Curious about studying Computer Arts - BA (Hons)at Abertay University? We've gathered all the key details—entry requirements, modules, fees, and more. Hear from real students by checking out reviews, or take the next step by booking an open day to explore it for yourself.
Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) - BA (Hons)
Abertay University
Full Time
Sep 2026
4 Year
In this professionally accredited course, you’ll develop your skills and understanding in digital arts and design. Delving into 2D and 3D art techniques, creating characters, environments, and animation using industry-standard digital tools. Ranked
Europe’s TOP University for video game design (Princeton Review 2026).We aim to equip aspiring artists like you with the professional skills you need to thrive in the dynamic world of digital art and games.
Join our vibrant community, with industry and creative professionals who’ll support and guide you all the way. Through individual and team projects you’ll develop industry-ready work,
showcasing your artistic, professional and technical abilities. You’ll have access to networking, collaboration, and
mentorship opportunities with leading game studios.Intern and mentorship opportunities
You’ll work on
industry-relevant project briefs, collaborate with industry mentors and receive coaching from academic staff,many of whom are practising artists with extensive games industry experience. In year 3
you'll have the option to apply for internship opportunities with games companiesto help develop your professional skills. Alternatively, you’ll work directly with industry mentors to develop a prototype project as part of a team. You can also attend lectures from our industry partners and former graduates that relate to game art, illustration, animation and visual effects.
Accreditations and partnershipsThis degree is accredited by TIGA, the trade association representing the UK video games industry, and is partnered with PlayStation First and Unreal Engine/Epic Games.
Starting university is a big step, and every student arrives with different strengths and challenges. This module helps you reflect on your skills, identify areas for development and plan how to succeed academically and personally. Using the Abertay Discovery Tool, you'll review key areas such as study skills, careers and employability, digital confidence and wellbeing. You'll then create a personal action plan and choose further MySuccess modules to support your growth throughout your time at Abertay. Indicative Content - What Does a Successful Student Look Like? Reflect on your motivations, values and passions. Explore what makes a successful student, learn from different examples of success, and consider how stepping outside your comfort zone can help you grow. - Abertay Discovery Tool: Complete the Abertay Discovery Tool to identify your strengths and areas for development across five themes: studying at university, academic skills, digital skills, careers and employability, and wellbeing. - Fundamentals of University: Learn how university study works - from understanding modules and assessments to interpreting assignment briefs and using feedback to improve. - Expectations of University and You: Explore what's expected of you as a student, including the code of conduct, academic integrity, and independent learning. Understand blended learning and how the Abertay Attributes link to your development. - Successful Student Behaviours: Develop habits that support success: managing time, avoiding procrastination, preparing effectively for classes, taking good notes and building a growth mindset. Discover opportunities to get involved at Abertay and beyond.
This module introduces you to the exciting world of animation—where movement meets creativity. You’ll explore the 12 principles that bring characters and objects to life, and learn how physics, anatomy, and form play a key role in making motion feel real. Through hands-on exercises, lectures, and group discussions, you’ll develop your skills in hand-drawn animation and learn how to analyse movement in existing work. You’ll also look at how motion is used across different creative contexts, from games to film, and apply what you’ve learned to develop your own original animation concept. By the end of the module, you’ll have a solid foundation in animation and the confidence to evaluate and improve your own work. Indicative Content - Drawing for Animation: Build your understanding of anatomy, form, and movement through life drawing. You’ll learn how to create dynamic poses that bring your animated characters and scenes to life. - Planning for Animation: Get to grips with the essential pre-production tools used by animators, including time charts, thumbnails, and storyboards. These techniques will help you plan and structure your animations effectively. - Timing for Animation: Explore how timing affects the clarity and impact of animated actions. You’ll experiment with pacing and rhythm to make your animations readable and expressive for different audiences. - Body Mechanics: Learn how to animate believable movement by studying how weight and body parts interact. You’ll analyse and apply these mechanics to give your characters a sense of realism and physicality. - Non-Character Based Movement: Animation isn’t just for characters. You’ll apply force, weight, and timing techniques to objects and environments, learning how to animate everything from bouncing balls to shifting landscapes. - Real-world/Animated Physics: Compare how motion works in real life versus stylised animation. You’ll explore how exaggeration and creative choices affect the way movement is portrayed across different styles. - Basic Audio: Discover how sound enhances motion. You’ll analyse how audio can support timing, emotion, and storytelling in animation, and experiment with syncing sound to movement. - Application of Animation: Explore the wide range of uses for animation—from entertainment and advertising to education and interactive media. You’ll define and test different approaches based on context and audience. - Functional Animation: Understand how the purpose of an animation influences its design. You’ll learn to adapt your creative approach depending on whether the animation is for storytelling, branding, gameplay, or beyond.
