University of Hertfordshire (BA & MA Games Art, 2D & 3D Animation & VFX, Comics & Concept Art)

littleclaude

Welcome to this thread

BA & MA 3D Games Art & Design - (BA) with Optional Sandwich Placement/ Study Abroad
https://www.herts.ac.uk/courses/3d-games-art-and-design 

2022 Showreel - BA (Hons) 3D Games Art & Design

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AEOD1dxWow

Neil Gallagher, Award Leader for BA & MA Games Art. The video below is to help any students that are thinking off applying to BA Games Art, on this channel there is also advice for 3D Animation, 2D Animation and VFX. The work in the video are examples from student applicants that are currently on the course. Good luck and feel free to PM me if you have any questions.


This showreel contains work from all of the the University Of Hertfordshire digital animation programmes Bachelor of Arts degree strands: BA 2D & 3D Animation // VFX and Games Art


And here is the MA Games Art showreel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Hp9_NSiPTg&feature=emb_title

TIGA Awards, Best Educational Institution Award 2019



The Rookies Awards

List of 2019 Awards

Winner - Game Design & Development Schools - Production Excellence 2019

The Rookies -https://discover.therookies.co/schools/game-design-development-schools-production-excellence/

 

TIGA - Best Educational Institution 2019

Tiga Awards - https://tiga.org/awards/2019-winners

 

The Rookies List

The Rookies Project Results for 2019

 

Game of the Year:

Winner: Spire https://www.therookies.co/entries/3375

 

Runner up: Project Star Bounty https://www.therookies.co/entries/1216

 

Visual Effects Film of the Year:

Winner: Downfall https://www.therookies.co/entries/2133

 

Motion Graphics:

People choice: Diana Verba: https://www.therookies.co/entries/2088

 

Visual Effect Internship (Europe):

People choice: Maria Tsanti https://www.therookies.co/entries/2150

 

VFS - Educational Scholarship Winner: William Jaravaza

https://www.therookies.co/entries/1996

 

3D Motion Graphics – Studio Internships Sarofsky United States People’s Choice: Diana Verba

https://www.therookies.co/contests/38

 

Why Herts?

• One of the best art schools in the World (Rookies World School Rankings® 2019)
• Ranked 8 in Best Game Design Schools in the World (top UK school) (Rookies World School Rankings® 2019)
• Ranked 7 in Best Visual Effects Schools in the World (top in UK) (Rookies World School Rankings® 2019)
• Ranked 7 in Best Animation Schools in the World (top in UK) (Rookies World School Rankings® 2019)
• Ranked 5 in Top 2D Animation Schools for Production Excellence (top in UK) (Rookies World School Rankings® 2019)
• Ranked 3 in Immersive Media – Games Design & Development for Production Excellence (Rookies World School Rankings® 2019)
• Ranked 2 in Top Visual Effects Schools for Production Excellence (top in UK) (Rookies World School Rankings® 2019)
• Ranked 1 in Console & PC – Games Design & Development for Production Excellence (Rookies World School Rankings® 2019)

BA Courses, there are lots more creative courses on offer, these are the courses under the animation group.

BA (Hons) 2D Digital Animation | http://www.herts.ac.uk/courses/2d-animation-and-character-for-digital-media

BA (Hons) Games Art | http://www.herts.ac.uk/courses/3d-games-art-and-design

BA (Hons) 3D Digital Animation | http://www.herts.ac.uk/courses/3d-computer-animation-and-modelling

BA (Hons) Visual Effects | http://www.herts.ac.uk/courses/visual-effects-for-film-and-television

MA and PhD, click here for more details

MA 3D Animation | http://www.herts.ac.uk/courses/ma-animation

MA Games Art | http://www.herts.ac.uk/courses/ma-games-art-and-design
 

This is our home, The Film Music and Media Building, the animation courses have the middle floor.
An article in 3Dworld magazine rating us as one of the best courses in the world to study 3D


Any questions then PM me, Neil Gallagher, Programme Leader, BA & MA 3D Animation and Games Art

And here are the course details.
http://www.herts.ac.uk/courses/3D-Games-Art.cfm

If you would like to talk to our students in person then you can post here on our student forum. www.3dhit.co.uk

Social sites are run by UH Alumni with some tutor input:

You Tube- http://www.youtube.com/user/uhanimation

Vimeo - http://www.vimeo.com/uhanimation

Twitter - http://twitter.com/#!/uhanimation

Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/uhanimation


The Games Art course has a strong emphasis on the study of software tools and teaches all the cutting edge software you need to get into the industry: Maya, 3DSMax, Zbrush, Mudbox, Photoshop and many more and uses both the Unreal engine and the Crysis engine to enable students to gain access to all the professional tools needed in the industry.

The course explores digital modelling of characters and environments, and helps students to develop animation as well as shader techniques and level creation. You will be taught to create optimised geometry and textures and apply them to game engines, gaining an understanding of the technological restrictions of realtime 3D graphics. Also high to low resolution surface transfer modelling is taught as well as producing high resolution models for promotional material.

The main emphasis of the course is on the student becoming a “Games Artist” so a full day of study during the duration of the course has been allocated to life drawing and clay modelling to help develop a rounded portfolio as well as having live visits from Scott Eaton and Jeni Fairey from Madame Tussauds. So even if you start from a more technical back ground you will be taught the fundamentals of art, composition, colour theory and much more which are essential to gaining employment in the Games Industry.

The first year is like a foundation course where you have a taster of all the BA digital animation courses which are 3D, VFX, 2D and Games Art before choosing your specialization.

