What Community Colleges Have The Best Animation Programs?

I present to you my curated list of the best blitheness schools. If yous are thinking nigh getting into the earth of animation and visual furnishings I hope you lot'll observe this resource useful. The schools are non listed in any item guild and will cover all the basic information such as tuition, notable alumni and some impressive student work. Each school was carefully selected and was not placed in the list lightly.

However, this matter could be very objective and that'southward why I have the following Of import NOTICE:

This list was synthetic from 3 different sources: (a) my own personal experience and knowledge (b) chat with colleagues, peers and students, and (c) internet research.

It is Incommunicable for me to personally experience each and every schoolhouse, and so some of the data might not be a 100% authentic, despite my all-time efforts to make it then.

If you feel that some of the best animation schools are missing from the listing, or that some should non be there – please stay at-home and write your opinion in the comments section below. Thank you.

For more than information on condign an animator – read our ebook Animation For Beginners.

Animation For Beginners

Or check whatsoever of our animation courses.

Best Animation Schools

School of Visual Arts (SVA)

School information: Founded in 1947 by Silas H. Rhodes and Burne Hogarth as the Cartoonist and Illustrators School, and then renamed in 1956. Function of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Blueprint every bit ane of 36 leading art colleges in the The states.

The schoolhouse offered its first degree in 1972, and it's start primary's degree in 1983 in Fine Arts for painting, drawing and sculpture.

Location: New York, NY. USA
Courses: Animation, Computer Animation and Visual Effects
Tuition cost: $16,780 per semester + Department fees (Animation: $900, Computer Animation and visual furnishings:$1,340)
Notable alumni: Bill Plympton (Academy nominated animator), John.R.Dilworth (creator of Courage the Cowardly Dog), Pres Antonio Romanillos (supervising animator at Disney and Dreamworks animation)
Start of Academic year: September
BFA Animation: 270 students
BFA Computer Fine art, Computer Animation & Visual Effects: 325 students
Notable graduate film: Kiwi! (Dony Permedi, 2006)

Ringling College of Art and Design

School information: Founded in Sarasota, Florida, by Dr. Ludd M. Spivey as an art school in 1931, and every bit a branch of the Southern Higher in Orlando. Became an independent higher in 1933.

Qualified as a full degree-granting institution in 1971. Ringling College is named after John Ringling, a circus magnate, who was interested in funding an art college, just wasn't interested in Southern College as he wanted to establish his ain at his wife'due south museum.

However, he lost his museum and residence in bankruptcy, and it was all given to the state only before he died. Ringling'southward nephew fabricated a deal with Southern College to open an art college in Sarasota, and information technology was named School of Fine and Applied Art of the John and Mable Ringling Art Museum.

Location: Sarasota, Florida. The states
Courses: Reckoner Blitheness
Tuition cost: $18,400 per semester
Notable alumni: Aaron Blaise (Director of Disney's Blood brother Comport)
Start of Bookish yr: August
Notable graduate film: Dia De Los Muertos (Ashley Graham, Kate Reynolds, and Lindsey St. Pierre, 2013) Won Student Academy Accolade, 2013

Vancouver Film School

School information: Founded in 1987 with a single class of six students. Hosts the annual Game Design Expo since 2007.

3D animation & VFX and Classical Animation are but one year study. Character Animation is half dozen months.

Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada
Courses: 3D Animation and VFX, Classical Blitheness, Character Animation
Tuition cost: $35,250 (Canadian Dollars) per semester
Notable alumni: Chad Moffitt (Academy-award winning animator on Lord of the Rings), Andrew Overtoom (Animation director on Spongebob Squarepants)
Outset of Academic year: October
Notable graduate flick: The Story Tree (Stephanie Sim, 2006) Won best Classical or Cease Motion Animation, CAEAA awards 2006

Sheridan College

School data: Sheridan College was founded in 1967 as The School of Graphic Design at a converted public schoolhouse until information technology was eventually moved.

