A short description of each unit and what you can expect.
Year 1
Unit 1 - Introduction to Production Arts for Screen
This introductory unit is the first unit of your course, the college and the university.
Unit 2 - Designing and making
This unit will introduce you to into a broad range of skills and techniques in production arts. These may include scale and perspective drawing, sculpting, anatomical studies and introductory software workshops.
- You will work to a brief
- Have subject specific technical workshops
- Create a personal work and reference book
- Set up a blog to record technical skills, processes and techniques
- Have seminars, lectures, talks and tutorials
- Take part in group presentations
Unit 3 - Designing and staging
You will learn skills and techniques for communicating ideas through storyboarding and animatics including digital layout techniques for cinematic pre-visualisation.
- You will undertake both project and research work
- Record your personal interests, critical thinking and knowledge of production arts on your personal reflective blog. This will serve as a record of your journey through the course and become the basis for your final digital portfolio
- Continue to record newly learnt techniques and skills in your workbook
Unit 4 - Exploring ideas
The emphasis of this unit will be on realising a narrative through the designing and making of an animated piece using either stop motion or CGI methods.
- You will experience the whole design and making process involved in a large-scale filming project
- Expand on your technical, cinematic and digital skills
- Develop your collaborative skills by working in a team to create an animated filmed narrative
- Research and analyse the relationship between physical and CGI screen elements when communicating a screen-based narrative
- Have seminars on contemporary and historical viewpoints and approaches to production arts
- Continue to use your workbook and personal reflective blog
Unit 5 - Where are we? Building the future
This unit will introduce you to concept art for screen-based media. You will design a futuristic space and visualise it either within a CG environment, through the creation of a physical model or a combination of both.
- You will research and start your own personal library of technical, geographical, sculptural and architectural references
- Create a design drawing utilising conventional media and Photoshop for a living space that conveys place mood and design.
- Create a 3D model of the conceptualised environment using CG Software such as Maya or Blender, conventional model making or a combination of both mediums
Year 2
Unit 6 - Conceptualising ideas
This unit will develop your skills further in Photoshop, object design, environment design and perspective studies. You will utilise hard surface 3D models and incorporate these into advanced concept design and matte painting.
- Projects will cover art direction, concept art, character and environment design and advanced 3D model making
- You will work on the creation and design of pitch material for filmed and interactive screen-based media
- Continue to use your workbook
- Begin to structure your personal reflective blog as a digital portfolio
Unit 7 - Collaborative and collective practices
This unit aims to introduce you to different ways in which collaborative working can focus and enhance your own creative strengths. This unit has 3 core purposes:
- To engage with fellow students with different practices and interests in a collaborative project
- To engage with external audiences, participants or institutions to consider new contexts for your work
- To develop your creative attributes to enable you to take on future challenges in a variety of contexts
Unit 8 - Who in the world
This unit is about learning to understand the creative and technical aspects of advanced character design, digital sculpting, modelling and set up within CGI software. It will also look at physical sculpting and the integration of both digital and physical character elements into cinematic, interactive or VR and AR environments.
- You will use a screenplay to carry out script analysis, script breakdown, character analysis and research into period and genre
- Engage with and respond to broader concepts and themes. These might include, but are not limited to body, gender, genre, agency, authenticity, movement, audience, spatiality
- Lectures and seminars that introduce you to contemporary theorists and practitioners working in the field of Pre-Visualisation, VFX, Film and the interactive entertainment industry.
- Write an essay responding to a concept or theme you encounter in the unit
- Apply for work placements to be undertaken in unit 9
- Work on your CV and professional portfolio
Unit 9 - Where in the world?
In this unit you will explore the creation and integration of CG and physical models within production and VFX pipelines for cinematic, VR and AR applications, using platforms such as Unity and Unreal Engine. There will also be the opportunity to use the techniques taught to recreate real world objects using 3D printing where appropriate using current course facilities.
- During this unit you can undertake a work placement
- You will use green screen and capture tools such as motion and surface capture where available
- Explore the use of photogrammetry and physical model making
- Develop greater understanding of the integration of digital assets with conventional set design and scale models
- Utilise cross platform tools for creating content for VR and AR environments and its integration onto visual effects and interactive pipelines
- Continue to use your workbook and personal reflective blog
Year 3
Unit 10 - Finding your voice: portfolio design, crafting research skills, career planning
The work generated for your final year project will be self-directed and involve extended pieces of work. The unit has 3 elements:
- Research portfolio - a visual and reflective project that demonstrates your research voice within your studio work
- Dissertation - a research project which can be written, filmed or presented
- Personal profile - development of a personal profile for potential employment
Unit 11 - Show your work: Independent practice
This final unit enables you bring together all the ideas and learning from the course. You will undertake a major production design, art direction or spatial design project. This might be for a film, television drama, entertainment production, event creation, museum exhibition, digital game, VR or other environment creation for screen.
- To continue a self-directed programme of practice and related research
- Seminars and talks on working in production arts
- To present work in the college degree show
Optional Diploma between year 2 and 3
Between year 2 and 3 you can opt to undertake the Diploma in Professional Studies or the UAL Diploma in Creative Computing. Whilst these Diplomas are an optional aspect of the course, they are designed as an integrated and assessed part of your journey through the course.