We have many open days during the year so feel free to come and look around our state of the art University that teaches twenty seven thousand students per year, has a £40 million night club and dining area, swimming pool, climbing wall, gym and over a thousand societies waiting for you to join - so if you like canoeing, walking, going to the cinema or playing the didgeridoo, there is always a club for you.

The University of Hertfordshire is 20 minutes by train from London’s “Kings Cross Station” and three stops on the underground to the Buzzing Soho industry where Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has its headquarters. By car it’s just off the A1 and 20 minutes drive from the M25 http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&tab=wl

Testimonials

Aidan Gibbons, CG Lead & Mill+ Director, The Mill London

"The University of Hertfordshire’s Visual Effects work really impressed us on the live projects we ran with them; we feel that their students are the ones to watch at graduation time."

http://www.themill.com/

 

Hans Bacher, Art Director | Disney

“Great student films, and a great showreel! you have some very talented students”.

http://www.disneyanimation.com/

 

Ian Yarwood-Lovett | Franchise Art Director | Microsoft Games Studio

“Visiting the UHanimation course was a real eye opener for me; the quality of work produced coupled with the enthusiasm of the students makes this course one we’ll be watching very closely in the future.”

http://www.lionhead.com/

 

John Laws | Head of Art | Frontier

“UH is one of the few Universities teaching the correct fundamental skills required by the games industry, you have the right mix of traditional theory and cutting edge digital art creation, and understand that the tech is a tool rather than the end in itself. I’m impressed.”

http://www.frontier.co.uk/

 

Jolyon Webb | Senior Art Director | Natural Motion

“We found the University of Hertfordshire students well-informed and focused; we were impressed with what we saw.”

http://www.naturalmotion.com/

 

Louise Ridgeway | Head of Animation | Rare Ltd | Microsoft Games Studio

“They are one of the top universities for the industry at the moment, with another outstanding show of effort and commitment by a great bunch of enthusiastic students and staff.”

http://www.rare.net/

 

Paul Gaboury 3D Product Development Manager Pixologic Inc

"The student work coming out of University of Hertfordshire is studio ready. Just watch the showreel and you'll see how talented the students are at this school. I always enjoy seeing what the students at the University are creating with ZBrush and are always blown away by the top notch quality."

http://pixologic.com/

 

Shelley Page, Dreamworks.

"The animation students I met at Hertfordshire were both talented and articulate with some very good work - and I'm looking forward very much to seeing the completed final projects this year"

http://www.dreamworksanimation.com/

 

Tara Saunders | Studio Art Manager | Sony Computer Entertainment | London Studio'

"The University of Hertfordshire has provided our studio with some talented graduates in recent years. It's definitely one of the courses to watch for upcoming talent"

http://www.scee.presscentre.com/

 

 

We have two gyms






Companies setup by UH grads


http://rewind.co/
http://www.thepondstudio.com/
http://nadom.co.uk/
http://rendernow.co.uk/home-version-2/quote/
https://vimeo.com/overthrowmotion
http://www.aniboxx.com/
http://www.villainswearblack.com/
http://squareedge.co.uk/
http://www.graphicsbyjack.com/

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The Digital Animation Programme has particularly close links with Epic, Microsoft Games Studios (Rare), Industrial Light and Magic, Blue Zoo, Framestore, Double Negative, Random 42, REWIND, Playground Games and Graduates are employed at the below list of companies: 

 

Games: 
Activision (Shanghai), Activision (UK), Airship Images, Apache Solutions Ltd, APPSGO, Archetype Studios, Automaton Games, Babel Media, Batavian Studio, Beatnik Games, Bioware, Blitz Games, Blue Byte, Bohemia Interactive Simulations, Calvino Noir, Camelot, CCP, CD Projekt Red, The Chinese Room, Climax, Cloud Imperium Games, Creative Assembly, Crytek UK, Dambuster Studios, Deep Silver Studios, Digi-Guys, Digital Extremes, Dovetail Games, DR Studios, Dreampainters SRL, Elastic Games, Electronic Arts, Epic Games, Eurocom, Eutechnyx Ltd, Exient, FortuneFish Ltd, FreestyleGames, Frontier, Frozenbyte, Full Fat Games, Future Games of London, Gaming Realms, Gamesys, Geomerics, Geonomics, Glowmade, Goodboy Digital, Goodgame Studios, Gram Games, Gusto Games, Headstrong Games, Heavy Spectrum, Hello Games, Hothouse Creations, Idle Creations, If You Can, Ignition London, Imaginati Studios, Improbable, Interior Night (INT./NIGHT), Jagex, Juice Games, Jules Ventures, Keen Games, King, Kuju, Machine Games, Mad Head Ltd, Massive Entertainment, Mediatonic Ltd, Midgar Studios, Mind Candy, Mojiworks, nDreams, Nektan, Nintendo, Nixxes Software BV, Outso, PaperSeven, PennyBox Games, Playdemic Ltd, PlayerThree Ltd, Playfish, Playground Games, Plumbee, Poly Assets United Inc, Preloaded, Psychotron, Radiant Worlds Ltd, Rare-Microsoft Games, Real Time Worlds, Rebellion Games, Related Designs, Reloaded Productions, Remedy Games, Remode, Rockstar North, Rocksteady Studios, Runawayplay, Seasun Games, Sega Europe, Simulspace, Slinky Pictures, Sony-London Studio, Sony-Cambridge Studio, Space Ape Games, Spiral House, Splash Damage, Square Enix, Studio Gobo, Supermassive Games, Super Punk Games, Sviper, Traveller's Tales, Twimler, Ubisoft (Canada), Ubisoft - BluByte (Germany), Ubisoft (Singapore), Ubisoft (Sweden), Virtuos, Wired Productions, Zoe Mode 

