University of South Wales or Hertfordshire?????????/

I went to Herts for a motorsports course, I don't know what technology you're comparing it to but they have super nice computer labs and the software they use is topnotch (Well we used in industry software so I'd say its pretty hightech and good to set you up for life in work) but if you're looking for new shiney mac labs or something, I didn't see the like.

Hope this helps a bit

Hi! im planning to go to university for animation. I don't want to study too much 3D animation so I've applied for Animation Production at AUB, 2D Animation at Hertfordshire and 2D/StopMo at USW. Ive visited Hertfordshire and USW so far, but when I went to Hertfordshire the course looked really good and obviously they have excellent rep/grades and industry, but it didn't look like they had much technology for animation (unless I missed a few rooms on the campus tour) whereas USW has tons of facilities, as well as excellent rep/grades and industry. Can anyone at USW or Hertfordshire offer some guidance because I'm running back and forth between the two right now ((((

I would push you to visit AUB before making any decisions. I personally visited Bournemouth myself whilst initially looking at universities, and the location is lovely. I also really enjoyed their showreel! I think the biggest downside I encountered there was that they share(d?) accommodation with the other university in the area and I don't believe that any of it is on-site.

As for Hertfordshire, they provide software's such as Adobe Animate, Toon Boom Harmony and TVPaint which are the industry standard. They also provide tablets (Wacom Intuos tablets in most of our lecture rooms as well as a few Cintiq tablets). The computers in the media building and in the tech suite in the library are all powerful computers and readily available for students on this course. I am on this course, but on a 3D pathway so it's likely I've missed details. They also have accommodation within a 5 minute walk of classes

Both of these universities (I don't know much about USW, so I won't weigh in on that matter) have a particularly high standard for interview portfolios compared to a lot of other animation-related university courses, so I would definitely look into what kind of content they expect you to produce for that.

@moid may be able to weigh in on this far better than I can

Thank you so much! I’ve just uploaded another thread asking for input on my portfolio actually 😁

I’m actually going to AUB tomorrow for a campus tour, I’ve missed the open days though now

Thank you so much! I’ve just uploaded another thread asking for input on my portfolio actually 😁

I’m actually going to AUB tomorrow for a campus tour, I’ve missed the open days though now

@localworms this may be of help if you haven't already seen it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEElrUnGrrI

thanks so much!! I have seen this video before but I completely forgot it existed! im definitely going to watch it a few times now

You're welcome! It might also be worth reading some of @moid's previous posts - he is a programme leader in Animation at University of Hertfordshire and has given out some very useful advice in recent weeks!

Best of luck with your application!

Hello localworms

Regarding technology Saphie B did a great job of mentioning it, but we have 270 PCs, each comes with a WACOM tablet, they have between 16 and 32GB of RAM and are all Intel i7 processors (I forget which NVidia graphics cards but that won't matter that much to someone doing 2D artwork) 15 Cintiqs (these are being installed this semester, we only have 6 at present), a renderfarm of 40 hexcore 64GB RAM machines, a motion capture room, software includes everything Adobe (Photoshop, After Efects, Animate etc) TV Paint, Toon Boom Harmony, Paint Tool Sai, Unity, Unreal Engine 4, Maya, Houdini, Arnold, Nuke, Mari, Substance, Marvellous Designer, Marmoset Toolbag, ZBrush, Quixel Megascans, PT Gui, Deadline, Shotgun... is there anything you see missing? That's most of the software in use in the industry. We also have loads of Canon 5Ds if you want to shoot digital reference, and Black Magic 4K Ursas if you want to look like a professional film maker (and do your back in; those cameras weigh a ton!)

However a huge list of software isn't that great if there aren't the teachers to back it up, so do look into that as being even more important. Our staff have all worked in industry, I only hire people who have done the jobs that they are teaching. Our staff have worked on projects like The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, The Harry Potter films, the Narnia films, Goldeneye, Tintin, Thor, Casualty, The Tiger Who Came to Tea, Doctor Who plus loads of commericals and music videos and games. The Rookies Awards rates us as the 7th best animation course in the world; no other British universities are on their top ten list. We are number 1 in the world for Games Art (Rookies), Number 2 for Visual Effects (Rookies) and the best educational establishment in the UK for Games Art (TIGA Awards).