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What's the best Games Art and Design (moreso Concept Art based) course in the UK?

What do you think is the best Games Art and Design (moreso Concept Art based) course in the UK?

I was really impressed with the Norwich University of the Arts open day, but have heard some good things about De Montfort too! (Not to mention with how some of the previous students have gone on to work on various games).

However, looking at the website and the video on there, it shows nothing about the actual concept art side of the course. It only shows the 3D side, which has kind of put me off.

If anyone can give me some advice on a particularly good Games Art and Design Uni, that would be great! (I'm open to suggestions other than Norwich and De Montfort too!)

Reply 1

moid

The reason why most games courses concentrate on the 3D side of game art creation is because that is where the vast bulk of the jobs are - there are only a tiny handful of positions in concept art for games; most companies will have 1 or 2 concept artists for every 50 3D artists. The position is tremendously important in the game - the concept artist creates the look of the game, therefore has to know what can be designed that is possible in realtime and also needs to be able to deal directly with the publisher/client/art director, so needs plenty of experience in how to handle these exotic beasts :smile:

This means that most companies will not let a graduate become a concept artist because it is way too risky. It does occasionally happen; one of my students did get hired by Sony as a concept artist from day one, but his work was astounding (both 3D and 2D) so they knew he wouldn't design things that couldn't be made. Most concept artists have already had a career in 3D in games, starting off as environment modeller /texturers, then drawing artwork on the side, and finally being in the company long enough (and not screwing up) so that management would trust them to design stuff. That's how I got into doing concept art for games anyhow. My advice for you is to look to study 3D Games Art, become really good at that (you'll still need your concept skills, everything you make in 3D should be designed first), get a job in a company that way and work up to concept artist as a long term goal.

And seeing as you asked for suggestions, you should look at Hertfordshire too :smile:

One of our concept art lecturers worked on the Hobbit and Tintin at Weta. Our games art lecturer worked for Rare. Our graduates work in every single medium to large games developer in the UK. See the list below :smile:

Activision (Shanghai)
Activision (UK)
Apache Solutions Ltd
Babel Media
Beatnik Games
Bioware
Blitz Games
Climax
Creative Assembly
Crytek UK
Digi-Guys
Electronic Arts
Eurocom
Eutechnyx Ltd
FreestyleGames
Frontier
Frozenbyte
Full Fat Games
Geomerics
Gusto Games
Headstrong Games
Hothouse Creations
Idle Creations
Ignition London
Jagex
Juice Games
Keen Games
Kuju
nDreams
Nintendo
Outso
Playfish
Playground Games
Poly Assets United Inc
Psychotron
Rare-Microsoft Games
Real Time Worlds
Rebellion Games
Related Designs
Reloaded Productions
Rockstar North
Rocksteady Studios
Slinky Pictures
Sony-London Studio
Sony-Cambridge Studio
Space Ape Games
Spiral House
Splash Damage
Supermassive Games
Traveller's Tales
Ubisoft (Singapore)
Ubisoft - BluByte (Germany)
Zoe Mode

Reply 2

username1132180

Confetti college nottingham, leading in the creative quarter, thats where i go :tongue:

Reply 3

jasminekcooper

Staffordshire University do a course purely on Concept art for Games, you should check that out :smile:

Reply 4

rinofthemill

I've applied to DMU, BCU, Falmouth, Plymouth and Teesside (I looked longingly at Hertfordshire but got scared off by the accommodation prices!)
Teesside has a dedicated concept art course, I really like the look of the modules there! and while DMU is very 3D focused in the first couple of years, by the third you can go your own direction, I actually contacted a recent graduate who's now a concept artist and illustrator and she really recommends the place, and you can't deny the work is amazing
falmouth has some lovely character design modules, Plymouth is great in that it has an interdisciplinary studies module, you want to do creative writing, sculpture, film and media, you can do it! and BCU is really interesting, they squish a three year degree into two by having a term over each of the summer holidays, it's intense, but it was made as a direct response to the industry, they work closely with the BBC for live briefs and they're great at helping you specialise as an artist :smile: