Game Animation with Professional Placement

Specialise as an animator working on games.

Specialise as a games animator, one of the games industry’s most sought-after roles. If you have the passion, we’ll teach you what you need to know – from mastering core animation principles in a game development context to rigging and animating characters in real time to implement into major game engines.

On this Game Animation course, you'll work in studio-style collaborative teams mirroring industry practice as you work through full implementation of the game animation pipeline. You’ll graduate with a rich portfolio of work, ready to launch your games career.

Why study this course at Falmouth?
We’re ranked as the number one university for game design in England (Princeton Review, 2023) and have some of largest and best-equipped dedicated student game-making facilities in the country 
You’ll learn from professional game animators, developers and artists who have worked on titles like Hitman, League of Legends, World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XII
You’ll collaborate in multi-skilled teams to create real games from the outset, keeping the Intellectual Property (IP) of any games you produce
Our graduates have worked in animator roles for Respawn on Apex Legends and at Creative Assembly, Frontier, nDreams and Ubisoft

You'll build up your core skills as an animator, learning game pipelines and the roles of different specialisms within the games industry. You will then work on team-led projects and work closely with artist, you’ll rig and animate models following the animation pipeline to bring your ideas to life.

Year one:
You'll learn what it takes to make an animated game, including asset creation, project management and development pipelines, pitching ideas and considering theories about what games are and how they engage players. Developing your skills in animation, you'll enhance cross-disciplinary groups as you pitch a game and build it as part of a collaborative team.

Modules:
Development Foundations
Digital Creativity
Game Animation 1
Reading Games
Multidisciplinary Teamwork
Game Animation 2

Year two:
With greater confidence in your skills, you'll mirror professional game development as you tackle a larger game project in a multi-skilled group. Over the course of the year, you'll research and experiment with various approaches and create innovative features. You'll investigate strategies to enhance the player experience and learn what drives industry trends and developments from visiting professionals. Throughout the year you’ll continue developing your specialist game animation practice.

Modules
Game Form and Player Experience
World Building: Pre-production
Game Animation 3
World Building: Production
Portfolio Development

Year three:
You’ll be responsible for finding your own placement, with support from the employability team. Choosing this option will enhance your industry experience and skills while studying.

How you’ll study during your professional placement
You’ll spend time working in a professional context, as part of a business or organisation. This can be in one role, or up to three, and must be for a minimum of 24 weeks.

You’ll develop in-demand workplace skills, deepen your insight into industry and grow your network of contacts, all of which could help you get ahead in your career after graduation.

Throughout this year, you’ll develop a portfolio of work that includes critical self-reflection on what has been learned from the experience. You’ll be required to evidence your experiences, the skills you’ve learned and your professional growth.

Year four:
During the final year of your game animation course, you'll produce a complete and potentially publishable game as part of a team. By pitching it to industry professionals, you'll receive reliable and insightful feedback. You'll also research a topic relevant to your project and build an online portfolio with a clear centrepiece, sharpening your real-world insights and building valuable career contacts.

Modules
Experience Design
Future Skills
Professional Portfolio
Future of Games
Major Collaboration

As part of our process of continuous improvement, we routinely review course content to ensure that all our students benefit from a high-quality and rewarding academic experience. As such, there may be some changes made to your course which are not immediately reflected in the content displayed on our website. Any students affected will be informed of any changes made directly.

100% of your assessment will be coursework.

Assessment methods
Teamwork features heavily to reflect the industry
Game making is the primary form of assessment
Continuous assessment with no formal examinations
Visual, verbal and written assignments
Portfolio of project work