 
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3D, 2D and VFX industries : 

422 South, Aardman Animations, Absolute Post, Acheron Films, Activ8, Adastra Studios, AixSponza, A Large Evil Corporation, Alt.VFX, Altergaze VR, Analog, Ancha, Aniboxx, Animal Logic, Animascot, Animated Storyboards, Anthem Studios, Archipelago, Argon Effects, Atomic Arts, Atticus Finch, Axis Animation, AxisVFX, Azimuth Post Production, Baby Cow, Bacon, Bait Studio, Bandito, Bardel Entertainment, Base Black, BaseFX, BBC, Big Buoy, Big Red Button, Big Sky Studios, BinWeevils, Blac Ionica, Black Rabbit Agency Group, BlinkInk, BlueBolt, Blue Spill, Blue Zoo, Boombox, Boulder Media, Boutiq, Boxframe, The Brewery VFX, Brown Bag Films, Caboom, Carbon Digital, The Character Shop, CherryCherry, Cinesite, Clearhead, Click 3X, CNBC, Coffee and TV, CoolToons, Cult Toons, Cumi Ltd, Curl Stone Entertainment, Cutlass Productions Ltd, Cygnetise, Darkside Studios, Dead Pixels, Deluxe Digital Studios, Digi-Guys, The Digi Monsters, Digipost New Zealand, Digital Shoguns, Disney Production, DixonBaxi, Dot to Dot Productions, Double Negative, Drive Productions, The Edge Picture Company, EightVFX, The Elf Factory, Ekstasy, Electric Theatre Collective, The Endless Collective, Eye-D Creative, FableFX, Factory Fifteen, Finish, FireStep, Flickerpix, Fluid Pictures, The Foundry, Framestore, Freefolk, Freeformers, Frogtale Studios, Fun Square Productions, FutureDeluxe, Gener8, Gentle Giant Studios, Gentlemen Broncos, Ghost VFX, Giggle Garage, Glassworks, Glowfrog, Golden Wolf, Gnu Films, Happy Finish, HEROmation, Hi-ReS, Holovis, Hoxton Redsox, Huge Media, Illumination Mac Guff, The Imaginarium Studios, ImpossibleTV, Industrial Light and Magic, Infinite Frameworks, Infocandy, INITION, Inspidea, Iod Productions, ITV Creative, Jam Media, Jason Harding Productions, Jellyfish Pictures, Jim Henson's Creature Shop, Jules Ventures, Kavaleer Productions, Kazoo Creative, Keyframe Studios, Klood, KoffeeCup, Kuro Dragon, Ladybird Films, Laika, The Last Word, Les' Copaque, Lexhag, Lightfeel Sdn. Bhd, Liquid Productions, Lola Post Production Ltd, Lonelyleap, Lucasfilm, Lupus Films, Luxx Studios, Magikon Productions, Mainframe, Method Studios, MFX, Mikros Image, Milk Visual Effects, Mirayi, Molinare, MNC Animation, Momoco, Moonraker, Moving Picture Company, Munky, The Mill, Nadom, The Nassal Company, National Space Centre, Natural Motion, nDreams, The Neighbourhood, Neon, Nexus Productions, Nomint Pictures, Nuframe, Nvisage, Nvizible, Onedash22, One Dead Pixel, One of Us, Outpost VFX, Overthrow Productions, Passion Pictures, PearlFisher, Pebble Studios, Peerless Camera Company, Picasso Pictures, Picture House TV, Pipedreams 3D, Pixomondo, Plowman Craven, The Pond Studio, Postyr Post Production, Prime Focus, Projection Artworks, Prologue Films, Proof, Prophecy FX, PTE media, Pumphouse Productions, Qudos Animations, Qvisten Studios, Rainmaker Entertainment, Realise Studio, Realtime UK, Red Potato, Redvision, ReelGood, Rewind FX, Rise FX, Rising Sun Pictures, RJDM Animations, Rocketdog Media, Rodeo FX, Rollickin, Rushes, Saddington & Baynes, Scenic Sets Ltd, Screen Scene, Screen Clay FX, Selex SI, The Senate VFX, The Sex Pixels, Sherbert, Shoot the Company, Simon's Cat, Sixteen South, Sky, Sliced Bread Animation, Slurpy Studios, Smoke and Mirrors, Sophoria, Sparky Animation, Spider Eye, Spiked Media, SpinVFX, Squint/Opera, Staramba SE, StitchthatTV, Storm Studios, Studio AKA, Studio Liddell, Sudden Black (SBTV), Superfad, Tandem Films, Technicolor, Th1ng, The Line Animation Studio, The Third Floor Inc, Third Eye Productions, Tidal Films, Tiger Aspect, Toonbox Entertainment, Triad Ltd, U6 Studio, Uber, Underdogs Animation Studio, Union VFX, Villains Wear Black, Vine Post Production, Visual Method, Voyageur Studios, Warner Brothers Studios, Weta Digital, Windmill Lane VFX, Wing Ltd, Wissper Limited, Zeetrope, Zoic Studios, Zoo Films, Zoo VFX. 

