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Summary:
Applying through UCAS? Apply here (W6FY)
Course Code: W6FY
Applying through UCAS? Apply here (W615)
Course Code: W615
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Which Options Would You Like With Your Course?
Why choose the School of Arts and Creative Industries
We are members of the British Fashion Council, The Association of Fashion and Textiles Courses, the Association of Illustrators and AA2A (Artists Access to Art Colleges), enhancing your graduate employment opportunities
Our Fashion Design graduates have entered many areas of the fashion industry and completed internships with Alexander McQueen, Mary Katrantzou, Sophia Webster and Amanda Wakeley
Our students work on live briefs for companies such as Bedford Creative Arts, London Luton Airport, Luton Town FC, Luton Culture Trust and Penguin Books and participate in collaborative projects with leading art and design practitioners
About the course
This mixed-media course shares projects and a studio with Graphic Design so you not only develop the skills you need as an animator but benefit from working on graphics communication-based projects too. This combined expertise makes you a more interesting marketable animator and gives you key crossover skills for today's digital world.
Our Animation BA (Hons) gives the skills you need as an animator in areas such as character design and model making as well as graphic design skills in motion graphics augmented reality special effects illustration and digital graphic design.
You learn your craft through practical workshop sessions sustained practice in the studio some work-related learning opportunities with live briefs one-to-one tutorials seminars demonstrations and independent research. The course also includes insights into professional and work-related practices preparing you for a future career in the creative industries as well as the world of work generally.
Why choose this course?
- Build your understanding of animation’s different contexts and its wider global impact on social environmental and political issues
- Gain the knowledge experience and understanding of design environments you need to communicate and present ideas and work to audiences in a range of situations
- Benefit from small class sizes and good access to industry-standard equipment
- Enjoy free access to Adobe Creative Cloud software for personal use
- Work on live-brief projects with our expert academic team and submit for national competitions
- Learn the skills to work effectively with others through collaboration collective support and negotiation
- Take the course over four years and include a fee-free year in industry (see below) gaining experience and making contacts for the future
- If you need a step up into higher education study start with a Foundation Year (see below) which guarantees you a place on the full degree course
with Professional Practice Year
This course has the option to be taken over four years which includes a year placement in industry. Undertaking a year in industry has many benefits. You gain practical experience and build your CV, as well as being a great opportunity to sample a profession and network with potential future employers.
There is no tuition fee for the placement year enabling you to gain an extra year of experience for free.
*Only available to UK/EU students.
with Foundation Year
A Degree with a Foundation Year gives you guaranteed entry to an Undergraduate course.
Whether you’re returning to learning and require additional help and support to up-skill, or if you didn’t quite meet the grades to pursue an Undergraduate course, our Degrees with Foundation Year provide a fantastic entry route for you to work towards a degree level qualification.
With our guidance and support you’ll get up to speed within one year, and will be ready to seamlessly progress on to undergraduate study at Bedfordshire.
The Foundation Year provides an opportunity to build up your academic writing skills and numeracy, and will also cover a range of subject specific content to fully prepare you for entry to an Undergraduate degree.
This is an integrated four-year degree, with the foundation year as a key part of the course. You will need to successfully complete the Foundation Year to progress on to the first year of your bachelor’s degree.
Why study a degree with a Foundation Year?
- Broad-based yet enough depth to give you credible vocational skills
- Coverage of a variety of areas typically delivered by an expert in this area
- Gain an understanding of a subject before choosing which route you wish to specialise in
- Great introduction to further study, and guaranteed progression on to one of our Undergraduate degrees
The degrees offering a Foundation Year provide excellent preparation for your future studies.
During your Foundation Year you will get the opportunity to talk to tutors about your degree study and future career aspirations, and receive guidance on the most appropriate Undergraduate course to help you achieve this; providing you meet the entry requirements and pass the Foundation Year.
Course Leader - Noel Douglas
I’m an internationally recognised Artist and Designer with over 30 years experience teaching and running my own studio. I have worked for a large range of commercial clients and creating my own art work for exhibition.
I work across a range of media and spaces from Street Art, Posters and Graphic Identities to Videos, Augmented Reality and Web based work, both for my own Art and with groups who need my Design skills, most I recently I have worked with the group Grenfell Next of Kin - a group of the bereaved survivors of the Grenfell Tower Fire - to develop large scale publicity campaigns for them.
