Animation

This module provides the space where the four SODA research themes are investigated, explored. and applied. You will apply your advanced skills of transdisciplinary thinking and evaluation, collaboration with others and synthesis of your hybrid skills set. Within this module, you will critically select a Co-Lab theme that complements your creative practice. The module aims to develop your co-creative working skills, consolidate your knowledge of research methodologies, further develop creative thinking, scholarship, problem solving and ability to test your ideas.

This module allows you to hone and focus your craft in the wider subject of Animation by exploring existing, new, and experimental techniques informed by the wider academic and evolving industrial landscape. You will have the opportunity to work across the interdisciplinary SODA community, sharing and enhancing your skillset while developing your creative and technical practice in Animation, benefitting from a diverse range of expertise and experiences within the immediate subject area, and beyond. You will be supported and guided to develop your practice alongside research to explore new concepts and ideas, as well as the freedom to work creatively and create unique artefacts across areas you identify with creatively such as Storytelling, Documentary, Animation and Visual Effects.

Through this independent project module, you will have the opportunity to apply the contextual knowledge and interdisciplinary skills that you developed in the previous modules to produce a body of self-directed work. You will further hone your creative skills and practical methodologies and develop your discipline knowledge and creative problem solving skills. Shaped by independently defined interests, you will use your practice as an investigative tool, examining areas such as contemporary approaches to storytelling, the unique role of your discipline in the digital and creative sectors and the technological spaces that it occupies. Your work will adhere to industry standards while demonstrating a high degree of creativity, advanced problem solving, professionalism and critical analysis.

This module builds awareness and understanding of workflow processes in visual effects post-production and more broadly across computer-generated productions. You will build a thorough understanding of the overall pipeline, and in-depth understanding of how applied practice in your specific discipline affects all other connected pathways throughout the pipeline.

In this module you will enhance your skills in academic postgraduate study. The module will equip you with the knowledge and understanding of advanced academic writing, including how to develop academic argument and critical commentary. You will build on and develop your confidence in academic and professional communication. During the module you will learn how to bring focused and coherent arguments, evaluation, theory and critical analysis to bear on your practice.

In this module you will learn how digital art can be used to investigate and communicate social, political, and environmental issues. You will be introduced to interdisciplinary practices that use new techniques such as digital mapping and virtual reconstructions to expose, critique, and convey issues ranging from social justice to environmental degradation. You will identify and comprehensively research a specific scenario of enquiry. This will provide context, meaning and self-set challenges to your practice. By the end of this module you will be able to employ digital art tools and methods to examine and give voice to the pressing issues of our time.

This module provides an opportunity for students to explore innovations and future technologies within the CG (Computer Graphics) / VFX (Visual Effects) disciplines.

This is a space for students to investigate new advances, and even develop their own, with a focus on new and burgeoning methodologies in research or practical spaces that aim to challenge the perception of ‘standard’ applied practice, and develop knowledge and understanding of emerging changes to existing workflows.

This module builds on Interdisciplinary Practice 1. You will develop a series of project outcomes that question and create relationships between animation, visual storytelling and associated interdisciplinary practices. It will provide you with opportunities to confidently generate ideas, critically assess research material, and apply these to your animations in a way that informs your specific practice and expands your technical skills and understanding of workflows. You will continue to develop strategies to grow your professional network of emerging and established practitioners and animation studios and seek opportunities for promote your practice. The module enables collaboration with peers across specialisms within SODA, sharing your skills with others along the way.

This module is intended to offer you an introduction to a world of playful and idiosyncratic ideas and provocations from contemporary thinkers. You will be offered the opportunity to explore a range of different perspectives on art and culture - in the widest possible sense - integrated with ways of thinking which will open out wider viewpoints on a range of themes that will impact on your own creative work.

This module focuses on developing knowledge, understanding and awareness of professional practice in your discipline and the wider associated industries. You will develop skills to enable the sharing of your work to reach appropriate audiences, collaborators and employers.

Humans make and rely on technologies, profoundly transforming the ways in we live, interact, and inhabit the world, and these can immensely vary between peoples and places, eras and ideologies. Shaping our world and our lives through technology comes with huge responsibility, and sometimes we fail to properly assess these changes against ethical, social, and ecological criteria. In this module, you will be given a comprehensive survey of technological developments, from traditional practices that are embedded in ecological processes, to the latest advances in computational automation. Borrowing methodologies from speculative design and fiction, you will research and assess a form of technology from humanity’s vast toolkit and imagine how this technology could be redesigned and reshaped, to be realigned with our changing world and principles, enacting new forms of interaction and interdependence.

In this module you will be introduced to storytelling techniques and narrative design concepts and skills for working across physical spaces and immersive digital media to engage audiences. Through hands-on sessions you will develop your core competencies and technical skills in designing a transformative immersive audience experience using a range of existing and emergent tools relevant in the creative and cultural industries including Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Spatial Audio production. With a focus on working collaboratively, you will begin to develop storytelling, design and research skills as a team following co-design methods that include ethical considerations as well as the competent use of individual skills in testing, fabricating, and concept design.

In this module you will produce a finessed, critically informed Extended Reality immersive proposal and pitch deck aimed at an industry sector of your choice. Deploying both practical skills and research knowledge, you will develop an XR experience using iterative design and testing methods. You will be encouraged to work collaboratively and to develop a strong narrative that is supported by a realistic production pipeline with clearly defined milestones and outputs, and be encouraged to develop associated marketing, research and evaluation methods that demonstrates innovate thinking across the whole production process. Transdisciplinary by design, you will learn skills and techniques that can be applied across multiple industries and sectors where collaborative working towards a novel and immersive audience experience is key to success including artists, games design, therapeutic and other health services, theatre, music and marketing sectors.

As a postgraduate student in SODA, this module gives you the chance to consider the role of digital arts as a catalyst for sustainable futures. This is an opportunity to examine the cultural models and considerations surrounding sustainability and environmental awareness to create new, collaborative works that challenge, disrupt and engage.

Working in an environment designed to closely simulate the experience of industry, you will collaboratively work within a large-scale project. Accounting for discipline-specialisms that will provide the opportunity to apply industry-standard working practices and skillsets, you will engage with an entire production process including planning, management and execution.