BA (Hons)
Animation & Illustration
/ Franchised Course, University for the Creative Arts (UK)* A ‘student grant’ can be awarded to short, first, and second-cycle students studying at the accredited programmes of study in order to support their studies in the Republic of Cyprus and/or abroad. To be eligible, students must have resided in the Republic of Cyprus for at least five years before enrolment to a University/Higher Education Institution. The amount of the grant is based on the family income and ranges between EUR 750 to EUR 3,420.
Course overview
Gain the tools and flexibility to become a skilled visual storyteller on the BA (Hons) Animation & Illustration course at CAA.
Images – both moving and still – provide visual storytelling everywhere we look, from feature films and adverts to smartphone apps. With a strong focus on the social and cultural contexts for illustration, this course will help you become an adaptable and independent maker with critical thinking at the core of your approach.
You’ll have access to specialist tools and industry-standard software as you learn processes and techniques such as traditional 2D hand-drawn Animation, 2D Digital & 3D Animation, Illustration, Narrative, Storytelling etc
The course will also offer opportunities to take part in live industry briefs, competitions and extra-curricular projects, and to make the most of our many industry links to gain experience and build your network.
Graduates have gone on to enjoy careers in fields such as animation, illustration, digital media, film making, set and spatial design etc.
What you'll study
The content of the course may be subject to change. Curriculum content is provided as a guide.
Introduction to Animation and Illustration
This unit introduces you to different ways of approaching, questioning and solving creative problems. You’ll investigate, analyse and document a range of subjects in response to projects set by your tutors. Through these projects, you’ll be taught skills related to the collection of information and visual analysis.
Animation Fundamentals: Motion, Narrative, Screen
You’ll be introduced to the basics of storytelling, narrative and sequence for a range of media outputs. You’ll learn how to build visual stories, develop pictorial and typographic elements from research, establish themes, characterisations, environments and use of metaphor. You’ll also experiment with composition and layout for communication.
Illustration Fundamentals: Image, Type, Print
You’ll continue to develop your research and idea generation skills and also your image-making skills through practical workshops, tutorials and seminars. These include practices such as observational drawing, printmaking, photography, collage, 3D and type.
Message, Medium, Meaning
You’ll examine a range of topics through the exploration of examples from historical and contemporary practice and analysis of your studio work. These will include basic concepts in semiotics, the relationship between word and image, the construction of narrative, photographic language, function and expression, culture connotation and myth, subversion and propaganda.
Social and Cultural Contexts
This unit encourages you to examine and explore your personal ethics, values and motivation through the production of work for others.
Developing your Practice
This project that runs throughout Year two acts as a stepping-stone to the personal, self-negotiated work you will be undertaking in Year three. You will be able to concentrate on a specialist interest that you hold within the field of illustration and/or animation. This interest can arise out of a focus upon a particular medium or process; or it can develop from a design problematic that you are attracted to. Equally a visual language that you enjoy (e.g. drawing, photography etc.) could become the centre of this unit.
Authorial Narrative
This unit consolidates and develops further the narrative development and making skills from Year one, and further develops your critical perspective through a written task or similar outcome.
Spatial Practices
You will learn how to manipulate spaces to create identities, multi-sensory experiences, and innovative events/exhibitions in a sustainable and environmentally conscious context.
Critical Research and Practice
You will plan, develop and construct of a self-directed research and design project. This will take into account your knowledge, understanding, skills, experience and interests you have gained over the duration of the course. Here, the theoretical and practical are entirely intertwined, and you will be encouraged to develop an experimental approach. You’ll employ research to inform practice, and practice to inform your research, so that you develop an original and innovative approach to both.
Major Project
This unit provides you with a framework within which to research, develop and realise a set, or self-initiated, project. You will be given a choice of set projects, competitions, live briefs or a self-initiated project where you will originate, develop and produce a body of work based on your interests and aspirations.
Student work
A small sample of the amazing work produced by students studying on our BA Animation courses.
Facilities
Our Animation facilities include Stop Motion Studios with Dragonframe capture software and motion control rigs, Canon DSLRs and professional camera stands, and stages pre-rigged with grips, stands and lights that are controllable via Dragonframe.
The main Animation studio features individual workstations, traditional light boxes, Wacom Cintiq’s & Wacom tablets, line testers & batch scanners and PC / iMac computers throughout.
Our dedicated computer Lab has both PC and Mac Workstations with dual monitors and either a Wacom Cintiq or a Wacom Tablet on each device. All computers have the full Adobe Creative Suite as well as Toon Boom Harmony, Autodesk Maya & Davinci Resolve, while there’s also sound and editing equipment and a dedicated render farm on campus.
Entry requirements
As Cyprus’ only specialist Art, Media & Design Higher Education provider, we want to attract the best and most creative minds, so we take a balanced approach to candidate assessment, taking both individual portfolios and exam results into account.
This why your portfolio is an especially important part of your application to study with us.
Along with your portfolio, the standard entry requirements for this course are:
Academic Qualifications:
- Greek Cypriot Apolytirion
or - High & Senior High School Leaving Certificates - 10th & 12th Level in English Language
or - High & Senior High School Transcripts - 10th & 12th Level (min 50% GPA) in English Language
 English Language Qualifications:
- If your first language is not English, you will need an IELTS score of 5.5 or equivalent.
Please see English Qualifications tab above for further info.
Other relevant and equivalent level 3 UK and international qualifications are considered on an individual basis, and we encourage students from diverse educational backgrounds apply.
Academic Qualifications:
- High & Senior High School Leaving Certificates - 10th & 12th Level in English Language
or - High & Senior High School Transcripts - 10th & 12th Level (min 50% GPA) in English Language
 English Language Qualifications:
- If your first language is not English, you will need an IELTS score of 5.5 or equivalent.
Please see English Qualifications tab above for further info.
Other relevant and equivalent level 3 UK and international qualifications are considered on an individual basis, and we encourage students from diverse educational backgrounds apply.
Academic Qualifications:
- High & Senior High School Leaving Certificates - 10th & 12th Level in English Language
or - High & Senior High School Transcripts - 10th & 12th Level (min 50% GPA) in English Language
 English Language Qualifications:
- If your first language is not English, you will need an IELTS score of 5.5 or equivalent.
Please see English Qualifications tab above for further info.
Other relevant and equivalent level 3 UK and international qualifications are considered on an individual basis, and we encourage students from diverse educational backgrounds apply.
English Language Qualification | Min. Grade |
IELTS | 5.5 |
TOEFL (IBT) | TBC |
PEARSON PTE Academic | TBC |
Password Skills Plus Test | TBC |
Anglia Examinations | TBC |
Cambridge IGCSE / GCSE English as a Second Language | TBC |
Cambridge IGCSE / GCSE English as a First Language | TBC |
Cambridge GCE English A Levels | TBC |
Cambridge GCE AS Level English Language | TBC |
Michigan Language Assessment | TBC |
University of Cambridge Exams | TBC |
IB English B Standard Level (SL) | TBC |
IB English B High Level (HL) | TBC |
IB English A: Literature SL & HL | TBC |
SAT Evidence – Based Reading and Writing (EBRW) | TBC |
Apply Now
For further info. on Student Visa’s, how to Apply or any other queries you may have regarding CAA please call our Admissions Team on +357 7000 52 50 or fill in the contact form below and a member of staff will contact you as soon as possible.