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Whether a hand-drawn masterpiece of the previous or a contemporary CGI movie, the artwork of animation has been charming us with charming characters, tales, and worlds for almost a century.
As all the time, studios everywhere in the globe are in search of the perfect animators to assist them create their subsequent huge venture.
Check out our checklist of the highest 2nd animation software program to get you began within the trade and our checklist of the highest 100 greatest animated motion pictures of all time. And to assist in giving aspiring animators an thought of the perfect locations they may discover themselves working at, the next is a listing of the highest animation corporations the world over.
Note: After the highest 10, the rankings grow to be way more subjective and far much less exact
The Best Animation Studios
Pixar
Headquarters: Emeryville, CA
Pixar was co-founded by Apple visionary Steve Jobs and was bought by The Walt Disney Company in 2006 for greater than $7 billion.
Breaking into the movie trade with Toy Story, the American studio has gone on to supply a few of the most critically and financially profitable movies. These embrace:
- The Toy Story movies
- WALL-E
- Brave
- Ratatouille
- Inside Out
Walt Disney Animation Studios
Headquarters: Burbank, CA
Disney’s acclaimed studio has been making function movies since 1937 with the discharge of the critically profitable Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Since then, they’ve been behind a few of the highest-grossing animated movies of all time, together with The Lion King and Aladdin.
Although the studio suffered a latest decade-long decline, they bounced again stronger than ever with hits like:
- Frozen
- Wreck-It Ralph
- Big Hero 6
DreamWorks Animation
Headquarters: Glendale, CA
DreamWorks Animation movies have been distributed everywhere in the world, incomes them 22 Emmys, a number of Annie Awards, 3 Academy Awards, and lots of BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations.
They are behind main franchises like:
- Shrek
- How to Train Your Dragon
- Madagascar
- Kung Fu Panda
Industrial Light & Magic
Headquarters: San Francisco, CA
ILM has labored on lots of of initiatives, together with numerous field workplace hits. They are pioneers of many progressive pc know-how feats resembling being the primary to do human pores and skin, a partially-computer-generation important character, photo-realistic hair and fur, and extra.
Notable initiatives embrace each Star Wars movie, all however the first Terminator movies, the Pirates of the Caribbean collection, Avatar, and Jurassic World.
Studio Ghibli
Headquarters: Koganei, Tokyo, Japan
Arguably one of many high Japanese movie animation studios in the whole nation, if not the world. Out of the 15 top-grossing anime movies made in Japan, eight of them have been their work.
Among their quite a few awards are 4 Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the Year, an Animage Anime Grand Prix, numerous Academy Award nominations within the U.S., and an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film.
Framestore
Headquarters: London, England
Founded in 1986, Framestore has helped create a few of the most profitable movies in latest occasions.
This consists of Guardians of the Galaxy, a number of of the Harry Potter movies, and Avengers: Age of Ultron, together with a number of scenes for 2009’s Avatar.
The British firm has additionally gained a number of Oscar and BAFTA awards in recent times for his or her initiatives.
Cartoon Network Studios
Headquarters: Burbank, CA
Despite solely being round since 1994, this animation studio has risen to grow to be one of the crucial profitable within the trade.
Early hits like Dexter’s Laboratory, Johnny Bravo, The Powerpuff Girls, and Samurai Jack helped them grow to be a family title in America. Current common collection embrace Adventure Time, Regular Show, Clarence, Uncle Grandpa, We Bare Bears, and Steven Universe.
Blue Sky Studios
Headquarters: Greenwich, Connecticut
Blue Sky Studios was based in 1987 and has been owned by twentieth Century Fox since 1997. Between 2002 and 2014 they’ve launched a few of the most profitable animated movies, together with the Ice Age collection, Rio and Rio 2, instructional toys and Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!
Weta Digital
Headquarters: Wellington, New Zealand
Weta Digital is likely one of the many corporations co-owned by legendary director Peter Jackson and winner of 5 Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects.
The New Zealand digital visuals results firm is behind a few of the largest movies of the final decade, together with the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies, 2005’s King Kong, and Avatar.
