Whether working with paper, pixels or puppets, as an Animation major at Laguna College of Art + Design (LCAD), you will become skilled at shaping compelling frame-by-frame performances that inspire viewers to accept that the characters on screen are alive with genuine thoughts and sincere emotions. LCAD’s BFA program in Animation is dedicated to ensuring that you become an exceptional storyteller who understands the entire process of filmmaking from script to screen. You will develop your abilities in traditional animation with classic artistic skills and then enhance that knowledge with fluency in the latest digital tools. Our Animation faculty is comprised of experienced industry professionals who are here to help you bring your characters to life in your own unique style.
Cartoon Network
Disney
DreamWorks
Fox
Industrial Light & Magic
The Jim Henson Company
Laika
Mattel
Nickelodeon
Obsidian Entertainment
Pixar
Renegade Animation
Sony
South Park Studios
Telltale Games
Titmouse
Warner Bros.
Create convincing, feature-quality animation of original characters that allows personality and emotion to dictate unique acting choices, expressions and movement.
Pitch stories clearly and succinctly, showing an understanding of structure and character and the ability to elevate the material by incorporating group critique.
Demonstrate effective communication skills necessary for collaboration in group productions.
Demonstrate competence in filmmaking disciplines such as directing, screenwriting, editing, sound design and cinematography.
Department Leadership
Department Chair Animation
Eric Walls
Eric Walls has had a career in animation for over 30 years, with an extensive and versatile background in both traditional hand-drawn and CG animation for animated & live-action film and theme park attractions. His animation has been featured in many projects for Disney, DreamWorks, and Warner Brothers, including The Lion King, The Prince of Egypt, Meet the Robinsons, Bolt, The Princess and the Frog, and the Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi theme park. His scope of work includes character animation, effects, illustration, digital cut-out animation, and a considerable list of previsualization projects.
Through his career, Eric has had the opportunity to teach and mentor new artists, including serving in Disney Animations prestigious Apprenticeship Program, training several artists now in prominent roles in the field.
Erics goal is to help students become clear communicators with their art, while building on their skills to reach their career goals.
Department Chair of Animation
Brad Kuha
Brad Kuha has worked professionally as a Character Animator for the past thirty years. Originally trained in the classical Disney Character Animation technique, Brad began his career with Disney, animating on such films as Rescuers Down Under, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Lion King, Pocahontas, and Hunchback of Notre Dame, as well as the Dreamworks features Prince of Egypt, and Road to El Dorado. Brad has also worked as Supervising Animator for over a decade at Wiki Wiki Cartoons, animating in various techniques, including full animation and digital puppetry. Brad has also animated in CG, working on the original Scooby Doo live-action/ animation feature as well as five years at Electronic Arts, creating animation assets for video games.
Course Listings
This course expands on the fundamentals, applying the basic concepts to further develop skills in locomotion and acting for animation. Students will progress their understanding of motion, weight, and balance, develop pantomime character performance skills, and have their first introduction to animating dialogue. Students will gain a deeper grasp of traditional animation principles and character animation techniques.
This course offers an intense investigation of character design. The objective of this course is to design model sheets of unique and imaginative animated characters. Students begin with preliminary sketches and construction drawing, and continue to develop numerous rotation drawings (turnarounds) of facial expressions and a variety of action poses that are refined and which eventually lead to more finished drawings. A variety of styles are explored. Emphasis is on working from imagination and strengthening drawing skills.
This is a figure drawing course for animators that focuses on gesture and how to capture the essentials of movement, dynamic expression, and the individual model's attitude. A variety of drawing media will be introduced.
This course covers how to effectively portray the essence of a story by means of quick and accurate sketches. Students learn to develop and create a sequential series of staged drawings (the visual script of each scene in a film). A brief overview of script writing is included. The script's plot, situations, and conflict are developed from rough sketches to finished presentations. This course also examines staging, cinematography, drama, action notes, dialogue, pacing, timing, and sequencing the story's action.
