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Animation course - Herts or Bournemouth?

I have read a number of similar threads, but many of them are either a few years old, or slightly different courses.

I have applied to 2D animation course at Herts and Computer Animation Arts at Bournemouth. I have gotten a conditional offer from Herts and unconditional offer from Bournemouth, but now I need to decide which is my firm and insurance choices...There are a few things that I need advice upon:

1. The course at Herts teaches 2D animation only, whereas Bournemouth teaches both 2D and 3D(and seems like to be a bit more towards 3D). I think it's good to know both 2D and 3D skills, but then you cannot focus and specialise in one area - but then again, I find that 2D animation is getting not as popular nowadays (even Disney is moving towards 3D animation from its traditional handdrawn animation).

2. I think I would end up working as an animator(artist), so I am interested more on the skill side of making animations. I think Hertfordshire teaches more skills, whereas the lecturer from Bournemouth told me that the actual making of animation is only 1/3 of the course there, the other 2/3 is the theories&stuff. Does this mean that Bournemouth produces graduates that end up working more as animation directors?:confused:

3. My older sister has been telling me that, if I receive an offer from Bournemouth I should 100% go there, and she even said 'I've never heard of hertfordshire, I asked many people and no one knows'(yes I'm directly quoting this). I know that Bournemouth is definitely more well know especially with its NCCA, but Hertfordshire as a new uni has recently won many awards and I'm really impressed by the quality of their showreel. This is what I found:

Bournemouth's 2015 showreel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTBtWdJQ9BM
Hertfordshire's 2015(2D) showreel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqccA2DWswM

Any advice would be appreciated:smile: I only have a month until the UCAS reply deadline...!
Yea, i was ( or still) in the same predicament as you but from the 3D animation point-of-view. I also applied to bornemouth uni for their Computer Animation Arts course and to my surprise,they though my portfolio was worthy, and so invited me to do their admissions test( basically re-doing maths), they turned me down my application. but i wasn't really interested in them to be honest.

Although crowned "the best place in the uk for animation" I was a bit skeptical of this, i mean 1.) id already chosen 4 other unis with of similar courses without having to do an entry test including herts) and 2.) Based on BU's animation art course, the satisfaction source was around 50% which was abit surprising.

And more importantly, reading the modules involved, i felt the course was abit more theory-oriented. ( so called 50/50)

Thanks for putting up those two links, im assuming that the Bournemouth vid link represents their 2d animation course? Well, its true, 2D animation is leaning towards technology which is a good thing.

even legendary animation studios like 'Studio Ghibli' even interpreted the use of digital animation in their later films. Regardless of both uni's courses. choose a course that has interesting topics you might be interested to learn by re-looking over their modules and check out both of their student satisfaction Job prospects from both unis are good. You could even call the unis and ask more detail's about their courses.


Without a doubt Bournemouth has some competition out there, though the are regarded the best for animation studies, at the end of the day. As long you choose a course that you fined interested for the next 3/4 year, they you know you've choosen a good degree to study.

Earlier this year, i got invited to an inter with herts, be for the interview, we all sat in a room and 1 guys was talking on be-half of all of their animation courses. I genuinely remember him saying that students from herts have already won an impressive number of awards form Bournemouth animation vfx festival.

So i coudlnt get into Bournemouth, so herts was the next best thing, be even if i had gotten an offer from Bournemouth, personally i prob wouldn't have choosen them, it seems Bournemouth showreel examples look like they were made from the 2005 era which i differently was not impressed by.


I hope this helps:smile:
Students outside, University of Hertfordshire
University of Hertfordshire
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Original post by Mei97
I have read a number of similar threads, but many of them are either a few years old, or slightly different courses.

I have applied to 2D animation course at Herts and Computer Animation Arts at Bournemouth. I have gotten a conditional offer from Herts and unconditional offer from Bournemouth, but now I need to decide which is my firm and insurance choices...There are a few things that I need advice upon:

1. The course at Herts teaches 2D animation only, whereas Bournemouth teaches both 2D and 3D(and seems like to be a bit more towards 3D). I think it's good to know both 2D and 3D skills, but then you cannot focus and specialise in one area - but then again, I find that 2D animation is getting not as popular nowadays (even Disney is moving towards 3D animation from its traditional handdrawn animation).

