Best Animation Studios in New York (2026)

Introduction

New York has twelve animation and motion design studios worth knowing in 2026, covering brand campaigns, broadcast identities, title sequences and full television series. Some are global groups with a large Manhattan or Brooklyn office. Others are smaller independents that have worked out of the city for twenty years or more.

The city's motion community is well organised and visible. Motionographer marked its 20th anniversary in 2026 with Motion Plus Design New York, held across several city venues. Series work continues alongside advertising: Titmouse's New York studio, whose artists unionised with The Animation Guild in 2022, sits inside a company now producing shows such as Strip Law for Netflix. Nathan Love made the opening ceremony film for the Pokémon World Championships 2026.

Every studio below has a New York office listed on its own website in 2026. Blue Sky Studios, which Disney closed in 2021, is not included. The list is unranked, since the right studio depends on the style, format and schedule of the project.

The best animation studios in New York

1. Buck

B Corp · Industry City, Brooklyn · buck.co

Buck is a global creative company working across animation, design and branding, with offices in Los Angeles, New York, Sydney, Amsterdam and London. Its New York studio is in Industry City in Sunset Park. The company holds B Corporation certification.

Recent work listed by the studio includes Google Pixel's "Made You Look" campaign, the visual identity for Riot Games' League of Legends World Championship, a cel-animated character for Oscar Health, and episodes of Netflix's Love, Death + Robots. Buck also takes on brand identity work, so a single team can cover both a refresh and the motion system around it.

2. Psyop

Independent · New York · psyop.com

Psyop was founded in New York in 2000 by Marco Spier, Marie Hyon, Todd Mueller, Kylie Matulick and Eben Mears. It now describes itself as an independent, artist-led studio collective, with more than 30 affiliated studios in over 15 countries and US hubs in New York and Los Angeles.

The studio works across animation, live action, mixed media and games, and has a long record of branded entertainment, including an animated series with DreamWorks Animation and a games publishing arm. New business runs through a global team, so it is worth asking which studio in the collective will lead the work.

3. Golden Wolf

London and New York · Lower East Side · goldenwolf.tv

Golden Wolf calls itself a creative agency and animation studio "born in London and raised in New York". Its New York office is on Rivington Street on the Lower East Side.

Recent work includes Instacart's Super Bowl campaign, McDonald's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles x Hello Kitty and Friends promotion, Chevrolet's "America's Favourites" and Google Messaging's "Text It Like You Talk It". Clients also include adidas, Epic Games and Samsung, and the studio is a good fit for bright, character-led 2D work.

4. Titmouse

Independent · Midtown · titmouse.net

Titmouse is a privately held animation studio founded by Chris and Shannon Prynoski in 2000. It employs more than 700 people across Los Angeles, New York, Vancouver and Paris, and opened its New York studio on West 30th Street in 2010. Staff there formed a union with The Animation Guild in 2022, the first outside Los Angeles County in more than 70 years.

The studio is best known for series. Recent and current titles include The Legend of Vox Machina season 4 and The Mighty Nein for Prime Video, Haunted Hotel and Strip Law for Netflix, and Golden Axe for Paramount+. It also makes commercials and has in-house sound and editing.

5. MakeMake

Founder-led · NoMad · makemake.com

MakeMake is the group led by founder and CEO Angus Wall that brings together design and animation, editing, narrative design and VFX (under the Elastic name), colour, music and film and TV marketing. Its New York office is on Fifth Avenue, with two more in Los Angeles and Santa Monica.

Design and animation work includes the main titles for Netflix's The Dinosaurs, the title reveal for Lionsgate's The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, titles for FX and Hulu's Good American Family, and ESPN college football campaigns. It suits projects that need titles, edit and finishing under one roof.

6. Scholar

Independent · Hudson Square · helloscholar.com

Scholar, formerly Gentleman Scholar, is a creative company working across 2D and 3D animation, live action, character design, product visualisation and mixed media. It has two offices, in Los Angeles and on Varick Street in New York.

Recent projects include Apple's "College, Sorted", Google Play's "Ready to Play", Target's Holiday 2025 campaign, Uber's "Go-Get" and a planetarium film for the US Space Force. The studio often blends live action with animation in a single spot.

7. Nathan Love

Independent · New York · nathanlove.com

Nathan Love describes itself as "an animation studio by design, and a character company at heart". It works in 3D, 2D, stop motion and motion graphics, with a particular focus on designing and developing brand characters.

Recent work includes the Pokémon World Championships 2026 opening ceremony film, Canada Dry's "Tuesday", Prime Video's "Cheers For Fears" horror campaign and Mr. Clean Professional. Past clients include Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, HBO, Google and Procter & Gamble.

8. Augenblick Studios

Independent · Brooklyn · augenblickstudios.com

Aaron Augenblick founded Augenblick Studios in Brooklyn in 1999. It is an independent studio making shows, films, music videos and commercials.

Its television credits include City Island for PBS Kids, Teenage Euthanasia and The Jellies for Adult Swim, Headspace Guide to Meditation and Losers for Netflix, and Ugly Americans for Comedy Central. It is one of the few New York independents with long experience of adult and children's series alike.