This course emphasizes 3-dimensional form analysis: proportion, scale, foreshortening, and weight. Using an economy of line and value, students will strive to capture emotion and expression of animal forms by depicting gesture, manner, attitude, and rhythm. Comparative studies of animal and human anatomy will empower students with strong, imaginative drawing skills. A variety of domestic and zoo animals will be studied and drawn in the studio and on location.
This introductory CG animation course focuses on the tools of industry-leading Autodesk Maya specifically for creating high-performance animation. Students build upon their foundational knowledge of animation tools and processes, progressing from introductory mechanics with simple rigs, and advancing to pantomime acting utilizing a full-character rig. Students will learn to apply animation principles to CG techniques, with instruction emphasizing a traditional approach to 3D character animation for achieving strong personalities and acting.
This course is designed to teach students advanced CG animation techniques by applying traditional character animation principles to CG animation. Students will enhance their approach and workflow while deepening their understanding of Maya animation tools. The course focuses on advancing CG skills in performance and locomotion, progressing to dialogue and character interaction. By the end, students will have produced a polished demo reel showcasing their advanced CG animation capabilities.
This intermediate course builds on foundational animation principles, with an emphasis on developing more complex animation skills. Students will refine their acting skills of conveying emotion with their characters and exploring different character types and personalities in various ways. This course will focus on enhancing the students' animation techniques with nuanced and detailed character animation performance.
In this course students will learn the role of layout in the filmmaking process, with an emphasis on feature films. The course will cover the basics of film cinematography, planning camera mechanics, how to plan and use creative perspective, lighting, and visual storytelling. Students will have the opportunity to plan and create a layout workbook, and to develop a series of key layouts during the semester. The emphasis will be on creative solutions for staging and designing the worlds that animated characters inhabit. The principles taught can be applied to traditional animation, 3D animation, or games. Recommended texts: The Five Cs of Cinematography by Joseph V. Mascelli and Film Directing Shot by Shot by Steven D. Katz. Bring a 9 x 12 sketchbook and a set of cool grey Prism color markers to the first day of class.
Background Painting teaches students to take their drawn environments and background layouts to full color. The course emphasizes the skills and tools needed to emulate traditional painting techniques using Adobe Photoshop.
This advanced course is designed to push the student's ability to give vision to a concept and to visually convey emotional story beats. Emphasis is placed on visual communication with the use of value, design, color, and composition. Artistic growth is encouraged through a series of critiques and demonstrations.
This is a figure drawing course for animators that focuses on gesture and capturing essentials of movement, dynamic expression, and the individual model's attitude. A variety of drawing media are introduced.
This course introduces students to digital approaches to feature-quality animation techniques, focusing primarily on industry-standard software: Toon Boom Harmony, TV Paint, and post-production through Adobe Suite (After Effects and Premiere). The course brings together traditional animation learning and the digital tools utilized in modern animation practices. By integrating these key tools, students will be better prepared for success in their animation studies and creative careers.
The purpose of this course is to finalize a short film idea that will be executed in the senior year. This course will provide experience in the process of choosing a short-film idea and developing it into a story that is clear, compelling, and entertaining. Students learn storytelling and filmmaking techniques and explore several ideas before choosing a final film. Students in this class will be evaluated on their scripts, designs and animatics with sound.
The most advanced of the animation courses, this class builds on complex concepts of full animation technique. Students will also learn collaboration skills, culminating in a group film created from concept to final color film. Additionally, the course introduces digital, paperless approaches to the full animation technique, utilizing industry-standard TV Paint software.
Thesis 1 begins animation production of the students' animation films developed in Directing for Animators, concentrating on creating and completing 50% of their film animation. The course focuses on communication, character personality, acting, storytelling, and entertainment. Students will be required to participate in weekly dailies, presenting their work and incorporating instructor feedback. Emphasis is placed on developing industry-standard production skills, high-quality animation, meeting deadlines, and managing production schedules. Active engagement and effective problem-solving are crucial for advancing through this intensive course.
