BA(Hons) Animation

Gain valuable practical experience through live briefs, group work, placements and networking events and graduate ready to make your mark in the industry.

Why study animation?

Animation is a broad creative subject that offers opportunities to all kinds of creatives, including storytellers, designers, artists, technologists and performers.

It reaches audiences young and old right across the globe. It educates, entertains and informs. It shows us things we could never see with our own eyes; buildings not yet built, the workings of a heart, a dying star.

It can help us visualise the dynamics of an unfolding news event, place long-extinct creatures into your very hands, and breathe life into those that have never existed.

Why UWE Bristol?

BA(Hons) Animation is based at Bower Ashton Studios, part of our City Campus. Our new animation studio spaces and facilities include digital media studios, production studios and fabrication workshops, offering both traditional tools and the latest technology.

Studying this in Bristol means you'll be based in a centre of animation production excellence in Europe, with our animation courses forming an integral part of the city's success.

This practice-based production degree not only develops your creative flair but also provides you with highly sought-after technical skills.

Learn through making using industry-standard equipment. Practical work is balanced by theoretical study, work experience and research activities, all designed to prepare you for work in a commercial environment. Live briefs, work-based placements and networking events support your transition into professional practice.

Join a long-established, highly creative animation community in which students are known and valued for their individual creative flair. You'll be taught by a team with extensive commercial animation experience, with regular contributions from commercial practitioners. This, coupled with our strong links with the UK's major animation companies, will ensure you benefit from professional expertise throughout the course.

Our City Campus is a creative powerhouse. It spans Bristol and is made up of Bower Ashton and renowned contemporary arts centres Spike Island, Arnolfini and Watershed.

Be a part of Bristol's vibrant arts and cultural scene and make friendships that continue long after graduation, developing into partnerships, startups and larger businesses.

Showcase your work through our online presence, regular networking events and final year Degree Show to impress talent scouts and potential employers.

Focus on the avenues that most interest you, and graduate with an impressive portfolio of work.

See some of the work our students produced over the past few years, including a recent project with Avon and Somerset Police.

Where can it take me?

Animation is a growing sector that extends way beyond traditional TV based media, one that will continue to need a wide range of creatives of all kinds.

Our graduates have gone on to form careers in the animation industry, graphic design, computer games, illustration and so on, both throughout the UK and across the world.

Some choose further study at master's level, including our own MA in Animation.

Careers / Further study

The UK produces some of the best animators in the world. UWE Bristol in particular has been a major provider of this talent, with successful graduates finding work as independent animators, filmmakers and freelance practitioners at leading animation studios within the region, throughout the UK and the world.

Tailoring what and how you study, you can shape the course towards your chosen career path.

Some students progress to our MA Animation, while others go on to the National Film and Television School (NFTS) and Royal College of Arts (RCA).

Get inspired

Our award-winning careers service will develop your employment potential through career coaching and find you graduate jobs, placements and global opportunities.

We can also help find local volunteering and community opportunities, provide support for entrepreneurial activity and get you access to employer events.

Visit our employability pages to learn more about careers, employers and what our students are doing six months after graduating.

Watch Dan's video to see how he landed his dream job as a freelance animator.

See also:

Prospects - careers in the creative arts sector.