Course Leader - Noel Douglas
I’m an internationally recognised Artist and Designer with over 30 years experience teaching and running my own studio. I have worked for a large range of commercial clients and creating my own art work for exhibition.
I work across a range of media and spaces from Street Art, Posters and Graphic Identities to Videos, Augmented Reality and Web based work, both for my own Art and with groups who need my Design skills, most I recently I have worked with the group Grenfell Next of Kin - a group of the bereaved survivors of the Grenfell Tower Fire - to develop large scale publicity campaigns for them.
What will you study?
English Language Foundation
This unit focuses on your ability to understand and use the English language accurately when you read, speak, listen and write. We will concentrate on the English you need for undergraduate level study in your chosen subject area, covering grammar, subject area vocabulary and the four language skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking.
A key element of the unit is the grammar of the language, and particularly the verb tense system in English, because your ability to use the verb tense system accurately will be extremely important when you come to write essays and reports. This unit will focus in particular on the grammar of the language.
We will also focus on reading, listening and speaking skills in the context of your chosen subject area. Beginning with short texts, we will practise each skill and practise it again, so that gradually you will see, hear and feel that your command of the language is improving.
A recurring focus of the unit will be your acquisition of 'learner autonomy'. This means your ability to acquire the language yourself, without needing a teacher's help. This is important because from next year you will not have an English teacher to help you. So we will consider and practise strategies to help you gain confidence in your own ability to increase your knowledge of and ability to use the language, including for instance guessing meaning of difficult words, deciding which words are important in a text, recognising differences between formal and informal language, and other strategies, so that as the first semester continues, you begin to feel more confident in your use and experience with the English Language.
Academic Skills Foundation
When you begin your undergraduate level studies, you will be expected to have knowledge of and ability to use a large range of 'study skills'. You will also be expected to have some knowledge of the subject area you will be studying. This unit deals with both of these aspects of your preparation for undergraduate level study.
All of the academic skills are practised in English, so you will use your developing acquisition of the language from the partner unit 'English Language Foundation' to practise and gain mastery of these skills. You will also use your language and study skills as you learn the foundation of your subject area, putting the skills into practice as you learn.
Developing English Language Skills
This unit builds on the progress you made during its partner semester 1 unit 'English Language Foundation' and increasing your level from that which you had achieved by the end of semester 1.
We will recycle the tense system in English and other elements of the grammar system, but you will now learn how to use other aspects of the grammar, including the passive voice, as well as linking words and phrases and devices which enable you to write longer sentences but retain grammatical accuracy.
You will notice that we gradually introduce more specialist language that you need in preparation for your degree and we will expect you to use and develop the skills that you gained in the previous units so that you are able to work more independently.
Academic Skills Development
This unit builds on the skills learnt and practised in its partner semester 1 unit 'Foundation Academic Skills'. We will add more skills to the list, including summarizing and synthesising, argumentation, critical thinking and referencing and citation skills, as well as several others and practise and test them in the same way as with the semester 1 unit.
We will also investigate the research skill and you will learn how to prepare a research proposal and conduct a literature review, and how to plan a research project, learning about the research tools available and how they can be used to conduct research in your chosen field.
You will continue to broaden your knowledge of key current issues and theory in your chosen subject area, and apply the critical thinking and argumentation skills you acquire in this unit to argue for and against propositions you have studied in the form of in both essays and presentations and in seminar situations, ensuring that you are ready to step up to your chosen undergraduate course with a base level of subject area knowledge from which to continue your academic development as you progress to level 4 study.
Context And Ideas
This unit introduces Context and Ideas in Art and Design, exploring visual culture, ideologies and interpretations of historic and contemporary practice. You will consider research methods to help you analyse art and design theory and practice. Lectures and seminars will introduce key ideas in art and design, and their effects on culture and society, allowing you to reflect on how they impact and influence your own studio practice. You will develop your academic study skills.
Communication Design: Exploring Materials And Methods
This unit will introduce you to essential practical and critical skills involved in Communication Design. It will introduce you to new ways of considering materials and methods in the production of your work.
The aim of this unit is to provide an opportunity to explore, test and experiment using a range of skills, methods and material processes for Communication Design. You will apply technical skills to support image-making and story-telling. This unit will help you learn practical and critical skills that are fundamental in the development of your studio practice.
