Game Art and Animation with Foundation Year

Course Overview

On this BA (Hons) Game Art and Animation degree, you will be encouraged to showcase your creativity as you learn to create the visual worlds, characters, and animations that bring games to life. Specialised teaching focused on game art and animation will help prepare you for a career in the fast-growing and creative games industry. Developing the key artistic and technical skills required by employers, you will learn how professional artists use 2D and 3D art, modelling, texturing, animation, and visual effects to build immersive environments and memorable characters. You will also study the creative and cultural aspects of games, exploring how art direction, visual storytelling, and animation influence how players interact with and experience games. This game art course will give you a strong foundation in the history and future of games, examining play as art, entertainment, a form of communication, and an engaging storytelling medium. What you'll study This BA (Hons) Game Art and Animation degree has been developed to combine artistic creativity with the technical workflows used in modern game production. It is grounded in visual design and animation practice, while introducing the digital tools and real-time pipelines used to create professional game art. As you develop your skills, you will explore 2D and 3D art, modelling, texturing, animation, and visual effects, learning how artists create characters, environments, and assets that shape the visual identity of games. You will experiment with different artistic styles and visual approaches, while building a strong foundation in drawing, composition, colour, anatomy, and visual storytelling. We will introduce you to the software and techniques used across the industry, such as real-time game engines, digital sculpting, and animation tools. You will learn how to create game-ready assets, design environments, develop characters, and bring them to life through animation and cinematic sequences. Alongside this, you will explore how visual design influences player experience, narrative, and world-building. As the game art course progresses, you will work on collaborative and individual projects that mirror professional studio pipelines. You will investigate areas such as modular asset creation, visual identity and branding for games, character art pipelines, and cinematic storytelling, developing both creative confidence and technical fluency. In your final year, you will undertake a major project where you create a substantial piece of work that reflects your artistic specialism and career ambitions. This project will allow you to develop a professional portfolio that demonstrates your skills in game art and animation and showcases your creative voice to future employers. You will graduate with strong artistic, technical, and professional skills, and a portfolio that prepares you for careers in game art, animation, and the wider digital creative industries. A foundation year prepares you for study at undergraduate level and is the first step on your university journey. The skills and knowledge you acquire will stand you in good stead for your degree studies as well as your entry into the world of work. Over the course of an academic year, you will explore a range of subjects that will underpin your future studies, as well as enjoy full access to university facilities.

Tuition Fees & Funding

Fees shown are for current entry. Fees may increase annually in line with inflation.

Graduate Outcomes

Based on official HESA Graduate Outcomes survey data

National Student Survey (NSS) results — undergraduate final-year students only

National Student Survey via Discover Uni.

Frequently Asked Questions