator and graphic designer.
**More about this course**
Designed after research and consultation with computer games professionals and games industry body TIGA - www.tiga.org - this innovative degree will enable artists to develop their computer graphics skills, both artistically and technically - including modelling, rigging, animation, rendering, texturing, lights/cameras and visual effects (VFX).
**Key skills covered on the course include**
- Visual Effects (VFX) workflow
You’ll learn how to design and implement visual effects (VFX) in Houdini and Maya, how to composite VFX and 3D content in real life footage in NUKE and how to create procedural content in Houdini to be integrated in Unreal Engine.
- Character artist workflow
After studying human anatomy in great detail you’ll go on to design and model characters in Maya and sculpt characters in ZBrush. You’ll also create realistic clothing in Marvellous Designer and texture your character in Substance Painter and Substance Designer. Finally, you’ll learn how to rig your character in Maya to get it ready for animation.
- Environment/ hard-surface modeler workflow
This will see you design and create environmental assets in Maya, Zbrush and Houdini (such as buildings, furniture, weapons, tools etc.) You’ll then learn how to texture your assets in Substance Painter and Substance Designer.
- Animator workflow
You’ll learn the principles of animation on which all classic animation works are based. You will first learn how to design and create animations in 2D with Adobe Creative Cloud software, before progressing on to animating mechanical objects and characters in 3D with Maya. Additionally, you’ll learn how to export your animation and integrate them in Unity and Unreal Engine, and how to utilise them in order to create in-game cut-scenes. Finally, you’ll integrate your 3D animations with real life footage using NUKE.
- Game Designer / Level Designer workflow
You will study the principles of game and level design, and you’ll be working in teams with our Games Programming BSc students in order to design, project plan and implement your own games. You’ll learn how to optimise your game assets and design levels for games built with DirectX, Unity and Unreal Engine.
- Technical Artist workflow
You’ll be given the option to learn scripting in C# for Unity, MEL and Python for Maya. You will also have the opportunity to learn visual programming in Unreal Engine, the Bifrost graph editor in Maya and procedural asset generation in Houdini.
Modules
Example Year 0 modules include:
Critical & Contextual Studies: Foundation
Formats
Project
Techniques
Example Year 1 modules include:
Game Design and Development
Digital Design and Image Making
Introduction to Drawing and Animation
Example Year 2 modules include:
Modelling and Texturing
Augmented Toy Development
Advanced 3D Modelling & Animation
Moving Image and VFX
Example Year 3 modules include:
Advanced Scripting CGI Techniques
Work Related Learning for Games and Animation
Games Asset Development
Visual Effects for Computer Graphics and Games
Games Asset Development
Creative Technology Project
Research Related Module
Tuition fees
Select where you currently live to see what you'll pay:
The Uni
Holloway
School of Computing and Digital Media
What students say
How do students rate their degree experience?
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Computer games and animation
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Who studies this subject and how do they get on?
Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)
After graduation
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Computer games and animation
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Top job areas of graduates
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What about your long term prospects?
Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.
Computer games and animation
The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.
£19k
£26k
£29k
Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.
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While there are lots of factors at play when it comes to your future earnings, use this as a rough timeline of what graduates in this subject area were earning on average one, three and five years later. Can you see a steady increase in salary, or did grads need some experience under their belt before seeing a nice bump up in their pay packet?
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