Best Online Bachelor’s in Animation Illustration 2025

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Find top-ranked online bachelor’s in animation illustration degree programs to prepare students for roles as art directors, special effects artists, motion graphic designers, illustrators and more.

Featured Programs

Best Online Bachelor’s in Animation Illustration Degree Programs

  1. #1

    Academy of Art University

    San Francisco , CA

    Tuition + fees

    $27K

    Graduation

    44%

    Student body

    10K

    Career Outlook for Animation Illustration degree at Academy of Art University

    Cost of Degree: $28,024
    Expenses: $27,555
    Starting Salary: $26,046
    Salary after 4 years: $39,055
    Cost Recoup Time: 20 years
    Paid back at 15% of annual salary

    Online Degrees

    BFA in Animation & Visual Effects
    • Required Credits: 132
    • Completion time: 4.5-5.5 years
    • Format: Online
    BFA in Game Development

    Concentrations

    • Animation for Games
    • Required Credits: 132
    • Completion time: 4.5-5.5 years
    • Format: Online
    BFA in Illustration
    • Required Credits: 132
    • Completion time: 4.5-5.5 years
    • Format: Online
  2. Other Rankings

    Tuition + fees

    $18K

    Acceptance

    78%

    Graduation

    45%

    Student body

    155K

    Career Outlook for Animation Illustration degree at Grand Canyon University

    Cost of Degree: $17,263
    Expenses: $16,212
    Starting Salary: $32,214
    Salary after 4 years: $48,303
    Cost Recoup Time: 13 years
    Paid back at 15% of annual salary

    Online Degrees

    BA in Animation and Digital Design

    Concentrations

    • Web Design
    • Required Credits: 120
    • Completion time: None Reported
    • Format: Online
  3. #3

    Wilmington University

    New Castle , DE
    Other Rankings

    Tuition + fees

    $12K

    Graduation

    20%

    Student body

    19K

    Career Outlook for Animation Illustration degree at Wilmington University

    Cost of Degree: $12,330
    Starting Salary: $25,661
    Salary after 4 years: $38,477

    Online Degrees

    BS in Animation and 3D
    • Required Credits: 120
    • Completion time: 4 years
    • Format: Online
  4. Tuition + fees

    $19K

    Acceptance

    92%

    Graduation

    45%

    Student body

    1K

    Career Outlook for Animation Illustration degree at University of Advancing Technology

    Cost of Degree: $19,312
    Expenses: $15,592
    Starting Salary: $31,773
    Salary after 4 years: $47,642
    Cost Recoup Time: 13 years
    Paid back at 15% of annual salary

    Online Degrees

    BA in Game Art and Animation
    • Required Credits: 120
    • Completion time: None Reported
    • Format: Online
  5. Tuition + fees

    $23K

    Graduation

    41%

    Student body

    3K

    Career Outlook for Animation Illustration degree at Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design

    Cost of Degree: $23,273
    Starting Salary: $20,209
    Salary after 4 years: $30,303

    Online Degrees

    BFA in Animation
    • Required Credits: 123
    • Completion time: None Reported
    • Format: Online
    BFA in Illustration
    • Required Credits: 123
    • Completion time: None Reported
    • Format: Online
  6. Tuition + fees

    $26K

    Graduation

    48%

    Student body

    1K

    Career Outlook for Animation Illustration degree at Columbia College Hollywood

    Cost of Degree: $26,175
    Starting Salary: $21,751
    Salary after 4 years: $32,615

    Online Degrees

    BFA in Graphic Design + Interactive Media

    Concentrations

    • Animation
    • Required Credits: 192
    • Completion time: 4.5-5.5 years
    • Format: Online
    BFA in Visual Effects

    Concentrations

    • Animation
    • Required Credits: 192
    • Completion time: 4.5-5.5 years
    • Format: Online

Career Outlook for Students with Animation Illustration Degree

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Digital Arts

Degree Level: Bachelor's

  • Location: The U.S. (Private Schools)
  • Avg. Cost of Degree*: $9,626
  • Avg. Expenses*: $17,461
  • Avg. Starting Salary*: $25,031
  • Avg. Salary after 4 Years*: $36,671
  • Avg. Cost Recoup Time**: 13 years
  • Job Growth: 3.43%
  • Number of Jobs: 759,000
  • * denotes ‘annually’
  • ** denotes ‘at 15% of annual salary’

Career Salaries

CareerJob GrowthAvg. Salary
Art Directors5.21%$106,500
Special Effects Artists and Animators4.23%$99,060
Art, Drama, and Music Teachers, Postsecondary2.75%$80,360
Artists and Related Workers, All Other2.99%$74,750
Fine Artists, Including Painters, Sculptors, and Illustrators4.18%$59,300

Top Industries

IndustryAvg. Salary
Art Directors$106,500
Special Effects Artists and Animators$99,060
Art, Drama, and Music Teachers, Postsecondary$80,360

Frequently Asked Questions About Animation Illustration Degrees

Students who earn a bachelor’s in animation illustration will be prepared to enter a highly creative field with an emphasis on both observational and illustration skills.

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Students will earn a comprehensive degree with concentration-specific classes like Character Design for 2D Animation, Digital Painting Methods, and Advanced Illustration. Many programs offer facilities and art studios that give students access to 3D printers and opportunities to learn about both traditional and modern modalities of animation.

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Both online and on-campus programs are available, and students typically graduate with this 120-credit degree in about four or five years.

