<p>Here is an interesting list that attempts to rank the top 100 animation/game design schools in the world.</p>
<p>Top</a> 100 Schools for Animation, Gaming, and Design | Animation Career Review</p>
<p>My major problem with this ranking, among others, is that I didn’t see UCLA listed,which I think was a major oversight. They also didn’t compare apples to apples. For example Gnomon doesn’t award an undergraduate degree.</p>
<p>like the list, by basing it on hiring decisions i think they did a great job. It is pretty much what I heard from some games companies in MD. I went to HS with a couple folks working there and when my D wanted info they were helpful in listing schools they hired from. Honestly they told her based on her portfolio RISD, might be a better choice since she was a better illustrator/artist than 3D, it seems there are different career tracks in the industry, depending on rigging shading, in betweeners, concept artists and such. I do not know how this works and my friends don’t either, they tend toward the programming side. I would love to find soomeone who knows more about the career tracks. These were art directors who liked RISD and Ringling, though the TV guy I talked to loved Pratt and SVA, but that may be NY bias. They all liked SCAD, but seemed to think it was weaker for certain positions. All of them empasized portfolio and that video thing that animators produce. I found multiple websites to compare portfolios, but many less to compare that motion video. Have you had any luck comparing those.</p>
<p>The list really is a mish mash of schools all of which become progressively tangentially related to animation, games and I guess animation or game design, as the list goes on. </p>
<p>They really should have split the program rankings by pure animation, 3d technical, 2d technical/art/illustration and game design. And maybe added an overall group. </p>
<p>Ucla is good for film making but not for animation or vfx and with all the international programs to choose from, I’m not surprised they aren’t listed. I don’t see how the fact that and end degree is not awarded undone of these programs makes it undeserving to be part of the list. Even the university programs chosen are a mix of apples, bananas and mangos anyway.</p>
<p>My son did a summer program here and it seemed like the education would be great, but typically NOT a normal college experience:<br>
</p>
<p>If you are looking at this list to find suitable undergraduate programs, then you can’t overlook the program at UC Santa Cruz: [B.S</a>. Computer Science: Computer Game Design - Computer Science - UC Santa Cruz](<a href=“Computer Science and Engineering – Baskin School of Engineering”>http://www.cs.ucsc.edu/game-design)</p>
<p>Yes that seems to be true, they should divide this into at least 3 sections. I would still like to find out more about the career tracks on this. Unhappily my links in linkedin and other sources only come from the coding side. I didn’t feel comfortable or know the right language to ask about career tracks in this field, but I think my daughters self published zines and character studies pushed her more to the 2D artist side, probably correctly. Shes very comfortable with several software packages but prefers to do her initial illustrations and designs with pen and brush. She has gone through the CV’s of quite a few artists and I think she made the right call, well except she loved a lot of folks who went to SVA, but she hated the school atmosphere and didn’t want to spend 4 years there. I think RISD came in second from her method of going backwards from people with careers she aspired to, however she was really attracted to a lot of the work that came out of Ringling. Unfortunately though I could find folks for her to talk to, they were not really willing to talk about various career tracks except for my friends. I wonder about these game design programs, they didn’t exist for folks my age and my friends mostly went to college for Computer Science or engineering, they now manage the QA, projects, lead programmer and some kind of continuity thing I still don’t quite get, but it seems to have divided up from the early days. Movies I have no idea, though i did get her to talk to someone who does a whole lot of business animations and even a couple of folks who do TV. That seems a bit more straight forward. She did the conversations herself, so anything I post is hearsay through my 17 year old so forgive me if I got anything wrong. I wanted her to get the info and was willing to help, but felt she had to do most of the work herself on this part. Dad was willing to to look at safety, costs, ROI, awards and find the resources for her, but I probably would have come to a different decision, though our final five were close except for 1 school. However the 3D, 2D arguments can seem a little odd to me. Don’t 3D animators need to draw, sorry, but I got yelled at for saying something like that by some child when I asked that of a school on portfolio day.</p>
<p>In practice, 3d animators don’t need to know how to draw. For 2d, feature animation, draftsmanship and thus drawing is a very important skill. But the core skills of animation, acting and movement are separate from the medium itself, whether that is 2d, 3d cg or stop motion. Any drawing skills in those case would just be a bonus for communicating, etc. Which is why animation should be its own category as it is fundamentally a different skill from drawing. </p>
<p>Not sure what you mean by career tracks though.