Nickelodeon Animation Studios
Headquarters: Burbank, CA
This Nickelodeon-owned was based in 1990 and hit the bottom operating with common unique reveals like Rugrats, Doug, and The Ren & Stimpy Show.
The American studio has gone on to supply an unbelievable variety of recognizable reveals like Hey Arnold!, Invader Zim, The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, the 2 Avatar collection, and naturally, SpongeBob SquarePants.
Warner Bros Animation
Headquarters: Burbank, CA
Warner Bros’ animation division bought its begin within the early 70s and went on to assist American animation right into a golden period.
They grew to compete immediately with Disney because of Looney Tunes and its common characters like Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, and likewise supplied memorable DC Comic reveals just like the animated collection starring Batman and Superman.
While principally centered on tv, Warner Bros Animation has produced a number of memorable feature-length hits like The Lego Movie, Space Jam, and The Iron Giant.
Sunrise
Headquarters: Suginami, Tokyo, Japan
A Japanese animation studio with extra Animage Anime Grand Prix Awards than every other studio in on the globe, together with serving because the runner-up greater than a dozen occasions. Sunrise is behind many common anime collection like Cowboy Bebop and each Gundam collection.
As of this writing, 6 studios have been based by former Sunrise animators, together with the brand new Bandai Namco Pictures in 2015.
Moving Picture Company
Headquarters: London, England
MPC is a subsidiary of Technicolor that gives pc animation and digital visible results for movies and different mediums. Notable initiatives by them embrace Furious 7, Guardians of the Galaxy, X-men: First Class, and Terminator Genisys.
They now boast studios everywhere in the world, together with Mexico City, Vancouver, Los Angeles, Paris, New York, London, Amsterdam, Bangalore, Shanghai, and Montreal.
Toei Animation
Headquarters: Tokyo, Japan
Toei is likely one of the high Japanese animation corporations and identified throughout the globe for numerous works. They are largely acknowledged for working with huge manga artists to supply iconic anime reveals like Dragon Ball Z, One Piece, Saint Seiya, and Sailor Moon.
They are additionally identified for his or her anime adaptation of Digimon and Yu-Gi-Oh!, quite a few feature-length movies, and work on a number of video video games.
Double Negative
Headquarters: Fitzrovia, London
This British visible results and pc animation firm started with solely 30 individuals in 1998 however now boasts greater than a thousand workers.
They have acquired many Visual Effects Society, Academy Award, BAFTA awards for movies resembling Interstellar, Inception, Sherlock Holmes, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2. They additionally helped work on the acclaimed Batman trilogy directed by Christopher Nolan.
Method Studios
Headquarters: Los Angeles, CA
Method Studios produces visible results for high-end function movies, video games, commercials, tv, and extra. They have labored in collaboration with the perfect Hollywood studios, together with Paramount and Twentieth Century Fox, to create field workplace hits like The Wolf of Wall Street, Iron Man 3, Transformers: Age of Extinction, Guardians of the Galaxy, and extra.
OLM, Inc
Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan
Although OLM, has supplied a number of totally different TV reveals and movies, it’s identified for the long-running anime TV collection based mostly on a Nintendo recreation– Pokémon. The present started in 1997 and continues at the moment with greater than 900 episodes.
OLM has additionally developed almost 20 Pokémon movies and can be making reveals and movies based mostly on one other Nintendo RPG sensation, Yo-Kai Watch.
Sony Pictures Imageworks
Headquarters: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
The Canadian character animation and visible results firm is a unit of Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group and has earned a number of accolades, together with Oscars for Spider-Man 2.
They have labored on almost 100 movies, together with Watchmen, the Men in Black sequels, each the Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man movies, and extra.
Image Engine
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Image Engine is a Canadian visible results firm based in 1995.
They bought their begin with a number of function movies earlier than rising in recognition for his or her work on army science fiction collection Stargate SG-1. Recent main initiatives embrace The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and Elysium. Their work on Peter Jackson’s District 9 earned them an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects nomination.
