New York Film Academy (NYFA) is excited to announce that for the second year in a row, our Game Design Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) program was ranked as a ‘Top 25 Game Design BFA program in the U.S.’ by Animation Career Review. Our Animation department was also listed as a ‘Top 25 School in California for Animation’ and ‘Top 25 Animation School and College on the West Coast’ for 2022.
Woot Woot!
NYFA’s BFA in 3D Animation & VFX is an eight-semester conservatory-based, full-time study undergraduate program. Our curriculum is designed to immerse gifted 3D Animation & VFX artists in all aspects of the discipline. NYFA’s 3D Animation & VFX programs provide a creative setting in which to challenge, inspire, and perfect the talents of its student body.
It is an honor to be named among the ‘Top 25 Animation Schools on the West Coast’ by Animation Career Review and in honor of this achievement, we want to highlight the work of some of our alumni!
The NYFA 1-Year Conservatory 3D Animation & VFX alum Francesco Panzieri has a long list of credits ranging from Hollywood A-list films to popular TV series including Dune,Clash of the Titans, For Colored Girls, Madea’s Big Happy Family, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Avengers: Infinity War, Jingle Jangle, and many more.
In a conversation with NYFA, Francesco shared with us his advice for incoming students:
“Working in visual effects requires a never-ending amount of passion every day. For me, to be able to work alongside the filmmakers and the visual effects supervisors of movies that I’ve grown up watching back in my days in Italy still represents my biggest source of motivation and admiration for the job. It is a very challenging field of work because it involves art, science, and physics. You have to be open to always learn new technologies and techniques, and the number one rule in my book is to never give up. You are constantly being challenged with new tasks, new requests, and it is up to you to figure out a way to face those challenges.”
Diana Lobo Dias
The NYFA 1-Year Conservatory 3D Animation & VFX Diana has worked on numerous VFX projects since graduating. Her credits include Ad Astra, Venom, Cats, Pokemon Detective Pikachu Ad, Sonic the Hedgehog and many more.
Here’s Diana’s advice for new students:
“You get out of NYFA what you put in when you show up each day with enthusiasm and a readiness to listen and learn, you’re planting seeds with your teachers and classmates that blossom into a professional network. I am very grateful for my teachers at NYFA who not only taught me the skills I needed but also nurtured my potential, and then gave me my first industry opportunities. A special shoutout to Rob, Boaz, Gavin, Tim, and Phoebe!”
Andor Zahonyi
NYFA’s 12-Week Filmmaking workshop alum and professional Digital Compositor Andor Zahonyi has not stopped creating breath-taking visuals since completing the program. Andor has almost 50 visual effects credits on IMDB and more than 300 TV commercials as either VFX supervisor, editor, lead VFX artist or VFX artist credited to him.
The trailer for Andor’s most recent project,The HUN, saw great success in the festival circuit where it won first place in 12 festivals including Cannes World Film Festival, Europe Film Festival, Berlin Underground Film Festival, New Harvest Film Festival in Moscow and Hollywood Independent Filmmaker Awards and Festival.
Guillermo Quesada
NYFA alum Guillermo Quesada, graduated as a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Game Design at our Burbank-based campus. While studying at NYFA, he learned the art and craft of game design and storytelling at the professional level, acquiring the skills of game prototyping, playtesting, iteration, presentation, collaboration, and how to develop software using industry standards—including workflow, multiple platforms, and coding. All skills that he then transferred to his work in the remake of The Lion King using a virtual reality system.
Please note: NYFA does not represent that these are typical or guaranteed career outcomes. The success of our graduates in any chosen professional pathway depends on multiple factors, and the achievements of NYFA alumni are the result of their hard work, perseverance, talent and circumstances.