Undergraduate study
     

Computer Animation & Visual Effects

Teesside University enjoys a long-standing and well-deserved reputation in the exciting fields of animation and visual effects. Our courses are designed for careers in computer animation, character animation, concept art and visual effects for TV and film.

Jessie's impossible thinks Student work for Animation, Games & Computer Graphics field of study (6mins)

Quality teaching

Skillset approved We pride ourselves on the quality of our teaching and resources. Our courses are supported by a wealth of highly experienced and talented teaching staff with industry experience. Many of the academics are either award-winning practitioners, experienced industry professionals, or are involved in consultancy and state-of-the-art research. We have excellent contacts with the animation and visual effects industry and continually feed back our research and experience into the course. Each year we run a series of special lectures from visiting speakers and all of our students have the opportunity to attend Animex, our very own festival of animation and computer games, which gives you the chance to meet and talk to the biggest studios in the world. In the final year all of our animation students will work in small teams to create a short film helping to develop essential team working skills. Many of these films go on to be nominated or student awards at other national and international festivals.

Supportive study

While we expect our students to develop as independent learners, we commit a wealth of resources and guidance to support your learning journey. This includes staff in various roles to support you academically and personally both as an individual and as part of a course cohort. We have a lively group of student mentors and also employ graduate demonstrators to provide additional classroom support. As ex-students they are able to share their own student experiences while gaining vital employment experience themselves.

First-class facilities

As an animation student you will have access to up-to-date industry standard 2D and 3D animation, visual effects and compositing facilities. All of our software is industry standard including specialist programs such as After Effects, Softimage, Maya, Nuke, Toonboom, Mudbox and 3dCoat. Our dedicated life drawing spaces, music studios, state-of-art motion-capture studio, fully equipped green screen studio and compositing facilities are housed in brand new purpose built buildings.

Research and enterprise

Computer Animation & Visual Effects

Excellent prospects

Our graduates have gone on to work for some of the major players in the animation and games industries, including Pixar, Dreamworks, Double Negative, Moving Picture Company,Framestore, Ubisoft, Studio Liddell and Pixomondo. And they’ve worked on top box office animations including Kung Fu Panda 2, Cars 2 and the Harry Potter series. Our graduates also engage with the University company incubator opportunities, including companies such as Seed Animation (www.seedanimation.com) who started in Teesside and are now running a successful animation studio in Soho, London.
We are dedicated to supporting our students to find jobs when they have graduated. Each year you will receive additional career support to prepare you for getting your first job including developing your interview skills and creating a personal online portfolio. We have an exclusive online jobs board containing new job information and up-to-date career advice. At the end of your final year you will exhibit your work at our annual ExpoTees show, giving you the chance to showcase your work and network with employers and key industry players. You could also win one of a number of exclusive 3, 6 or 12 month internships that we setup each year with leading animation and visual fx companies in the UK.

Factfile

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  • Use state-of-the-art facilities with fully equipped 2D and 3D animation studios, life drawing studios, motion-capture studio, sound stage and recording studio
  • Network at Animex – a University-hosted international festival of animation and computer games where you get the opportunity to meet leading animators and visual effects artists from around the world
  • Study at a university which is a Skillset Academy, with Skillset-accredited programmes considered amongst the best in the world
  • Gain essential teamworking experience through the production of a professional short film ready for screening at international festivals