Nippon Animation
Headquarters: Koganei, Tokyo, Japan
Like Toei, Nippon Animation boasts a expertise for producing anime reveals based mostly on different works and at one time employed the legendary Hayao Miyazaki.
Nippon Animedia, a division of Nippon Animation, has helped anime reveals for common Takara toys just like the Beyblade collection, Crash B-Daman, and Zero Duel Masters.
Illumination Mac Guff
Headquarters: Paris, France
A French animated function manufacturing firm created solely in 2011. Their first movie, Despicable Me, was well-received by critics and has the third largest opening of the yr behind Toy Story 3 and Shrek Forever After.
Their most up-to-date movie, Minions, is likely one of the highest-grossing movies of 2015 and served as the primary non-Disney animated movie to interrupt $1 billion worldwide.
Toon City
Headquarters: Manila, Philippines
Founded in 1993 with solely 10 animators, their studio at the moment is giant sufficient to accommodate greater than 1,000 artists. Toon City grew by collaborating with huge corporations like Warner Bros, Universal, Nickelodeon, and The Walt Disney Company.
Notable initiatives embrace Aladdin: The Animated Series, Hercules, Kim Possible, and Gravity Falls.
Pixomondo
Headquarters: Frankfurt, Germany
Pixomondo has a number of studios worldwide producing visible results for movie, tv, and extra. Combined, their Los Angeles, Shanghai, Frankfurt, Munich, Beijing, Toronto, Stuttgart, and Baton Rouge studios make use of over 400 artists.
Some of their latest works embrace Furious 7, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, Star Trek Into Darkness, and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2
Studio Pierrot
Headquarters: Mitaka, Tokyo, Japan
Started by former workers of different famend Japanese studios, Pierrot produced many common anime collection identified throughout the globe.
These embrace YuYu Hakusho, Bleach, Naruto, Saiyuki, and Tokyo Ghoul. They have gained the celebrated Animage Anime Grand Prix Award twice and helped produce a number of episodes for Nickelodeon’s The Legend of Korra.
Hybride Technologies
Headquarters: Piedmont, Quebec
Hybride initially centered on creating digital visible results for commercials for main corporations like Volkswagen, Coca Cola, and CCM.
They now have signed visible results for a lot of huge price range titles, together with Jurassic World, 2014’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Hunger Games collection, and Avatar. In 2008 they have been acquired by Ubisoft, one of many largest online game builders and publishers on this planet.
Rodeo FX
Headquarters: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Rodeo FX is a global visible results firm with studios in Quebec City, Montreal, and Los Angeles.
They focus on movie, promoting, and tv and have gained many awards for his or her work, together with a VES Award for Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects. Recent initiatives embrace Furious 7, Cinderella, Edge of Tomorrow, and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.
Digital Domain
Headquarters: Playa Vista, California
Digital Domain has studios in each California and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada that each produce visible/digital results for video games, movies, and promoting.
The firm has greater than 100 movies underneath its belt, together with the acclaimed Titanic, and is the winner of 5 Academy Awards. Other latest movies embrace Furious 7, Maleficent, and X-Men: Days of Future Past.
Luma Pictures
Headquarters: Santa Monica, CA
A visible results studio based in 2002 acknowledged for his or her expertise in creating environments and creatures.
Every yr they work on between 3 and eight big-budget movies, with latest ones being Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Guardians of the Galaxy. Luma Pictures has two studios, one in Santa Monica and one other in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
South Park Studios
Headquarters: Culver City, CA
This firm is after all identified for South Park, one of many longest-running and most profitable animated reveals of all time.
With 260 episodes throughout 19 seasons and counting, South Park has acquired many accolades: a Peabody Award, 5 Primetime Emmy Awards, and greater than ten nominations for Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program.
Rising Sun Pictures
Headquarters: Adelaide, Australia
An Australian visible results firm based in 1995.