 
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Arch Vis: 

Alter Equals, ArcMedia, AVR London, BAM Design, Binyan Studios, Bowler James, Build, Carey Group PLC, Crystal CG, DBOX, Foster and Partners, Hobs Studios, Last Pixel, Level Architecture, Miller Hare, PreConstruct, Real Visual, Red Vertex, River Film Communication, Rock Hunter, Smoothe, Square Edge, Squint/Opera, Tiger X, Tinderstone, Uniform, V-Real, Vyonyx, Product Visualisation,   
 

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3D Visualisation 

Agility3 Modelling and Simulation, A.i.Solve, Autonomy, Bentley Motors, Burrows CGI, The Creative Partnership, Dialectyx, DBOX, Douglas Fisher, Figure Digital, Firedog Design, Fusion Medical Animation, HMX Media, Ixworx, Mclaren, MediaSphere Ltd, Monster Play, MP Studio, Nucleus Global, Odd Boy, Pearlfisher, Random 42, Sparkle Media, Taylor James, Tekuchi, WeWork, Wilma Studios. 

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 Education 

The Animation Workshop, Barking and Dagenham College, Buckinghamshire New University, Campus i12 University, Dasein Academy of Art, Digital Tutors, Elstree University Technical College, Escape Studios, Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET), Limerick Institute of Technology, London Metropolitan University, MET Film School, Netstorms, Norwegian Film School, Pixl Visn Media Arts Academy, Skills2Learn, South Essex College of Further and Higher Education, SSR (formerly School of Sound Recording), University of Hertfordshire, West Herts College, Weston College, William Morris Sixth Form College. 

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Thank you for reading and if you have any further questions please feel free to PM me or post below.

littleclaude

University of Hertfordshire Student film, Vincent Chai, World War who is now working at Creative Assembly

Production break down - here is a link to the film http://vimeo.com/1470875

[vv]1470875[/vv]

Chipmunkzors

The Demo Reel looks great!

Just a few questions in regards to the 3d Games Art Course:

1. Why do you visit the topic of Sound Creation on a 3D art course?

2. At which point on the course are Work Placements entered on? Third Year?

Thanks

littleclaude

Hello Chipmunkzors

Thanks for the kind words, the reason we look into Sound Creation is due to the nature of making great looking animatics, we have to cover not only sound but cinematography, compositing, pitching, story telling, story pitching and a whole lot more. The students are transformed into industry facing graduates with the correct arsenal of tools to enable them to gain employment in the Games Industry. Topics covered include the creation of character and environment art, gallery website, DVD showreel, personal and production portfolio. The majority of undergraduate time is spent on practical project work, software, art based workshops and lectures.



As for work placement its after level2, one year in the indsutry and then back to finish off level 3. While its only optional it’s something that we are actively promoting the students to do. The students that do come back after a year in the industry are in the zone and hitting all the right notes for a great looking 3D portfolio.


Hope that helps

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The Demo Reel looks great!

Just a few questions in regards to the 3d Games Art Course:

1. Why do you visit the topic of Sound Creation on a 3D art course?

2. At which point on the course are Work Placements entered on? Third Year?

Thanks

littleclaude

We have some great new talent this year, watch out for some of our new students films they are looking great.
I will start posting up some of our students work from time to time.

Real time

Renders

samgriffiths

Interesting..How important is drawing for an entry portfolio?

littleclaude

samgriffiths wrote: »

Interesting..How important is drawing for an entry portfolio?

Hello Sam

Drawing, colour theory, composition, balance are all great quality’s to see in a portfolio and we are happy to teach students up from zero knowledge of 3D so long as they have good art skills, in fact when applicant’s have good 3D but poor artistic skills then we normally ask them to go and do a year’s foundation course and we encourage them to study a list of artists like George Bridgeman and look into books like The Skillful Huntsman.:thumbup:

Applications are really good this year, well over a 1000 students already for 110 places for the various courses - BA Games Art, 3D, VFX and 2D which makes our jobs more enjoyable as we get to pick the cream of the crop. We also take time to do a presentation to all our applicants and spend between 10-20 minutes interviewing each student as they come from all over the UK and the rest of world these days.:poly121:

amotaf

Hmm that showreel looks really fantastic, the whole idea of having strong 2d art skills has been the mantra of alot of artists on this forum. It's kinda nice to see that some universities are really taking 3d art seriously.

Alas a course like this came round 5 years too late for me.

cw

littleclaude wrote: »

University of Hertfordshire Student film, Vincent Chai, World War who is now working at Creative Assembly

Vincent's a little gem. I don't know if he's on these boards elsewhere but he's a good employee and knows his craft so I suppose it's a +1 from me for what it's worth.

littleclaude

Hello Spartans

Below are some examples of University of Hertfordshire BA Games Art reels and the company's they work for.

Cavan - Eurocom
http://ssfusion.com/
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7RZIiXa6HY&feature=player_embedded[/ame]

Tom Frontier
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrpSwYqaFWw[/ame]

Charlotte - bentleymotors
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUmZsyBlLh8[/ame]

vincent - creative-assembly
http://www.vincentch20.co.uk/
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIpMejgJQRY[/ame]

Ash - Rareware
http://ashleysparling.co.uk/

I get asked all the time what an entry level Games Art reel should look like, while some students want to make a VFX reel or a short 3D animated film, that’s fine if you want to get into the film industry or visualization but a games company has little or no interest in these skills. You really need to have rendered and reel time graphics, poly counts, binary modelling, high to low resolution modelling, wire frames, texture swatches, some examples of LODs, good break downs of a project like concept art to finished piece, artistic skill and so much more.

