Everything you need to know...
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What is the fee?
Home: £10,620 for the course
International/EU: £17,725 for the course -
How long will I study?
1 Year
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Where will I study?
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When do I start?
September 2025
Course summary
- Create original and engaging animation, specialising in your preferred discipline.
- Explore advanced animation and production inspired by research and practice.
- Showcase your skills to employers with a portfolio of personal and client work.
- Gain valuable knowledge and insights from industry speakers and guest lectures.
- Work in a professional studio environment with the latest software and hardware.
You’ll explore a wide variety of animation techniques, along with essential pre-production and post-production skills. Everything that we teach is underpinned and inspired by emerging new research and current industry practice. Apply this knowledge to develop your own unique and innovative portfolio, preparing you for exciting and diverse animation roles such as character animator, storyboard artist, environment artist, technical director, set designer or concept artist.
How you learn
At Sheffield Hallam, all our courses are designed to engage you with the world and challenge you to think in new ways. You’ll get to collaborate with others, and you’ll be taught in a supportive environment where you can thrive.
On the MA Animation course you’ll be based in our bespoke studios, workshops and digital spaces, joining a dynamic and collaborative learning community. With their support you’ll undertake creative adventures, explore possibilities and challenge conventions. Our course team promotes a learning environment that’s supportive, inclusive and actively embraces diversity.
The course’s content and approach are geared towards producing employable animation professionals. You’ll improve your knowledge and understanding of animation while developing skills and attributes that enhance your academic achievement and improve your success in the real world.
We’re a dedicated, qualified and highly experienced team of teaching staff – with world-leading research and professional creative reputations. We take the time to get to know you while encouraging a range of approaches to learning, alongside the academic support to help you develop and demonstrate your skills, qualities and subject expertise.
You learn through:
- workshops
- technical demonstrations
- one-to-one supervision with animation specialists
- guest lectures
- commercial opportunities with real-world clients
- external visits and field trips
Key themes
Core modules cover animation techniques and associated skills in your chosen discipline. These modules introduce you to key skills such as storyboarding, 3D character design, puppet building, drawing for animation, lighting and post-production – all providing you with a solid foundation to fulfil your potential.
Continuing Professional Development is encouraged both through assessment – e.g. asking you to reflect on and evaluate your progress – and via an academic advising system that supports you in your ongoing development.
Course leaders and tutors
Reuben Fleming
Senior LecturerReuben has previously worked in the games industry and as a freelance animator on various projects for TV and the web. He teaches across the undergraduate Animation, … Read more
Applied learning
We’ve designed the course to embrace real-world challenges and provide you with the practical skills and knowledge to be successful. You’ll develop your expertise in collaboration with various industry, commercial and creative practitioners, clients and organisations.
Work experience
Through a series of diverse work experience opportunities, you’ll gain the knowledge, skills and professional behaviours to help you reflect on your goals and future career path. You’ll become more confident, resilient and practised in professional interactions – preparing you to succeed when you graduate.
Live Projects
You’ll be able to work with external partners and clients on real-world projects. Previous students have worked closely with the City of Sanctuary UK on large animated projects.
Field Trips
You can attend regional and national animation festivals. Previous students have regularly attended the Manchester Animation Festival (MAF) – a great chance to network, gain valuable insights from industry speakers and watch the latest award-winning animated shorts.
Networking opportunities
Through industry events such as Pathways and the Festival of Creativity – both held annually at Sheffield Hallam – you’ll have opportunities to network with employers and showcase your work. You’ll also have access to exhibition nights, careers advisers and employability-enhancing workshops.
Animation-specific industry days and events are held on campus, where you can attend talks and workshops while networking with animation professionals. They’re a great window into the world of work and your future opportunities.
Previous speakers have included Jellyfish Pictures animation director Kevin Spruce, Finger Industries managing director Marcus Kenyan, interactive projects producer Chloe Barraclough, and stop motion director Mikey Please.
Student work
A selection of student work showcasing all three disciplines of animation.
Future careers
This course prepares you for a career in
- 2D, 3D, and stop-motion animation studios
- film and visual effects (VFX)
- television
- advertising
- game development
- motion graphics
- online content creation
- design and visualisation
- independent animation production
Previous students have gone on to work for
- Blue Zoo
- Finger Industries
- Travellers Tales
- Frontier Developments
- The Table Creative
Where will I study?
You study at City Campus through a structured mix of lectures, seminars and practical sessions as well as access to digital and online resources to support your learning.
City Campus
City Campus is located in the heart of Sheffield, within minutes of the train and bus stations.
City Campus map | City Campus tour
Adsetts library
Adsetts Library is located on our City Campus. It's open 24 hours a day, every day.
Learn moreEquipment and facilities
On the MA Animation course, you’ll have access to a wide variety of facilities across our campuses – including a 24-hour learning centre, Students’ Union, cafes and eateries, lecture theatres, exhibition spaces and more.
You'll work in a professional studio-based environment with access to the latest industry standard software and hardware, including:
- dedicated 2D, 3D and stop-motion industry-standard studios
- life drawing studios
- motion capture and green screen studios
- 3D scanning equipment
- Wacom Cintiq labs
- bespoke industry-standard stop-motion armatures
- professional-grade image capture solutions
- rapid prototyping 3D printers (full colour filament and resin)
- 4K 360 cameras with physical HDRI calibration tools
- VR workspaces with inside-out tracking
- the Autodesk Media and Entertainment Collection
- the Adobe Creative Cloud Suite (including the Substance 3D collection)
- Unreal Engine
- Zbrush
- Toon Boom Harmony Advanced
- DragonFrame
360 tour - City Campus
Entry requirements
All students
Normally an undergraduate degree at 2:2 or above, in a related field. If English is not your first language, you will need an IELTS score of 6.0 with a minimum of 5.5 in all skills, or equivalent.
Additional information for EU/International students
If you are an International or non-UK European student, you can find out more about the country specific qualifications we accept on our international qualifications page.
For details of English language entry requirements (IELTS), please see the information for 'All students'.
Modules
Important notice: The structure of this course is periodically reviewed and enhanced to provide the best possible learning experience for our students and ensure ongoing compliance with any professional, statutory and regulatory body standards. Module structure, content, delivery and assessment may change, but we expect the focus of the course and the learning outcomes to remain as described above. Following any changes, updated module information will be published on this page.
Final year
Compulsory modules
Frame By Frame: Showcasing Your Animation Skills
Imagination To Reality: Building Your Animation Portfolio
The Final Act: Your Animated Masterpiece
Fees and funding
Home students
Our tuition fee for UK students starting full-time study in 2025/26 is £10,620 for the course.
If you are studying an undergraduate course, postgraduate pre-registration course or postgraduate research course over more than one academic year then your tuition fees may increase in subsequent years in line with Government regulations or UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) published fees. More information can be found in our terms and conditions under student fees regulations.
International students
Our tuition fee for International/EU students starting full-time study in 2025/26 is £17,725 for the course.
Postgraduate student loans
Up to £12,471 is available in 2024/25 for home students on most masters courses.
Additional course costs
The links below allow you to view estimated general course additional costs, as well as costs associated with key activities on specific courses. These are estimates and are intended only as an indication of potential additional expenses. Actual costs can vary greatly depending on the choices you make during your course.
General course additional costs
Additional costs for Sheffield Creative Industries Institute (PDF, 268.6KB)Legal information
Any offer of a place to study is subject to your acceptance of the University’s Terms and Conditions and Student Regulations.
