Animation (with placement year) (Hons) at University of Bradford

Overview

Animation is a key part of the UK's £84 billion creative industry. Throughout this course you will develop the skills and understanding to make a successful career in this exciting and dynamic field.

In addition to using state-of-the-art processes and technologies to create digital animations, you will gain a solid grounding in classical animation techniques, drawing, cinematography, story telling and the conceptual understanding to ensure that you become a creative, competent and confident professional.

Our industry-experienced team will help you become an accomplished animator through a combination of practical and theoretical work. Our emphasis is on creating as many animations as possible while still placing it in a cultural and industrial context.

You will do more than simply learn how to use software, you will develop the crucial critical thinking skills that will enable you to produce work of the highest quality – something that the industry desperately wants.

Career support

The programme has been designed to meet the needs of industry.

We have regular industry student engagement, and as many of our staff still work on their own projects and commercial work they are best placed to offer advice on the best way to approach industry to secure employment.

The University is committed to helping students develop and enhance employability and this is an integral part of many programmes.

Specialist support is available throughout the course from Career and Employability Services including help to find part-time work while studying, placements, vacation work and graduate vacancies. Students are encouraged to access this support at an early stage and to use the extensive resources on the Careers website. Discussing options with specialist advisers helps to clarify plans through exploring options and refining skills of job-hunting.

In most of our programmes there is direct input by Career Development Advisers into the curriculum or through specially arranged workshops.

Career prospects

This course will prepare you for a successful career in computer animation. We are very proud of our graduates: they have gone on to work in the UK and overseas for organisations including the BBC, Warner Brothers, Vicon, MGM, Industrial Light and Magic, Disney, Universal, Weta Digital, Pixamundo, Dreamworks, Andy Serkis’ Imaginarium and many others.

Our graduates have worked on blockbuster movies including Avatar, Hugo, Gravity, Inception, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Warhorse, The Dark Knight trilogy and all of the Harry Potter films as well as numerous games. Over the last five years our post-graduate employment and study rates have been significantly better than the national average for animation courses in the UK.

Employment statistics

94% of our 2017 graduates in Animation, Games and Visual Effects found employment or went on to further study within six months of graduating.