CREATIVE MEDIA PRACTICES (I) - 2026/7

Module Overview

By consolidating your existing skills and talents, then enhancing them into areas of creative media production in which you might be less familiar, we help you develop a broad armoury of aptitudes and proficiencies. Through this, you can take part in an expanded range of contemporary media projects, drawing on both traditional and evolving techniques and technologies. You will be concentrating on 2D and 3D animation, with specialist tutors who can transform a non-artist into an animator, and who show you how to accumulate toolboxes of techniques to suit your styles and interests. In workshops and classes, you will use up-to-date software on fast, well-specified computers. You will be assessed through the development of a cumulative portfolio encompassing both 2D and 3D animation. This includes outputs from your workshops accompanied by a reflective synopsis on your learning and development. The skills and knowledge acquired in this module are cumulative and can be applied to subsequent modules and workshops over the course of the MA programme.

Module provider

Music & Media

Module Leader

WEINBREN Jon (Music & Med)

Number of Credits: 30

ECTS Credits: 15

Framework: FHEQ Level 7

Module cap (Maximum number of students): 20

Module Availability

Semester 1

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

None

Module content

Indicative content could include:

• 2D Animation
• 3D Modelling and Animation
• Procedural Character Creation
• Script and Story Development
• Live Action: Script / Directing / Performance
• Realtime Graphics for Moving Image

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

N/A

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy lets you demonstrate creative and technical proficiency with tools and techniques covered by the module, as applied to your creative portfolio.

• Portfolio

• You will receive formative assessment during timetabled group critiques and individual tutorials, as well as more informally during workshop sessions. 
• You will discuss and develop both creative and technical aspects of your work through regular open interaction with tutors and peers, as well as through specific tutorial sessions with specialists.

Module aims

• Develop your proficiencies in the latest 3D digital content workflows, including character creation, object modelling, 3D animation and performance capture techniques.
• Develop your skills in 2D traditional and digital animation techniques used in contemporary film and animation production.
• Develop your skills and creative techniques to be applied to narrative filmmaking, including story development, working with actors, camera, lighting, production design, and other on-set departments and specialisms.
• Develop your skills in script and story development for moving image media.
• Support you in further development of creative and production skills in many areas of moving image media.
• Advance your capabilities in research and development for moving image media content creation.

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to give you a solid level of expertise in the modern, time-efficient film, animation and digital media technologies we use on this course. 

It is expected that you will arrive already proficient in some of the relevant areas, but with gaps in your knowledge -- or you might be less up-to-date in certain production techniques and media formats. 

Module content will be delivered through a combination of:

• Demos, creative exercises ('workshops')
• Group seminars, presentations, critiques ('seminars')
• Individual tutorials

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: DMAM002

Other information

Embedded alongside the specific knowledge, skills, abilities and experiences facilitated by this module are more general attributes which the university has identified as an ambition to develop in all students across all subjects and disciplines on offer. These are:

• Employability
• Resourcefulness and Resilience
• Digital Capabilities
• Sustainability
• Global and Cultural Capabilities

The following is an account of how this module addresses these pillars.

Employability

Because this module is delivered by tutors and specialists with significant industry experience and contacts, it boosts your employability, raises the level at which you can gain positions and roles within the industry on graduation, and addresses well documented industry skills gaps. Your employability will improve because of your exposure to a variety contemporary and popular software, in tuition sessions led by experts where possible. You will also develop your artistic and screenplay writing skills, or discover those you never knew you had, to assist your development of characters. You will become used to working in a team regarding both animation and writing: a necessary part of any production involving a studio, film company or outside sponsor. We also facilitate plenty of networking opportunities, so that you get to meet and interact with future potential employers, collaborators, funders and commissioners. We also assist you to enter events and festivals so that your work can be promoted and ¿seen¿, widening opportunities and providing valuable peer esteem.

Resourcefulness and Resilience

As you encounter new and unfamiliar working practices along with robust, fair and helpful criticism, you will develop inventiveness and flexibility to cope with these elements of your course, including the ability to research your own solutions to given problems. We encourage you to pool knowledge and work collaboratively to come up with innovative methods to achieve a particular creative or technical goal. The studio environment and unfettered access to facilities and software facilitates this.

Digital Capabilities

The FADA programme is built on the very latest techniques and technologies available to mainstream studios and animators. In this way, ¿digital capabilities¿ are an integrated part of what you learn. Contemporary media production is an inherently digital affair but we include more traditional techniques such as drawn animation, and drawing practice, as part of the offering.

Sustainability

By offering you digital equipment made to the most recent energy-saving standards throughout your research for this module, we will enable you to use best practices to minimise pollution and waste. We also work closely with the University of Surrey¿s Institute for Sustainability to explore and promote the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. You are shown best practices such as LED-based lighting, virtual production technologies to minimise crew and talent travel, recycling of sets and other materials, better transport choices, minimising of waste, and awareness of environmental and social effects on local communities and landscapes. These are embedded in various current industry initiatives such as BAFTA ¿Albert¿, the ¿Screen New Deal¿ production sustainability plan, and others. Furthermore, from a content viewpoint, many of the creative projects you develop on the programme address environment and sustainability issues as part of their subject matter. 

Global and Cultural Capabilities

Film-making is inherently an international pursuit, crossing not only national boundaries but also, very importantly, cultural boundaries. Your colleagues among students will be from many nationalities and cultures, whose expertise and enthusiasms will naturally encompass broad ranges of international and intercultural influences. Your tutors will welcome your embrace of cultures outside your own, especially regarding experimental, contemporary and historical contexts. In this module's storytelling opportunities, your tutors will be happy to encourage narratives and subjects outside your own national and cultural experience.

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2026/7 academic year.