Sonja Geracsek

When I was researching courses to study, I came across the Computer Arts course at Abertay. Abertay was quite unique in that it offered a wide spectrum of computer arts and there was a variety of fields from graphic design to fine art, animation and games design. I found that other courses at different universities were quite specialised from the get-go, so you needed to know what you wanted to do at the end of your degree and that felt limiting. The Computer Arts course at Abertay was a perfect choice for me as I got to explore all manners of digital design, as I progressed through the course I could specialise in a niche. 

The BA (Hons) Computer Arts degree is an all-encompassing digital design course, where you can learn anything from games design to video and audio editing and illustration. That’s what I enjoyed the most, the variety of being able to dip my toes into various subjects. A highlight of the course is that you were often put into teams with students from other courses to work on projects together, this imitated a work environment where you work and interact with people who have different skill sets and professional backgrounds. 

If you’re thinking of studying at Abertay, be open minded and ready to experiment, you can learn more than what you want to focus on and that really helps you grow. The lecturers at Abertay had a huge impact on my experience. They had an interest in helping me develop my skills further, creating opportunities to look behind the scenes of working life and they really encouraged me to push past my confidence zone. At Abertay you have opportunities for networking with industry links and mentors. One of my lecturers, Lynn Love, organised a field trip to London, where we were able to take a tour through visual effects houses, design and animations studios, and we saw how real professionals work and that was huge for me, it made you understand what your life after university could be like and you could see where you can go to work and what the environment was like. 

After graduating, I found my first job as a motion designer through the Abertay careers portal, this directly helped me get my first job, this was a huge stepping stone for me and my career, it helped me develop my skills further and allowed me to progress in my career through different consultancies and freelance jobs. My current role is a Senior Motion Designer in the sales and marketing department at Zooplus, which is an ecommerce pet supply shop. My job involves animating ads for the Zooplus brand on TV, YouTube and other social media platforms, our workflows rely heavily on the technical side of animation production, so a large part of my work involves programming to automate animations. The ads I create are produced for multiple markets with different languages, and for different platforms which require different aspect ratios. I create flexible set ups and aftereffects, write expressions and build systems that make it easier for Zooplus to plug assets in and out to produce campaigns quickly. 

The variety of what you learn at Abertay prepared me for the job market, Abertay equipped me with everything I needed to be ready for a diverse work environment. I learnt all types of digital design and throughout my career I have been a motion designer, graphic designer and now I do programming and animation, I learned all of this through the Computer Arts course. Due to it being so varied, it equipped me with all the different skills that helped me dive into the professional world. 

My lasting impression of Abertay is super positive, I really enjoyed my time there. I didn’t know what to expect from the Computer Arts degree, but it turned out to be exactly what I wanted, it taught me all things I was interested in and the environment was really welcoming, we had a great computer lab, the lecturers were supportive and Abertay hosted social events which made it easy to make friends and to not be afraid to meet new people.

View the BA (Hons) Computer Arts course