Thesis 2 continues the animation production process begun in Thesis 1, with students completing the remaining 50% of their film animation. The course emphasizes finalizing animation sequences and refining the overall flow of the film, while adhering to production management. Students are required to meet their final goals, demonstrating an advanced level of craft and technique.
This course is taken in the last senior semester and teaches the techniques necessary to bring a film to final color and sound. Principles include digital ink & paint, backgrounds, compositing, and high-quality presentation polishing. All students will complete soundtracks for their films with Foley, sound design, and final mixing. Finished films will be encoded to theatrical DCP (Digital Cinema Package) standards and each class member will prepare the necessary publicity materials for submission to online festival platforms.
This course is an introduction to drawing the human form that explores observational and imaginative drawing techniques using graphite and charcoal. Students work from the draped and undraped model. Emphasis is on accurate representation of the figure utilizing observation with the elements of gesture, measurement, construction line, volume, proportion, and surface anatomy. Materials include graphite and charcoal.
This course is an exploration in story structure and the incorporation of classic storytelling techniques/archetypes in the medium of film.
This introductory course covers the principles of classical, full animation technique on paper, dimensional constructive drawing techniques as well as the analysis of action and movement in the natural world. Students explore these concepts through exercises which isolate the core principles being taught. Students will learn the fundamentals common to all animation techniques.
This course introduces the students to the complex interface of Maya, one of the leading software programs in animation and graphic design industries. Students will learn how to navigate Maya's interface exploring basic modeling, rigging, lighting, texture, and camera set-up.
This class focuses on representing the construction of a 3D object in a 2D image. The class will cover the basics of observational drawing, traditional drawing technique, perspective, and foundational design for concepting and building objects in game art. The class introduces one, two, and three point perspective to accurately construct the appearance of 3D forms. Other topics covered are camera lenses and field of view, the importance of camera placement, and placing shadows based on light sources through perspective guides. Throughout this course, students will learn the role of drawing and design in the game industry. Students will build a sketchbook composed of lessons, observational drawings and original illustrations over the course of the semester. The emphasis will be on building their visual library so they can effectively express their own ideas.
This course concentrates on preparing students to enter team-based creative environments with emphasis on digital portfolio and reel development, communication skills, industry networking opportunities and success strategies for collaborative projects.
This is an introductory-level course designed for students to develop or enhance their 3D modeling skills. Instruction will focus on the artistry needed to create compelling, "feature-length-quality" characters, while showing how to design and implement geometry best suited for rigging and animation. Students may focus on character or background geometry for their projects. Students will be introduced to new software tools and techniques based upon professional practices utilized by top studios in the industry.
This internship lab provides students with a supervised, practical learning experience in a work setting that is relevant to their major. Through virtual assignments and workplace projects + training the student will apply what they have learned in their LCAD classes in order to solidify professional goals, test possible career choices, build their networks, and gain a better understanding of employer expectations. This lab is to be taken concurrently with an internship for-credit and is designated as CREDIT/NO CREDIT for up to three (3) units of academic credit. This lab may be repeated one time for credit (a total of 6 units)
Alumni
Though my roots in this professional world are still very young, my career in this industry has already started to sprout from the creative soil LCAD planted me in.
When I graduated in 2013 I was quickly scooped up by a local video game company in Irvine, CA called Obsidian Entertainment. There, I was brought on as an Art and Animation Intern for "South Park: The Stick of Truth" to help finish up the project. I was even labeled "The intern to just get stuff done." Shortly after, when South Park was wrapping up, Obsidian gave me my big break in to this industry by hiring me on full time as a 3D Junior Animator in 2014. Since then I have been queued with a couple more of the company's current projects. One of those projects being the CRPG "Pillars of Eternity. "
At Obsidian, I have the opportunity to push my ever-growing skill set by sampling different hats and learning different software in the 3D animation pipeline. By me being able to do this, my creativity and my skill set level seems endless - just like the endless amount of imaginative people that I am very fortunate to work with. These creative people push me to do my best every day, just like the talented people I worked with and learned from during my time at LCAD.
cathy-nichols.blogspot.com
Since graduating from LCAD, I've animated on a banner ad for "Ren & Stimpy" creator John K., animated and storyboarded on several projects with Hero4Hire Creative near Boston, and made a few animatics to stay in the public eye and keep the gears in my head from getting rusty. I'm currently working full-time on the hit Netflix series "All Hail King Julien".
