Course summary

Tricking our minds into believing the unreal often relies on a hint of the real – genuine models and props provide anchors that help audiences suspend disbelief. Our Special Effects Modelmaking for Film and Television degree offers industry-experienced staff and fantastic facilities, ready for you to learn specialist model and prop-making skills and techniques. From alien spaceships to samurai swords, and body parts to ancient statues, special and visual effects uses physical artefacts to inject reality into computer-generated action, as well as provide a sense of place, time and atmosphere for actors and audiences. Our Special Effects Modelmaking for Film and Television degree is designed to train the talented artists and craftspeople this highly creative industry needs. We focus on preparing you for a career as a skilled artisan, creating visually stunning pieces that help bring on-screen productions to life. We offer an intensely practical education in special effects modelmaking. We’ll encourage you to experiment with materials and tools, and practice contemporary and long-established modelmaking techniques. We’ll support you as you learn the principles of scale representation and how to create bigatures. We’ll lead you in an exploration of how models and props can combine with 3D computer graphics to create spectacular on-screen environments. This highly creative industry demands transferable skills too – communication, project and time management, team-working and entrepreneurship are all needed for success in this often freelance profession. We aim to support you to develop these attributes, alongside the imagination, flair and curiosity that will enable you to help make the unbelievable, believable.