This module takes you inside the creative and technical process of preproduction visualisation—where ideas for games, films, and animations are transformed into compelling 3D concepts. You’ll explore how to communicate your vision through industry-relevant techniques such as modelling, texturing, lighting, animation, and audio. From generating ideas and designing bespoke assets to rendering, post-processing, and final presentation, you’ll develop the skills to produce polished, narrative-driven proof-of-concept sequences. By the end, you’ll have the confidence and ability to create visually striking 3D work that clearly communicates your ideas to any audience. Indicative Content - 3D Design Contexts: Explore the formal elements of form, space, and light by studying key art and design principles, theories, and concepts. You’ll see how these ideas apply directly to 3D digital design. - Principles of 3D Design: Learn the core concepts of 3D design, drawing from traditional, contemporary, and industrial approaches to inspire and inform your own creative work. - Ideation for Design: Develop techniques to generate, refine, and clearly communicate your ideas, ensuring your creative vision is both original and achievable. - Fundamental Processes of 3D Design: Get hands-on with essential processes, methods, and workflows used in 3D digital design and asset production, building the skills you’ll use throughout the module. - Rendering for 3D Digital Design: Understand and apply basic rendering techniques to bring your 3D models to life, supporting the preproduction and visual development stages of your projects. - Visual Prototyping: Design, iterate, and assemble bespoke 3D assets to support your proof-of-concept goals. You’ll arrange and refine these assets through a process of creative experimentation. - Image Post-Processing and Clean-Up for 3D Digital Design: Export rendered stills and animations for enhancement in other software, polishing your visuals to strengthen your proof-of-concept presentation. - Exporting and Migration for 3D Digital Design: Finalise and export your completed sequences, producing a polished, professional presentation ready to showcase your work.
This module is all about building your creative, technical, and observational drawing skills. Through visual explorations—ranging from figurative drawing to environmental studies and object-based work—you’ll develop a strong foundation in traditional techniques while finding your own expressive style. In practical drawing sessions, you’ll experiment with line, form, proportion, tone, colour, texture, scale, and perspective, applying these skills to bring character, narrative, mood, and atmosphere into your work. By the end, you’ll have a curated folio of drawings that showcases your abilities and creative voice. Indicative Content - Context: Explore and observe the use of line, form, proportion, tone, colour, texture, scale, and perspective in both traditional and digital visual arts. - Context: Build an awareness and appreciation of historical and contemporary visual artists whose work can inform and inspire ideas relating to narrative, character, mood, and tone. - Content: Identify and investigate the impact and effects of different colour palettes, compositions, and lighting on visual imagery. - Content: Analyse the technical and aesthetic factors central to creating visual imagery, and how these can be used to build meaning within an image. - Execution: Practise traditional life drawing and observational skills, focusing on form and composition, proportion and measuring, media and technique, structure and anatomy, and developing a personal visual language. - Execution: Explore and experiment with a variety of materials and techniques to develop your own expressive style and approach to drawing. - Execution: Analyse and interpret a project brief, creating relevant creative explorations and visual solutions, supported by sketchbook evidence of research. - Execution: Discuss and apply effective presentation techniques
Please note: ABE111: Numbers for Everyday Life will only be assigned as a core module if you do not have a minimum of a National 5 Maths qualification at grade C or an acceptable equivalent. This module helps you strengthen core numeracy skills, including percentages, decimals, fractions, appreciation, depreciation and rounding. Through problem-solving and reasoning, you’ll learn to analyse everyday situations and make logical, well-informed decisions. You’ll also gain a foundation in statistics—covering mean, median, mode and standard deviation—and develop financial skills such as budgeting, managing income and expenses, understanding interest rates, and making choices about saving and borrowing. By applying these skills to real-life contexts, you’ll build confidence in using numbers to solve problems, manage your finances, and support decision-making in both study and work. Indicative Content - Numerical Skills: Develop your confidence with key number skills, including percentages, decimals, fractions, appreciation, depreciation and rounding. - Problem Solving and Reasoning: Practice using maths to tackle everyday situations. Learn how to spot problems, rearrange equations, make logical connections and reach effective decisions. - Fundamentals of Statistics: Get to grips with the basics of statistics. Learn how to calculate and use mean, median, mode and standard deviation to interpret and compare data. - Financial Skills: Build practical financial know-how. Explore budgeting, managing income and expenses, understanding interest rates, and making smart decisions about saving and borrowing. Apply these skills directly to real-life situations.
