BA (Hons) ANIMATION

BA (Hons)

Animation

OUR ANIMATION DEGREE provides a flexible and expressive programme of study that encompasses Animation in many varied forms. Students start the degree by exploring animation (both practical and theoretical) as well as more technical areas which are highly sought after in industry. This includes understanding how assets move through the animation pipeline, from sketches to final product. The student then moves on to explore more detailed animation practice, including digital sculpting, industry standard renderings, character animation and immersive environments design in order to finesse their approach to the field. Optional modules help students develop specific skills for work in games, VFX, film and television.

The degree develops in the final year into a flexible and supportive set of interconnected subject areas, where students are free to work on their specialist areas as well as developing their academic skills through their final year 'final major project' work as part of their research.

Stephanie Hui Ying Siaw A Modern Portrayal of Icarus siawhy.stephanie@gmail.com

For my project, I took the classical Greek myth of Icarus and retelling it in an animated medium for the 21st century. This piece is a modern take of the classic story taking the well-known part of the story of Icarus flying too close to the sun and his tragic fall due to his over-ambitious nature.

Ellese Patterson

Flourish ellesepatterson@yahoo.co.uk

My final major project is a 3D animated trailer for a nature-themed video game that I’ve named ‘Flourish’. The player can explore natural untouched landscapes populated with wildlife and plants at their own pace.

A key theory that has inspired me is the ‘Attention Restoration Theory, (ART)’, developed by Rachel and Stephen Kaplan in the 1980s. This theory suggests that urbanisation and population growth have created many stresses, therefore, spending time or even looking at nature can improve mental health and lower stress levels. I hope that you can fully immerse yourself, relax, and enjoy experiencing a natural, low-poly open world. Take a short break and connect with nature just through a screen.

Luka Feric

A Medieval Knight Reimagined lrferic@gmail.com

My project features a Medieval knight among a recently fought upon battlefield, with its design reflecting the late 15th century. This exhibit features two modes of presentation: An animated short, and a 360-degree video. The animated short takes place upon a dilapidated battlefield, with the knight as the sole survivor. The animation presents an ambiguous and open-ended short story to the viewer. Additionally, a 360-degree video has been created for people to interact with allowing you to view the knight and setting in full detail.

I have created the Medieval knight to be highly realistic and extremely detailed. The design is very accurate, with functionality being prioritised over the aesthetics, in order to enhance the realism and believability of the character. The aesthetic design of the knight has been enhanced with ornate embossing and decorative gilding across the edges of the armour and sword hilt.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy what I have created this year!

In a fast society as ours where everything is decorated and rich in design, the concept of Wabi-Sabi is probably difficult to follow.

Wabi-Sabi is a Japanese philosophy that researches a balance between human beings and the natural world. If in other cultures, the design was ostentatious and saturated with decoration, in Japan, the idea of beauty was different: the design, the architecture, and the arts were following the asymmetry and harmony of nature.

My video aims to make the viewer experience the calm and beauty behind the modest environment and the simple objects under a Wabi-Sabi key. Thanks to the slow camera and movements of the leaves, the spectators have the time to immerse themselves in Japanese culture and philosophy.

Shan Deng

Mononoahare (Nothing can last long) contact@shandeng.co.uk

Zaithwa L Zimpita

The Beast Inside zzaithwa@gmail.com

My 2D animation centres around a singular character and her journey through life and its many obstacles and who also questions her existence. The story’s genre is dark fantasy with an expressive art style aesthetic.

My animation is an experimental one as it follows no specific narrative and only follows a bit of structure in terms of a beginning and the end. I was interested in the non-linear aspect of experimental films, as I wanted to convey a story based solely on emotions we keep hidden from the world or ourselves when we do not want to acknowledge them.

On why we hide ourselves and have the audience connect with the character in a philosophical perspective. The story is about a girl who is perceived as a monster by the world, and which makes her feel alienated from herself and others. That is until she finally embraces her uniqueness or differences and realises that they make her stronger not weaker. I wanted to portray the character’s inner metamorphosis through use of a limited colour palette where each colour represents the emotions she is going through or feeling as she undergoes her transformation.

James Headington

The Art of Necessity james@headington.net

'The Art of Necessity' is an investigation of character design philosophies through the lens of product design, with an exploration of environment and setting based on these ideas.

My designs explore the struggle between identity and labour, inspired by recent and ongoing shifts in the social climate. Growing disparity between the richest and poorest in society coupled with the increasing hours many must work to survive have led to difficulty in maintaining any work-life balance. With some employers appearing more concerned with profit margins than with the safety or quality of life of their workforce, this looks unlikely to improve for the foreseeable.

My setting was the result of considering the possible extreme effects of this kind of attitude, where the people who work to keep society moving are reduced to pure function in an endless quest for increased productivity.

Molly Lecomber-Clark

Legendary lecomberclarkmolly@gmail.com

My work is a production pitch for an animated tv show called Legendary. The show is about a young girl and a group of mythical creatures who go on a journey to find an author who spread lies about them.

I am interested in character design and story development so I worked on creating interesting characters and a meaningful story that children and families would enjoy. I have designed this production pitch around existing, successful examples so that this would be suitable to send to production companies. My aim for this show is to highlight the impact of uninformed bias and to present it to a young audience so they will know to recognise it and not encourage the spread.

Morgan Holloway

Developing a Character morganh2000@yahoo.co.uk

My assignment is an exploration of the development of a character and what makes a good character design. In this project, I am going to be showing the process of creating a character that I have designed. This project will show everything from my early sketches and research to my final design and concept art based on that design. The illustrations follow the development of my character Adelaide, a young Witch from the 15th century.

My initial idea for this project stemmed from my interest in Fantasy and Science Fiction as well as costume design. I was particularly interested in how costume design can be used to indicate a character’s state of mind, their personality, back story and more. It is important to me that when I am designing a character’s costume, I am creating a design that is historically accurate and representative of a certain time period.

Edward Hughes

Digital Sunrise hughes.edward@ymail.com

A 3D animation which tells the story of an anthropomophic character who struggles to find work in his adult life, only to discover a computer which leads to a whole new world...

Is based off of a story I have been working on since I was 16, this animation being the introduction and first chapter of the story.

Projection of our own emotions can be difficult at times. That is how the concept of Freya first came to me.

The animated cinematic is intended to work as a smash-cut cinematic trailer to establish the disorienting mania and paranoia that usually affects anyone being hunted for an extended period of time. This story is both intended to engage the audience with its ambiguity and leave them asking for more with its unresolved ending.

Awareness for mental health is consistently rising, but the stories told, and experiences gained throughout the sheer moments of panic within mental breakdowns may not be as easily projected without placing oneself in another’s shoes, thus this cinematic animation intends to do so.

Janina Majcher

In the cold, cold night janka.majcher@gmail.com

Nu McAdam

Love Death. noodlesrockin@gmail.com

I’m Nu McAdam, a quadriplegic non-binary artist and animator from Brighton. I use they/them pronouns.

My influences are the death positivity community, the activism community and most of all, 40s/50s rubber band animation, most used by Max Fleischer who was the creator of Betty Boop.

I would like to say that I consider myself a very flexible animator with lots of interests. However, I am continuously drawn to the stories of those who cannot physically or mentally tell their own. I hope to use my skill to illuminate these stories to the world and to give visual comfort to the neurodiverse community.