1. Apply knowledge of professional contexts to produce a practical outcome relevant to animation Knowledge & Understanding

2. Solve simulated creative or industry-informed problems using appropriate methods and processes for Animation, working independently while engaging with relevant professional, technical, or academic feedback. Application & Problem Solving Critical Reasoning & Collaboration

3. Communicate your work to academic, professional, or non-specialist audiences. Communication

4. Reflect on how employability and enterprise concepts inform your developing practice in animation Personal Development & Entrepreneurship

Assessment 1: Practical Project

Create one or more short character animation pieces showing a designed character performing in a simple narrative scenario, including evidence of storyboarding, environment creation, audio, and lip-sync, with development work to show your process. Evidence of engagement with feedback should be included within the work.

Assessment 2: Reflective Report or Presentation

Option 1: Reflective Report (1200 words)
Option 2: Recorded or Live Presentation (5-6 mins)

You will reflect on the development and production of your practical animation project. The reflection should demonstrate your understanding of animation principles, creative decision-making, technical processes and problem-solving throughout the project and refer to Animation industry.

You should evaluate your skills development, discuss challenges encountered, and explain how feedback, experimentation and iteration informed your final outputs.

Formative Assessment:
Midway formative feedback will be embedded within practical sessions, providing structured opportunities for feedback on work-in-progress to support student development and progression.

You will develop, create and present appealing character animation outputs within a range of narrative performance scenarios; vignettes designed with specific audiences in mind demonstrating your knowledge and skills development in the following example areas:
- Animated Character Design: Ideation, Development and Realisation for moving performances
- Character Sculpture, capture and augmentation; digital scanning and processing
- Paper-based thumbnail storyboarding - Storyboard Revisioning and Iteration (traditional and Digital)
- Selecting and applying animation principles in 2D, 3D & Stop Motion
- Intro to Animation Environment Creation using 2D, 3D & Stop Motion industry processes and tools.
- Audio planning, preparation and synchronisation: Foley, Voice, Atmos and Music
- Intro to Lip-sync analysis, planning and practice in 2D, 3D & Stop Motion

How do animated characters express personality, emotion, and story for different audiences? In this module, you’ll design, develop, and animate characters for short narrative performance scenarios. You’ll explore character design, storyboarding, movement, environments, sound, and lip-sync across 2D, 3D, and stop motion workflows. By focusing on audience-led storytelling and performance, you’ll build practical and creative skills that strengthen your progression through the course and prepare you for character-driven animation practice in professional contexts.

Teaching and learning activities may include
- Lectures
- Specialist workshops
- Seminar discussions
- Tutorials
- Drop-in support sessions
- Group work
- Independent study
- Practical development in response to a brief
- Reflective practice

3DTotal Publishing (2020) Fundamentals of character design: How to create engaging characters for illustration, animation & visual development. Worcester: 3DTotal Publishing.

Ament, V. T. (2021) The Foley grail. 3rd edn. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.

Mackness, C. et al. (2025) Beyond virtual production: Integrating production technologies. Oxford: Routledge.
Parr, P. (2018) Sketching for animation: Developing ideas, characters and layouts in your sketchbook. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

White, T. (2023) Animation masterclasses, from pencils to pixels: A complete course in animation & production. 1st edn. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.

Where older texts are included, they are retained as foundational texts within the discipline, remaining relevant where no more recent equivalent texts are available.

- Contemporary Software
- Student Life https://www.youtube.com/@uniofstaffsstudentlife/videos
- University Careers https://staffs.careercentre.me/Members
- University Library https://libguides.staffs.ac.uk/library
- Blackboard Virtual Learning Environment will support this module where relevant
- Specialist Spaces etc.
- Smart Zone
- CAD Labs
- Print Bureau
- Betty Smithers Design collection