Sounds like what your daughter is more interested in is illustration which these days has spawned the increasingly popular concept art and entertainment design areas of study.</p>
<p>With all the rapid changes in technology I would suggest that having at least some basic if not strong drawing skills when working in any computerized visual field would be very beneficial. Do not assume that the skill sets needed today are going to remain stagnant, it’s almost a given that they are not. If you’re interested in working in a visual art take some drawing classes.</p>
<p>True, I’d also suggest sculpture, painting, design, filmmaking, photography and anything that leads to improving one’s eye for aesthetics.</p>
<p>Interestingly enough, at Ringling, the foundation year is different for different majors depending on what the school believes the students need. Animation, Gaming and Illustration all share a foundation year program. There is lots of drawing and figure work.</p>
<p>MCAD has the same foundation year for all students, regardless of major, including drawing, 2D and 3D, and Media.</p>
<p>My daughter attended University of Cincinnati, School of Design, Art, Architecture and Planning. The designers had a somewhat different foundation year than the architects and interior designers who all had a very different foundation year than the fine artists.</p>
<p>This maybe typical in many art and design schools.</p>
<p>Hey taxguy… sorry I haven’t kept up with where your daughter ended up. She should be graduated by now (Digital Design). Where is she now?</p>
<p>She finds that she liked the motion work that was given in Digital Design. However that was a relatively small portion of her curriculum. Thus, she will be getting an MFA from School of Visual Arts, which is a two year program.</p>
<p>Best of luck to her!</p>
<p>My son is a freshman at Towson. Loves the school and just switched his major to computer graphic/digital design. Towson just launched two new concentrations last year- digital design and graphic arts. They are starting to get a bit of recognition as one of the traditional colleges that are competing with this major. They seem to be making a financial commitment to the program but I am still concerned he might not be in the best place. On the positive side, we do live in metro NY and have access to major companies and he’s in fact interning now on winter break. Another positive is since the program is new he will get a lot of attention as they really want it to succeed. Also, if he changes his mind he is at a liberal arts school that he loves and has the flexibility to change his major or even dual major. The negatives are he’s a guinea pig for the program and it isn’t widely recognized yet. We do not know how the job placement will be or retention rates. </p>
<p>I would love to hear some experienced opinions. </p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>pamela, this sounds great to me. It’s a relatively new field so I expect more schools will make the decision to offer this as a concentration or major since there is a growing demand for trained workers–good news for kids with such majors. As for being in such a new program, I wouldn’t worry too much about that. You can check the backgrounds of the instructors–but I would imagine they have industry experience which is what you hope to hear. The most important aspect should be what software/programs they will be learning. Expertise (and portfolio pieces/demo reels/game samples) in these in-demand languages will go far to get someone hired in the future. OTOH, if the courses in the concentration are focused on older relatively obsolete languages (and things can go out of fashion in a nanosecond), that would be a red flag. Best of luck.</p>
<p>Pamela103, my daughter majored in digital design at University of Cincinnati and now is in grad school at SVA in computer art with an animation concentration. </p>
<p>First understand, there is no field or job known as “Digital Design.” The major is a conglomeration of various concentrations such as app design for smart phones, animation, motion and web design. Accordingly, it is a great major to see which of these fields is most interesting to the student,but it usually requires more study beyond the basic bachelors degree especially if the student wants something other than web design unless there are a HUGE amount of choices and courses available in each of these areas. In short, it makes the student a “jack of many trades” but a master of few. It is ideal for the kid who is interested in these areas but isn’t sure which of these areas are best for them. It, thus, gives a strong grounding in the areas mentioned above.</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, my daughter’s digital design background gave her a big leg up for her 3d animation and computer art grad program. She was the top student in the program after the first semester, earning a 4.0. When you consider that many kids in the grad program have a fine art background, this says a lot about the digital design major.</p>
<p>I took a look at Towson’s program. Honestly, I thought it was OK but I didn’t see the same amount of choices that you would find at a school like School of Visual Arts in NY, University of Cincinnati or MICA or Savannah College of Art and Design ( SCAD) and Ringling. I guess if money is a big issue, a school like Towson would be fine. You son can always go to grad school to pick up the skills that might have been missed by the Towson program. If money is not a big issue, I would recommend any of the other schools that I mentioned especially SVA, Ringling, MICA, such as animation for MICA and others. </p>
<p>Also, Towson is NOT accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design, which has members from the top art and design schools in the US. We asked about this 7 years ago, and all I got was a bunch of embarrassed looks and people suddenly disappearing after I asked the question. This may not be a big deal since no school needs this accreditation,but it is very nice to have. Why Towson doesn’t have it is very strange.</p>
<p>By the way, my son went to Towson for accounting and loved it.</p>
<p>Thank you both for the helpful feedback. It sounds like unless my son is going to a very focused design school with a vast amount of choices (as well as depth), he is going to need to go for his masters as well. </p>
<p>Towson’s separate digital design concentration launched in 2011and we are making sure all of the software is up to date - we believe it is but I want to be certain for myself. We are also doing our due diligence on the instructors. </p>
<p>I was a little concerned that the school was not accredited by NASA but after reading a lot I’m not sure if that would be our deciding factor. I’m wondering with the recent changes to their arts college if they are going to apply in the near future. </p>
<p>Is it typical that the parent meet with the dept head along with their child once the student is a freshman? Or should my son meet with the dept head alone? </p>
<p>Also tax guy the other schools you mentioned are all private correct? Do you know of any SUNY schools that would be good for this major? </p>
<p>Thanks again!</p>