Introduction
Become a skilled and versatile animator, illustrator or interactive comic artist at Cambridge School of Art, and turn your creative ideas into a rewarding career as visual storyteller.
Develop your distinctive visual language in our supportive and vibrant studio culture.
Our BA (Hons) Illustration and Animation course explores the connections between illustration and animation, helping you to create sequential narratives using a variety of methods – from observational drawing and traditional handmade image-making, to the latest specialist digital animation software and cutting-edge interactive techniques.
You’ll become an experienced creator of innovative, engaging visual content with training in both traditional processes and the latest digital technologies. Perhaps most importantly, you’ll get time, guidance and support from a team of illustrators, animators and visiting professionals who are dedicated to your creative development.
At Cambridge School of Art, you’ll experiment and discover, make mistakes and find solutions, develop and create. Our Design & Crafts courses ranked 8th in the UK for 'Satisfied with Course' and 3rd for 'Satisfied with Teaching' in The Guardian University Guide 2020, reflecting how our students’ value their experience with us.
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While developing a unique visual style, you’ll also focus on the core foundations: studying the world around you, refining your drawing skills and learning to tell stories through moving images.
You’ll go on group reportage drawing trips, with opportunities to visit museums, galleries and animation festivals in the UK and overseas. You’ll find lots of visual inspiration in Cambridge – from the Botanic Gardens to the art collection in the Fitzwilliam Museum, to the city’s architectural beauty and vibrant cultural and student life.
On campus, you’ll have access to our dedicated animation production suites, which feature high-end 3D CGI and camera, lighting and sound recording equipment. They're full of the tools you need for traditional hand-drawn and stop-motion animation, experimental and industry-focused digital animation. As well as this, all our Illustration and Animation students have access to printmaking facilities and life drawing studios.
As a student at ARU you’ll receive ongoing support to find placements and work experience and you can also take an optional placement year. You'll develop a professional showreel, present your work at festivals and fairs, as well as on our Instagram page, and attend guest lectures from some of the top animation studios in London, such as Passion Pictures, The Mill, FrameStore and Studio Aka. You can also take advantage of our relationships with animators, illustrators and production studios such as Curveball Media and Allia Future Business Centre, to build a strong body of work ready for a professional career in the creative industry.
Facilities and showcase
Studios and workshops
As well as our dedicated animation base rooms with workstations for stop motion and digital animation, you’ll have use of the following facilities:
- Mac and PC suites
- a dedicated stop motion studio
- a printmaking workshop including etching, screen printing, lithography and relief presses, and letterpress studios
- 3D workshops with equipment for woodwork, plastics/vacuum forming, metalwork, plaster, clay, mould making, laser-cutting and 3D printing
- sound recording studio, green screen and film editing suites
- a digital photography lab
- photography and film studios and darkrooms.
Industry-standard equipment
All our Illustration and Animation students have access to:
- the full Adobe Creative suite
- up-to-date specialist professional software TVPaint, Autodesk Maya and Dragonframe Stop Motion
- Apple iMacs with Cintiq drawing tablets
- wide-format printers and scanners
- camera, lighting and sound recording kit.
Our team of technical officers will be on hand to offer training and support.
Take a closer look
Our Creative Showcase shines a spotlight on what makes ARU creative and cultural – our spaces, places and people. Find out more about our community, the difference we make, the stories we tell, and the things that inspire us.
Meanwhile, Present is an exhibition that you curate for yourself. Explore the work of our graduating students in this eye-catching virtual degree show.
Careers
With an understanding of traditional animation and illustration, combined with expertise in cutting-edge digital design technology, our graduates have found success with leading animation studios and broadcasters, including Channel 4 and the BBC.
As an Illustration and Animation student at ARU, you can be sure you’ll graduate with the knowledge, skills and abilities that industry needs. We work with artists, creative agencies and production studios – and they offer hands-on, practical opportunities to learn through work-based projects, internships or placements.
On our Sequential Practice module, you’ll focus on preparing for life beyond university, creating a showreel, a website and promotional material, as well as hearing guest speakers from some of the top animation studios in London, such as Passion Pictures, The Mill, FrameStore and Studio Aka.
Cambridge is the perfect place to gain experience – a creative hotspot that’s home to thousands of established businesses and start-ups. And, at the end of your final year, you’ll take part in our degree show in London – the perfect launchpad for your career.
Graduation doesn’t need to be the end of your time with us, of course. You might decide to stay at ARU and study for a Masters, such as our renowned MA Children’s Book Illustration. Take advantage of our Alumni Scholarship and get 20% off your fees.
4 years with placement
Year 4 is all about getting you ready for life as a professional artist, by developing your own engaging website, showreel or portfolio and honing your research and presentation skills.
You’ll visit studios and engage with visiting illustrators and animators as well as employment specialists who will give you the latest insight on how to apply for, and create, professional opportunities.
Back in the studio, you’ll work on your final project – either individually or as part of a group. This is your chance to showcase your personal abilities and skills as a creative producer. You will be in charge of the entire project from research to pitch, from production and promotion.
So you will be ready and prepared for your degree show, which is a brilliant opportunity to showcase your work to employers.
This is a hands-on, practical course and our assessment is based on the coursework you complete for each of your modules. This includes completed project work as well as accompanying material such as sketchbooks, animatics, storyboards, pre-viz, digital tests and rough cuts.
Through a blog and discussion we are looking to see how you research, analyse and develop your work – in other words, how you think as a visual artist as well as how you are developing your personal voice, creative expression, production skills and technical know-how.
You’ll also attend lectures in which you explore historical and contemporary illustration and animation and current social contexts, and show your research skills and critical thinking in discussions, presentations and written assignments.
Assessment
Assessment is ongoing and includes one-to-one feedback, group crits and class presentations, so you can be sure you’re receiving structured, insightful feedback throughout your degree course.
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