Model Making for Animation

1 Year Full-time

Main Campus In person

Application deadline 9 May 2024

Apply now for Beaconsfield

Model Making for Animation

COURSE OVERVIEW

Launch your model/prop making career with our specialist course.

This unique and exciting one year full-time practical Postgraduate Diploma course aims to equip you with the skills and experience necessary to enhance your career in the field of professional model and prop making for the feature film, TV, and animation Industries.

In partnership with Mackinnon and Saunders

Eve Bannister - profile picture
Rob Seex with Model Making students
Elspeth Graham working on machinery

"I don’t think I’ve ever used so many new techniques at once to create one prop. Being introduced to them has taken the quality of my work to a level I didn’t think I could achieve."

Eve Bannister
2023 Graduate

"Students will be left with an arsenal of skills and techniques that allow them to hit the ground running in a professional environment."

Rob Seex
Prop Supervisor on Wonka

"My background is Illustration. People might think that you have to have done a lot of model making before, or animation, but everyone comes from totally different backgrounds.”

Elspeth Graham
Graduate Model Maker

Content Tabs

This is the only UK-based model making course located in a dedicated film studio environment. It has been designed to replicate Industry practices in model and prop making. 

On the course, you’ll be studying in a fully-equipped workshop/studio environment. You will create work individually and collaboratively, and spend time working with students from other specialisms, such as Directing Animation, Visual Effects, Production Design, and Cinematography to make several films and practical projects throughout the year.

Our tutors are well connected in the industry and have strong relationships with leading animation, prop making, and live action companies. In previous years, our students have gained work experience at companies such as Mackinnon and Saunders, Aardman, BGI Supplies, Arch Model Studios, and Warner Brothers. Although placements are not guaranteed, we are confident that these relationships will continue into the future.

Course graduates are now successfully building their careers on feature film, animation, theatre, and TV commercial projects.

COURSE FACILITIES

You will have access to a dedicated workshop which includes everything necessary to introduce you to the world of model and prop making. Examples of machine tools include: table saw, wall saw, bandsaw, chop saw, sanders, pillar drill, laser cutter, hand tools, 3D printing technology, lathes, and resin room for moulding and casting. You will also have access to two student bases where you will have a dedicated work area.

Funding Available

The NFTS awards more scholarships and bursaries to British students, relative to the size of our student body, than almost any other educational institution in the UK. If you’re successful at gaining a place on the course, you will be contacted by our funding team with details on how to apply for one of these scholarships.

Upcoming Events

Tutors

Student Showcase

Play video

Watch the result of this year's miniature replica set build module on The National Film and Television School (NFTS) Model Making Diploma.

A huge collaborative project where they are tasked with recreating a miniature replica of an iconic set from a ground-breaking culturally significant film, brought to life by our Visual Effects MA students!

Play video

Get behind the scenes on this year's miniature replica set build module!

Read more about this brilliant project vie befores & afters: beforesandafters.com/2023/03/23/these-students-made-an-insane-replica-miniature-cia-vault-from-mission-impossible/

Play video
2001: A Space Odyssey - An Out of This World Replica Set Build!

Each year, Model Making students are tasked with recreating a miniature replica of an iconic set from a ground-breaking culturally significant film. It is the first big collaborative piece of work for the students

In 2022, the students crafted a 1:6 scale replica of a set from 2001: A Space Odyssey, directed by Stanley Kubrick, alongside collaborating with the NFTS Visual Effects MA students!

Read more about the project on the befores & afters website.

Play video
NFTS Model Makers Bring Roald Dahl’s Writing Hut To Life

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Roald Dahl’s classic children’s novel, Fantastic Mr Fox, students of the NFTS Model Making Diploma brought to life an exciting, detailed, and faithfully reconstructed display model featuring Roald Dahl’s writing hut.

It cleverly incorporates elements from Wes Anderson’s lauded stop-motion Fantastic Mr Fox and imagines Mr Fox ‘burgling’ the hut by burrowing up through a tunnel to retrieve his tail!