The BA and MA Games Art courses are becoming more refined every year and this year the BA Games Art course will have Jolyon Webb the Art Director from Blitz as our external examiner to help sharpen it up even more as well as the one going support from so many UK companies.

Best Wishes,
Little Claude

Tom Ellis

LittleClaude -

I must admit I'm of the 'skeptical of Game Art Courses, far better to learn in your own time' persuasion, but recently, after seeing some impressive success stories and what appears to be a massive improvement in the available courses, I am becoming more interested in the educational route.

Those demo reels you linked in that last post are fantastic, and I've got a few questions. I'd appreciate it if you could offer some answers as in the past I've been round the infinite loop of University admin when trying to ask questions and having direct contact here with you might actually yield some success!

Firstly, is the course fully accredited? I've read things that suggest Leiciester DMU currently offers the only 'fully recognized and accredited' Game Art BA but I'm not sure what they mean by that.

Secondly, do you, or do you plan to offer any kind of distance learning based course. The primary factor for me not considering a BA seriously right now is that I've been in full time employment for a few years now, have a house and car, and to then go to a full-time student life style living on student finance and part time income would be very tricky I think.

And lastly, how much 'extra-curricular' time was put into developing skills by those students whose demo reels you linked? Is that a realistic representation of the average level of skill across the whole class or are they a select few who dedicated a huge amount of outside time to really further their ability? This is the burning question to be honest because right now, I'm pretty much cramming every spare minute I've got into learning game art myself and with the help of people on this and other forums, so I'm keen to know how much a BA course would actually help me.

Again, great looking work and I'm looking forward to your response!

haiddasalami

@creation: Ill offer my two cents regarding school and taking a game art course. If you have the motivation to work on projects yourself go ahead. To me school is, meeting people and building connections, easier to get projects done and if you have good teachers, learning some new stuff/methods thats probably not online/getting help maybe faster and easier since its direct contact.

littleclaude

Hello Creationtwentytwo

In answer to your questions…

1/ Our faculty is Skillset accredited. The BA Games Art course has just seen its second set of students graduates so it will be getting Skillset accreditation within the next few months.

2/ Unfortunately we do not offer a distance learning based Games Art course but it’s a great idea as we are being asked all the time so we will think about it.

3/ The University of Hertfordshire BA Games Art course is a full time 4 - 4.5 days per week course. All the above showreels are from projects and briefs but believe me the students have to produce a lot more work with projects like making reel time and rendered trailers, portfolios, production portfolios, personal websites & blogs, full production story boards, life drawing once per week throughout the three years and more drop-in after study classes, clay sculpture, acting classes the list goes on and that’s not to even mention all the written work. I take my hat off to our students as they have to produce a lot of work but then that’s what will be expected from them in the real world.

As for learning at home verses going to University I would second what “haiddasalami” says, if you have the will power to spend months or even years at home going through tutorial DVDs and forums then go for it but if you don’t have much knowledge of self learning or find it hard to dedicate the time to self learn then I would say University is the way forward. There’s much more to university than just studying. It’s a great opportunity to broaden your horizons by meeting new people and discovering new interests.

Our students have lots of fun, going for nights out in London “20minutes to Kings Cross” or going to the cinema, canoeing, playing console games together or going out to our new 44 million pound night club the UH campus also has a huge swimming pool, gym, Tennis, squash & badminton courts or if you have a head for heights you can climb our huge climbing wall or if you are a gentle soul then join one of our clubs and societies so you can go walking or playing the didgeridoo or what ever it is that you like doing in a group there are over a 1000 societies and if there is not one that you like then we encourage you to make one, all you need is 20 signatures and we will give you support and an area to do what ever it is you do and with twenty seven thousand students I am sure there will be like minded students.

For more information on student life go here.
http://www.herts.ac.uk/why-us/student-life/

I hope that has cleared up your questions, feel free to ask any more, by the way we have a one year or two year part time Masters Degree which might suit you.

Tom Ellis

Thanks LittleClaude, much appreciated.

It does look like a fantastic course, and the campus sounds great too. I'm kinda torn about whether to apply. Obviously I've got a lot of financial commitments as I mentioned, the only way I could really do it is to study part-time and maybe travel down for the lectures, the campus is about an hour drive from me so it's not too bad.

But then I'm thinking, that's a 5 year course, and in all honesty I would hope to be employed by then, and if I look how much I've developed on my own in the past 12 months, then hopefully if progress continues I'll certainly be applying for jobs long before the 5 years is up.

It's a real shame these courses didn't exist about 5 years ago! And who knows, if things don't go to plan I may decide to apply anyway.

Thanks again for the reply!

xvampire

this is cool, i read all the curriculum coverage.
seems promising.

i keep getting email asking about school, sometimes i feel confused to answer them because i went trough irregular education.

i d reccomend this school too to them

littleclaude

Our students made this, I hope it helps.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3lBrmIE4Xw&feature=player_embedded[/ame]

littleclaude

Just thought I would showcase a few more of our students work, I need to post them up on Youtube as it looks like Vimeo is not linked on this website? any answers?

[vv]9023031[/vv]
[vv]8802929[/vv]
[vv]11950311[/vv]
[vv]8627464[/vv]
[vv]5095267[/vv]
[vv]11133698[/vv]
[vv]1032431[/vv]
[vv]5095267[/vv]
[vv]12130423[/vv]
[vv]9065242[/vv]
[vv]9065239[/vv]
[vv]749804[/vv]
[vv]12917397[/vv]
[vv]9065232[/vv]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-p9qCe-mzg[/ame]

And not forgetting the magic Banjo Awards thanks to Microsoft Games Studio's
[vv]5844685[/vv]

More to come soon:)

littleclaude

It's been a great year at the UH, we just thought we would post some of the students work from last year for you to enjoy, more to come soon.


