What Are the Best Graduate Level Animation Schools?

You’ve found your passion, worked hard and earned your undergraduate degree in animation, but you want to do more.  Where do you go to further your education and obtain the graduate degree you desire?  There isn’t really a one size fits all graduate school for any subject, but a good place to start looking might be within the top ranking graduate animation schools in the country.  Here is a little bit of information on a few of the schools that are amongst the best:

Nestled in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, Carnegie Mellon University offers a Master’s of Fine Arts degree program in multimedia art through their College of Fine Arts.  Through this program, they augment the prestige of the art school with the strength of their School of Computer Science to create a curriculum that prepares students for a career path where technology and creativity are unified.  This type of combination is particularly suited for game design, robotic art, animation, and interactive stagecraft.

The California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California also offers a Master’s of Fine Arts degree.  This program offers extensive study in character and experimental animation, along with courses in drawing, storytelling, 2-D and 3-D computer animation, and visual design.  In addition to the more traditional animation studies, a heavy focus on the addition of technology is infused into the program. 

A Master’s of Fine Arts program in Digital + Media is offered at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, Rhode Island.  This graduate program broadens the scope of interdisciplinary study even further.  The goal of this program is to marry the undergraduate art studies with the technological advances in numerous career fields to create innovative methods and solutions within that given field.  The program consists of individualized courses focusing on the student’s strengths and interests and culminates with a thesis and accompanying project.

In addition to these top ranking schools, there are many others.  The University of California and University of Southern California, both in Los Angeles, provide well respected graduate programs in animation.  New York boasts the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, New York University, the School of Visual Arts, and the Rochester Institute of Technology.  A compilation of the best animation schools wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Illinois and Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.

Most graduate schools offering a degree in animation provide a strong tie between the creative side of the industry and the technical side.  This marriage allows you to expand your artistic talents well into multiple careers that wouldn’t necessarily come to mind when one thinks of animation.  As you explore graduate schools, make sure you find a school that allows you to take your passion in the direction you feel driven.