2. I think I would end up working as an animator(artist), so I am interested more on the skill side of making animations. I think Hertfordshire teaches more skills, whereas the lecturer from Bournemouth told me that the actual making of animation is only 1/3 of the course there, the other 2/3 is the theories&stuff. Does this mean that Bournemouth produces graduates that end up working more as animation directors?:confused:

3. My older sister has been telling me that, if I receive an offer from Bournemouth I should 100% go there, and she even said 'I've never heard of hertfordshire, I asked many people and no one knows'(yes I'm directly quoting this). I know that Bournemouth is definitely more well know especially with its NCCA, but Hertfordshire as a new uni has recently won many awards and I'm really impressed by the quality of their showreel. This is what I found:

Bournemouth's 2015 showreel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTBtWdJQ9BM
Hertfordshire's 2015(2D) showreel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqccA2DWswM

Any advice would be appreciated:smile: I only have a month until the UCAS reply deadline...!


Hello Mei97

I’m currently a first year student studying on the Computer Animation Arts course at Bournemouth University.

I love my course to bits, but if you’re looking to do 2D animation, it is not the course for you. We focus strongly on the making of 3D animation.

We do 2D work on the course, but that is more in the form of pre-production work such as illustration and concept art, rather than actually making 2D animation. For projects you are welcome to add 2D animation; however it is not something we are taught on the course, so you’d have to pursue it in your own time. As a result, to answer your first question, now you may need to ask yourself whether you want to specialise in 2D or 3D animation.

In my opinion it is more advantageous to learn 3D as it gives more flexibility, and most studios nowadays are veering in that direction, but that doesn’t mean to say that you can’t be successful in the 2D industry. Ask yourself what you’d be more passionate about. I was in the same position as you, but after looking into the game industry and seeing some of the amazing things it was producing 3D animation became my preference.

To answer your second point, while there is a focus on theory, I can assure you that Computer Animation Arts is a practical course. In first year we learn the basics of all areas of the production pipeline, Modelling, Texturing, Rigging and Animation in Maya and we also learn Z-brush. In addition to this, all the theory we learn is for practical application.

Third point! While I would of course say that going to Bournemouth University would be an awesome choice, I would not necessarily go somewhere based on reputation, I’d go because I’m passionate about the course and because I think that I’d enjoy studying it for 3/4 years (As TheDboyAi has said :smile:)

I’m sorry for the incredibly long wall of text, but I hope this answers your question! I was in the exact same boat as you last year when having to choose between 2D and 3D animation. Also, if you want to ask about the units we study and the practical work we do don’t hesitate to message me. :biggrin:

Chereen (BU Student Ambassador)
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by Mei97
I have read a number of similar threads, but many of them are either a few years old, or slightly different courses.

I have applied to 2D animation course at Herts and Computer Animation Arts at Bournemouth. I have gotten a conditional offer from Herts and unconditional offer from Bournemouth, but now I need to decide which is my firm and insurance choices...There are a few things that I need advice upon:

1. The course at Herts teaches 2D animation only, whereas Bournemouth teaches both 2D and 3D(and seems like to be a bit more towards 3D). I think it's good to know both 2D and 3D skills, but then you cannot focus and specialise in one area - but then again, I find that 2D animation is getting not as popular nowadays (even Disney is moving towards 3D animation from its traditional handdrawn animation).

2. I think I would end up working as an animator(artist), so I am interested more on the skill side of making animations. I think Hertfordshire teaches more skills, whereas the lecturer from Bournemouth told me that the actual making of animation is only 1/3 of the course there, the other 2/3 is the theories&stuff. Does this mean that Bournemouth produces graduates that end up working more as animation directors?:confused:

3. My older sister has been telling me that, if I receive an offer from Bournemouth I should 100% go there, and she even said 'I've never heard of hertfordshire, I asked many people and no one knows'(yes I'm directly quoting this). I know that Bournemouth is definitely more well know especially with its NCCA, but Hertfordshire as a new uni has recently won many awards and I'm really impressed by the quality of their showreel. This is what I found:

Bournemouth's 2015 showreel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTBtWdJQ9BM
Hertfordshire's 2015(2D) showreel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqccA2DWswM

Any advice would be appreciated:smile: I only have a month until the UCAS reply deadline...!