This module is your gateway into the world of Graphic Art. You’ll gain hands-on experience with the core skills and creative techniques used in games, comics, and graphic novels. Through practical sessions and guided projects, you’ll build confidence in the principles of art and design, and learn how to turn your ideas into original, eye-catching artwork. By the end of the module, you’ll have created your own piece in response to a creative brief—ready to showcase your style and imagination. Indicative Content - The Principles and Elements of Art and Design: You’ll start by exploring the building blocks of visual creativity—line, shape, colour, texture, and more. Through real-world examples from games, comics, and graphic novels, you’ll see how these principles are used to bring ideas to life across different creative industries. - Communication Through Graphic Art: Discover how graphic art goes beyond visuals to tell stories, share ideas, and connect with audiences. You’ll learn how to use design elements to communicate meaning, emotion, and narrative—whether it’s for a reader, player, or viewer. - Understanding of Design Style: Style is what gives artwork its personality. In this section, you’ll learn how to identify and develop design styles across different media, from bold comic book aesthetics to immersive game environments and expressive graphic novels. - Understanding Narrative and Branding Through Graphic Art: Graphic art isn’t just about looking good—it’s about saying something. You’ll explore how visual design can express values, build identity, and tell compelling stories, especially in branding and character-driven work. - Font/Typography: Typography is a powerful design tool. You’ll learn how fonts work, how they’re designed, and how to use them effectively to support your message and style. - Saliency, Composition and Layout: Good design grabs attention and guides the eye. You’ll dive into layout techniques and composition strategies that help your work stand out and communicate clearly—skills that are essential in any creative field. - Presentation: You’ll bring everything together by digitally presenting your final piece in response to a creative brief. This is your chance to showcase your ideas, style, and technical skills in a professional format.
This module introduces you to real-time engines, giving you the knowledge and practical skills to explore design and artistic projects for games. You’ll follow workflows specific to real-time technologies, building confidence and ability as you go. By working within real-time engine pipelines, you’ll not only develop creative and technical expertise but also learn how to design your own strategies for independent learning—an essential skill for anyone aiming to succeed in the fast-moving world of games technologies. Indicative Content - Materials: You’ll learn how to apply and manipulate materials within real-time engines, working within the parameters of physically based rendering (PBR) pipelines and VFX shader sets to achieve both realistic and creative results. - Scene Construction Processes: You’ll develop the skills to prototype and build complex, detailed scenes within real-time engines, gaining confidence in creating compositions that balance technical accuracy with artistic intent. - Optimisation with Game Art Pipelines: You’ll explore how to optimise artistic assets for use in real-time applications. This includes understanding how development choices affect efficiency and learning techniques to improve fidelity, performance, and overall quality within a game pipeline. - Lighting and Post-Production: You’ll apply theories of colour and light to enhance the appeal and professionalism of your real-time scenes. This section introduces you to lighting fundamentals and industry practices that bring game environments to life. - Particles and VFX: You’ll explore the basics of particle effects and learn how to customise particle emitters and systems. This will give you the ability to create dynamic, visually striking simulations that add atmosphere and energy to your work. - Presentation: You’ll produce a range of artefacts presented through real-time rendering techniques. Alongside this, you’ll gain an understanding of how to showcase your work effectively, using presentation methods that suit different contexts within game art production. - Asset Construction: You’ll learn how to prepare and scope assets for versatile use within real-time engines. This includes considering both artistic and design goals to ensure your assets are adaptable and production-ready. - Procedural Workflows: You’ll discover how procedural toolsets can be used to create complex visual outputs. You’ll also gain practical experience applying these workflows directly within real-time engines to support ambitious artistic outcomes. - Camera Animation: You’ll develop the ability to design compelling and informative camera sequences within real-time applications. Using cinematic approaches, you’ll learn how to communicate ideas effectively and enhance storytelling. - Animation State Machines: You’ll gain insights into how animation state machines work and learn to create, implement, and manage them effectively. This will show you how they enhance both animations and gameplay interactions in real-time environments.
