What's inside our new course at Bucks?

Our new Animation and VFX course that was launched in September 2013 wasn't just a re-branding of the Animation Games and Interactive Media course at Bucks.  It is a whole new course, aimed at training animators and VFX artists to work in Soho, in games, in advertising - in any media that involves creating and animating characters and creatures. Our course has been validated by Framestore, one of London's leading VFX houses, and we have gone to great lengths to try to make sure that we are teaching the very latest animation skills and software.


Below is a brief summary of what's inside the new Animation & VFX course. We're tweaking it all the time so we can't guarantee that this is exactly what the course will look like, but it will be pretty close.

CGI Foundation - Year One

Year One

• CGI Foundation. Core vfx skills. Modelling, cameras & lenses, UV mapping & texturing, lighting & rendering, and compositing a 3D object into a photographic plate. 
• 2D Graphics & Animation. Motion graphics, animated text effects, and animated film & TV titles. 
• CGI Animation Foundation. Animation principles, including locomotion, walk cycles, run cycles, weight and flexibility. 
• Previs & 3D Layout. Design, storyboards, concept art, 3D layout, cameras, editing, sound effects, motion capture (“MoCap”) and directing.

Year Two - Animation 2 - Character Performance

Year Two

• Animation 2 - Character Performance. Acting, dialogue, lipsync and performance. 
• Animation 3 - Animals & Creatures. Photo-realistic animals including quadrupeds, birds, insects, fish, monsters, dinosaurs and other creatures. 
• Intermediate CGI Modelling & Rigging. Modelling, rigging, texturing and lighting. 
• CG VFX. Dynamics, particles & fluids.

Year Three - Short Film project

Year Three

• Short Film Project - Pre-Production.  Solo or group project - a short film. Script, storyboards, visual development & design, and record voices into a full story reel or animatic. 
• Short Film Project - Production. Modelling, texturing, animation, lighting, music and sound effects. 
• Digital Practice. The job market. Take a close look at the industry, complete a live project for a client, work on a website or blog and polish your demo reel. 
• Dissertation. Theory and practice. Research Methods, Film Theory, Design, Media, Lifestyle & Culture.

The goal is to give all our students well-rounded animation and VFX skills, so that every student is job-ready and able to compete at an international level on graduation. We want our course to be the best you can take anywhere in the country. And more than that, we want our students to develop as artists - and have as much fun as possible along the way.

For more on the experience of studying at Bucks New University, come and visit us at one of our Open Days,  take a virtual tour of one of our animation studios, check out what our students think of our course, and see why we're ranked in the top 12 creative universities in the UK. Find out why we're giving free laptops to all our students, and why we give all our students free access to videos at Lynda.com. Also, see what financial assistance might be available to you. Learn which is better for animation, a PC or a Mac? Get hold of a copy of a map so you can find your way around campus, and learn about motion capture at Bucks. And find out about how our online video tutorials work.