Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Visual Effects

at Middlesex University London United Kingdom

The Foundation Year in Business is taught by the same lecturing staff who teach on our degree courses and you are taught in small group seminars, workshops and lectures. You will be able to develop transferable skills in business, communication and problem-solving.

BA Business Management (Human Resources)

If you want to learn how businesses work and how to manage people, then this is the degree for you. You’ll learn about the theory and practice of how businesses operate and what their environments are like. You’ll also study a variety of management styles, alongside the law and practices related to managing people.

You’ll be supported by a team of tutors who have industry experience. You will be exposed to key HR practices such as hiring practices, HR law, the ethics of employment and other abilities you'll need during your career.

The Foundation Year in Accounting and Finance is offered as an entry route to a business degree for those who don't yet meet the entry requirements for degree-level study.

BA Honours Business Management (Finance)

Understanding contemporary corporate finance is the key to understanding modern business. Covering all areas of finance including investment analysis and capital management, you’ll have the tools to solve financial problems faced by business today.

This course is tailored towards ambitious students who want a management and finance degree, and you’ll learn in a live environment. Using data from the London Stock Exchange, you’ll form portfolios of listed companies and compare it against the market. You’ll identify over and under-priced companies, as well as calculating Beta, among other skills.

This BA has been designed to get you into the diverse film industry, bringing together both theoretical and practical learning.

You’ll be following in the footsteps of a long list of decorated alumni, the likes of which have gone on to work on the latest Star Wars productions, for Disney, the BBC, set up their own companies and continued their studies at the National Film and Television School.

Year on year, our students produce outstanding, industry-standard films. Watch last year's graduates excellent work on our Creative Graduates 2020 digital exhibition.

Across the three years, you’ll learn about the complete film-making process, covering a range of production roles, conception and development, post-production, script writing, cinematography, and direction, taught by professionals working in the film industry.

A film degree can open a lot of doors and we’re here to help you find the right career path. Graduates of this course become writers, editors, sound technicians, and camera assistants.

Combining theory with active learning in a studio environment, our 3D animation course gives you the practical skills needed to start your career in the animation or games industry.

3D Animation is the future

With more than 2000 active games and animation studios in the UK, has there ever been a better time to enter the British gaming industry and take part in a game design course? As part of our 3D design course module you'll gain the knowledge and space to develop as an artist working with 3D software. You'll cover the key areas within the industry: character art, environment art, character animation, rendering and dynamics, virtual reality design, Z-Brush sculpting, 3D printing and a host of others. All this builds your confidence and equips you for a career in the industry.

A studio environment helps build your skills
You'll perfect your skills in a live studio environment working on the latest industry-standard software and techniques, mirroring exactly how animators and game designers work daily.

You'll learn through discussions, demonstrations, seminars, presentations and practical work, as well as intensive workshops combining individual and group work. All of these support you as you learn all about contemporary workflows in commercial animation and games studio pipelines.

Our studio facilities are second to none and you'll work on industry-standard software such as Maya and Z-Brush. The studio also hosts high-spec, overclocked workstations, 20 VR devices, a motion capture studio, green screen and a state-of-the-art 3D printing and scanning studio.

Take that first step towards an animation career

Our course also allows you to build your professional network - beyond your day-to-day learning, you’ll also have the opportunity to attend guest lectures and masterclasses from animation professionals to interview them and learn more about their work. Previous lecturers have included Sydney Padua, senior animator on Clash of the Titans and Jungle Book, and Alex Robinson and Daniel Boyle of the award winning Treat studio. During your course, you’ll even have the chance to gain work experience in a studio, as you complete a four week live project responding to a brief set by industry practitioners that reflect the most emergent and contemporary practices in the industry.

You also get the support you need to succeed. From your Personal Tutor to your Graduate Academic Assistant, each one has studied your subject and will provide the support you need based on their own experience. If you need a little help with writing, numeracy or library skills, we can help with that too. We also offer support from specialised technicians with professional experience in your field. They support you in the studio and in workshops, as well as during your projects.

We have strong links with art and design employers to help you find the career of your dreams. Graduates have gone on to work with game studios like Rockstar and Cloud Imperium Games, as well as animation boutiques like Treat Studios and Blue Zoo. A degree in 3D animation and games is the first step for a career as an artist in the games and animation industries.

On our course you will develop as an artist working with 3D software. The course framework includes project based collaborations and integrated workshops that are designed to develop observational drawing and technological skills essential to 3D computer animation production and computer games. This interdisciplinary approach combines a critical arts education with specialist knowledge in 3D technology and workflows.

In the first year you will attend lectures and workshops in the fundamental principles of animation and storytelling, alongside intensive workshops in Environment and Character design, Virtual Reality design, Z-Brush sculpting and even 3-D printing.

The second year uses this interdisciplinary foundation to explore specialist workflows while retaining an experimental, playful and collaborative atmosphere. This includes a series of short intensive projects where you will be introduced to the latest industry standard techniques (e.g. modern asset workflows, Physically Based Shading, GPU Rendering, Dynamics). Briefs are studio orientated and supported by both your lecturers and specialist technical tutors. This practical curriculum is interwoven with lectures and seminars that address the historical and cultural background to animation, games and digital culture.

In the final year of study, students are given the opportunity to specialise in a wide variety of disciplines such as Character Art, Environment Art, Game Development, 3D Character Animation, Rigging, Lighting / Rendering and Concept Art . There is a strong focus on producing an outstanding portfolio of work, tailored to your individual strengths and artistic temperament.

