Master of Arts - Animation

The MA Animation course will enable students to develop a professional-level individual approach towards animation direction and build digital animation skills and knowledge to a more advanced level. Learners will extend their theoretical and contextual understanding of animation, its audiences and media culture.

On this course, students will become more familiar with professional-level enquiry, research, creative, invention, project planning and management practices. They'll study within a multi-disciplinary environment which encourages discussion and idea exploration.

Students can choose to focus in a particular area of animation such as 2D animation, 3D animation or combine the areas to create new forms and ideas from the fusion of techniques and styles. 

Teaching involves induction, seminars and social events for students and staff, allowing them to be part of a friendly and supportive postgraduate community of film-makers, musicians and professionals working in new media. Senior research staff and internationally renowned professionals work with postgraduate students, helping to develop original and challenging work. The study includes ways of thinking about the cultural resonance of work, the audiences it is made for, the nature of creativity and the role of the cultural industries in a modern knowledge economy. 

The University of Hertfordshire is ranked 1st as the Best Animation School in the UK (7th worldwide - Rookies World School Rankings 2020). As part of the MA Animation course all students have to complete a live external agency brief where they gain invaluable work-related learning and experience. Previous students have worked with organizations including National Poetry Day and Promise.

This course is designed to help students understand and work within the contemporary media environment. Recent graduates are working as animators with companies such as Industrial Light & Magic, Creative Assembly and Blue Zoo.