Illustration with Animation
Illustration with Animation
4 years (with placement year and/or overseas study)
BA (Hons) Illustration with Animation is a specialist programme offering a hybrid opportunity to study illustration with the moving image. Contemporary illustrators/animators take a broad and research-informed approach to the discipline and in response our curriculum reflects a diverse range of processes and forms, preparing you for a future career in the creative industries. With an emphasis on museums, libraries, archives and literature, we co-create projects with a host of cultural institutions, connecting students with the city.
You'll gain experience in working across paper, print, books, and 3D-making, combining hand-crafted and digital processes whilst engaging with real-world contexts, communities, and cultural institutions.
This course provides a contemporary programme of study designed around experimentation, individuality, curiosity, identity and the discovery of meaningful personal futures and sustainable graduate outcomes.
The course is taught by professional illustrators and animators with diverse backgrounds and expertise across a variety of disciplines. You'll benefit from their wide-ranging experiences, gaining the skills and inspiration to develop your own style and excel in this exciting creative field. You'll have access to our outstanding range of workshop facilities, offering printmaking, bookbinding, letterpress, ceramics, 3D printing and digital skills provision, supported by expert technicians.
Special Features
- Globally recognised: We are ranked in the top 100 schools for art and design in the world (QS World Rankings 2025).
- Combine illustration with animation: Develop as a versatile visual designer and communicator by integrating illustration with animation. Learn to apply your creative skills across a wide range of professional contexts—from screen-based media to publishing and site-specific installations.
- Award-winning competitions: Boost your portfolio and visibility through industry-recognised competitions such as the Penguin Design Awards, World Illustration Awards, and Creative Conscience Awards.
- Inspiration from Industry Experts: Learn from internationally renowned guest speakers and leading industry professionals. Gain career insights from course alumni working across illustration, animation, and creative enterprise.
- Professional membership: Benefit from the course’s affiliation with the Association of Illustrators, enabling access to industry informed best practice and career-launching guidance.
- Diverse skillset development: Build expertise in both traditional and digital techniques, including drawing, reportage, life drawing, printmaking (screen print, Riso, monoprint, etching), bookbinding, 3D making, Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere Pro, After Effects, Character Animator, Aero), and animation (experimental, short-form, 2D with TV Paint, 3D stop-motion with Dragonframe, and Maxon Cinema 4D).
- Cultural study trips: Experience creative cultures first-hand with optional study trips to iconic design cities. Previous trips have included New York, Berlin, Venice, and Copenhagen.
- Live briefs and real-world projects: Work on live projects with cultural institutions, industry collaborators, and partners such as NHS Christie, RNCM, Manchester Museum and the Poetry Library.
Course Content
At Manchester School of Art, our design courses are taught in vibrant, open studio spaces alive with energy and creativity. These dynamic environments foster cross-disciplinary collaboration, encouraging students to engage, experiment, and learn from one another within a culture of shared practice and innovation.
By studying our BA (Hons) Illustration with Animation course you will embrace the handmade and the digital, you'll have access to life drawing, book binding, etching, screen-printing, typesetting, workshops in sound and edit, Photoshop, InDesign, Premiere Pro, After Effects and Dragonframe. Design in context and professional practice are introduced through a range of national competitions and industry-led ‘live’ briefs, giving you the opportunity to engage with real-world challenges, build a professional portfolio, and gain valuable insights into the creative industries.
At Manchester School of Art, our design courses are taught in vibrant, open studio spaces alive with energy and creativity. These dynamic environments foster cross-disciplinary collaboration, encouraging students to engage, experiment, and learn from one another within a culture of shared practice and innovation.
Year 1
In first year, you'll build a strong foundation in illustration and animation through hands-on exploration, observation, and experimental projects. Supported by discipline specialist staff, you'll develop core creative skills, learn to communicate visually with originality, and explore diverse practices and ideas—from narrative and conceptual thinking to socially engaged work and sustainability—preparing you to become a versatile and thoughtful visual communicator.
Future X: Kinship
In this module, you will explore your creative field through questions of belonging, encouraging you to consider relationships with the planet, people and place. The module functions as a Speculative Laboratory where we embrace More-Than-Human perspectives and develop new disciplinary connections to create innovative and regenerative ways of living and interacting with the world. This is an opportunity to begin to explore how creativity can be a catalyst for meaningful change.
Year 2
In second year, you’ll deepen your creative practice by developing a more defined and personal illustrator/animator identity through experimentation, collaboration, research and critical reflection. You'll engage with real-world contexts and professional environments, work with cultural institutions or industry partners on live briefs and refine your skills across still and moving image. Through multidisciplinary projects you will engage with contexts including societal or environmental issues, using creativity to imagine and propose innovative, inclusive ways of presenting concepts and ideas to a range of audiences through illustration and or animation processes.
Material, Process, Context
You will explore both still and/or moving images to create an experimental and informed body of work, while researching, documenting, and reflecting on your process. This module helps you develop a more defined skillset through diverse short briefs. You will apply your materials knowledge in practice, utilising the School of Art’s workshops within self-identified critical contexts.
Year 3
In third year, you will focus on consolidating your creative identity and preparing for a professional career in illustration and/or animation. Through self-directed projects, live briefs, and collaborations with external partners, you’ll refine your portfolio, define your audience, and explore how your practice intersects with other disciplines. This year supports you in developing an ambitious, critically informed body of work that reflects your personal direction and future ambitions including the potential to progress to develop proposals for postgraduate study.
