BA (Hons) Visual Effects (VFX) for Film and Television

The British film industry is hungry for new talent and our BA (Hons) Visual Effects for Film and Television is designed to feed it with highly skilled graduates of the required professional standard. Since the Harry Potter boom in the early 2000s, alongside a recent influx of new releases from studios, such as Disney and Marvel, the film and VFX industry is expanding at an exponential rate. This has firmly established the UK as a leading country for high-quality VFX work and created an unprecedented demand for fresh, highly trained graduate talent from the UK education system.

The course was created in response to industry demand for VFX artists who possess strong observational skills and the ability to apply them collaboratively in the workplace.

Designed from the ground up by industry professionals, specifically to address this demand, the primary ethos is to create the quality required for employability within the industry. Developing a foundation in traditional artistic techniques, such as drawing, colour theory, perspective, photography and composition, you'll learn what it takes to create your own feature film-quality VFX.

Our core software is all node-based, which enables a faster learning overall learning curve, so you can work on and produce more complex effects faster. For the 2D side, we use Nuke for compositing, roto and prep work. For the 3D side we use the industry-standard Houdini for simulations and procedural modelling and ZBrush for sculpting. For complex matchmove, we use 3DE. Our colour pipeline is based on an industry model with custom LUTs to ensure accurate monitoring of colour in our fully calibrated VFX labs.

All our VFX labs are equipped with top-of-the-range, industry-level workstations and are supported by our ender farm, fibre network and clustered storage. With smaller class sizes, students have full access to the VFX labs and workstations on specified lab days alongside a more personal teaching approach. You’ll experience a team-based production process that replicates industry best practice, which includes pre-visualisation, concept development, on-set data acquisition, asset building and compositing. We’ll introduce you to the underlying concepts and fundamental principles of VFX work and teach you the necessary creative and technological disciplines, developing your knowledge of 2D and 3D software.

The course prides itself on the currency of its staff. You’ll be taught by a small core of very experienced academics and industry professionals who know the VFX industry inside-out – they’ve worked at studios including ILM, Framestore, Double Negative, Electronic Arts, MPC, and Image Engine.

We’ve taken the knowledge gained at these studios and brought it to the classroom. Having worked in the industry at the highest levels, we not only know what makes a strong artist but also what the VFX industry is looking for. We’re focused on our graduates’ successful entry into the VFX industry, and having a long, successful career.

All undergraduate courses at AUB offer an optional placement year, to be taken between your second and third years of study.

If you’re unsure about this optional placement, you don’t need to decide now. Once you’re here and studying with us, the course team will discuss the placement options with you, so when the time comes, you can make a decision that’s right for you.

If you’re required to have a Student Visa to study in the UK, it won’t be possible to undertake the one-year placement option; there’ll be other opportunities for you to engage with industry during your study at AUB.

In your first year, we take you on a journey through the visual effects pipeline, covering all the major roles within the industry. We’ll show you how we go from on-set data acquisition, through pre-visualisation, asset creation, Matchmove, concept, roto/paint, digital matte painting, compositing and simulations (including destruction and fabric) to give you a full understanding of the 2D and 3D pipeline respectively. Your practice is reinforced by an engagement with the historical and cultural contexts in film, which develops essential research and study skills.

In this year, you’ll develop a more focused understanding of the specialist roles involved in a collaborative process. You’ll start the term by focusing your time on look development, utilising both the 2D and 3D part of the pipeline. You’ll go deeper into specific areas such as texturing and compositing with a strong focus on recreating reality through the look development process. This is an opportunity to refine your skills and start to focus on your specialist area.

You’ll then be working on the ‘Specialist Production’ unit, where you’ll collaborate with third-year BA (Hons) Film Production students, who’ll provide a film script for which you’ll be asked to create the visual effects for. In this part of the course, you’ll be fully engaged in your role as a visual effects artist, where you can creatively design and construct 2D and 3D visual effects to fulfil your vision of what a visual effect might look like for a specific shot, according to the director’s storytelling and idea.

By developing key techniques in processing imagery from multiple sources, you’ll begin to develop a specialist portfolio of skills relevant to industry best practice.

All undergraduate courses at AUB offer an optional placement year, to be taken between your second and third years of study. If you’re unsure about this optional placement, you don’t need to decide now. Once you’re here and studying with us, the course team will discuss the placement options with you, so when the time comes, you can make a decision that’s right for you.

If you’re required to have a Student Visa to study in the UK, it won’t be possible to undertake the one-year placement option; there’ll be other opportunities for you to engage with industry during your study at AUB.

In your final year, you'll have an opportunity to work on your choice of projects, focusing on delivery of high-quality technically complex shots. You’ll also be researching and developing your knowledge in your chosen specialism, whilst working as a team. Your final group project will be screened to an audience, including industry guests at a premiere viewing at the BFI in London.

By the end of the course, you’ll have developed a professional portfolio relevant to your career ambitions. Throughout your degree, we highlight the importance of a good work ethic alongside exceptional artistic ability. As a result of developing a complete portfolio package before graduation, including a CV, cover letter and demo reel, you’ll be fully equipped for future employment opportunities.

Since the Harry Potter boom in the early 2000s, alongside a recent influx of new releases from studios such as Disney and Marvel, the film and VFX industry has expanded at an exponential rate. This has firmly established the UK as the leading country for high-quality VFX work and placed an unprecedented demand for fresh, highly trained graduate talent on the UK education system.

Since BA (Hons) Visual Effects (VFX) for Film and Television started in 2015, we've successfully placed students at studios like Industry Light and Magic, Framestore, One of Us, The Third Floor, Cinesite, The Mill, Outpost VFX, Territory Studio, Dupe VFX in fully paid positions, as part of the teams creating VFX for movies and series such as The Mandalorian, The Witcher, Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker, Paddington 2, Lady and The Tramp, Black Mirror, Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle, Suicide Squad, His Dark Materials, Watchmen, The ABC Murders, The Boys, Brave New World, Mulan, The Aeronauts, Captain Marvel, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, Spider-Man: Far from Home, Detective Pikachu, Avengers: Endgame, Alita: Battle Angel, 47 Meters Down: Uncaged, Catherine the Great, Raised by Wolves and others.

Our Careers and Enterprise team is dedicated to supporting you in turning your creativity into a great career. You can read more about this here.

Watch the video below to hear from some of our alumni.