With a toolkit that mixes the creative and the technical, an animator does all this and more. Whether working in the artistic or commercial worlds, animators produce the moving images for anything from film and broadcast media to digital platforms and video games. Our BA (Hons) Animation course brings together key aspects of contemporary professional animation practice to help you prepare for an exciting range of careers, from animation to concept art to games development. 

As an animation student you will be part the School of Digital Arts, a vibrant community that offers the chance to explore every aspect of what it means to work in the digital arts. You will work across a range of creative practices – just as the professionals do – to collaborate on cross-disciplinary group projects, alongside photographers, sound engineers, filmmakers, games and media professionals. And, just as we mirror industry practices, we also work with industry-standard tools – learning within a brand new, purpose-built building that comes equipped with the latest emerging technologies for animation, filmmaking and more. 

Manchester offers an ideal setting as an animation student. A global, creative city, it has a long-established history of animation and is home to Cosgrove Hall Films – creators of numerous children’s animations and whose company founders were both students of Manchester Metropolitan University. Today the city has a thriving industry, with a significant TV, film and digital production presence at MediaCityUK, which is home to the BBC, ITV and a host of independent media companies, all of which offer you some inspiring opportunities.

With a course that’s built on our local heritage and that makes the most of our industry links, you’ll have the chance to develop the skills, build the network and gain the experience that rewarding careers are made from. 

Placement options

SODA Placement Year

As part of your studies with SODA, you may have the chance to take a year working on placement within the industry. During your year, you will spend at least 36 weeks working within an organisation in the industry, developing workplace skills, practical understanding and genuine industry experience.

SODA Study Year Abroad

You can choose to spend an academic year studying with an approved partner university overseas, developing your core skills while demonstrating your initiative by engaging with a challenging curriculum at a foreign institution. This offers practice credits from the host university, after you’ve completed Level 5 of your SODA programme. 

If you take the four-year placement route, Year 3 will be spent on placement.

The move of the BBC and ITV children’s departments to MediaCityUK has enhanced an already strong children’s media ecosystem in the North West. Skilled talent in animation is necessary not only for high-profile animation programming and filmmaking, but also for the myriad of agencies that produce high-end animated content for gaming, marketing/advertising, e-learning, publishing, visual effects, augmented reality, architectural visualisation, heritage and gallery content production, app development, prototyping, live events, etc. There is an ever-growing demand in Manchester for this type of talent, which makes SODA’s focus on future animation so timely and exciting. Our students will find multiple opportunities as animators, character designers, concept and storyboard artists, colourists, riggers, modelers, puppet makers, set designers, prop makers, producers, etc.