This article offers the most outstanding animation colleges worldwide for those who enjoy creative pursuits such as drawing, illustration, film, and design.
Studying animation in any of the best institutions listed in this article offers you a unique degree that builds and perfects your technical and creative skills and helps you enjoy a thriving career in the arts and digital sphere.
What Are The Advantages Of Animation?
1. Most animations help to educate and entertain as well.
2. Most older people watch animation nowadays, not just children, as some energy teaches a lot.
3. Animations are taking over; most people are likelier to watch a video than read a lengthy document.
4. Lastly, video is a powerful marketing tool.
Best Animation Colleges Worldwide and Their Locations
1. California Institute of the Arts (Santa Clarita, CA)
Location: Santa Clarita, California
Established in 1961 by Walt Disney and his brother, Roy, the great California Institute of the Arts is among the most outstanding animation colleges in the world. It has successfully produced a good number of highly successful alums.
CalArts is perfect for anyone who wants to do well in animation, as the school’s department of Film and Video offers a wide array of animation programs at their undergraduate and graduate levels.
This school offers MFA Experimental Animation, known to be a three (3) year master’s degree program, where admitted students can study both animation theory and technique.
California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) also offers a BFA in Experimental Animation and one in Character Animation for those who are interested.
2. Teesside University (Middlesbrough, EN)
Location: Campus Heart, Southfield Rd, Middlesbrough TS1 3BX, UK
Another great institution that offers unique animation courses is Teesside University, a public university with outstanding academic performance and an enrollment of over 21,000 students.
This school ranks among the world’s best animation colleges, offering an MA in animation. You can also gain the opportunity for an intensive program where all admitted students study animation theory and history and master the industry’s most in-demand technical skills to help perfect them for actual work after graduation.
You might love to know that Teesside University also offers a BA in animation for undergraduate students.
3. The Animation Workshop / VIA University College (Viborg, DK)
Location: Kasernevej 5, 8800 Viborg, Denmark
Located at the former military barracks in central Denmark, it is part of an animation workshop at VIA University College School of Business, Technology, and Creative Industries, where all admitted students take theory and practical animation lessons.
This school also got a spot among the most outstanding animation schools in the world, as they offer many bachelor’s degree programs related to animation. With a reasonable acceptance rate, the school is open to any students interested in learning fundamental artistic skills to help secure a job in animation.
This school offers two foundation programs, classical and visual storytelling, and other significant programs like character animation, computer graphic arts, and graphic storytelling for students who want to pursue a bachelor’s degree in animation.
Lastly, TAW institution offers a wide range of 12-week professional training programs, which include 3D character animation, an animation production manager course, and many others, to help better their students for real-life experience.
4. Sheridan College (Oakville, ON)
Location: Sheridan has three campuses in three Ontario cities — Brampton, Mississauga and Oakville
Sheridan College also got a spot in this list of best animation colleges in the world. It offered unique animation courses and was recognized as an award-winning public community college.
Founded in 1967, this institution comprises five faculties, and one of its constituent faculties is the Faculty of Animation, Arts, and Design (FAAD).
The school offers a four years degree program for undergraduates, which covers a vast range of subjects relating to animation. During the 3rd year of study in the animation department, admitted students are offered the opportunity to gain real professional experience during a three-month work placement.
You might love that the institution also offers a BMA in game design and a four-year honors bachelor’s degree program, where all admitted students can thoroughly learn all the skills needed to create games from scratch.
Lastly, Sheridan College also offers other unique animation courses, including a one-year graduate certificate program in visual effects, game-level design, digital creature animation, and computer animation, which plays another helpful duty in students after graduation.
5. MoPA School of Animation (Arles, FR)
Location: 2 Rue Yvan Audouard, 13200 Arles, France
Founded in 1988, MoPA is another great institution that offers unique animation courses. This great institution is internationally acclaimed for its stellar 3D animation programs, ranking it among the world’s best animation institutions.
You might love to know that this school was the first French art school dedicated strictly to computer-generated animation, and the school ensures that all the unique animated films their students create are shown at more than 200 festivals a year through the help of their partnerships with many major film festivals and other cultural associations.
This school has made a good name in the animation industry, as its students have received many prestigious awards for their excellent work.
6. Gobelins, l’école de l’image (Paris, FR)
Location: 73 Bd Saint-Marcel, 75013 Paris, France
Having a good number of animation courses, Gobelins also ranks among the most outstanding animation colleges in the world, with exceptional academic performance over the years.
This school offers undergraduate students a bachelor of arts in character animation and animated filmmaking and a reasonable admission rate for those interested in joining the animation department.
7. Emily Carr University of Art & Design (Vancouver, BC)
Location: 520 E 1st Ave, Vancouver, BC V5T 0H2, Canada
One unique aspect of Emily Carr, University of Art & Design, is that the school is the only university dedicated exclusively to the arts, media, and design in British Columbia, CA, as the school is a public art institution with a reasonable admission rate.
In this institution, admitted students into the animation department are given numerous good options for animation, including undergraduate, graduate, and certificate programs.
Furthermore, at the undergraduate level, admitted students can also choose between two bachelor’s of media arts degree programs: BMA in 2D and BMA in 3D + Computer animation.
In the BMA in 2D and experimental animation, its curriculum involves in-depth, hands-on training in numerous traditional animation skills like drawing, as well as digital animation, and both the 2D and 3D programs in the school, mostly making use of the school’s Animation Studio.
Admitted students enjoy a well-equipped animation studio at Emily Carr University of Art & Design. It features numerous editing suites, a computer lab, and other professional animation equipment and software for student use, which helps perfect them for real-life experience.
8. University of Hertfordshire (Hertfordshire, UK)
Location: Hertfordshire England, United Kingdom
The University of Hertfordshire also ranks among the world’s good public universities that offer unique animation courses, with a total enrollment of over 30,000 students. The school is widely recognized for its excellence in digital animation.
The school’s Digital Animation program curriculum tends to cover a wide range of subjects relating to 2D animation, 3D animation, visual effects, and video game design, which helps perfect their students greatly.
Students at the University of Hertfordshire can choose to study BA in comics and concept art, as it’s one of the best options offered by the school.
9. RMIT University (Melbourne, AU)
Location: 124 La Trobe St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia
Although RMIT University was initially established as a night school for arts, sciences, and technology in 1887, it has gained global recognition for its excellent animation program, offering it a spot among the best in the world.
This school is among the public research universities specializing in tech and design. It has several animation programs which admitted students could choose from, which includes a bachelor of design in animation and interactive media.
Furthermore, the school offers a bachelor of media and communication, an interdisciplinary option combining studio-based learning and laboratory-style study to help perfect students.
10. Ringling College of Art and Design (Sarasota, FL)
Location: 2700 N Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, FL 34234, USA
Closing our list of the world’s best animation colleges is the prestigious Ringling College of Art and Design (RCAD), known for its excellent and splendid academic performance since established in 1931.
RCAD is a private design and arts school that offers two BA major programs and eleven different options for admitted students in their BFA programs.
You might love to know that admitted students in the BA programs at RCAD are well-taught in the various steps of bringing a virtual character to life, from creating original characters to storytelling, texturing, lighting, editing, and so much more.
Lastly, this school offers other unique BFA majors in game art, graphic design, and virtual reality development to help perfect students for real-life work.
What Country Has The Best Animation Schools?
Below are the top countries where you can study animation to its fullest.
1. Study animation in the USA.
2. Study animation in the UK.
3. Study animation in Canada.
4. Study animation in Australia.
5. Study animation in Cyprus.
6. Study animation in the Netherlands.
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