Choosing the right degree can turn your passion into a career in digital art. Whether it is creating stunning visual effects, designing characters for games or bringing animated characters to life, each course has a unique focus and leads to different careers so start building your creative future today.
VFX
The VFX degree is perfect for those who dream of creating breathtaking scenes in films or TV shows by adding computer generated imagery (CGI) elements that blend seamlessly with live-action footage. This course covers a wide range of technical and artistic skills, including:
- Compositing and CGI integration: You will learn how to combine CGI (like explosions or creatures) with real footage to make effects look possible.
- 3D modelling and texturing: Mastering diverse types of software for 3D modelling which will give you the skills to create highly detailed assets and environments, from digital buildings to complex creature designs.
- Lighting and rendering: To make CGI look as close to real as possible you will study lighting techniques to make sure that your virtual objects appear natural and consistent with their environment.
The VFX course is ideal for those who love the technical side of film and enjoy making the impossible appear real.
Careers - Graduates can find roles as VFX artists, compositors, or FX technical directors, where they can bring their visions for the big-screen to life.
Game Technical Art
Games technical art is perfect if you are passionate about game design and want to focus on creating optimised, interactive assets, assets being pieces of digital content that go into a game such as sound files for a game’s soundtrack. This degree combines both technical and artistic elements, preparing you to bring video games to life.
Key topics include:
- Game asset creation: You will learn to design characters, environments, and props, with a focus on making these assets look great without overloading the game engine.
- Optimisation for game engines: Unlike film, where assets can be detailed, games require assets to run smoothly in real time to ensure the best gaming experience, so you will also gain skills in making these assets work efficiently in popular game engines such as Unreal and Unity.
- Animation and FX for games – Learn to add movement and add various visual effects (like fire, water, or magic effects) that enhance gameplay.
- This course is ideal for students who enjoy building immersive, interactive experiences and want to focus on real time rendering and optimisation.
Careers - With this degree, you could become an environment artist, technical artist or even an asset designer within the gaming industry.
For those who love character-driven storytelling, Animation is all about creating lifelike characters and expressive movements. This course covers both 2D and 3D animation techniques, with a special focus on character performance and storytelling.
- Character animation: You will learn how to bring characters to life by focusing on movement, timing, and emotion, making them feel as if they are real actors on the screen.
- Rigging and facial animation – Discover the technical side of character animation, setting up digital “skeletons” so that characters can move naturally.
- Storyboarding and Layout – Before animating, you will need to learn to plan scenes visually, mapping out shots and key moments that tell a compelling story.
The animation course is perfect for creatives who love storytelling and want to craft engaging, lifelike characters for the screen.
Careers - Animation graduates often work as character animators, storyboard artists, or character designers in film, television, and game studios.
Whilst each course covers core skills like modelling, texturing, rendering and FX, each course has a specific focus: VFX emphasises detail and realism for cinematic quality. Games technical art focuses on optimising assets for real time use. Animation centers on character movement and expression. With each course, you will gain foundational skills that open versatile career opportunities in the growing entertainment industry.