Games Art

Study options

Full-time

Part-time

Award

Key facts

Location:: Stoke-on-Trent campus
Location:: Stoke-on-Trent campus
Study option:: Full-time
Study option:: Part-time
Duration:: 13 Months
Duration:: 22 Months
Start date:: 23 September 2024; 23 September 2024
School:: School of Digital, Technology, Innovation and Business

National expertise

Our staff have leading experience in games art

Professional portfolio

You will build the portfolio throughout the course

Industry-standard facilities

These include our Vicon Motion Capture Studio and VR studios

Get a flying start in the games industry! As a game artist, this is an opportunity for you to enhance your skills and build a portfolio of work to make an impact in modern video game art creation.

Use your artistic skills to help bring heroes and monsters to life and create breathtaking visual features in games.

Our MA in Games Art covers concept art, how to develop characters and environments, and how to craft vehicles, weapons and other props.

You will also explore experimental visual storytelling techniques and learn all about the importance of lighting and materials. The course enables you to focus on the area you want to specialise in for a career.

Our multi award-winning games department is one of the largest in the UK and you’ll be taught by experts with years of experience, ensuring you receive practical guidance that’s both relevant and up-to-date. You can tap into our industry links too.

On successful completion of study, we will issue the following award: MA Games Art

Part-time study

This course is available as a part time study course.

Course content

The modules include mastering advanced techniques such as realistic modelling, where you’ll design 3D assets that can be used in games, animation, movies or virtual reality. You will look at how to correctly light a model and design different materials for it such as clothing.

It will give you an insight into the array of specialist areas that games artists can go into, from styling characters’ hair through to texturing cloud backdrops.

Other modules cover how to manage projects, develop professional practice and entrepreneurship, and explore research methods.

The course will culminate in the Games Master Project, which is an in-depth piece of work on your chosen theme. Examples include creating advanced character models or large-scale environments or producing a dissertation.

You’ll have access to our wide range of facilities, including our industry-standard Vicon Motion Capture Studio and VR studios.

By the end, you’ll have mastered the technical skills in character art and environment art to develop exciting new games art, designs and gameplay experiences. And you’ll have the professional portfolio to match.

Heralding 20 Years of Games: The Christmas Lectures

News

Staffordshire University is using it’s 20 years of games anniversary to share its remarkable expertise in a series of online Christmas Lectures.

Modules

The tables provide an indicative list of the modules that make up the course for the current academic year. Each module is worth a specified number of credits. Our teaching is informed by research, and modules change periodically to reflect developments in the discipline. We aim to ensure that all modules run as scheduled. If for any reason a module cannot be run we will advise you as soon as possible and will provide guidance on selecting an appropriate alternative module.

Year 1 compulsory modules
Year 1 compulsory modules
3D Modelling For Realism	20 credits
Creative Art Style Practice	20 credits
Experimental Visual Story Telling	20 credits
Game Master Project	60 credits
Materials, Lighting And Presentation	20 credits
Professional Practice And Entrepreneurship	20 credits
Project Management And Research Methods	20 credits

Year 2 compulsory modules
Year 2 compulsory modules
Creative Art Style Practice	20 credits
Experimental Visual Story Telling	20 credits
Game Master Project	60 credits
Project Management And Research Methods	20 credits

Entry requirements

2:2 or above undergraduate qualification (or equivalent). We also have a portfolio entrance requirement: For 3D artists we’d ideally like to see a high–low poly workflow, 3D sculpting, unwrapping, texturing and the use of a games engine to display assets. We’re lenient about this as some of our best graduates have come from non-games degrees such as architectural rendering or animation or had gaps in their portfolio, so feel free to get in touch!

For equivalent entry requirements in your home country, please see the information on our country pages.

Choose your country

Check our entry and English language requirements for your country.

Facilities

Epic Games Lab

Home to the Epic Games sponsored Design Centre. A fully equipped space designed to nurture future industry developers studying with us on our Games courses.

Video

Motion Capture Studio

Realistically capture multiple human movements simultaneously for the creation of high-quality games, animation and VFX sequences. Our industry standard facility features a 24-camera rig, Vicon hardware and Cara facial performance capture headset.

Video

Careers

Our Games Art graduates have achieved worldwide success, including landing jobs as artists at Playground Games, Codemasters, Dovetail Games and Sumo Digital.

After completing the MA in Games Art, you’ll be equipped to work in a variety of roles, including:

Character Artist
Environment Artist
Vehicle Artist
Level Designer
Art Producer
Teaching games design/Games academic

You could also go on to become a games academic and teach Games Art. You will be ideally placed for further academic study at PhD level.

All students have access to Career Connect, our dedicated careers team.

Postgraduate Open Day

Saturday 8 June 2024

Join us on campus to chat with lecturers from your postgraduate subject area of interest.

Book now

Teaching and assessment

Teaching

We know that everyone learns differently. So not only do we use traditional ways of teaching like lectures, but we also use problem-based learning to help you apply your skills. For this course, you'll:

Work with others on group work
Delve deeper into subject areas in workshops
Be expected to study independently
Work on a project and portfolio

Our teaching is supported through our Virtual Learning Environment called Blackboard. This means you can access a range of materials to support your lectures wherever you are. We’ll also assign you a supervisor to support you throughout your research project.