The basis for a wide range of computer-based careers, computer science studies opens up opportunities across all sectors – from software development to systems engineering and everywhere in between. Our course helps you develop the skills, knowledge and experience that will attract employers and help you achieve your computer-based career goals.

You’ll gain an understanding of the key principles of computer science while you develop your programming, system engineering, and project experience skills. You’ll also get the support, encouragement and confidence to put your skills into practice through individual and group projects. Your first year will be entirely project led, ensuring you practice your skills from the very start.

In the past our students have worked on a project with the prestigious Pink Shoe Club , creating prototypes for a unique digital self-assessment tool.

Our project management pathway allows you to shape your studies towards your career ambitions, and build the specialist skills to plan and manage business projects to ensure they are completed on time, and on budget.

Course highlights

• Our Enterprise Development Hub can support you to start your own business, and develop essential entrepreneurial skills for a successful business career
• You will have access to cutting-edge business resources including the Chartered Management Institute's Management Direct Resource Hub
• You can become a student member of the Chartered Management Institute and a full member upon graduation.
• As a student of this course you'll receive a free electronic textbook for every module.

Digital media course has been especially designed to meet the skills and demands of the fast-moving creative industries. Combining theoretical knowledge and practical skills, you gain skills in areas such as new media, video production, website design, culture and more. Practice-based work includes video production (following Government safety guidelines), web design and HTML programming, data visualisation and smart environments. Great emphasis is also given to the management and analysis of social media platforms, with APIs and other sources used to present and assess social data.

You'll be taught by experienced technical tutors who know the industry inside out. They will guide through a series of modules like the compulsory Digital Media Practice module, which focuses on production methods: video, sound recording and mixing, advanced post-production, and many more. At the end of the module you'll produce a creative and adaptive piece of work that puts theory to practice.

Studies in digital media can lead to a range of exciting careers. You’ll find that graduates with a digital media degree are highly sought after in the fields of social media, marketing, e-commerce and content production, to highlight just a few.

You will acquire a broad range of creative skills during the degree, including:

• Visual communication skills for print and online
• The knowledge to deploy social media platforms appropriate to audiences
• Adaptability to new technologies and software
• HTML programming
• Writing for screen and multiple online platforms
• Understanding different ways of campaigning and promotion using social media platforms
• Competence in media production
• Content management, dissemination and campaigning
• Storytelling on multiple platforms.

Cardiac physiology skills are in high demand, and our specialist healthcare course gives you the expertise, skills and practical experience to enter the field of healthcare science.

Covering everything from diagnostics and monitoring to analytical and intervention procedures, you’ll gain an expert understanding of the heart, how it functions, and how to provide treatment to patients of all ages. Through a mix of virtual and on campus laboratory work and industry placements, you’ll also develop your expertise in echocardiography, pacemaker implantation, exercise stress testing, electrocardiograms (ECGs) and blood pressure measurement.

All industries now utilise data and Data-Science and Data-Analytics are increasingly identified as key industrial activities.  The position of Data Scientist is rapidly becoming a required post for any company that wishes to take full advantage of the data that they collect. This course is designed to give you the skills to step into a career as a Data Scientist in a wide range of industries and companies.

This masters has been designed to offer those with a familiarity in maths, science or computing an opportunity to develop a key set of skills for future employment in a way that builds on your existing knowledge and skill base. Upon completing the course, you will be ready to fulfil the requirements of a Data Scientist.

You will focus on the intertwining areas of machine learning, visual analytics and data governance, and be able to strike a balance between theoretical underpinnings, practical hands-on experience, and acquisition of industrially-relevant languages and packages. You will also be exposed to cutting-edge contemporary research activity within data science that will equip you with the potential to pursue a research-based career, and, in particular, further PhD study at Middlesex.

Course Highlights

• Explore theoretical and practical aspects with industry-recognised skills
• Study a course that is unique in its fusion of machine-learning, visual analytics and corporate data governance
• Equip yourself to apply machine learning and visual analytics to any data source

Our games design course is designed to give you a skill set that’s resilient to the rapid changes in an expanding and evolving industry. You’ll gain hands-on experience that will help you build your portfolio and develop your experience in a wide range of design skills that will open up career opportunities in a broad range of creative industries.

The games industry is  complex and diverse industry that spans a variety of old and new technologies fm print to computer software to 3D printed game pieces. Our BA/BSc in games design gives you the transferable skills and knowledge you need to become a successful games designer in this industry. Led by academic staff experienced in AAA, indie, tabletop and mobile gaming, you'll develop your technology and story development skills, as well as enhancing your game-play design expertise.

Depending on your interests, you will work on the technical side of games design and testing in the BSc, while the BA is focused on experience design and using scripting and games engines to produce satisfying gameplay experiences.

Build your hands-on games design skills

• We’ve got state-of-the-art facilities that give you access to over 30 workstations that are equipped with the latest software. Learning the essential skills you need to start your game design career, you’ll get to grips with the latest software, including Unity, Processing, OpenFrameworks, Maya,Z-Brush, After Effects, Flash, Final Cut Pro and Photoshop. You’ll also develop your skills with our Vicon Motion Capture and Green screen facility.
• You’ll get plenty of hands-on experience collaborating with students from our 3D animation, art and design, computing and graphics departments as part of our coordinated workshops. Developing your career ambitions, you'll have a range of industry work placements in gaming companies.
• You’ll develop your employability skills and industry connections with a range of work placements and internship opportunities. Our links with industry partners also give you access to live briefs, guest lecturers, and potential employers.