Please note: If you are a Direct Entrant (new student) to this year of study and have not previously taken module ABE101, then you MUST take ABE201 as your Term 2 microcredential module. If you have previously taken ABE101, then you are NOT permitted to take ABE201 in Term 2. Starting university brings new opportunities and challenges, and every student’s journey is different. This microcredential helps you settle into life at Abertay and build the habits that lead to success. You’ll hear from current students sharing their own tips, and reflect on the areas you most want to develop. You’ll get to know Abertay’s systems, explore what makes a successful student and practise core skills such as time management, referencing, academic writing style and using support services. By the end, you’ll have the tools and strategies you need to thrive at university. Indicative content - Navigating Abertay Systems: Get to know the key systems you’ll use at Abertay—such as MyLearningSpace, MS Teams, OASIS and MyAbertay—and learn how to use them effectively. - Expectations of University and You: Explore what’s expected of you as a student and what you can expect from the university. Topics include the code of conduct, independent and blended learning, how courses are structured, health and safety, and the Abertay attributes. - Abertay Discovery Tool: Complete the Discovery Tool to identify your strengths and areas for development across five themes: studying at university, academic skills, digital skills, careers and employability, and wellbeing. - Fundamentals of University: Learn how modules work, how assessments are set, and how to use assignment briefs and feedback to improve your work. - Understanding, Searching and Evaluating Information: Develop strategies for finding and assessing reliable information, building your confidence in research and study skills. - Successful Student Behaviours: Practise the habits that help you succeed: managing time, avoiding procrastination, effective note-taking, preparing for classes, developing a growth mindset, and making use of student support services. - Referencing: Understand academic integrity and why referencing matters. Learn how to avoid plagiarism, create in-text citations and reference lists, and use digital tools to manage your sources. - Sounding Academic: Discover what lecturers mean by “academic style” and how to use the right language in your writing. Learn the rules of academic writing, how to paraphrase effectively, and how expectations differ between school/college and university. You’ll also explore how assessments, marking and feedback work.
This module provides the opportunity to work collaboratively within a multidisciplinary team to design and develop an interactive media'based project. You will apply your creative and technical skills to contribute to the production of project elements, while also developing professional abilities in pitching, presenting and communicating effectively within a team setting. Alongside practical development, you will research and test technical pipelines, produce project documentation and planning materials, and critically reflect on your contribution. The module culminates in the creation of a final interactive piece, demonstrating both individual expertise and collective achievement. Indicative Content - Contextual Overview: Examine how games have been designed across prominent genres, styles and techniques. - Concept and Communication: Develop skills in conceptualising and communicating ideas, scoping requirements, and giving and receiving critique. - Design Process: Establish effective design processes, propose solutions, iterate and document progress. - Core Design: Build up the concept through graphics, features, setting, story, objectives and levels. - The Development Team: Understand roles and responsibilities, scheduling, milestones and inclusive team practices. - Rules and Mechanics: Implement choices, interactivity, strategies, motivation and reward, while balancing gameplay. - Look and Feel: Define style, ambience, colour, mood, sound effects and music to shape player experience. - Cultural and Commercial Awareness: Design with awareness of audience, markets, genres and platforms. - Production: Apply production processes to manage scope, coordinate with team members and deliver a project. - Publishing and Showcasing: Explore opportunities for publishing, create pitch and advertising materials, and develop strategies to promote your work.
This module develops students’ ability to think critically and theoretically about their chosen field, underpinned by academic writing and research practice. You will engage with professional and published work, apply critical frameworks, and analyse both academic and creative outputs in order to situate your own practice within a wider context. Through contextual analysis, deconstruction, and reflective processes, the module equips you with the skills to identify research questions, position your work in relation to others, and communicate findings effectively through writing and professional feedback. Indicative Content - Contextual Analysis: Identify and critically analyse existing contextual materials relevant to your area of research practice. - Critical Frameworks: Explore and evaluate theoretical and critical perspectives in relation to your subject specialisation. - Deconstruction as an Analysis Technique: Deconstruct existing artworks to interpret artistic decisions within their context. - Identifying the Research Question: Apply analytical techniques to uncover potential areas of practice'led research. - Positioning: Examine the work of other practitioners and articulate how your own practice relates to and contributes to the field. - Professional Feedback: Develop skills in providing and receiving constructive, critical feedback on research and creative work. - Critical Reflection: Apply reflective processes to analyse and disseminate the findings of your exploration.