Coming from virtually no animation education, but a deep-seated passion for classic Disney and Warner Bros. cartoons, I benefited profoundly from the company of my fellow students, my professors, and other legendary animators that I met by association while at LCAD. The animation business is no different. Master one facet of filmmaking or draftsmanship and you've still got a dozen to go! Thankfully, I'm still thirsty for knowledge and practicing to get better at my craft every day, and my coworkers and supervisors are treasure troves of insight.
If you want to pursue a career in animation, especially where storytelling is concerned, here's a tip: Go to LCAD. I'll bullet-point a few tips as well, for those who are comforted by seeing numbers at the beginning of paragraphs:
1. Play to your strengths. Are you likely to tell a story whose main character is Rapunzel? Luke Skywalker? Batman? Daffy Duck? You'll definitely want to branch out and test your skills with something new or daring as you move forward, but don't lose sight of the stuff that gets you most psyched in storytelling.
2. Favor the simplest, most direct approach (to a point). Don't skimp on expressions, construction, or nuanced action - if characters behave differently, they should be drawn differently. Their actions will sure as heck be timed differently. That said, a character always makes his/her point more clearly with a few simple gestures than flapping and twirling his/her arms about.
3. Don't stop! After completing my senior film "A Little Hitch" and in between freelance assignments, I continued to make animatics and limited-animation skits to stay active and prove that I was not a one-trick pony. I have a feeling that all that work combined landed me the DreamWorks gig. After all, if you love what you do, you should be prepared to do it at least 40 hours a week!
mikepelensky.tumblr.com
Faculty
Dave Bittorf has a BA degree from the University of Wisconsin, 17 years as a CG instructor with Platt College in San Diego, and an additional 3 years teaching for the Art Institute and the Digital Media Academy. In 2010 Dave was awarded "Teacher of the Year" and in 2012 he won a world-wide competition and was named "CG-VFX Instructor of the Year". He is currently working as a 3D modeler on a children's cartoon series and several apps have been developed using his complex 3D anatomical models. He has also worked with a team that created the box cover art to PS4's "The Order 1886". Dave has worked professionally doing CG modeling and rigging for almost 20 years. He is one of the ZBrush instructors at LCAD.
John Dubiel is a graduate of The California Institute of the Arts with a BFA in Character Animation and extensive studies in the School of Theater, having previously studied Film and Animation at the Philadelphia College of Art (now University of the Arts). He has several years of Animation Industry experience and has worked at Warner Bros. Animation, Universal Cartoon Studios, Film Roman, Hyperion, Mike Young Productions and Rich Entertainment, primarily as a Storyboard Artist. Projects worked on include: Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, The Mummy: The Animated Series, Family Guy, Toddworld, Chloes Closet, Care Bears, Life With Louie, HBOs Happily Ever After, American Heroes: William Bradford, The Swan Princess and The King and I. He has done Live Action Storyboarding on a couple of projects for Generation Entertainment and Development work for The Disney Channel. He has also done Illustration Work on
Collectible Pin Designs for Disney.
John has been part of the adjunct faculty of Mt. San Antonio College for 20 years, having taught classes in Figure Gesture, Figure in Motion, Storyboarding, Character Development and Drawing Fundamentals among others. He has taught Fundamentals of Story and Storyboarding at Laguna College of Art and Design. He has lectured at California State University Northridge and Information Resource Systems. He has been a guest artist at The Haggin Museum in Stockton, CA.
John is also a Screenwriter and Playwright. He has written for Steven Spielberg / Warner Bros. Animaniacs and done script work on the animated feature, My Little World. John is a member of The Company of Angels, the oldest repertory theater company in Los Angeles where he co-facilitates the Playwrights Group and has worked as a director. He has had several theatrical plays produced.
