Games Art (Level 3)

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If you are looking to apply for September 2026, please go to our website and click APPLY NOW.

This course will enhance your ability to create art for games for a variety of purposes and in different mediums, developing your creativity and unlocking your artistic potential. You’ll explore 2D and 3D digital artwork, traditional art and asset creation; underpinned by an understanding of the creative pipeline and working within a creative team. You will learn about the different aspects of the industry, identify your place within it and develop your skills to ensure you are ready for your next steps – either in the games industry or continuing within education. Throughout the course, you will develop a strong body of work with a focus on concept art and games design, gaining hands-on experience using a variety of artist development tools and technologies, which will allow you to explore and develop as you take your first steps into games art specialism.

This course will provide you with the skills and experiences to give you the best possible start in the competitive field of games art and design. Throughout the 2 year course, you will:

• Develop skills in a variety of approaches and techniques for generating art for a range of destinations and applications.
• Build skills in industry-standard tools including Photoshop, Illustrator, Blender, Maya, 3DS Max, and more, learning what it takes to become a professional games artist using graphics tablets with digital drawing software.
• Learn fundamental traditional art approaches and styles to underpin your creative practice, develop an understanding of working practitioners in the field of games art and design.
• Enhance your knowledge of texture studies, art mediums, and character anatomy.
• Undertake the design and creation of assets for games, developing your skills in game design, creation and sprite animation.
• Explore 3D modelling techniques, concepting and creating and animating your own stylised game-ready 3D assets, learning skills such as anatomy modelling, retopologizing, clothing, and more.
• Underpin your learning with essential theoretical, industry, contextual and critical knowledge and understanding.

As you progress, you’ll refine your skills, build your personal style, and develop your professional approaches. You’ll identify progression routes into the industry, sharpen the necessary skills and create professional materials like a CV, website, and portfolio. You’ll receive guidance on your next steps, including university applications. You’ll be ready to take your next steps into the industry – working as a freelancer or employed, or pursuing further training or education, such as apprenticeships or higher education.

On your Games Art course, you will have access to our games labs, equipped with professional standard PCs and software, including the Adobe Creative Suite featuring programmes such as Photoshop and Illustrator; as well as other industry tools such as Blender, Maya, and 3DS Max. You will have access to a space to develop traditional art skills and materials on site for you to explore and continually develop your art fundamentals and explore and experiment with your creative approach. You will collaborate with your peers on the Games Development programme to experience working in a real creative games design team.

This course is internally assessed, meaning your teachers deliver and assess all of your coursework and is made up of carefully scheduled projects. Projects can involve both individual and group work and are a balance of practical work like concept art, 3D models, final art pieces, animations and game assets, alongside some reports and presentations. The final submission of each year is a large creative project where you can choose to focus on techniques, styles and outputs of your choice.

4 GCSEs at 9-4 (A*-C), including English.

At your interview, you will need to show relevant art, media, or design work that showcases your skills and interest in the subject.

This Games Art course can lead on to:

- A creative degree at university where you can gain further skills in preparation for work. This may be a Games development/programming degree or another subject which takes your fancy. You will need to complete both years of the course in order to generate the UCAS points for university entry.

- Employment, or self-employment, in the creative industries. This may be as a games developer/ programmer, or it may be into another area of the creative industries.

- A creative apprenticeship as a stepping stone to work.