Introducing Studio Practice
This unit introduces you to Art and Design study in a higher education environment. It will introduce you to the learning resources available to you and the types of learning in which you will engage. An important aspect of the unit is to lay the foundation for your own personal approach to study.
This will include helping you to develop as an independent learner with the self-confidence to reflect upon personal performance and identify areas for action.
There will be a strong relationship between the learning involved in this unit and its application to other units on the art and design courses.
Over the duration of this unit, you will experience cross discipline learning and development, collaborative working, as well as discipline specific skills and experience.
Thinking Through Making
This unit introduces you to practical working methods in Art and Design - where you will be encouraged to develop a personal understanding of your discipline through testing, experimenting and making.
The unit will enhance your ability to communicate and ‘play’ in a range of formats the capacity to be creative and to develop an aesthetic sensibility through engagement with technology, processes and ideas.
Using a practice-based approach you will be encouraged to take creative risks, allowing you to develop practice that enriches your work, giving you the freedom to explore and discover creative processes that are both discipline and non-discipline specific.
You will learn how to test and translate your ideas using a range of media that articulate and communicate visual ideas and develop an understanding of your practice.
Developing Professional Practice
This unit consolidates your development and understanding of subject specific materials and methods, and encourages you to consider their application to professional practice.
You will take into account commercial, cultural and social contexts in response to projects and visual enquiry, and develop the confidence to take creative risks in your practice.
There is an increasing emphasis on your portfolio and exhibition practice, to further encourage independence and professionalism in the presentation of your work.
Collaborative Enterprise
This unit allows you to apply your acquired knowledge and expertise in your discipline, to a collaborative interdisciplinary project.
The work and learning of this unit are seen as an important link between your academic work and the professional world.
You will negotiate your learning with your supervising tutor who will take account of your agreed role within group scenarios. The unit tests your abilities to work both independently and collaboratively in the wider professional community.
Context And Meaning
This unit builds upon knowledge gained at level 4, to place theory and practice into global contexts. You will examine a range of critical texts and practices related to art, design and visual culture.
You will further develop your research and analytical skills, so that you can engage with the contexts and meanings that underpin your own practice, and inform the way you critically evaluate the development of your creative work.
Animation And Illustration: Developing Materials And Methods
The aim of this unit is to provide an opportunity to research, test, experiment, explore and learn to manage creative risk.
You will establish a focused and effective animation studio practice using creative production methods. You will investigate subject specific skills, methods and material processes for animation and illustration. You will select and develop technical skills and integrate working methods to support image-making and story-telling.
This unit consolidates and develops practical and critical skills involved in Communication Design introduced in level 4.
Final Major Project: Animation
This unit will give you the opportunity to pursue your personal creative interests and artistic concerns in the production of a body of work for public screening.
The unit allows you to demonstrate your acquired skills and abilities through individual research and practice. The production of a self-initiated research-based project will enhance your personal development as an art and design practitioner.
You will explore the relationship between practice and theory in relation to Animation and your Final Major Project.
Creative Futures
At level 6, you will be preparing yourself for a professional creative role. This unit provides an environment in which you will prepare for a professional life after your degree, helping you to develop creative futures that focus your ambition and interests. This may include preparation for: becoming a freelance artist, designer or maker; working independently, in a co-operative, agency or enterprise; teaching or pursuing further study.
The unit will encourage you to participate in live projects, competition briefs or collaborative teamwork.
As part of professional practice, you will further develop your ability to present yourself and your professional portfolio. You will learn how to create relevant marketing and self-promotional material and engage with online media to promote your professional identity, concepts and products.
Critical And Creative Contexts
This unit offers you the opportunity to deepen your insight of contemporary art and design practices, issues and critical debates. Programmes of tutorial support and self-determined study will help you to develop a context, in which you can place your emerging practical work and underpin your major project with a critical and contextual rationale.
The unit will support you in developing and implementing research strategies in the context of your Final Major Project – your investigations and growing knowledge will further inform your final project.
Professional Practice Year (Art And Design)
The aim of this unit is to provide the opportunity to undertake career-related experience which will allow you to understand and undertake responsibilities in the workplace at an appropriate level and use the opportunity to assess your readiness to undertake a career in your chosen field.
