Animation BA (Hons)

Prepare for a career in the thriving animation industry by developing your creative thinking, storytelling and illustrative animation skills.

Entry Criteria
Structure and assessment
Facilities and features
Opportunities and careers
Take your next steps
Contact us

Overview

A selection of some of the work produced by DMU's Animation students.

Our course combines academic excellence and professional practice, with a focus on producing festival-ready animation, building an online presence and creating an industry- standard showreel to prepare you to work in the industry or continue to postgraduate education.

We encourage you to be innovative, creative and push the boundaries of storytelling and artistic style. You will receive a grounding in the fundamental skills of animation, with the opportunity to develop more specialist skills from the second year of study.

You will develop your own distinct style and voice, as well as enhancing your technical and creative knowledge by studying the modules within this programme.

Our excellent facilities include dedicated animation and sound studios, graphics studios, computer suites and a suite of Cintiq stations. You will be supported to master professional tools, such as TVPaint, Maya, Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Substance Painter and After Effects.

Our supportive and collaborative studio culture creates a nurturing atmosphere that aims to encourage professional development. Teaching is delivered primarily through demonstration and practical workshop sessions, providing hands-on experience in drawing, script writing, idea generation, visual communication, pre-production, audio production and digital 2D and 3D animation practice.

Key features

Prepare for a rewarding career in the animation industry. Recent graduates are working as animators, VFX technical directors, lead technical runners, compositors, modellers and designers, with companies such as Brown Bag, Studio SOI, Cloth Cat, RJDM, Double Negative and Disney.
Access one-to-one support from the  Leicester Media School Drawing Centre  to perfect your drawing skills and meet like-minded artists.
Work on a major project tailored to the animation industry, which will give you the chance to enter national and international competitions and festivals.
Exhibit your work at the week-long DMU Degree Show, one of Leicester’s biggest art and design shows, where final-year students have the chance to meet talent scouts and win industry prizes.

Enjoy developing your skills in a vibrant studio culture and preparing for a future in the animation industry by using our specialist facilities and software.
Add an international experience to your CV with our DMU Global programme. Previous trips have seen Animation students draw inspiration from dramatic city skylines and urban environments in New York, Berlin and Hong Kong.

Animation graduate Lucy Crewe was commissioned by the crew of Doctor Who to animate the story behind its series 10 promotional poster. During her time at DMU, Lucy developed her classical animation and video editing skills, and gained experience of working a live professional brief with the Phoenix Cinema and the Leicester Comedy Festival.

She said: “With access to industry-standard tools and software, tutorials, specific literature and databases in the library and a network of professionals I learned a lot.” Read her full story.

Animation Showreel

A range of 2D animation from the students studying Animation BA (Hons) at DMU. Discover more at DMU's Animation page on Vimeo.

Find out what makes a great portfolio

Animation portfolio advice

Graduate success and news

DMU grads prove popular in global design competition
DMU animation graduate plays part in sci-fi hit's Oscar win
Studio visits get DMU students animated
Aye aye, Captain! DMU grad redesigns classic TV ad character

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UK
EU/International

Institution code: D26

UCAS course code: W615

Duration: Three years full-time, four years with placement

Fees and funding:

2024/25 tuition fees for UK students: £9,250

Find out about additional costs and optional extras.

How to apply

Submit a study-related enquiry

Institution code: D26

UCAS course code: W615

Duration: Three years full-time, four years with placement

Fees and funding:

2024/25 tuition fees for international students: £16,250

Find out more about available funding for international students.

Find out about additional costs and optional extras.

How to apply

Application guidance document

Submit a study-related enquiry

Entry criteria

Normally 104 UCAS points from at least two A-levels or equivalent, with Art and Design at grade C or above or
Art and Design BTEC National Diploma/ Extended Diploma at DMM

Plus five GCSEs at grade C or above, including English or equivalent.

Alternative qualifications include:

Pass in the QAA accredited Access to HE Art and Design course with at least 15 credits in Art and Design at merit. English GCSE required as a separate qualification as equivalency is not accepted within the Access qualification. We will normally require students to have had a break from full-time education before undertaking the Access course or
International Baccalaureate: 24+ points including Art and Design at higher level grade 5 or
Art and Design Foundation Diploma: Pass

Portfolio Required: You will also need a good portfolio according to the course guidelines as part of your application. Portfolio guidance for Animation.

Interview Required: Yes

Mature students

We welcome applications from mature students with non-standard qualifications and recognise all other equivalent and international qualifications.

English language

If English is not your first language then an IELTS score of 6.0 overall with a minimum of 5.5 in each component (or equivalent) is essential.

English Language tuition, delivered by our British Council accredited Centre for English Language Learning, is available both before and throughout the course if you need it.

UCAS tariff information

Students applying for courses starting in September will be made offers based on the latest UCAS Tariff.

