United Kingdom

University of the Arts London

MA Visual Effects

University degrees: Postgraduate

Course length: 1 year 3 months full time (45 weeks across a four-term model)

MA Visual Effects (VFX) at London College of Communication is a practice-led course that will develop your technical computing skills, animation, lighting and editing capabilities. The course culminates in a collaborative project that will prepare you for integrated roles within the VFX industry.

MA Visual Effects (VFX) at London College of Communication is taught as a specialist subject within the broad and experimental visual practice of animated visual communication.

The course explores the theoretical and historical contexts that inform how audiences perceive reality and photorealism.

You’ll be introduced to a range of technical and conceptual approaches to VFX animation. You’ll also explore technologies and processes by producing short-form animation across the VFX spectrum, to set briefs.

Real world studio lighting and camera workshops will provide a tangible foundation for the principles of virtual digital 3D VFX.

What can you expect?

As students on the course, you’ll be encouraged to see yourself as a specialist in your field that can push the boundaries of what’s possible within the world of VFX animation.

You’ll develop high-end specialist skills underpinned by a breadth of technical knowledge. Throughout the course, you will create unique media and immersive experiences, whilst developing your own distinct style.

London is the home of world-leading practitioners in VFX; you will benefit from lectures and masterclasses from visiting directors, producers and cinematographers and have access to LCC’s TV studios.

You’ll learn the principles of lighting and shot framing and how it works in practice as well as translating the properties of light, texture and lensing within the digital realm.

This course also supports progression to research at MPhil/PhD level, as well as to advanced self-directed practice.

Mode of Study

MA Visual Effects is in Full Time mode which runs for 45 weeks over 15 months. You will be expected to commit 40 hours per week to study.

Course units

You will respond to briefs that are set to test the learning in the units described below. Each course is divided into units, which are credit-rated. The minimum unit size is 20 credits. The MA course structure involves five units, totalling 180 credits.

Autumn, Term One

Unit summary:

  • VFX Animation Fundamentals (40 credits)

The course starts by teaching the past, present and future of VFX to give a thorough grounding in the sector, before moving on to equip you with the main skills, knowledge and processes required to create convincing VFX.

This unit introduces you to the advanced technologies that make VFX possible and the processes behind digital image creation. You’ll explore technologies and processes by producing short-form animation across the VFX spectrum, to set briefs.

Real world studio lighting and camera workshops will provide a tangible foundation for the principles of virtual digital 3D VFX.

  • Design for Animation, Narrative Structures & Film Language (20 credits)

​This unit is shared with MA Animation and MA 3D Computer Animation and provides an opportunity for interaction and peer-to-peer learning both in the classroom and online.

Spring / Summer, Terms Two and Three

Unit summary:

  • Advanced and Experimental VFX animation techniques (40 credits)

This unit advances skills in rendering and composition tools, procedural effects such as fire and tornadoes, and how to build digital creatures and characters. CGI elements will be generated using one or more techniques covered in the unit (e.g. particle effects, procedural elements, fluids, etc.), before being integrated into the shot.

You’ll develop a breadth of knowledge across different tools and media, whilst identifying a particular specialism that you wish to pursue in Term Three.

  • Collaborative Unit (20 credits)

​You will work with others in a team to complete all the requirements of the brief. The aim is to integrate complex CGI elements into the supplied footage seamlessly so it is difficult to distinguish these elements from the live action. The key is to demonstrate skills that will be recognised as those used in professional VFX production.

This project will demonstrate your ability to select the correct the techniques from the range that you’ve studied. You’ll show how you can manage your time and resources to deliver a professional project to a given deadline.

Autumn, Term Four

Unit summary:

  • Final Major Project VFX and Thesis (60 credits)

You’ll take the knowledge, skills and experience from the first two phases of the course and bring this together in the production of a collaborative interdisciplinary or self-directed longer form project and associated thesis.

You’ll produce an ambitious VFX project that will demonstrate your in-depth critical awareness of the subject area, as well as your practical skills in production management.

Your thesis is a 5000-word reflective report that will show that the design and production process that has been carried out in this project is one that exhibits the required characteristics for a master’s degree.

It should discuss the decisions that have been made and placed in the context of current industry practice and research in the area, and it should reflect on the process and the final video to identify its strengths and weaknesses.

It is an opportunity for you to demonstrate the depth of critical understanding of your field and to show that you can objectively analyse your own work

Learning and teaching methods

  • Lectures
  • Seminars
  • Critiques
  • Technical workshops
  • Software training

Assessment methods

  • Portfolios
  • Submission
  • Written research and critical reports
  • Presentations and formal critiques
  • Exhibition
  • Written thesis

Programs, Courses, Workshops