Hi Mei97!

I am an animation student at Ravensbourne, Thanks for the uploaded links, really gave me a quick insight into the things they produced!

I really love 2D and 3D animation, so purely judging from those two links Hertfordshire definitely focuses more on 2D animation. Bournemouth has a feel for both but leaning towards 3D as you said.

As reenmachine has said it can be advantageous to learn 3D as well, because of the technology and development in our industry, they are beginning to integrate 3D workflow more.

In addition, Dboyai has also made a point being that you should make sure you enjoy the courses, I fully support this point, if you find you do not enjoy what you are doing, the work produced is never your best.

So I believe you should definitely find out what you enjoy, and what you would like to do. You can be successful in 2D as well if you work hard at it. From a bystanders point of view, when I watched those show reels I felt that Bournemouth's showreel was more technically strong in terms of the renders however I enjoyed the character animation more in the Hertfordshire showreel. The squash and stretch of characters were much more prominent and this is something that really 2D can only achieve as the rules can be bent to exaggerate. Whereas the Bournemouth was more aesthetically pleasing in terms of the visuals and finish look. As a result I feel you should visit both universities and get a feel for how they work and ask them first hand the structure of the course. I have a friend at Hertfordshire university and there is quite a lot of 2D making, coupled with theory, however he has also mention he was able to learn some 3D skills as well.

To summarize, the status of a university isn't all that important as your showreel is what represents you to the real world, so ask yourself what kind of things would you like to show on it? This is you as a person on that reel. Statuses and students satisfaction can only give you an idea of what it is like, so I recommend visiting, seeing first hand speaking to both students and tutors :smile:
Learn as much as you can and the decision will get easier!


I hope this has helped!
Jay :biggrin:
Reply 4
Original post by Mei97
I have applied to 2D animation course at Herts and Computer Animation Arts at Bournemouth. I have gotten a conditional offer from Herts and unconditional offer from Bournemouth, but now I need to decide which is my firm and insurance choices...


Hiya! I just finished my second year of 3D at Hertfordshire, so I can shed some light here.

The course is amazing but really hard, especially the first year. They set you up for the rest of the course by teaching you a little bit of just about everything, so even though I only wanted to do character animation, in the first year I learned the basics of modelling, texturing, rigging, compositing, 2D animation, games asset creation, screenplay-writing, concept art, character design, photography... and no doubt some other stuff I can't remember (it was a bit of a blur).

I think the 2D course cuts some of that out in favour of more 2D stuff, but my point is that you won't be pigeonholed into only being allowed to to 2D. You're also very welcome to switch courses at any point, so should you find that you like 3D, you can jump over. The 2D course in my year is really small because a lot of people who were on it found they loved Games Art, particularly concept art for it, and changed their pathway.

Regarding name recognition: the companies in Soho know Hertfordshire well. We've had a whole bunch of industry visits recently (MPC, ILM, The Mill, Aardman and a few games companies all showed up last semester) so don't expect any potential future employers to say "Hertfordshire? Where's that?" That's not such a big deal though, because it's your showreel and your contacts that will break you into the industry after graduation. No one cares where you've been, as long as you can do the work. :smile:

I was given offers from both universities too, and I chose Herts because when I asked if they focus on storytelling and creativity, they excitedly said yes. When I asked the same in my Bournemouth interview, they solemnly shook their head.

If you've got any more questions, I'm happy to answer. :biggrin:
If you really want to know more, you can talk to the lecturers, students and alumni directly on the animation forum, 3DHit, or come along to the annual animation film day on the 25th!
Have you checked out falmouth uni?


Posted from TSR Mobile
Hey Mei97!

Hope that these discussions have helped you make your decision! I'm Chris and I am a student ambassador for Bournemouth University - I just wanted to add that BU works with several other companies to host the BFX festival - check it our here!

Hope that it has helped and let me or Chereen know if you have any other questions!

Thanks :biggrin:

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