Overview
Working with Aardman Animation
Key details
- 300 credits
- 5 terms week programme
- Full-time study
School or Centre
Current location
- London & Bristol
Develop your skills across two centres of excellence
The two-year Aardman RCA Animation (Professional Residency) MFA programme is designed to develop your authorial voice across any technique, medium or genre. It combines the RCA’s 40 years of experience teaching, researching and making animation wwith the expertise of award-winning animation studio Aardman, and Aardman Academy, their world-class training facility.
You will work on your own animated project and have access to studio space, technical facilities, mentorship and support at both the RCA and Aardman. Our professional studio culture nurtures a spirit of curiosity, experimentation and ethical enquiry, encouraging you to disrupt and re-invent. As part of a global cohort of animators, you will demonstrate the inventive originality and research-grounded rigour that the RCA is known for.
- Develop your directorial and artistic voice through an animation project in any medium, with mentorship from professional animators at the RCA and Aardman.
- Spend your first year in London immersed in the practice-based, academically rigorous studio environment of the RCA.
- Spend the second year in Bristol taking part in a professional studio residency in the world-renowned Aardman studios.
- Become a creative leader, confident in the wider animation community both academically and professionally.
The proposed programme is an RCA degree that integrates industry engagement through the College's partnership with Aardman, including professional studio experience and mentoring from industry practitioners. Academic delivery, assessment and award remain the responsibility of the Royal College of Art. We may be interviewing for this programme.
This programme is subject to validation.
Gallery
Staff
Facilities
RCA London and Aardman Bristol
View all RCA facilitiesAt the RCA in London, you will have your own desk space in a dedicated animation studio. You will have access to technical spaces, workshops, and studios – including sound and music recording and mixing, stop motion shooting, multiplane and rostrum cameras, computer labs and edit suites – along with experienced technical support, and will be able to book equipment through the resources stores.
In your second year of study, at Aardman in Bristol, you will again have your own individual studio space, as well as access to Aardman technical facilities. The residency draws on Aardman's full breadth of disciplines. Students working across stop motion, 2D and CG are supported by a flexible pool of RCA tutors, Aardman staff and freelancers.
Student and alumni stories
More details on what you'll study.
Find out what you'll cover in this programme.
What you'll cover
What will I learn?
Delivery will be in-person, through lectures, seminars, tutorials and workshops, supported by online resources. During your first year you will be mainly on-campus at the RCA in London. For your final two terms you will be based in Aardman Studios in Bristol, with some visits to London required for events taking place on campus.
This curriculum is subject to validation.
Term 1
In term 1 you will study Serious Play (60 credits). This unit is designed to expand thinking about and exposure to a wide range of creative practices and their contextual, aesthetic, historical, social, cultural and critical relevance. You will be quickly prototyping ideas and getting feedback from your cohort, tutors as well as documenting your self-reflection. You will attend the Animation Autumn Symposium where you will present a poster. There will be an emphasis on experimentation, and inventive approaches to form and concept.
Term 2
In term 2 you will study Development and Exploration (45 credits). This unit will consolidate the skills and ideas you have developed in term 1 and synthesise them into viable exploration and planning for a sustained animated work which you will be working on for the remainder of this programme. You will summarise your practice and process through iterative material experimentation. Alongside your practice you will be analysing your ideas through research and using this to articulate how your lineage of practice informs your work.
This unit will be delivered alongside a College-wide Elective (15 credits) chosen from a selection available across the College. These electives are designed to enable you to work alongside peers from other programmes on cross-disciplinary challenges.
Term 3
In term 3 you will engage in Independent Research Planning (60 credits). This unit serves the development of the sustained practice of your main body of work through discussion and collaboration. You will refine your idea, make an animatic or other structure that communicates the project you wish to make, create or collaborate on audio, and iteratively assemble proofs of concept in the technique you are going to use for your final MFA project.
You will also critically situate your work in anticipation of presenting a paper next term and you will develop a conceptual position that you will defend at the Animation Autumn Symposium. In conjunction with tutors at the RCA and staff at Aardman you will plan an outline of your production plan for next year to be delivered at the start of the next term.
Terms 4 and 5
Your second year consists of two terms of study in residence at Aardman Academy in Bristol.
This residency consists of two units: Animation Professional Residency One (60 credits) and Two (60 credits). These units are the culmination of your final project and where you will put into action the plans you have made for your conceptual, critical and practice based project.
In term 4 you will agree a production schedule for your MFA Final Project with Aardman Academy production staff, and go into full production with your MFA audio-visual animated project. You will continue to articulate your practical work in relation to research. You will critically and conceptually position your work, in relation to a field of practice and research, at the Animation Autumn Symposium in London, where you will present these ideas to tutors and peers for presentation and discussion.
