From Looney Tunes to Shaun the Sheep, animation has a long history of box-office success. Nowadays, animators are at the heart of the wider film industry, able to transport us into outer space, to the bottom of the ocean or the heart of an inferno.
Animation has grown from being an elective in postgrad film-making programmes to having its own master’s, usually geared to industry and with close links to employers. To get onto a course you don’t need a degree in film-making or animation, or even a degree at all if your portfolio is strong enough to excite admission tutors.
But beware, some BAs in animation fail to prepare students for the industry or even provide a basic grounding in production, says Chris Webster, leader of the MA animation programme at the Bristol School of Animation at the University of the West of England.
“Our master’s course is about 90% practical studio-based work, developing the craft skills that students have identified as important to their careers,” he says. “The entire programme is focused on preparing students to enter the animation industry or a related area of creative media.”
Bournemouth University’s National Centre for Computer Animation (NCCA) offers three master’s courses: an MA in 3D computer animation; an MA in digital effects; and an MSc in computer animation and visual effects. And it’s about to launch a fourth in computer games art. More than 100 of its graduates worked on films nominated for the 2015 Oscars, including Interstellar.
Sofronis Efstathiou, an NCCA lecturer, says the MA courses are aimed at artists and designers, while the MSc involves programming skills, such as the ability to write a code which simulates blood or provides a technically accurate simulation of movement.
Sarah Ann Kennedy – voice of Miss Rabbit in Peppa Pig and creator of the award-winning Channel 4 series Crapston Villas – is head of the animation courses at the University of Central Lancashire.
Kennedy is keen for students to develop their own specialism and bring something new to the table: “The master’s course has been running for only eight years, but our graduates have been very successful.” These include Nigel Hunter, who worked on the 2013 feature Escape from Planet Earth.
Not everyone will end up making an Oscar-winning film, but if you want to delight and surprise, or be at the frontier of new techniques in education, then animation could be for you.
Digital magic: ‘I worked on the zombie flows for Brad Pitt film World War Z’
Joe Plaete did an MA in 3D computer animation at Bournemouth University and now works at Industrial Light & Magic in London
I did some 3D animation towards the end of my BA in new media and computer science in Belgium. I was fascinated, especially film visual effects and wanted to take it further. However, the right courses weren’t available in Belgium so I looked to the UK. Bournemouth was recommended to me by a lot of people and was the obvious choice.
I had a great time and learned a lot, especially from other students – including those on other courses. Bournemouth has excellent industry links and I got a job with creative studio Framestore in London immediately after graduation.
I was then offered a job in a country with lots of sun and nice beaches – Australia. I worked at Animal Logic on its feature animation movie Legend of the Guardians.
I had specialised in crowd simulation at Bournemouth and came back to London to work for the Moving Picture Company on the team that helped orchestrate the zombie flows and pyramids for the Brad Pitt film World War Z. After that I worked on The Lone Ranger, 300: Rise of an Empire, and Guardians of the Galaxy.
Now I’m leading the crowd simulation team on some exciting projects at Industrial Light & Magic. I also co-own a studio in Belgium focusing on architectural planning and visualisation.
To anyone thinking about embarking on a master’s in animation, I would say spend time finding the course that best fits what you want to do.
Then work out what you like best and specialise. There are plenty of sub-disciplines. If you find one you enjoy and excel in it, that’s the best start.
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