Contextual offer

To make sure you get fair and equal access to higher education, when looking at your application, we consider more than just your grades. So if you are eligible, you may receive a contextual offer. Find our more about contextual offers.

Structure and assessment

Year one

2D Animation 1
Critical Studies 1
Visual Communication 1

Year two

2D Animation 2
Critical Studies 2
Visual Communication 2

Year three

Professional Brief
Final Major Project

Click here for more detailed module information.

Note: All modules are indicative and based on the current academic session. Course information is correct at the time of publication and is subject to review. Exact modules may, therefore, vary for your intake in order to keep content current. If there are changes to your course we will, where reasonable, take steps to inform you as appropriate.

Teaching is delivered primarily through lectures and practical sessions, with access to keynote lectures and support from industry mentors. Practical classes provide hands-on experience of both drawing, idea generation, pre-production and digital 2D animation development. Tutorials are used to provide feedback and a framework for ensuring you see improvements in your work. Additional learning materials are also offered online.

Assessments include regular screenings of artwork and reports for peer, tutor and industry critique. You will be encouraged to produce festival ready animation and a showreel for employment, guided by experts from the animation industry and the teaching team. Industry representatives make regular visits to give presentations and review showreels.

You will normally attend around 12-16 hours of timetabled taught sessions each week, and are expected to undertake at least 24 further hours of directed independent study and assignments as required.

Facilities and features

Animation Studios

Our sophisticated, specialist facilities include industry standard 2D animation software, recording and sound studios, life room, and computer suites with Cintiq stations. Access to these facilities throughout your course, as well as lectures and practical workshops, will give you professional insight for a future career in the animation industry.

Library and learning zones

On campus, the main Kimberlin Library offers a space where you can work, study and access a vast range of print materials, with computer stations, laptops, plasma screens and assistive technology also available.

As well as providing a physical space in which to work, we offer online tools to support your studies, and our extensive online collection of resources accessible from our Library website, e-books, specialised databases and electronic journals and films which can be remotely accessed from anywhere you choose.

We will support you to confidently use a huge range of learning technologies, including the Virtual Learning Environment, Collaborate Ultra, DMU Replay, MS Teams, Turnitin and more. Alongside this, you can access LinkedIn Learning and learn how to use Microsoft 365, and study support software such as mind mapping and note-taking through our new Digital Student Skills Hub.

The library staff offer additional support to students, including help with academic writing, research strategies, literature searching, reference management and assistive technology. There is also a ‘Just Ask’ service for help and advice, live LibChat, online workshops, tutorials and drop-ins available from our Learning Services, and weekly library live chat sessions that give you the chance to ask the library teams for help.

More flexible ways to learn

We offer an equitable and inclusive approach to learning and teaching for all our students. Known as the Universal Design for Learning (UDL), our teaching approach has been recognised as sector leading. UDL means we offer a wide variety of support, facilities and technology to all students, including those with disabilities and specific learning differences.

Just one of the ways we do this is by using ‘DMU Replay’ – a technology providing all students with anytime access to audio and/or visual material of lectures. This means students can revise taught material in a way that suits them best, whether it's replaying a recording of a class or adapting written material shared in class using specialist software.

Opportunities and careers

Graduate Careers

Our graduates are working as animators, producers, high-flying VFX technical directors, lead technical runners, compositors, modellers and designers working on TV series and films. They are working with international companies like Double Negative, Ubisoft (Shanghai), Jagex, MPC, The Mill, Blue Zoo, Character Shop, RJDM Animations and Ragdoll Productions and have worked on major films including ‘Batman: The Dark Knight Rises’, 'Les Miserables', 'Superman Man of Steel', 'Thor: The Dark World', 'Ex Machina', 'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire' and ‘Total Recall’.

DMU Global

Our innovative international experience programme DMU Global aims to enrich your studies and expand your cultural horizons, helping you to become a global graduate, equipped to meet the needs of employers across the world.

Through DMU Global, we offer a wide range of opportunities including on-campus and UK-based activities, overseas study, internships, faculty-led field trips and volunteering, as well as Erasmus+ and international exchanges.

The diverse mix of academic-led trips, summer schools and volunteering projects organised through DMU Global saw recent Animation students have travelled with DMU Global to Tokyo, Japan to explore visual effects, media and animation.

While overseas DMU Global opportunities are not currently possible, DMU will continue to review government advice and if travel is permitted, we hope to offer a small number of extra-curricular opportunities in the summer of 2021.

Placements

Work-based placements are one of the best ways to boost your skills and experience, and can often lead to your first graduate role.

They are the perfect means of discovering how your studies relate to the real world, and provide an opportunity to improve your confidence and make contacts to help you get ahead in the job market.

DMU’s dedicated Placements Teams can help you by providing access to hundreds of opportunities, giving one-to-one CV advice and interview preparation, and offering training sessions and support from a dedicated tutor.