In term 5, your final term, you will complete your final MFA Project, produced to an advanced standard in the professional context of Aardman Academy. This will be a finished animated project, ready for public screening, along with a distribution plan.
Requirements
What you need to know before you apply
Please upload up to three moving image projects:
These must include animation but may also include other media and material forms where relevant, such as illustration, sculpture, installation etc.
- We would like you to submit complete films rather than clips where possible, up to a maximum of 10 minutes in total for all three projects.
- If you include a showreel or group work, please indicate this clearly in on screen captions.
- Please avoid using portfolio templates; we want to see how you curate your works imaginatively and clearly.
- To support each of the three projects, you may add (up to three in total) additional items to show the project’s research and development.
- Show us your conceptual research process and practices, and demonstrate a clear relation between imagination, contextual critical engagement and making.
- Each of these three additional items should be uploaded and not exceed a maximum of five PDF pages with images, descriptive captions and concise written comments.
It is important that you ensure all project materials and films are uploaded. Please do not include external links as we will only view what has been uploaded and will not refer to external sites.
Personal statement:
- What applicants need to include in their portfolio.
- Please provide a 300-word written personal statement that addresses the following points:
- Introduce yourself, your interests and your motivations for applying to this MFA.
- Briefly summarise any educational background, professional experience to date that will support your application.
- Tell us what you want to do in the future, and how you hope the MFA will enable you to achieve those ambitions.
Video requirements:
You should upload a (maximum 2 minute) video of yourself taking to camera.
NB: Selected candidates will be invited for a short online interview:
- We want to know why you are applying to the Animation (Professional Residency) MFA and what you want to achieve both during your studies and beyond.
- Please tell us about your artistic, social, political, and/or contextual interests, and how you hope to expand these during your time at the RCA.
What's needed from you
English-language requirements
If you are not a national of a majority English-speaking country you will need the equivalent of an IELTS Academic or UKVI score of 6.5 overall (with a minimum of 5.5 in every component). Students achieving a grade of at least 6.0, with a grade of 5.5 in the Test of Written English, may be eligible to take the College’s English for Academic Purposes course to enable them to reach the required standard.
You are exempt from this requirement if you have received a 2.1 degree or above from a university in a majority English-speaking nation within the last five years.
If you need a Student Visa to study at the RCA, you will also need to meet the Home Office’s minimum requirements for entry clearance.
Fees & funding
For this programme
Fees for new students
Fees for September 2027 entry will be confirmed later this year. From 2021 onward, EU students are classified as Overseas for tuition fee purposes.
Home
Overseas and EU
Deposit
New entrants to the College will be required to pay a non-refundable deposit in order to secure their place. This will be offset against the tuition fees.
Home
Overseas and EU
* Total cost is based on the assumption that the programme is completed in the timeframe stated in the programme details. Additional study time may incur additional charges.
Scholarships
Scholarships
Each year, the RCA scholarship programme supports hundreds of students. The following scholarships are confirmed for this programme, with additional awards added throughout the year.
Even if you do not currently see a scholarship for which you meet the eligibility criteria, we encourage you to apply to be considered for financial support.
Unless otherwise stated, you must apply in either round 1 or 2, and have received an offer of study on an RCA programme to be invited to make a scholarship application. Therefore, we strongly recommend you apply for your programme as early as possible but no later than the round 2 deadline.
More information
Additional fees
In addition to your programme fees, please be aware that you may incur other additional costs associated with your study during your time at RCA. Additional costs can include purchases and services (without limitation): costs related to the purchase of books, paints, textiles, wood, metal, plastics and/or other materials in connection with your programme, services related to the use of printing and photocopying, lasercutting, 3D printing and CNC. Costs related to attending compulsory field trips, joining student and sport societies, and your Convocation (graduation) ceremony.
If you wish to find out more about what type of additional costs you may incur while studying on your programme, please contact the Head of your Programme to discuss or ask at an online or in person Open Day.
We provide the RCASHOP online, and at our Kensington and Battersea Campuses – this is open to students and staff of the Royal College of Art only to provide paid for materials to support your studies.
We also provide support to our students who require financial assistance whilst studying, including a dedicated Materials Fund.
External funding
There are many funding sources, with some students securing scholarships and others saving money from working. It is impossible to list all the potential funding sources; however, the following information could be useful.
Payments
Tuition fees are due on the first day of the academic year and students are sent an invoice prior to beginning their studies. Payments can be made in advance, on registration or in two instalments.
Experience
The social media content shown here reflects past and current student activity and is provided for illustrative purposes only. Experiences on the programme may vary and are subject to change for future students.
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