We had 762 applicants for 90 places last year so the students are getting better and better. We are just starting to ramp up for Christmas and get ready for a new batch of films and showreels, Ill be back.:)

littleclaude

And a pinch of hand drawing

littleclaude

VIMEO TEST........:poly127:

Habboi

Hertfordshire was my first choice three years ago but the interviewers didn't accept me and for that I am grateful because I met some good friends at the university I ended up at.

While they did encourage me to take a drawing degree for a year I always argue drawing helps but isn't always needed as long as you understand your drawings and can produce quality 3D content from that.

However from what I remember it seems the course was more character / animation which wasn't what my portfolio at the time was showing.

Anyway it's nice to see a university actually teach current gen techniques and the student work is impressive indeed!

samgriffiths

Habboi wrote: »

Hertfordshire was my first choice three years ago but the interviewers didn't accept me and for that I am grateful because I met some good friends at the university I ended up at.

While they did encourage me to take a drawing degree for a year I always argue drawing helps but isn't always needed as long as you understand your drawings and can produce quality 3D content from that.

However from what I remember it seems the course was more character / animation which wasn't what my portfolio at the time was showing.

Anyway it's nice to see a university actually teach current gen techniques and the student work is impressive indeed!

I had an interview at hertfordshire, when I got there different receptionists sent me to like 3 different places so i ended up missing my interview, saying screw it , and went to abertay instead.

littleclaude

samgriffiths wrote: »

I had an interview at hertfordshire, when I got there different receptionists sent me to like 3 different places so i ended up missing my interview, saying screw it , and went to abertay instead.

We are building a new reception as we speak, Our University is over two campuses and has 24,000 students so when it’s in full swing it is quite hard to know where to go but I take what you said very seriously so thanks for sharing, I will take it up with reception ASAP.

Does Abertay have a showreel? I would love to see it.

samgriffiths

littleclaude wrote: »

We are building a new reception as we speak, Our University is over two campuses and has 24,000 students so when it’s in full swing it is quite hard to know where to go but I take what you said very seriously so thanks for sharing, I will take it up with reception ASAP.

Does Abertay have a showreel? I would love to see it.

Here is the clip on Youtube shame Vimeo does not work I find it so much quicker.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jOkEPdLULs&feature=player_embedded

This is good news, considering I only applied and knew about Hertfordshire because I saw this exact thread around this time last year.
A different set of cards and I would be there right now.

gilesruscoe

I've applied to Herts to start in september 2011, i should have an interview in the next two months (hopefully) what can you suggest i bring? i have a pretty large 3D portfolio, how nessessary is the 2D drawing... i have a couple of sketches here and there and a half finished sketched book, but most my anatomical study is done sculpting in Zbrush... would that be an OK substitute for life drawing?

XenoKratios

Everything about this thread reminds me of sex.

littleclaude

gilesruscoe wrote: »

I've applied to Herts to start in september 2011, i should have an interview in the next two months (hopefully) what can you suggest i bring? i have a pretty large 3D portfolio, how nessessary is the 2D drawing... i have a couple of sketches here and there and a half finished sketched book, but most my anatomical study is done sculpting in Zbrush... would that be an OK substitute for life drawing?

Hello

Put in just your best 3D models and if you can flesh it out with some wireframes, sketches, AO pass and maybe some research like a small mood board to make a double page spreed for every 3D model that would be great. That way you only need to show 6-10 3D models. If you are new to 3D then flesh out your portfolio with Art work, pastel, life drawing, Oil Canvas or anything that you have tried we are an arts based course "Games Art". The majority of applicants have tried 3D, at least at the modelling stage, so you would need extremely good traditional skills to stand out against them. We do still accept students without 3D experience if there art work is exceptional good and they are very keen but they are becoming rare cases.

At Hertfordshire we interview into May usually, but the May applicants have usually applied by the end of March - obviously by that point there are very few places left, so competition for them is rather fierce, last year we had over 800 applications for 90 and maybe double through email and forum enquiry and this year I am sure the figure will go up as the fees are changing the following year.

We interview everyone for 15-30 minutes to make sure we are taking on the right kind of student, last year we made an exception to the rule when an applicant with okay art skills for a 23 year old explained he has found it hard to fit in the time for his 3D and art skills as he has been on the UK Olympic Ice skating team since leaving school J so he found the tipping point.

Our point system has gone up to 280 points this year and we require a minimum level of GCSE English and Maths or our application system will automatically reject you. That's nothing to do with the animation courses, it's a filter put in place by the management who noticed we had gigantic amounts of applicants last year so then realised they could increase the requirements without worrying about whether we were going to fill the course or not.

We are happy to look at applicants 3D and Art skills if the system rejects you, lots of new applicant post up on our student forum www.3dhit.co.uk and the students and Lecturers are happy to give you feedback until you reach a level that is worth interviewing.

Of course if you are from outside the UK and the automatic filter rejects you because it doesn't recognise your qualifications (it shouldn't do this, it is supposed to send a query to a admissions staff member to check any non UK applicant manually) get in touch with me and I'll find out what happened.