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Graduates will qualify for roles as art directors, special effects artists, motion graphic designers, illustrators and more. A bachelor’s degree would also qualify you to pursue an advanced degree such as the master’s in animation illustration.

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Online Degree Frequently Asked Questions

If this is your first time taking an online course, the experience may require a time of adjustment. Although you’ll typically learn the same material and take the same exams as your on-campus peers, going online will require greater independence and responsibility than going in person. You’ll be accountable for your own time management, for harnessing the online educational technology that you’ll need to use, and for completing the course requirements, such as listening to lectures, learning lessons, reading texts, and handing in assignments. This means you’ll need to create a suitable workspace for yourself, maintain a realistic schedule, and take the initiative in building relationships with your instructors and classmates. With online college, your goal is to find a balance between independence and engagement.

No. The only part of online education that’s easier than campus-based education is ease of access: all you need is a computer and an internet connection for online education. But even this seeming advantage of online education can be misleading: what’s easier, studying online with your computer and internet connection from your home where you need to cook, clean, pay rent, and maintain a job? Or studying on campus in a dorm where all your living needs are handled by the school, and college staff are there to help you every step of the way?

If you take the commute to campus out of the equation, campus-based education is easier. All the support structures available on campus for students, especially with real people to help you in person, are not there online. The demands on you as an online student will largely be the same as for your campus-based counterpart, but without the same helps.

In general, your online courses will present the same material and test you in the same way as traditional in-person courses. In many cases, you’ll even have the same instructors as your on-campus counterparts. In fact, if you are adjusting to the experience of independent learning with remote educational technology for the first time, online college may be considerably more challenging than campus-based college. For a few insights on how to manage this new online experience, check out our 10 Tips for Adjusting to School Online.

Accreditation is especially important when it comes to online college. This is because the online education landscape is a mix of highly-reputable non-profit institutions on the one end and less-than-reputable for-profit institutions on the other end. Accreditation gives you the power to identify the more reputable actors in online education. Accreditation is a stamp of approval from an independent accrediting agency indicating that a college or university is meeting standards of quality and credibility. School-wide accreditation falls into two major categories: regional and national accreditation. Regional accreditors generally hold jurisdiction only over schools in the states comprising their region, whereas national accreditors hold jurisdiction over schools in all states. Regional accreditation is widely regarded as a more rigorous standard of quality and credibility than national accreditation.

Attending a college or university that is not regionally accredited could limit your opportunities. For students seeking an online education, we strongly recommend that they opt for regionally accredited schools. Regional accreditation ensures eligibility for federal loans and grants, ensures your college credits can be transferred between schools, and ensures that your degree credits can be accepted if you wish to earn an advanced degree. For more on this important topic, check out our What is Accreditation and Why Does It Matter? College & University Accreditation Guide.

As long as your online college degree is regionally accredited (see the previous point), you should have little difficulty transferring most of your credits or credentials to another regionally accredited undergraduate school. Every school carries its own standards and procedures for granting a transfer of credits. In many cases, you will encounter some bureaucratic haggling in which some of your credits will be transferred and others may be refused. However, provided that you have attended an online school with recognized regional accreditation, you should be in good shape in transferring your credits earned online.

In most cases, as long you graduate from a well-regarded, regionally-accredited online college, prospective employers won’t look sideways at your degree. In fact, unless you attend an exclusively online college or university, there will likely be no specific indicator on your degree, transcript, or resumé differentiating your school from its brick-and-mortar counterpart. This means that your employer will likely only differentiate between an online and in-person degree if you mention this distinction.

Some employers may express the concern that because you did your degree online, you may need to transition from an online education experience to in-person workplace experience. But in an age of Covid, that concern seems much diminished. The fact is that much employment these days is remote. And collaboration increasingly happens online over Zoom. Many employers will therefore view your online degree as evidence of valuable 21st century professional skills such as independence, self-motivation, time management, and tech savvy.

If you are a student who thrives on the dynamic energy of in-person discussion, who requires the physical surroundings of a classroom to feel engaged, or who considers the social aspects of education to be of equal importance to the actual content of your courses, online education will be less than ideal for you (though depending on your circumstances, it may also be the only viable option).

While there is much in traditional campus-based education that can be substituted or simulated through the online medium, some students may find that there is nothing that can replace the conversation, collaboration, and motivation that occur in an actual in-person classroom setting. As you transition to online education, one of the biggest challenges you will likely face in getting the most out of your online classes is overcoming this difference between “real reality” and “virtual reality.” Fortunately, we’ve got some great Tips for Online Education Beginners.

The advantages of online classes are many. Above all, online courses give you the freedom and flexibility to attend class from anywhere that works for you, whether you’re at home, in a coffee shop, or in a quiet conference room at work. In many cases, you’ll also enjoy the convenience of asynchronous learning opportunities-educational experiences that you can complete at your own pace and on your own schedule. This may include pre-taped lectures, ongoing chat-board discussions, and 24/7 access to digital materials. And of course, just as there are some learners who prefer the energy of a live classroom, there are those who learn best when working in their own personal space, free from distractions. If this sounds like you, you might find the solitude of online learning to be a major advantage.

Resources for Online College-Bound Students

Whether you’re just getting started on your college search, you’re looking for survival tips on your way to a bachelor’s degree, or you’re preparing for the transition into grad school, we’ve got guides, how to’s and tons of other valuable resources to keep you moving forward in your educational journey.

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