Art Degrees Online

Course overview

This cutting edge course is taught by award-winning staff with a reputation for high standards within the industry. You will have the chance to excel in different areas of animation, from drawn pieces to puppet or digital moving images.

You will use industry-standard studio facilities, equipped with the latest digital applications, to put together professional creative portfolios. You will learn and experiment with different techniques, including squash and stretch, moving holds and timing. Your creative progression will be monitored through a blend of studio projects and workshops, as well as group and individual case studies and assignments.

Underpinned by sound animation principles, you will explore themes like scriptwriting and acting for animation, sounds and dialogue, and storyboarding. In Year 3 you will make your own film, which will be publicly screened at Southampton’s Harbour Lights Picturehouse.
Course content

Year 1
Animation Principles
Drawing 1
Animation History
Animation Principles 2
Scriptwriting and Acting for Animation
CGI in Animation.

Year 2
Sounds and Dialogue
Computer Animation**
Drawing 2
Layout and Storyboard for Animation
From Script to Screen
Critical Discourse 1.

**Options in: 2D Animation; 3D Computer Animation; Stop Motion Animation

Year 3
Critical Discourse 2
Final Film Pilot
Final Script
Final Film.
Assessment

Assessment includes studio projects, workshop and media outcomes, group and individual case studies and written assignments.
Entry level

160 points from 6-unit or 12-unit awards.

You will normally be invited to a portfolio viewing and briefing and maybe to a formal interview.
Career opportunities

Careers include animators and character designers in 2D or 3D model making, or computer generated animation for film, TV and the games industry.
Special features

Our students have won Royal Television Society JVC Best Student Animation awards for three years running, and many other national and international contests in student and professional categories.

To receive your free Animation DVD, featuring short films by our Animation students, please send an e-mail to fmas@solent.ac.uk stating that you would like an Animation DVD posted to you with your name and address listed on the e-mail.

This course is also available with an Art, Design and Media Foundation year (Level 0) which is delivered full-time in one academic year at Southampton City College. There are different UCAS codes for the main degree and the degree with a Foundation Year. Please make sure the correct UCAS code, as listed below, is entered on your UCAS application form.

SVA is an art and animation college in New York City. Students in SVA?s animation undergrad program are trained in the latest professional techniques and technologies in 2D and 3D animation. Students learn from more than 30 directors, animation and special effects artists, character designers and writers, and many have gone on to work for such studios as Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks SKG, Blue Sky Studio and Nickelodeon. Request information at admissions@sva.edu to learn more about the undergraduate animation school at SVA.
The golden age of animation is marked by the great 1930s and ’40s productions of Snow White, Pinocchio, Fantasia and Bambi. Since the huge success of The Little Mermaid in 1989 and later, The Lion King, animated feature films have roared back into popular culture, culminating in the banner year of 2002 when the Oscars finally designated a category for Best Animated Feature Film.

Students of the form could not be learning at a better time – the second golden age of animation. Technology is taking animators to creative places they could never go before, and SVA is in the forefront of offering best-of-breed, state-of-the-art technology to beginning animators.

We’ve recently built a new stop-motion studio, adding classes in techniques like claymation, and teaching miniature set construction and design. Students have access to the same equipment they’ll use as working professionals, like Video Lunch Box, Pro Tools and related effects software. Each computer in our digital compositing lab has its own scanner, enabling our students to work independently.

Of course, we also have the best in “old” technology, keeping in mind that the classics of the genre were shot on film. We encourage you to do that here, and provide you with top-of-the-line Bolex and Oxberry cameras.

SVA is considered a primary source of animation talent for both coasts. Our graduates work at Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks skg, Blue Sky Studio and Nickelodeon.

You’ll learn from more than 30 directors, animation and special effects artists, character designers and writers. Legends and prominent animators like Yvette Kaplan (Beavis and Butthead Do America, Ice Age) are here to give you instruction, feedback and to nurture your artistic vision. A recommendation from a faculty member can lead to an interview for a job; you take it from there.

The greatest gift an education at SVA gives you is the chance to find out who you are. By the third year you will have been immersed in every animation discipline. You may dream of becoming a director, but after trying your hand at editing, cinematography, storyboarding, lighting, editing, 3D modeling, sound and character design, another passion may catch fire.

Ten years down the line, you might change your mind and try directing again. By teaching you to be a total animator, a tech-savvy storyteller, we make sure you’ll be ready.