COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Texas A&M was recently ranked as the No. 1 animation school in Texas, and No. 2 in the country among public animation schools by Animation Career Review. This is now the 6th straight year that A&M has been named the best in the Lone Star State since the Animation Career Review created the ranking in 2018.
"I was incredibly proud. Our students work really, really hard and, it's really special. They have been excelling, and they've created beautiful work," Associate Program Director Mayet Andreassen said. "It is nice to see that the students are getting that recognition."
Texas A&M offers an undergraduate degree in visualization with minors in game development and fine arts, as well as graduate degrees in fine arts in visualization and science in visualization.
"We teach the production pipeline," Andreassen said. "Animation encompasses storyboarding, layout, 3D modeling, texturing the models, actually animating, creating rigs, editing, and putting it all together."
Now, Texas A&M is part of the pipeline to some of the best animation and visual effects studios in the United States. Former Aggies have worked for world-renowned companies like Disney, Pixar, Lucasfilm, and DreamWorks.
"They've gotten jobs at game companies, they've gotten jobs at traditional 2D animation companies, they've gotten jobs at VR companies," Andreassen said. "They've gotten jobs creating UI/UX at a ton of different companies."
Professor Andreassen says the job market is rocky right now, but there are a lot of jobs out there for people who have the skills A&M students will have learned after they complete their degrees.