Play video
Behind the Scenes on 2021 NFTS Graduation Animations with the Model Making Department

Get an insight into what our Model Makers contribute to our animation graduation films, as we follow 10 students throughout the production process. This film includes a section behind the scenes on the 2022 Best Short Animation BAFTA winning film, Do Not Feed The Pigeons. The animation was directed by Antonin Niclass, with the puppets designed and made by the Model Making Diploma students.  

Play video
Model Making Diploma - Meet The Puppets Part 1

Each year the NFTS Model Making students create their own brilliantly original stop frame animation puppets as one of their modules on the one year full-time Model Making Diploma.

Play video
Model Making Diploma - Meet The Puppets Part 2

Each year the NFTS Model Making students create their own brilliantly original stop frame animation puppets as one of their modules on the one year full-time Model Making Diploma.

Play video
Behind The Scenes with NFTS VFX - Reality Heist

Visual Effects MA students at The National Film & Television School have been experimenting with ground-breaking technology to bring Reality Heist to life, an original five-minute film that uses cutting-edge Virtual Production techniques. The Model Making team worked from drawings by a Production Design MA student to create a practical, functioning 1:1 size tracker prop for this experimental film.

Actor holding a model prop
Behind The Scenes with NFTS VFX - Reality Heist

Visual Effects MA students at The National Film & Television School have been experimenting with ground-breaking technology to bring Reality Heist to life, an original five-minute film that uses cutting-edge Virtual Production techniques. The Model Making team worked from drawings by a Production Design MA student to create a practical, functioning 1:1 size tracker prop for this experimental film.

Students working in studio on models

A selection of photographs of our students and their work 

student working on animation model

A selection of photographs of our students and their work 

Student working in model making studio

A selection of photographs of our students and their work 

Student creating a puppet

A selection of photographs of our students and their work 

Model binoculars

A selection of photographs of our students and their work 

Students by replica Mission Impossible set

A selection of photographs of our students and their work 

Model flask and binoculars

A selection of photographs of our students and their work 

Student painting model puppet hand

A selection of photographs of our students and their work 

Replica model Jumanji game

A selection of photographs of our students and their work 

Model Making students working

A selection of photographs of our students and their work 

Student cutting material

A selection of photographs of our students and their work 

Replica model 'Hellboy' gun

A selection of photographs of our students and their work 

Graduate Success

Recent course graduates are now working in the puppet, prop and model departments at leading animation powerhouses including Aardman Features, Mackinnon and Saunders, Factory Create and Arch Film Studio.

Other alumni are currently working on live action feature films in prop making and set decorating departments, on projects including: Wicked, Dune 2, Wonka, Masters of the Air and Spitting Image.

Recent credits include...

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio

Model Makers Lisa Ott, Sophie Monks and Gemma Byrne

Read more about our students' involvement in our blog post

picocchio poster

Graduate Success

Recent course graduates are now working in the puppet, prop and model departments at leading animation powerhouses including Aardman Features, Mackinnon and Saunders, Factory Create and Arch Film Studio.

Other alumni are currently working on live action feature films in prop making and set decorating departments, on projects including: Wicked, Dune 2, Wonka, Masters of the Air and Spitting Image.

Recent credits include...

Barbie

Assistant Miniature Modellers Callum Higgins and Beth Slater

Barbie film still

Graduate Success

Recent course graduates are now working in the puppet, prop and model departments at leading animation powerhouses including Aardman Features, Mackinnon and Saunders, Factory Create and Arch Film Studio.

Other alumni are currently working on live action feature films in prop making and set decorating departments, on projects including: Wicked, Dune 2, Wonka, Masters of the Air and Spitting Image.

Recent credits include...

Chicken Run 2

Model Maker Emily Brook

chicken run still showing chicken foot bursting out of egg and shocked chicken

Graduate Success

Recent course graduates are now working in the puppet, prop and model departments at leading animation powerhouses including Aardman Features, Mackinnon and Saunders, Factory Create and Arch Film Studio.