The Canadian animation industry was virtually non-existent during the 60's and lxx's, but President Porter decided to get-go a course in Classical Animation at the higher in 1968 in hopes of getting trained animators. It is considered one of the best blitheness schools for second traditional animation.

Location: Toronto. Canada
Courses: Animation, Computer Blitheness, Digital Creature Animation, Visual Effects
Tuition cost: $9,356.05 (Canadian dollars) per semester
Notable alumni: Dean DeBlois (Disney animator), Dan Lee (Pixar animator), John Kricfalusi (Creator of Ren and Stimpy bear witness), Dan Antonucci (Creator of Ed, Edd 'n, Boil)
Get-go of Academic twelvemonth: September
Notable graduate film: Night Light (Qing Han, 2014)

CalArts

School data: CalArts was founded in 1961 past Walt Disney, when Chouinard Fine art Plant and the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music merged together due to financial difficulties.

Nelbert Chouinard, founder of the Chouinard Art Establish, started a professional person relationship with Walt Disney in 1929, and agreed to train animators for him on a pay-later basis as Disney was struggling financially.

Location: Valencia, California. USA
Courses: Film/Video (Includes animation)
Tuition cost: $41,700 Full-time enrolment
Notable alumni: Tim Burton (Disney animator and Manager), Brad Bird (Managing director, Disney and Pixar), John Lasseter (Pixar), Jennifer Lee & Chris Buck (Directors of Frozen)
Beginning of Bookish yr: September
Notable graduate flick: Trust & Estates (Jeanette Bonds, 2013) Official Selection, Melbourne International Blitheness Festival 2013

Gobelins

School data: Founded by the Parisian Chamber of Commerce and Manufacture in 1964, just is best known for the Cinema Section of Blitheness, which was founded by Pierre Ayma in 1974 when the first Asterix and Obelix feature film was being produced by Studio Idefix.

The studio didn't have enough animators for the project, so they asked Gobelins to showtime an animator grooming program. It is now one of the best animation schools in the globe.

Location: Paris. France
Courses: Character Animation and Blithe Film Making, 3D Grapheme Animation
Tuition cost: €half-dozen,350 Get-go yr, €6,450 Second year, €vi,550 Third year
Notable alumni: Pierre Coffin (Manager of Despicable Me), Bibo Bergeron (Director of A Monster in Paris)
Offset of Academic year: Outset of September

Gobelins is opening a Masters program for BA students adjacent twelvemonth.

BA Animated Picture show Making: 80 students
Notable graduate motion-picture show: Oktapodi (Julien Bocabeille, Francois-Xavier Chanioux, Olivier Delabarre, Thierry Marchand, Quentin Marmier, Emud Mokhberi, 2007)
Nominated for Academy Award, 2009

University of California (UCLA)

Schoolhouse information: UCLA is a public Academy that was founded in 1919 every bit function of the University of California organisation, comprised of three universities in the state.

The animation program was established in 1948 by William Shull, a Disney animator, as just a group of various animation classes. When Dan MacLaughlin became head of the department in 1971, he started the MFA program for animation where he worked as the sole faculty member for years.

Location: Los Angeles, California. United states of america
Courses: Animation
Tuition price: $33,193 per academic year
Notable alumni: David Silverman (Animator, Producer on The Simpsons), Hoyt Yeatman (VFX supervisor, won Academy Award for The Abyss)
Showtime of Academic year: February
MFA Blitheness Notable graduate film: Her Panthera leo's Jump (Régis Camargo, 2013)

Rhode Island School of Pattern (RISD)

School information: RISD was founded by the group The Centennial Women in 1877. The Centennial Women was a grouping formed to exhibit creations made past women from blueprint schools, patents from female person entrepreneurs, and books written exclusively by women, at the 1876 Centennial Exposition.

The grouping raised $x,000, and past the end of the expo had over $1,675 left, which they decided to invest into founding Rhode Island School of Design.