Assessment

Your course will provide you with opportunities to test your understanding of your subject informally before you complete the formal assessments that count towards your final mark. Each module normally includes practice or ‘formative’ assessments, for which you receive feedback from your tutor. Practice assessments are developmental and any grades you receive for them do not count towards your module mark. There is a formal or ‘summative’ assessment at the end of each module. This includes a range of coursework assessments, such as essays, reports, portfolios, performance, presentations, final year, independent project and written examinations. The grades from formal assessments count towards your module mark.

Learning support

In addition to the excellent support you will receive from your course teaching team, our central Academic Skills team provides group and one-to-one help to support your learning in a number of areas. These include study skills (including reading, note-taking and presentation skills); written English (including punctuation and grammatical accuracy); academic writing (including how to reference); research skills; critical thinking and understanding arguments; and revision, assessment and examination skills (including time management).

Additional support

Our Student Inclusion Services support students with additional needs such as sensory impairment, or learning difficulties such as dyslexia.

Feedback

We know that it’s important for you to be able to gauge your progress. So, your tutor will give you feedback on any practice assessments you do. You can also use our digital academy forum to post your work and gain feedback from staff. We usually give you feedback on formal assessments within 20 working days, but the format will vary for each module.

You will typically need to complete 10 – 15 hours of independent work each week. However, the actual study time will vary from student to student.

Independent learning

Students will be expected to undertake independent learning activities in which they develop further the content taught in lecturer-led sessions. This will include the application of games art creation techniques, practising use of game art tools, and independent research.

Staff

You will be taught by an expert teaching team whose expertise and knowledge are closely matched to the content of the modules on the course. The team includes senior academics and professional practitioners with industry experience.

Daniel Webster

Senior Lecturer

Dan is a highly experienced 3D artist with professional skills in Character, Environment, Vehicular modelling, and Animation for the Games industry.

Daniel's profile

Dr Kieran Hicks

Course Director

Dr Kieran Hicks is a game design lecturer, they are the director of the DEMI research centre. Their research explores games from user-based and design-based lenses, using games as a tool to engage diverse groups in beneficial activity.

Kieran's profile

Fees

For the course starting on 23 September 2024 the tuition fees are:

Tuition fees for MA-Full-time
Study option	UK / Channel Islands	International
Full-time	£8,900 per course	£16,750 per course

Tuition fees for MA Part-time
Study option	UK / Channel Islands	International
Part-time	£10,260 per course	£16,740 per course

If you would like to know more about the fees listed and what this means to you then please get in touch with our Enquiries Team.

Alumni discount

If you've previously completed a Staffordshire University undergraduate degree (excluding HND and foundation degrees) you may be entitled to a discount of up to 25% off your course fees for any subsequent postgraduate taught course (terms apply, see the alumni discount page for details). If you have any questions about how this relates to you, please contact feesandbursaries@staffs.ac.uk.

Not included in tuition fees
Not included in the fees:
The estimated cost of text books over the duration of the course. All essential text books are available from the library, but some students chose to purchase their own copies. Travel, subsistence, entrance fees etc. incurred by optional trips and visits away from the University related to the course. The cost of materials for the development of a student’s individual practice and work. Additional costs vary dependent upon student’s own choice of materials and approach to their practice. Optional personal insurance when borrowing equipment such as cameras, lighting equipment etc. for extended period of use off campus [Approx. £50-£100]. It may be possible to add some items to home contents insurance. The estimated cost of text books over the duration of the course. All essential text books are available from the library, but some students chose to purchase their own copies.Travel, subsistence, entrance fees etc. incurred by optional trips and visits away from the University related to the course.The cost of materials for the development of a student’s individual practice and work. Additional costs vary dependent upon student’s own choice of materials and approach to their practice.Optional personal insurance when borrowing equipment such as cameras, lighting equipment etc. for extended period of use off campus [Approx £50-£100]. It may be possible to add some items to home contents insurance.

Accommodation and living costs
Accommodation and living costs
Accommodation and living costs are not included in our fees. For more information on accommodation and living costs, please see: Accommodation

Sources of financial support

Providing you are studying towards a full Masters qualification you may be able to apply for a postgraduate loan of up to £11,570 to help with tuition fees, maintenance and other associated costs. Student loans are available for many of our postgraduate degrees and are provided by the Student Loans Company (SLC). The loan can cover a wide range of postgraduate study options; part-time, full-time and distance learning.

For more information and how to apply visit masters loan.

Apply

Location	Award	Study option	Start date	Apply Link
Stoke-on-Trent campus	MA	Full-time	23 September 2024	Apply now

Location	Award	Study option	Start date	Apply Link
Stoke-on-Trent campus	MA	Part-time	23 September 2024	Apply now

Rules and regulations

If you are offered a place at Staffordshire University, your offer will be subject to our rules, regulations and enrolment conditions, which may vary from time to time.

Students of Staffordshire University enter into a contract with us and are bound by these rules and regulations, which are subject to change. For more information, please see: University Policies and Regulations.

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