Based in San Francisco, the Academy of Art University trains aspiring artists in the field of art and design. It is the largest private school of art and design in America, according to the U.S. News and World Report's Best Colleges 2011. The school offers Associates, Bachelors and Masters degrees and certificate programs, both online and on campus. Continuing education programs are also available. The Academy of Art University also offers pre-college scholarship programs for high school students seeking to pursue careers in art and design. Courses at the university are in 16 areas including advertising, animation and visual effects, fashion, fine art and graphic design. Other courses includes illustration, industrial design, motion pictures and television, web design and new media.
New York Film Academy offers practical and intensive programs. Based in Manhattan, the school offers a three-year accelerated Bachelor of Fine Arts, and a Masters of Fine Arts. The NYFA also offers a one-year 3-D animation program. By the end of the course, a student will have designed a short animated film. The school also offers an Associate of Fine Art (AFA) program in Game Design. Attracting students from across the United States and all over the world, the school offers courses that balance the study of craft with hands-on experience in an effort to produce well-skilled filmmakers. Short courses in digital filmmaking are also available.
The Gnomon School of Visual Effects is a vocational school -- more concerned with achieving levels of skill and knowledge than with academic degrees, according to Animation World Network, an animation industry database. Located in Hollywood, California, the school offers courses in Entertainment Design, and Entertainment and Digital Production. Animation World Network estimates that about 80 percent of the students take classes individually through extension studies. Typically, these are people already in the industry who need a refresher course. The rest of the students attend broad and intensive certificate programs which require them to spend between 50 and 60 hours in class per week. They include analog courses that teach skills such as figure drawing, character sculpture, writing, and even hand drawing of animation cels.
Situated in New York City, the School of Visual Art offers undergraduate and graduate degrees. Graduates have gone to work in studios such as Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks SKG, Blue Sky Studio and Nickelodeon. According to U.S. News and World Report, one aspect that makes the college stand out is its distinguished faculty. The School of Visual Art has about 700 working professionals on its faculty, representing an array of fields in the fine and applied arts. Undergraduate students are trained in the latest professional techniques and technologies in digital animation, including 3-D.