If using Zbrush the default red wax shader is not the best for showing your work off - something pale grey with a slight specular or matte quality work well - that sort of shader can't hide errors in the mesh, whereas a lot of the fancy looking metallic / wax shaders make it hard to see what has been modelled. Also are you working from a supplied base mesh or is this being sculpted out of Zspheres, or are you modelling the base mesh yourself? If you make the base mesh yourself please show a screengrab of that next to the smoothed high poly version in Zbrush so we can see your edge topology / basic form. Assuming the character design is not Super Mario etc, you can put in the concept design with your work, but label it as someone else's work clearly - the reason for showing this is we can then see how well you were able to match the concept.

If you are interested in character creation then personally I love seeing good anatomical knowledge and one or two animal sculpts with a photo comparison next to the final render. Read up on George Bridgeman and practise his style.

If you are interested in Environment, Asset or Vehicle then go and do some location drawing, spend the day in the nearest large town or city and if it’s raining then go to the station, library, Pub, Cafe or any other sheltered building that you can draw inside the building or looking out the window while you have a hot chocolate....yum yum now where is my sketch book and hat I’m off out to do some drawing. :poly121:

Best Wishes,
Neil Gallagher - Senior Lecturer & Programme Leader MA & BA Games Art.

Also for inspiration try these threads.
http://3dhit.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=13139&st=0&start=0

http://3dhit.co.uk/index.php?showforum=136

And my favourite thread in the world. :poly124:
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=870

littleclaude

Some more images for the pot,

level 3 students

littleclaude

Level 2 asset project, 1 week under 1000 quads





Level 2, two week corner project.

littleclaude

Hope you enjoy this students showreel, he has just graduated from the Games Art MA.

http://girishs.com/?p=219

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKE9GYaSFs8&feature=player_embedded[/ame]

littleclaude

XenoKratios wrote: »

Everything about this thread reminds me of sex.

Can we use this quote in our publicity? wish we could haha!:poly124:

littleclaude

littleclaude

Scott's showreel: he still has until the end of May to jazz up his showreel but we think its looking great already.

His website can be seen over at: ScottHomer.co.uk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jOkEPdLULs

BorisK

ahahaha dude, i was meant to apply to Herts, i dont know what happened lol. i just ended up at a different uni

i've seen some of these pics and reels at the Games/Brain Eden events. you guys def dropped some jaws. and i love how you get students to render in game engines

do you guys do postgrad too........or is it just Abertay lol

littleclaude

Thank you BorisK

Some high rez images for you.

littleclaude

BorisK wrote: »

ahahaha dude, i was meant to apply to Herts, i dont know what happened lol. i just ended up at a different uni

i've seen some of these pics and reels at the Games/Brain Eden events. you guys def dropped some jaws. and i love how you get students to render in game engines

do you guys do postgrad too........or is it just Abertay lol

Hello, here is some information for you.

here are the course details.
BA Games Art
BA VFX
BA 2D
BA 3D

MA Animation (MA, PgD) Masters
MA 3D
MA Games Art

And we can offer PhD level studys:)

BorisK

wooooooooooop. this course is sooo me

so do I need to get a 2.1 or higher for my BA to apply for the masters?? say if I don't get the grade can I persuade you guys with a portfolio?? my current uni focuses on flash coding/animating so i'm scared that might bring some of my marks down. im more of a 3D art person

i'm definitely up for the PhD too

i'll definitely tell the boys about the courses on offer. thanks alot for the links dude

littleclaude

BorisK wrote: »

wooooooooooop. this course is sooo me

so do I need to get a 2.1 or higher for my BA to apply for the masters?? say if I don't get the grade can I persuade you guys with a portfolio?? my current uni focuses on flash coding/animating so i'm scared that might bring some of my marks down. im more of a 3D art person

i'm definitely up for the PhD too

i'll definitely tell the boys about the courses on offer. thanks alot for the links dude

No problem, I will talk with you soon then

littleclaude

Short film “War Dog” made by Level 3 students “Gary, David and David” at the University of Hertfordshire, we hope you like it.

For more information on the students you can find it here.
http://uhanimation.co.uk/2011/war-dog-ba-games-art-university-of-hertfordshire-2010-2/

http://vimeo.com/22298712

e-freak

This looks really good. Having been through a university course my self though, I'm wondering what the worse projects look like. So my two questions: Could you show something from the lower end of the gratidute's portfolios? What would be the worst part about your course, what's a potential trap for students?

And - any infos on that Cryengine 2 project? It looked kinda cool, but I couldn't find a name or anything?

littleclaude

Best of luck we start in 1 Months time

littleclaude

http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?t=101252&page=5&pp=15&highlight=hertfordshire

This may help

littleclaude

gilesruscoe wrote: »

I've applied to Herts to start in september 2011, i should have an interview in the next two months (hopefully) what can you suggest i bring? i have a pretty large 3D portfolio, how nessessary is the 2D drawing... i have a couple of sketches here and there and a half finished sketched book, but most my anatomical study is done sculpting in Zbrush... would that be an OK substitute for life drawing?

Hello

First of welcome, please come onto www.3dhit.co.uk and see what our students are doing, it’s our student and alumni forum where you can get lots of crit on your portfolio and ask students any questions you would like to know.

You also might want to look at what our courses offer here http://uhanimation.co.uk/

At Hertfordshire we interview into May usually, but the May applicants have usually applied by the end of March - obviously by that point there are very few places left, so competition for them is rather fierce, last year we had over 800 applications for 90 places.

We interview everyone for 15-30 minutes to make sure we are taking on the right kind of student, last year we made an exception to the rule when an applicant with okay art skills for a 23 year old explained he has found it hard to fit in the time for his 3D and art skills as he has been on the UK Olympic Ice skating team since leaving school J so he found the tipping point.