Location: Providence, Rhode Island. Usa
Courses: Moving-picture show/Animation/Video
Tuition cost: $44,284 per academic twelvemonth
Notable alumni: Seth MacFarlane (Creator of Family Guy) Bryan Konietzko & Michael Dante DiMartino (Creators of Avatar: The Last Airbender), Lance Wilder (Animator, The Simpsons)
Start of Academic year: 2nd week of September
Motion picture/Blitheness/Video: 50 students per year
Notable graduate picture show: Inner Tubes (Tim Beckhardt, 2009) Screened at Ottawa International Blitheness Festival and Boston Underground Festival

Savannah Higher of Art and Design (SCAD)

School information: Founded in 1978 by Paula S. Wallace with her hubby and parents, taking out a $200,000 loan to build the start educational building, by renovating the Savannah Volunteer Guard Armory.

Theuniversity first opened in 1979 with but 71 students. Currently the University has over 11,000 students.

Location: Savannah, Georgia, USA. Atlanta, Georgia, Us. Hong Kong, Guangdong, China. Lacoste, Vaucluse, France.
Courses: Animation, Visual Effects
Tuition price: (In club of locations) $33,795 (American dollars), $261,911 (Hong Kong dollars), $10,983 (American dollars)
Notable alumni: Mir Zafar Ali (Visual effects specialist, The Twenty-four hour period Later Tomorrow)
Start of Academic year: September
Notable graduate motion-picture show: Legacy (Adam Floeck, 2013)

University of Southern California (USC)

School information: USC was founded in 1880 past judge Robert M. Widney, who managed to larn donations from Ozro Childs, John Gately Downey, and Isaias W. Hellman; three very influential figures at the time.

Originally operated in affiliation with the Methodist Church, but became officially secular in 1952. Information technology has the largest amount of international students in the United states, and enrolls over 18,000 domestic/international students each yr.

Has its own IMAX theater and inquiry lab, which opened this year.

Location: Los Angeles, California. Usa
Courses: Animation and Digital Arts
Tuition cost: $48,347 for ii semesters
Notable alumni: George Lucas (Creator of Lucas Arts, Industrial Low-cal and Magic, Star Wars), Eric Hanson (Digital Designer/Lead VFX creative person, The Fifth Element), Ray Harryhausen (Cease-motion and Special Effects animator, Jason and the Argonauts)
Start of Academic year: Last week of Baronial
BA Animation and Digital Arts: 75 students
MFA Animation and Digital Arts: 45 students
Notable graduate motion-picture show: Ladies Knight (Joe Rothenberg, 2012) Nominated Best Animated Student Short at Annie Awards.

Online Schools

Best blitheness schools available online

Animation Mentor

Schoolhouse data: Founded in 2005 past Bobby Beck, Shawn Kelly, and Carlos Baena, the concluding 2 employed every bit animators at Industrial Light and Magic.

Location: Emeryville, California. USA
Courses: Archetype animation, Character animation, Fauna animation
Tuition toll: $18,928 for Full 18 Month Program.
Notable alumni: Siggurdur Orri Thorhannesson (Animator, Guardians of the Galaxy), Jude Brownbill (Animator, Pixar)
Start of Bookish twelvemonth: Every Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter
Animation Mentor courses: 5,000 students (Full)
Notable graduate film: Greed (Alli Sadegiani, 2011)

Full Sail Academy

School information: Founded in 1979 by Jon Phelps in Ohio, before the University was moved to Orlando in 1980, under the name of Total Sheet Recording Workshop. Focused on video and film production, but added in animation when the University moved to Orangish County in 1989.

The University started offer online degree programs in 2007.

Location: Orange County, Florida. The states
Courses: Computer animation
Tuition cost: $xiv,762 per semester
Notable alumni: Culley Bunker (Lead visual effects artist), Chance Glasco (Senior animator)
Start of Academic year: 2d week of November