In lower than 20 quick years Rising Sun Pictures has been capable of work on a few of the largest of the final 20 years, together with The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Batman Begins, Superman Returns, The Hunger Games, The Wolverine, and three Harry Potter movies.
Animal Logic
Headquarters: Sydney, Australia
Animal Logic was based in 1991 and shortly rose to prominence with movies like Babe, The Matrix, and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.
The studio has helped produce many different profitable motion pictures and has gained many awards, together with 5 for The Lego Movie alone. Animal Logic at present has two studios in Sydney and Los Angeles.
Encore Hollywood
Headquarters: Hollywood, CA
Encore Hollywood is a post-production workforce that has been producing high-quality visible results since 1985.
Despite not being a family title, Encore Hollywood has labored on a few of the most recognizable reveals in America. These embrace The Flash, Glee, Gotham, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, House of Cards, NCIS, CSI, and extra.
Shade VFX
Headquarters: Santa Monica, CA
Shade VFX has studios in Los Angeles in New York that collectively deal with 4K VFX, digital actuality, idea artwork, stereoscopic, magnificence work, pre-viz, picture actual VFX, and design.
They have labored with different high corporations to create latest movies like The Wolverine, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
Aardman Animations
Headquarters: Bristol, England, UK
A British studio that’s identified for his or her proficiency in stop-motion clay animation. Although they do quite a lot of tv collection and quick movies, Aardman Animations has collaborated with DreamWorks Animation, Sony Pictures Animation, and StudioCanal to make function movies.
All their movies between 2000 and 2015 have grossed greater than their price range and acquired very excessive Rotten Tomatoes rankings.
Sony Pictures Animation
Headquarters: Culver City, CA
Sony Pictures Animation was based in 2002 to work alongside Sony Pictures Imageworks.
Almost each one in every of their function movies between 2006 and 2015 have been a business success. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Arthur Christmas, and The Pirates! Band of Misfits earned a Rotten Tomato mixture rating of 87%, 92%, and 86%, respectively.
Disney Television Animation
Headquarters: Glendale, CA
An animation manufacturing studio centered on creating movies, tv collection, and different content material for Disney Channels Worldwide.
It was based in 1984 and developed a few of the hottest cartoons of the late ’80s and ’90s, together with DuckTales, Darkwing Duck, Goof Troop, and Timon & Pumba. More latest hit reveals achieved for Disney Channel are Kim Possible, The Proud Family, and Phineas and Ferb.
Production I.G
Headquarters: Kokubunji, Tokyo, Japan
A Japanese anime studio accountable for many function movies and TV reveals, together with Ghost within the Shell, The Last Vampire, Pokemon the Movie: Black, Pokemon the Movie: White, and Guilty Crown. They gained an Animage Anime Grand Prix Award in 2013 and are identified for his or her animated sequences for Kill Bill Volume 1.
Scanline VFX
Headquarters: Munich, Germany
A German visible results firm with studios in Munich, Vancouver, and Los Angeles.
They are acknowledged for his or her Flowline software program used to create fluid results like hearth and water. Notable initiatives they have been concerned with embrace 300: Rise of an Empire, Iron Man 3, The Avengers, Man of Steel, and The Wolf of Wall Street.
Whiskytree
Headquarters: San Rafael, CA
Whiskytree is one other low profile VFX studio that works on a number of excessive profile initiatives a yr, together with movies, video games, TV reveals, and commercials. They additionally present idea artwork and have labored on latest hits like Captain America: The Winter Soldier, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, and Elysium, in addition to huge MMO video games like Rift and Defiance.
Fuzzy Door Productions
Headquarters: Los Angeles, CA
Also generally known as The Spotted Door, Fuzzy Door Productions was based in 1996 by Seth MacFarlane to create a lot of his notable animated collection. These embrace Family Guy, American Dad!, and The Cleveland Show. The firm has additionally produced a number of movies, together with Ted, A Million Ways to Die within the West, and Ted 2.