9. Loyalkaspar

Independent · Financial District · loyalkaspar.com

Loyalkaspar has worked from New York since 2003 and is led by CEO David Herbruck. It combines brand strategy and identity with motion design, campaigns and live action, mostly for entertainment, streaming and sports brands.

Recent clients include NBA on NBC, Disney+, Peacock, The ESPYS, Samsung Gaming and Meow Wolf. For a network or streamer, it can design the identity and the on-air motion package together.

10. Trollbäck+Company

Independent · Financial District · trollback.com

Trollbäck+Company is a branding and design studio with its main office on Pine Street in New York and a second in Stockholm. Motion has always been central to its identity work.

Recent projects include the global motion identity for Sesame Street, a brand evolution for PBS, the FOX Entertainment identity, Acorn TV's branding and an audio branding system for Audible. It is a natural choice when a brand needs a motion system rather than a single film.

11. Brand New School

Independent · New York · brandnewschool.com

Brand New School has worked for nearly two decades as a mix of design studio, agency and production company. Its roster includes directors such as Jonathan Notaro and Christopher Dooley, alongside DIA Studio.

The company works through a four-stage process (learn, ideate, design, make) and handles design-led brand films and campaigns. Ask to see recent New York-produced work, as the team and roster span more than one city.

12. Black Math

Independent · New York and four other bases · blackmath.com

Black Math is a design and technology studio working across identity, content and creative technology, with bases in Boston, New York, Portland, Richmond and Costa Rica. Its line is that the work "always starts with art".

Recent clients include Aleo, TransMedics, Bai, Reebok and Chime. It suits brands that want an identity and the animated content that carries it, made by the same team.

What to look for in a New York animation studio

Start with format. Some studios here are built for series, with pipelines, unions and staff sized for 10 or 22 episodes. Others specialise in 30-second spots, title sequences or identity systems. A studio that excels at one may be slow or expensive at another.

Look at style range in the reel, then ask which pieces were made in New York. Several of these studios belong to groups with offices on three or four continents, and work is often shared between them. That can be useful for capacity, though it affects time zones and who you meet.

Ask how the schedule is broken down. Most projects move through script, design, storyboard, animatic, animation and compositing, with client sign-off at each stage. Agreeing the number of review rounds up front protects both budget and quality.

Finally, ask how boards, style frames and cuts will be shared and approved. Animation produces many versions of large files, and feedback scattered across email, chat and PDFs is a common cause of rework. A single place for the latest boards, the asset library and comments makes long projects easier.

How Fabric helps animation teams

Fabric gives an animation team one workspace for its files, references and feedback, with AI search across all of it. Directors and designers can lay out boards, style frames and reference clips on an infinite canvas that embeds Vimeo, YouTube and Figma, which works well for moodboards and early storyboards. Canvases export to SVG or PNG for a deck.

Asset libraries tend to grow quickly. Character sheets, renders and project files sit in Fabric's cloud drive, which streams files on demand so they take no local disk space, and shared folders always hold the latest versions. Search works by meaning across images, PDFs and transcribed audio, with colour search for palettes, and similar search finds frames with a related composition or colour.

For review, clients can open animatics in the built-in viewer and leave threaded comments through a shared link without signing up. Annotations cover highlights and comments on PDFs such as scripts and board decks. Timestamped comments and drawing on video and images are coming soon. There is more on running stages and sign-offs in the review and approval guide.

Production can be tracked on Kanban boards, where any folder becomes a board and each card is the file itself. Moving a shot folder from layout to animation to comp keeps the work and its status in one place.

Password protection and link analytics are included on Pro and Team plans, and self-writing docs on Team plans. See plans for teams.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best animation studio in New York?

It depends on the project. For series, Titmouse and Augenblick Studios have the longest track records in the city. For brand campaigns, Buck, Psyop, Golden Wolf and Scholar are the most frequently hired, and for identity and motion systems, Trollbäck+Company and Loyalkaspar.

Is Blue Sky Studios still open?

No. Disney closed Blue Sky Studios, which was based in Greenwich, Connecticut, in 2021. Its feature work is not continued by any studio on this list.

What is the difference between an animation studio and a VFX studio?

Animation studios create the whole image, in 2D, 3D or stop motion. VFX studios mostly add to or alter live-action footage. Several firms do both, and there is a separate list of VFX studios in New York.

How long does an animated commercial take?

Timelines vary with length, style and the number of review rounds. Studios generally plan design, boards and an animatic before full animation, so ask for a stage-by-stage schedule at the quote.

Do New York animation studios work with clients outside the city?

Yes. Most studios here have offices in other cities and run reviews remotely, so location matters less than style, capacity and the team assigned.

Related lists

Animation studios in other cities: Los Angeles · London · Toronto · Berlin · Sydney

More in New York: Creative agencies · VFX · Video production · Post-production · Sound design · Design agencies

Run your studio on Fabric: Fabric for creative teams · Fabric for designers · Best moodboard apps