In this module, you will work collaboratively as part of a multidisciplinary team to design and develop an interactive media project. Each student will take on a professional role aligned with their area of study, contributing specialist skills to the team. You will engage directly with clients and stakeholders, participate in pitching and presentations, and research and test technical pipelines to support production. Alongside this, you will create project documentation and planning materials, and contribute to the iterative design and development of a final interactive prototype that demonstrates both creative and technical achievement. Indicative Content - Team Organisation and Management: Attend and participate in team meetings, keep minutes, assign roles and responsibilities, identify and resolve team problems, apply conflict resolution approaches, engage in team building, break down features into implementation tasks, and use industry'standard project management software to track progress in an iterative process. - Communication and Professionalism: Communicate effectively and respectfully within the team, with tutors, clients, mentors and other stakeholders in a professional manner. - Development Methodologies: Understand and apply appropriate development methodologies, such as agile and SCRUM, tailored to project requirements and team balance. - Research and Concept Development: Research similar products and competitors, analyse the product marketplace (platforms, user profiles, costs, regional differences), conduct visual and audio research, and iteratively develop design concepts in response to a brief. - Technologies and Pipelines: Research software and hardware technologies, develop a technical plan for game development, and design, test and document production pipelines. - Style and Branding: Develop a brand identity for the team and project, define and document visual and audio style, and produce marketing and promotional materials. - Pitching and Presentation: Create and deliver project pitches in response to briefs, present to clients, tutors and stakeholders, and respond to feedback by revising project design. - Prototype Development, Testing and Iteration: Use appropriate tools, engines and hardware to deliver a working digital prototype, conduct regular user testing, and apply findings to iterative design with a focus on user experience. - Release Management: Manage the development process using source control, defect tracking and build processes. - Project Delivery: Explore methods of product delivery including market cycles, digital distribution and publisher'developer relationships, and deliver a complete prototype with press kit and competition'ready publisher pitch deck.
The module challenges you to design, develop and execute work in response to industry and contextual professional awareness, underpinned by extensive research of concepts pipelines and professional expectations. By evaluating current skills in relation to industry expectations, you'll work towards themed tasks to identify skills gaps and curate practical work to address these areas. The final portfolio will evidence a sustained and proactive pursuit of specialist skills within the development of your professional portfolio development. Indicative Content - Portfolio curation: Understand and react to portfolio standards and expectations within their own practice - Professional presentation: Develop presentational skills that meet professional expectations and trends. - Commercial investigation: Investigate, explore and build upon craft within their field that exists within current industry practices. - Critical thinking: Develop the ability to research, examine and reflect on external sources of information that help to develop visual presentation of their own professional facing works. - Self-reflection of skill-sets: Conduct skills-auditing of current and desired skills based on research of industry expectations within specific fields. - Professional skills development: Develop fundamental and advanced skills within their chosen field through the development of professional self-promotional materials.
You'll be challenged to design, develop, and execute an extensive independent research project, underpinned by relevant critical theories, concepts, and practices within your discipline. This module approaches research as an active process of inquiry that leads to the production of insights pertinent to your creative and professional field. At the end of the module, you'll present a creative honours project portfolio in a form agreed with your allocated supervisor. Within the portfolio, you'll provide evidence of sustained artistic inquiry and accomplishment supported by a critical practitioner’s reflection that contextualises and analyses the work. Indicative Content - Creative research: Discussing and participating in creative research. Learning about examples of applied research by games & arts practitioners, and producing and communicating independent creative research through engagement in on-campus activities. - Independent Study and Project Management: Demonstrating the ability to operate as an independent creative practitioner. Demonstrating the ability to manage a major project, setting milestones, managing time and resources, and identifying and mitigating risk - Supervision and Self Assessment: Working with your supervisor according to a defined schedule and making maximum use of supervision time to seek guidance and feedback on progress. Committing to regular self-assessment of the quality of work and the progress being made. Demonstrating an ability to effectively and realistically critique your work in relation to your own expectations. - Peer Feedback and Community of Practice: Embracing opportunities for peer feedback through regular sharing of projects in the form of peer critiques, demonstrations, showcases, and/or screenings. Capturing and responding to feedback to enhance the quality of your work. Operating within a wider community of like-minded practitioners in games & arts. Striving to carry out project work in collaborative creative spaces and labs, to maximise opportunities for networking, sharing, and mutual support. - Personal and Professional Development: Identifying areas of personal and professional development, and planning to address these through the execution of the creative project. Delivering a project that will support you as you take steps towards employment or entrepreneurship in the creative industries. - Critical Reading and Research Context: Carrying out independent, critical reading of key theoretical texts, research articles, and other texts relevant to the subject, discipline, or profession. Understanding and incorporating the wider research context and rationale into your project, considering artistic and professional practice. - Analysis and Synthesis: Demonstrating rigour in the deconstruction and scrutiny of sources and practice, and constructing a substantiated creative position drawing upon your analysis. - Communication Skills: Aligning your research questions with existing knowledge, theory, and selected research methods. Demonstrating the ability to iteratively develop a clear, precise and substantiated argument about your work, and to communicate the findings of your research to an intended academic, artistic, or professional audience. - Presentation: Deliver a final project, presented in a manner that demonstrates professionalism and an understanding of expectations within your field of practice. Demonstrate the ability to deliver presentations on project development and conclusions.
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