Animation

Find your voice and join a community of creatives on this industry-led, hands-on Animation course.

• Study what you love. On this wide-ranging course, you'll have the chance to experience different specialisms and find your own creative voice.

• Make connections. Bath is in the heart of the South West creative corridor and you'll benefit from strong industry contacts to become part of a thriving creative ecosystem.

• Learn by doing. Through live briefs and field-lab style learning, you'll build a professional portfolio and showreel ready to support your first steps into industry.

Animation at Bath Spa is a practice-led, industry-informed course. You’ll learn from award-making filmmakers on a professionally creative campus. We’re in the heart of the South West creative corridor, which means you’ll have access to a wide range of industry contacts and you’ll benefit from networking connections and the possibility of exciting collaborations.

You’ll build core skills in 2D and 3D character animation alongside a range of optional modules that will ready you for success in areas such as high‑end television, factual and natural‑history content, and public‑sector communication. You’ll learn from industry experts and have access to world-class research and superb facilities.

As an Animation student at Bath Spa, you won’t just be joining a course – you’ll be joining a creative community. You’ll be surrounded by other creative practitioners, including film makers and script writers on our beautiful campus.

The Animation degree will utilise our Paintworks venue in Bristol as a professional production office space to ease the transition from an educational setting to working in the creative industries, located as it is in a wider vibrant and interactive community that includes myriad creative minded people, companies, exhibitions and event spaces.

You’ll learn by doing on this practical course through a range of industry-integrated projects, including live briefs, critiques and field-lab style experiences. You’ll also find your creative voice as a part of a community committed to making progressive and exciting work that aims to make the world a better place.

By the end of the course, you’ll have developed project work and films that build into a professional showreel tailored to your own career aspirations, ready to launch your career.

Professional Placement Year

A Professional Placement Year (PPY), traditionally known as a sandwich year, is where you undertake a period of work with an external organisation for between 9-13 months. The placement occurs between your second and final years of undergraduate study. You can engage in multiple placements to make up the total time and are required to source the placement(s) yourself, with support from the Careers team.

Course structure

Year one

Principles and processes. In the first year, you’ll be introduced to the principles and processes of animation practice, grounding your work in both creative and professional contexts. You’ll experiment with traditional and digital techniques while learning the fundamentals of drawing, movement and storytelling. Alongside this, you’ll begin to develop productive working habits and an awareness of professional practice that will be scaffolded throughout the course. The year is supported by a range of inductions and workshops designed to help you build confidence, technical understanding and the early stages of your own creative voice, which will continue to evolve and strengthen at Levels 5 and 6.

Year two

Practical and applied. In your second year, you’ll build on the foundations established in Year One, further developing your skills and practice in animation through increasingly ambitious projects. A variety of choice within the curriculum allows you to shape your learning and begin to hone your skills, exploring areas such as character animation, visual effects and animated narratives. You’ll begin to refine your interests and work towards areas of specialism such as 2D animation and 3D animation, while continuing to develop your creative voice.

Professional practice continues to be embedded, supporting your transition into more independent and industry informed work.

Year three

Professional creativity and individual projects. Your final year is project‑led, placing individual creative practice, professionalism and industry awareness at its core. You’ll undertake ambitious, self‑directed projects that reflect your interests and strengths, allowing your creative voice to fully emerge. Alongside this, you’ll engage with professional practice through live briefs, industry‑informed teaching and contextual study, exploring how animation operates across commercial studios, cultural organisations and community-based projects.

You’ll be supported through close staff supervision as you refine your work and articulate your practice, developing a professional showreel and the skills needed for portfolio careers, freelance practice or employment within the wider creative industries.