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BA (Hons) Video Game Digital Art with Foundation Year

Birmingham City University

This three-year BA (Hons) Video Game Digital Art with Foundation Year* responds to the growing demand for skilled, team-orientated, reflexive graduate professionals ready to succeed.Working in a lively and energetic environment, students will be given the freedom to expand their knowledge of practical skills, creative exploration and conceptual development, underpinned by broad critical understanding, academic writing and emerging theoretical principles.There will be a range of opportunities to work on collaborative and individual projects aimed to develop employability partnerships and to identify the role of developing practitioner. BA teaching staff from across all schools within the Birmingham Institute of Creative Arts will work closely with students throughout the course to prepare them for progression.After successful completion of the foundation year, students will have the flexibility to switch (should they wish to change direction) onto a number of related undergraduate degree programmes within the School of Games, Film and Animation, Birmingham School of Art or the School of Visual Communication.Interactive entertainment and video games development are key sectors for contemporary culture, economic growth and employment locally in the Midlands, nationally and globally.What's covered in the course?This course gives you a guaranteed video game development placement in our in-house studio, which will take place over the summer term of the course. The workplace simulation approach of our school (The School of Games, Film & Animation) has been championed by the influential 2009 Livingstone Next Gen Report, which cited us as a national best practice example for developing new talent for the games industry.The course covers both core and technical art skills. It starts with helping you develop your core art skills, so expect to be doing a lot of drawing and studying topics including colour theory, composition, value and tone. Once we’ve covered the fundamentals we’ll move onto supporting you develop your technical and digital art skills. You will focus on 2D and 3D graphics covering, texturing, user interface design, environment art, character art, animation and art pipelines for interactive products.Building upon your core and technical art skills, in the first year after your foundation year you will be tasked with a specific role within our in-house game development studio over the summer term. This work experience gives you the opportunity to apply the knowledge and professional practices you’ve learnt on the course in a safe and supportive environment. Typically for these projects you’ll be using industry-standard game development tools such as Unity and Unreal. These summer projects have in the past been mentored and supported by external partners such as Red Bee Media, FreeStyleGames and Codemasters. The work you’ll produce during these summer placements can act as excellent portfolio pieces, demonstrating your ability as both a professional artist and effective team member.Throughout your degree, you will be provided with a structured programme of learning, in line with your chosen specialism of video game art. The course culminates with a project you define yourself which targets a specific subsector of the games industry, such as character art, concept art, environment art or user experience (among others). You have the choice of either proposing your own individual project or collaborating with other students to create another video game project for your portfolio.*Subject to approval - the content of this course has been refreshed and updated to make sure you graduate with the skills employers need in an ever-changing job market. Our quality control experts are currently reviewing the content and we anticipate rece

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Requirements

Listed below are the documents required to apply for this course.
£13,200 Per Year

International student tuition fee

3 years

Duration

Sep 2024

Start Month

Aug 2024

Application Deadline

Upcoming Intakes

  • September 2024

Mode of Study

  • Full Time