MA Animation - MA

You can opt to complete this module as either 180 credit points, or as 160 credit points with an additional module in Advanced Art and Design Research worth 20 credit points.

Animation

(180 or 160 credit points)

The main delivery of content is in the first two terms. Beginning in the first term with an overview of animation production and required skills. The development of skills and knowledge continues through the second term, with the completion of a personal project in the third term with an emphasis on self-directed study.

In the first term, the focus is on self-evaluation of animation production skills and on identifying areas for exploration and development. There will be a series of optional workshops intended as an introduction to production processes. The themes will include:

• 2D digital animation
• 3D animation
• 3D modelling
• Stop-motion animation
• Character Design
• Storyboarding

The workshops are intended as an introduction to skill sets, you can choose which workshops to attend, you will not be expected to have prior knowledge or experience of the subject being taught. It is an opportunity for students to explore a new subject, in a condensed time frame, there will be a combination of instruction and self-directed study.

You will be required at this time to develop your personal research project proposal, outlining the focus of your body of work and intended outcome. Having developed the project proposal, in consultation with your course team, you will produce a schedule / production timeline. In tutorials and through writings in your blog, you will be required to discuss and describe the concepts underlying your project.

Through the first and second terms the focus is on skills development and research. There will be lectures and seminars required for all students, discussing themes of acting and performance for animation, design and conceptual development in animation, aesthetics, current trends and techniques in independent animation production and production planning.

There will also be contextual lectures and seminars required for all students, discussing research and the development of research methodologies, media theory and exploring the innovations and technological advances in animation production.

Through the second and third terms, support for the development of your work in progress will be offered weekly, through group tutorials, where you will receive peer feedback and individual tutorials for feedback from your tutor. Additional workshops / technical instruction can be provided throughout the year, in support of your project and skills development

The third term focuses on completion of your personal project and research into potential career opportunities.

You will receive career guidance from tutors through support in selecting and editing your work into a reel, and in the preparation of materials including a CV, cover letter and online portfolio. There will be opportunities to present your work to visiting industry professionals, who may also provide career guidance.

At the end of the module you will receive summative assessment, where all the work from the year is submitted for assessment. It is only the grade from the summative assessment that counts as your final grade for the course.

Advanced Art and Design Research (20 credit points)

This module will support your reflection on your research and practice through discursive lectures and coursework assignments. In these, you will contribute accounts of your postgraduate research enquiry, its antecedents in your practice and academic study, as well as your understanding of the role your practice can play in it.

After an initial diagnosis phase, where you’ll outline your perspectives on research, you’ll be introduced to an overview of the philosophical assumptions that underlie research across disciplines. You’ll also identify where these feature in your experience of education and practice.

You’ll be introduced to the literature on practice based research that has grown out of PhD activity in Art, Design and Performance, in which you will discover the direction you want your work to take. The module then identifies a range of practice based approaches that are found across disciplines from education to archaeology, and laboratory science.

The second phase of the module brings these insights to be applied to your practice, so that it can be an element in a research design that will contribute to knowledge. This process includes a reflective audit of the research dimensions of your practice, to identify elements of it that could be part of a research design. The outcome of this audit will help you to build a prospective view of the design of potential research processes that include your practice, as well as appropriate modes of analysis and reporting.

At the end of the module you will write up your responses to the discursive lectures, supplementing them with appropriate visual material (no more than 3,000 words).