Prosthetics and Special Effects Design

Push the limits of your creative boundaries on this dynamic prosthetics and special effects degree. With a hands-on approach to design for a range of contexts, you’ll be supported to develop the skills and experience to enter a range of careers in the creative industries after graduation.

You will be encouraged to take an explorative and technical approach to prosthetics application, use of materials and creative development processes to produce innovative and contemporary special effects design work. This will include sculpting, moulding and casting for character and creature effects, refined application of make-up and hair effects and designing with 2D and 3D modelling.

Using advanced academic research methodologies, developed through critical and interdisciplinary approaches to design, you'll devise intellectual, creative and innovative responses to challenging concepts, relevant to contemporary design and speculative futures.

You'll also have the opportunity to collaborate with students on other creative courses, such as television, film, and theatre, to help you contextualise your place within the prosthetics and special effects industry.

You will be taught by an academic team with excellent reputations as practicing professional designers and researchers, as well as an extensive range of visiting lecturers and international visits to gain vital industry insight.

We also provide in-house competitions, with prizes from our kit suppliers, Neil’s materials and Pigs Might Fly. And we encourage our students get regular experience through Halloween events such Terror Island and the Horror Maze, and regular experience with MAST, Mayflower theatre and The Grange festivals. In your final year there is the opportunity to work with our professional SFX team at the Prosthetics Event, across a range of national theatre productions or at IMATS in London.

If you’re looking to study our prosthetics and special effects degree but don’t have the relevant qualifications or experience, the art and design foundation year will help you develop the core skills and knowledge to progress. Find out more about the art and design foundation year.

YEAR 1
CORE MODULES

Flesh and Fiction
Picture Matters
Glitches and Stitches
Technical Triage

YEAR TWO
Core Modules

Pitch Perfect
Creature Creation
Under the Skin
Gothic and Gore

YEAR THREE
Core Modules

Major Project
Future Folio
Industry Immersion
Creative Research Project

You may be assessed by a combination of:
Creative design projects
Sketchbooks
Individual presentations
Design based portfolios
Assignments