Movie Special Effects Schools

Houston Community College

• Houston Community College is a two-year, public school offering an associate degree in applied science for filmmaking, a certificate in editing and a certificate in production. Finished student projects can be viewed in a 150-seat theatre. Thirty final cut video editing systems are available for animation students to work on their special effects skills. Examples of special effects coursework include Film Editing and Sound Synchronization and Advanced Film and Video Editing. Houston Community College also offers a Cooperative Education/Cinematography and Film/Video Production course which allows students to work on their specialization in special effects while gaining work experience at the same time.

  Houston Community College

  3100 Main St.

  Houston, TX 77002

  713-718-2000

  hccs.edu

College of Southern Nevada

• The College of Southern Nevada is a four-year public institution offering a 62-credit, two-year associate degree in graphic technology with an animation emphasis. The program requires 26 credits of general education, plus 38 credits in animation, graphics and film. It also requires an additional six hours of art classes that can include life drawing, design or photography. Students learn to create special effects with desktop personal computers running animation software. They discover how to make space warps, particle systems and representational shapes of organics for character generation.

  College of Southern Nevada

  6375 W. Charleston Blvd.

  Las Vegas, NV 89146

  702-651-5000

  csn.edu

University of Southern California

• The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit college. It offers filmmaking undergraduate, masters and Ph.D. programs in the School of Cinematic Arts. The John C. Hench Animation and Digital Arts program is designed for students who want to go into special effects. It is a four-year, 128-unit program with 14 lower division units and 24 upper division units. Students can also join the Cinema Special Effects student organization, providing them with networking opportunities, tours, speakers and workshops.

  University of Southern California

  School of Cinematic Arts

  University Park, SCA 465

  Los Angeles, CA 90089-2211

  213-740-2804

  usc.edu