How will you be assessed?
A range of appropriate assessments will enable you to grow in confidence and demonstrate your acquisition of knowledge and skills. The formative and summative assessment methods used across the course include: In the first year the focus is to develop creative thinking skills to allow you to engage with study skills in general preparing you for assessments in units. Research is introduced as an important element in studio practice. This relationship between research and practice allows you to develop critical thinking reflection and higher education learning practice including referencing note taking essay and report writing - including virtual learning environments. Assessments based on individual and group presentations. Portfolio reviews are a key means of assessing but they are also important for collating work for a professional portfolio. This instills in students the right attitudes towards professional work whereby you can use your portfolio to promote yourself in professional contexts. Essays and reports feature in developing your writing skills helping you to express ideas in a variety of ways and styles and to develop academic writing skills that are of particular benefit in producing the final year contextual rationale for your major project. An online blog/personal website A midpoint Formal Formative Assessment to review all work in progress.
Key making skills relevant to communication design and creative enterprise are embedded in the teaching and learning of the course and will be taken into account in all assessments. The assessments will develop incrementally across the course and allow you to gain skills confidence and knowledge receive feedback and develop as a practitioner thus allowing you to implement this knowledge and feedback into subsequent assessments. At the end of the course completion of the assessments will demonstrate your ability to analyse current animation practice - and communicate this in both visual and written formats as well as demonstrate a range of transferable skills relevant to your professional employability
Careers
Employability skills and professional practice are integrated into the course and provide you with an awareness of the real-world context of the creative industries in general and animation in particular. You will be helped to develop a strategy for obtaining appropriate employment at the end of your course and there is a work-related learning unit that will especially help you to become more focused on managing your career. You will be helped with the preparation of a professional portfolio including a CV and learn the social-media skills needed to promote yourself in a social-mediated art and design world.
Typical graduate destinations for Animation students include various roles within design and creative industries: animation; film and television; advertising; music videos; interactive digital design; and games design.
You can also progress to further study at Master's level (Level 7) in areas such as animation illustration visual communication and motion graphics.
Entry Requirements
Entry Requirements
Fees for this course
UK 2024/25
The full-time standard undergraduate tuition fee for the Academic Year 2024/25 is £9,250 per year. You can apply for a loan from the Government to help pay for your tuition fees. You can also apply for a maintenance loan from the Government to help cover your living costs. See www.gov.uk/student-finance
Merit Scholarship
We offer a Merit Scholarship to UK students, worth £2,400* over three academic years, which is awarded to those who can demonstrate a high level of academic achievement, through scoring 120 UCAS tariff points or more.
Bedfordshire Bursary
If you aren’t eligible for the Merit Scholarship, this Bursary is there to help UK students with aspects of student living such as course costs. The Bursary will give you £1,000* over three academic years, or £1,300* if you are taking your course over four academic years (including those with a Foundation Year).
Full terms and conditions can be found here.
Alternatively if you have any questions around fees and funding please email admission@beds.ac.uk
International
The full-time standard undergraduate tuition fee for the academic year 2024/25 is £15,500 per year.
There are range of Scholarships available to help support you through your studies with us.
A full list of scholarships can be found here.
Fees for this course
UK 2024/25
The full-time standard undergraduate tuition fee for the Academic Year 2024/25 is £9,250 per year. You can apply for a loan from the Government to help pay for your tuition fees. You can also apply for a maintenance loan from the Government to help cover your living costs. See www.gov.uk/student-finance
Merit Scholarship
We offer a Merit Scholarship to UK students, worth £2,400* over three academic years, which is awarded to those who can demonstrate a high level of academic achievement, through scoring 120 UCAS tariff points or more.
Bedfordshire Bursary
If you aren’t eligible for the Merit Scholarship, this Bursary is there to help UK students with aspects of student living such as course costs. The Bursary will give you £1,000* over three academic years, or £1,300* if you are taking your course over four academic years (including those with a Foundation Year).
Full terms and conditions can be found here.
Alternatively if you have any questions around fees and funding please email admission@beds.ac.uk
International
The full-time standard undergraduate tuition fee for the academic year 2024/25 is £15,500 per year.
There are range of Scholarships available to help support you through your studies with us.
A full list of scholarships can be found here.
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