Rise FX
Headquarters: Berlin, Germany
Starting with solely 4 artists in a single room, Rise FX has grown to make use of virtually 100 artists. They have labored totally on European initiatives however have additionally supplied their providers on numerous American movies, together with Iron Man 3, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier
DisneyToon Studios
Headquarters: Glendale, CA
DisneyToon Studios was based in 1988 to work on direct-to-video movies, though they’ve produced many theatrical function movies.
They have created greater than 47 movies based mostly on high Disney IPs like Aladdin, Goofy, Winnie the Pooh, Mickey Mouse, Tarzan, 101 Dalmatians, The Lion King, and The Little Mermaid.
Rough Draft Studios
Headquarters: Glendale, CA
An animation manufacturing firm based in 1991 contained in the storage of Gregg and Nikki Vanzo, two animators engaged on The Ren & Stimpy Show on the time.
Rough Draft Studios has two studios, one in California and the opposite in South Korea, and has helped with many recognizable movies and reveals like Futurama, The Simpsons Movie, Star Wars Clone Wars, Rocko’s Modern Life, and extra.
Rhythm & Hues Studios
Headquarters: Los Angeles, CA
A personality animation and visible results studio that has gained 4 scientific and Technical Academy Awards and an Oscar for his or her work on 2012’s Life of Pi.
The firm has additionally gained three Academy Award for Best Visual Effects for 1995’s Babe, 2008’s The Golden Compass, and Life of Pi.
9 Story Entertainment
Headquarters: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
A Canadian animation and distribution firm identified for his or her kids’s tv reveals. They additionally work with Arthur, the longest-running kids’s animated present within the U.S. and solely behind The Simpsons for longest-running animated collection.
Arthur has additionally acquired many awards, together with 4 Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Children’s Animated Program.
Brand New School
Headquarters: New York City, New York
A artistic design and manufacturing studio, they’ generally known as probably the greatest in the case of making content material for commercials and interactive media. Brand New School has helped develop commercials for giant names like Starbucks, Target, Pepsi, Cartoon Network, IKEA, Coca-Cola, and Apple. Their work on National Geographic’s Brain Games earned them an Emmy nomination.
Lucasfilm Animation
Headquarters: San Francisco, CA
Founded by legendary director George Lucas, Lucasfilm Animation’s first manufacturing was the acclaimed and Emmy-winning TV collection Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
They at present produce the 3D CGI collection Star Wars Rebels which has already earned a number of accolades since its premiere in October of 2014, together with forty second Annie Awards and Best Animated Series on the fifth Critics Choice Television Awards.
Zoic Studios
Headquarters: Culver City, CA
An American visible results firm that focuses on visible results for video video games, promoting design, movies, tv, commercials, and on-line media. They have labored on a number of necessary movies and tv reveals like Firefly, Mad Men, District 9, The Day After Tomorrow, Fast & Furious, Once Upon a Time, Van Helsing, and Falling Skies.
Studio 4°C
Headquarters: Tokyo, Japan
A Japanese animation studio that has labored on a great variety of function movies, OVA initiatives, and TV collection. The studio has a number of movies with many awards underneath their belt, together with 2006’s Tekkon Kinkreet that gained Best Animated Film, the Lancia Platinum Grand Prize on the Future Film Festival, and Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the Year.
Madhouse
Headquarters: Honchō, Nakano, Tokyo
Founded greater than 40 years in the past in 1972, Madhouse is a Japanese animation studio that has all the time centered totally on tv reveals and theatrical options.
They have labored on greater than 100 initiatives and have collaborated with huge corporations, together with Square Enix (OVA for Last Order: Final Fantasy VII), Capcom (Devil May Cry: The Animated Series), and several other Studio Ghibli, Disney, and Marvel Entertainment works.
Written by Dustin Tyler [Updated August 25, 2022]
Initially centered on internet dev, Dustin was launched to recreation design by a pal after school and was instantly drawn to the mix of technical talent and creativity required to make an superior recreation.
While not an expert recreation developer himself, he’s utilized his internet dev abilities and want to assist others by making a useful resource the place professional recreation designers can share what they’ve realized with the following technology of aspiring recreation makers.
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