So onto the portfolio.........a good one :poly142: that’s always a good start, Now for what goes into a good portfolio.........

Life drawings, studies of the nude from real life and show anatomy, proportion and foreshortening knowledge is great. If you don't have any make sure you attend a adult education course in life drawings so you can get some for your portfolio wherever you apply. If a college doesn't offer life drawing I would not go there.

Put in just your best 3D models and if you can flesh it out with some wireframes, sketches, AO pass and maybe some research like a small mood board to make a double page spread for every 3D model that would be great. That way you only need to show 6-10 3D models. If you are new to 3D then flesh out your portfolio with Art work, pastel, life drawing, Oil Canvas or anything that you have tried we are an arts based course "Games Art". The majority of applicants have tried 3D, at least at the modelling stage, so you would need extremely good traditional skills to stand out against them. We do still accept students without 3D experience if there art work is exceptional good and they are very keen but they are becoming rare cases.

Our point system has gone up to 280 points this year and we require a minimum level of GCSE English and Maths or our application system will automatically reject you. That's nothing to do with the animation courses, it's a filter put in place by the management who noticed we had gigantic amounts of applicants last year so then realised they could increase the requirements without worrying about whether we were going to fill the course or not.

We are happy to look at applicants 3D and Art skills if the system rejects you, lots of new applicant post up on our student forum www.3dhit.co.uk and the students and Lecturers are happy to give you feedback until you reach a level that is worth interviewing.

If using Zbrush the default red wax shader is not the best for showing your work off - something pale grey with a slight specular or matte quality work well - that sort of shader can't hide errors in the mesh, whereas a lot of the fancy looking metallic / wax shaders make it hard to see what has been modelled. Also are you working from a supplied base mesh or is this being sculpted out of Zspheres, or are you modelling the base mesh yourself? If you make the base mesh yourself please show a screengrab of that next to the smoothed high poly version in Zbrush so we can see your edge topology / basic form. Assuming the character design is not Super Mario etc, you can put in the concept design with your work, but label it as someone else's work clearly - the reason for showing this is we can then see how well you were able to match the concept.

If you are interested in character creation then personally I love seeing good anatomical knowledge and one or two animal sculpts with a photo comparison next to the final render. Read up on George Bridgeman and practise his style.

If you are interested in Environment, Asset or Vehicle then go and do some location drawing, spend the day in the nearest large town or city and if it’s raining then go to the station, library, Pub, Cafe or any other sheltered building that you can draw inside the building or looking out the window while you have a hot chocolate....yum yum now where is my sketch book and hat I’m off out to do some drawing.

I hope that helps and look forward to meeting you soon.
Best Wishes,
Neil

littleclaude

Information on the UH Animation Courses at the University of Hertfordshire


[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ytJjtKKxs4"]Information on the UH Animation Course at the University of Hertfordshire - YouTube[/ame]

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/8ytJjtKKxs4&quot; frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

littleclaude

The University of Hertfordshire is one of the top universities in the World according to the latest Times Higher Education, World University Rankings - a global authority on Higher Education.

Out of all the universities in the World, the University of Hertfordshire ranks in the top 4% above Loughborough, Aston and Strathclyde. The rankings, compiled by the Times Higher Education magazine are based on excellence across teaching, research, citations, industry income and international outlook.

Tim Longden Director of Marketing, University of Hertfordshire says: “We are immensely proud to be rated so highly among the 18,000 universities around the World. This is an exceptional performance which is a tribute to the dedication and the huge support from staff, students and alumni.”

Out of the Country’s newer universities, Hertfordshire ranks in the top 3 worldwide making it the only new university in 19 years to have appeared in 2 world rankings*.

The Times Higher World University Rankings 2011-12 is an annual ranking for universities across the globe. This year, universities in the UK ranked second in the world overall.

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/worl...12/301-350.html

littleclaude

Hello, just thought I would share with you a couple of students.

http://nazkozak.com/
http://vimeo.com/24187355


and

http://huang-3d.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=VqoaGyecx0c

littleclaude

Here is one of four showreel WIP pieces, I thought you might like to see it being made, final hand in is mid February 2012 so any crit I will relay back to him.

Rendered in UDK

http://vimeo.com/33241321

littleclaude

Happy new year, thought I would leave you with an art test.

Andreas

littleclaude wrote: »

Here is one of four showreel WIP pieces, I thought you might like to see it being made, final hand in is mid February 2012 so any crit I will relay back to him.

Rendered in UDK

http://vimeo.com/33241321

Dunno if I agree with that 'not dirty enough' crit... surely if its something that is supposed to grab the players attention, it does that by being slightly cleaner/brighter? Without going Mirrors Edge on it...

littleclaude

Memories like fingerprints are slowly raising

[vv]33657341[/vv]

littleclaude

I hope you can make it to our UH Animation Film Day this year, May 30th 2012 - to book tickets go here, we will update the website nearer the time http://uhanimation.co.uk/2009/2009-animation-expose/

We saw some great work from lots of Games Studios around the UK. I thought I would share some images and I will post up the Codemasters talk soon.

Ahhh!! FCP what will I do without you to help me by cutting up all my films? anyone got a spare Flame suite they don't want any more:)

Codemasters - Alan Parsons, Executive Producer & Mike Smith-Lead Artists


Lionhead, Ian Yarwood-Lovett


Mike Bambury - Sony


Phillip Hunt Studio AKA


Industry Panel