Creative Synthesis
Your final module consists of a self-negotiated project proposal, developed and agreed with academic staff, which consolidates your practice. You'll create an ambitious portfolio and practitioner profile, integrating materials, processes, narrative pathways and live projects within critical contexts. You'll develop personal work and have the opportunity to engage in external projects, including competitions, commissions and research projects. You can pursue multiple projects but should consider how they connect in terms of context, process, research, and future ambitions.
Assessment Methods
Continuous formative and summative assessment with feedback and discussion on completion of all units. The programme ends with a School of Art exhibition.
Assessment Weightings & Contact Hours
10 credits equates to 100 hours of study, which is a combination of lectures, seminars and practical sessions, and independent study. A three year degree qualification typically comprises 360 credits (120 credits per year). The exact composition of your study time and assessments for the course will vary according to your option choices and style of learning, but it could be—
Study
- Year 1 30% lectures, seminars or similar; 70% independent study
- Year 2 30% lectures, seminars or similar; 70% independent study
- Year 3 100% placement (optional)
- Year 4 25% lectures, seminars or similar; 75% independent study
Assessment
- Year 1 100% coursework
- Year 2 100% coursework
- Year 3 100% placement (optional)
- Year 4 100% coursework
Student Work
Visit our online Degree Show galleries to see examples of student work.
Staff
- Eleanor Mulhearn
Programme Leader
— - Eleonora Asparuhova
Senior Lecturer
— - Penny Collier
Lecturer
— - Kevin Craig
Senior Lecturer
— - Ben Jones
Senior Lecturer
— - Amy Marsh
Lecturer
— - Ian Morris
Lecturer
—
Winners of the annual Department of Design student awards announced at the Degree Show.
Winners of student awards announced
Graduates
Graduates of Illustration with Animation will be well-prepared to embark on a variety of careers within the creative industries, including freelance/in-house design and illustration, book arts and publishing, advertising, filmmaking, storyboarding, animation, teaching and more. Graduates may also progress on to postgraduate study.
Making an Application
How to Apply
Apply through UCAS.
We will ask you to provide a Digital Portfolio to support your application.
You will be notified of our decision through UCAS.
Entry Requirements
| UCAS Tariff Points/Grades Required | 104-112. GCE A levels - grades BCC or equivalent Pearson BTEC National Extended Diploma - grade DMM Access to HE Diploma - Pass overall with a minimum 106 UCAS Tariff points UAL Level 3 Extended Diploma - grade of Merit overall OCR Cambridge Technical Extended Diploma - grade DMM T level - We welcome applications from students undertaking T level qualifications. Eligible applicants will be asked to achieve a minimum overall grade of Merit as a condition of offer IB Diploma - Pass overall with a minimum overall score of 26 or minimum 104 UCAS Tariff points from three Higher Level subjects Other Level 3 qualifications equivalent to GCE A level are also considered. A maximum of three A level-equivalent qualifications will be accepted towards meeting the UCAS tariff requirement. AS levels, or qualifications equivalent to AS level, are not accepted. The Extended Project qualification (EPQ) may be accepted towards entry, in conjunction with two A-level equivalent qualifications. Please contact the University directly if you are unsure whether you meet the minimum entry requirements for the course. Learn more about MMU's Foundation Diploma in Art and Design. |
|---|---|
| Specific GCSE Requirements | GCSE grade C/4 in English Language or equivalent, e.g. Pass in Level 2 Functional Skills English |
| Non Tariffed Qualifications | |
| International Baccalaureate | IB Diploma with minimum 26 points overall or 104 UCAS Tariff points from three Higher Level subjects. If you plan to meet the Level 2 course requirements through your IB Diploma you will need to achieve Higher Level 4 or Standard Level 5 in English Points |
International Students
A minimum IELTS score of 6.0 overall with no individual element below 5.5 is required.
There’s further information for international students on our international website if you’re applying with non-UK qualifications.
Tuition Fees 2026 Entry
The fees for 2026 entry are still to be confirmed.
See Funding your studies for further information and advice.
Additional Costs
Specialist Costs
Optional ££100* —A ‘studio toolkit’ of basic design equipment including items such as pens, sketch pads, erasers, scissors and adhesives. Costs ranging from £30 - £100 per year.
Professional Costs
Student membership fees are available across all disciplines. You will be made aware of these however, they are not mandatory.
Other Costs
Study trips
Optional national and/or international study trips, typically during year one and two. These are mostly funded by students.
Costings are sourced from university-approved agents and will vary in-line with the current market and student numbers.
Laptop
Indicative cost PC Laptop: £600 -£1,000 (dependent on screen size) Indicative cost MacBook Pro: £1,500 - £2,200 (dependent on screen size)
Loan laptops and iMac/PC workstations are also available across the campus.
Workshop and Materials
Materials are provided for workshop inductions, further materials used when developing individual student work are available for purchase at cost from workshop stores. Costs are dependent on the specifics of student project ambitions.
Print Costs
You may be required to print work for assessment presentations through years one - three. A range of printing outcomes can be achieved at low cost using Man Met / School of Art printing facilities.
In year three, there could be an approximate additional amount of £100, towards printing cost for the degree show exhibition.
Indicative print / binding costs for the degree show – £100- £200 depending on individual projects.
* All amounts shown are estimates.