Other alumni are currently working on live action feature films in prop making and set decorating departments, on projects including: Wicked, Dune 2, Wonka, Masters of the Air and Spitting Image.

Recent graduates include...

Danielle Duncan-Rosembert

Model Maker at One6th Animation Studio and Co-Founder of the Black Association For Arts (BAFA)

danielle painting model puppet head

Graduate Success

Recent course graduates are now working in the puppet, prop and model departments at leading animation powerhouses including Aardman Features, Mackinnon and Saunders, Factory Create and Arch Film Studio.

Other alumni are currently working on live action feature films in prop making and set decorating departments, on projects including: Wicked, Dune 2, Wonka, Masters of the Air and Spitting Image.

Recent credits include...

The Sparks Brothers

Model and Puppet Makers Gemma Byrne, Jake Teale and Becky Weston

The Sparks Brothers poster

Graduate Success

Recent course graduates are now working in the puppet, prop and model departments at leading animation powerhouses including Aardman Features, Mackinnon and Saunders, Factory Create and Arch Film Studio.

Other alumni are currently working on live action feature films in prop making and set decorating departments, on projects including: Wicked, Dune 2, Wonka, Masters of the Air and Spitting Image.

Recent credits include...

The Bambers: Murder at The Farm

Model Maker Oliver Arnell Argles

The Bambers Murder at the Farm poster

Graduate Success

Recent course graduates are now working in the puppet, prop and model departments at leading animation powerhouses including Aardman Features, Mackinnon and Saunders, Factory Create and Arch Film Studio.

Other alumni are currently working on live action feature films in prop making and set decorating departments, on projects including: Wicked, Dune 2, Wonka, Masters of the Air and Spitting Image.

Recent credits include...

The House

Model Makers Lisa Ott, Sophie Minks and Gemma Byrne

The House poster

Graduate Success

Recent course graduates are now working in the puppet, prop and model departments at leading animation powerhouses including Aardman Features, Mackinnon and Saunders, Factory Create and Arch Film Studio.

Other alumni are currently working on live action feature films in prop making and set decorating departments, on projects including: Wicked, Dune 2, Wonka, Masters of the Air and Spitting Image.

Recent credits include...

Salvation Has No Name

Model Makers Jake Teale, Gemma Byrne, Becky Weston and Lara Hosking

Salvation Has No Name

Social Media and News Highlights

Filming funeral parade model from The Crown
NFTS unveil the key set piece featured in the iconic finale episode of The Crown - created by our very own students!

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Josie and Joe from McKinnon and Saunders with John Lee
Head of Model Making John Lee with regular visiting course tutors Joe Holman and Josie Corben at the NFTS Show 2024.

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Model making student turning lathe
Student using the wood turning lathe making parts for an exciting 1:1 prop build!

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Callum Higgins with John Lee in model making studio
NFTS graduate Callum Higgins came in to give advice to our students - since leaving he has worked on productions including Barbie, Wonka and Star Wars.

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Paul Davies with NFTS model making students
Paul Davies delivers masterclass, and shares his incredible painting skills with our current students.

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Eddie Hamilton and students next to Mission Impossible model
Students pay homage to Mission Impossible with miniature replica masterpiece!

Read news article

Paloma Baeza meeting modelmaking students
Paloma Baeza, BAFTA-winning NFTS graduate, animation writer and director of story 3 of Netflix “The House”, visited the Modelmaking department recently to take a look around and meet the current modelmakers.

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John Lee and Joe Holman with student
Anika (NFTS student) supervising Head of Model Making John Lee, and Joe Holman (from course partners Mackinnon and Saunders) in the art of painting floorboards for one of our 6 short animations in production!

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stop frame puppet
Student putting final touches to her stop frame puppet - character design inspired by Aardman!

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stop frame armature
Stop Frame armature adjustments and silver soldering.

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Student wiring LED lights
Having fun wiring up a ton of LED’s for a replica set build!

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