D.I.C.E. Award for Outstanding Achievement in Animation

The D.I.C.E. Award for Outstanding Achievement in Animation is an award presented annually by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences during the D.I.C.E. Awards. This award is "presented to the individual or team whose work represents the highest level of achievement in bringing a character or characters to life. This award will consider the fluidity of movement, and interaction with the environment in addition to contextual realism (look and feel)". Creative/technical Academy members with expertise as an artist, animator or programmer are qualified to vote for this award.

The award's most recent winner is Marvel's Spider-Man 2, developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment.

Animation & Art Direction
The Academy originally offered the Outstanding Achievement in Art/Graphics at the first two annual awards ceremonies. This would be separated into the categories of Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction and Outstanding Achievement in Animation at the third annual awards ceremony. Since the categories separated, roughly half of the finalists and winners for "Animation" and "Art Direction" were the same game within its respective release year. The games that had won both awards for "Animation" and "Art Direction" were:


 * Final Fantasy VIII
 * Final Fantasy IX
 * Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus
 * Half-Life 2
 * Gears of War
 * Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
 * Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
 * The Last of Us
 * Ori and the Blind Forest
 * Cuphead
 * Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
 * God of War Ragnarök

The games that won the "Animation" award but were not finalists in the "Art Direction" category were:


 * Assassin's Creed III
 * Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
 * Luigi's Mansion 3

2022 was the only year that the "Animation" and "Art Direction" categories had the same five finalists and winner.

Developers and publishers
Sony has published the most nominees and winners. Sony has the distinction of publishing the most nominees within a year (three) on four separate occasions (during the awards ceremony in 2003, 2005, 2006, and 2014). Sony has two winning streaks for publishing the category winners (2010 to 2012, and 2021 to 2024). Activision has published the most nominees without a single winner.

Sony's development subsidiary Naughty Dog has developed the most winners in this category. Ubisoft Montreal has developed the most nominees, and is one of two developers with back-to-back wins, with the other being SquareSoft. Ubisoft Montpellier, formerly known as "Ubi Pictures", has developed the most nominees without a single winner.

Franchises
Assassin's Creed has been the most nominated franchise, while Uncharted and God of War have been the most award-winning franchises. Final Fantasy is the only franchise to have back-to-back wins. Call of Duty is the most nominated franchise that has never won.