Focusing on caricature and editorial Illustration Richard Ewing has been illustrating professionally since 1987. His black & white work is done in ink using a range of tools from various quill pens to brush; his color art is Acrylic, or Acrylic and Brush & Ink and various other media. His clients include: The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Hollywood Reporter, Time Magazine, AARP, BBDO(LA)-[Blue Cross], Ogilvy & Mather-[AmEx], Wells Rich & Greene-[Ford Motor Co], Merkley, Newman, Harty-[National Thoroughbred Racing Association], The Orange County Register, and LosAngeles Lawyer magazine among others.
Richard's original artwork is kept in private collections of notables such as Kurt Vonnegut and Englebert Humperdink. Richard Ewing is a native of Southern California receiving his BFA and MFA in Illustration from C.S.U. Long Beach in 1987 and 1998 respectively, studying under Richard Oden. Richard is currently living with his family in Long Beach.
At LCAD, Richard teaches figure drawing and anatomy in both the animation and drawing & painting department.
Rick Farmiloe has been animating childhoods for over 30 years, and is best known for breathing hilarity into iconic Disney sidekicks Scuttle, Lefou, and Abu in the beloved Academy Award winning films The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin.
During his 11 years at Disney, he animated on seven features and one short, which included The Black Cauldron, Mickey Mouse Christmas Carol, The Great Mouse Detective, Oliver and Company, and The Rescuers Down Under.
Beyond his work for Disney, Ricks feature film credits include The Swan Princess, The Prince of Egypt, The Road to El Dorado, Shrek, Rugrats Go Wild, Curious George, The Simpsons Movie, Boxtrolls, The Iron Giant: Signature Edition, and four Tom and Jerry DVD features. He also animated on numerous Snoopy commercials for Bill Melendez.
In 2011, Rick was an animator on two Annie Award productions: Adam and Dog, and Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Furious Five. He animated on yet another Annie Award winning commercial, Coca Colas Man and Dog in 2015. Recently Rick has been working with director, Henry Selick, on his new project, Wendell and Wild.
Peter Ferk is a 37 year veteran of the animation industry having worked with Disney, Discovery, Warner Bros. Film Roman, Universal, and Sony among others. Peter's career started with studies at the Ontario College of Fine Art in Toronto and Florence, Italy. His beginnings as a layout artist in Canada for "Teddy Ruxpin", Nightingale and "Meerkats" led to advanced responsibilities with My Pet Monster and "Care Bears" and setting the show style for "Babar". He also served as overseas supervisor for "Chipmunks Goes to the Movies", "Beetlejuice", "Batman The Animated Series", "Wheres Waldo" and "Hero 108". During his time overseas, he taught drawing and layout classes. Back in the U.S. Peter assumed directing responsibilities on "101 Dalmatians the TV Series", "Sabrina The Teenage Witch the Animated TV Series", and "Pigs Next Door" as well as "Camp WWE" for the WWE. Thus far he has worked on many animated series and direct to video projects including: "Superman", "Freakazoid", "Tutenstein", "Pinky and the Brain", "Animaniacs", "Dorothy of OZ", "Disenchanment", "Scooby-Doo","The Jetsons" and "Tom and Jerry", and most recently background design work for Minnie Bow Toons. Peter also produced the animated title sequence for the Christmas hit, Elf. Since 2019, he has been an adjunct professor for LCAD Animation sharing his knowledge and work experiences in Layout and Storyboarding. Peter has received three Emmy Nominations for his work on "Pinky and the Brain" and won his first Emmy for Discovery Networks "Growing Up Creepy".
Born in Gardena, California, James Fujii attended Santa Barbara City College majoring in Biology. During his time in college, James Fujii found his passion for Animation and decided to change majors. He attended CalArts and graduated from the Character Animation Program in 1983 with a BFA degree.
In 1984, Fujii started his first union job at Filmation and have been working in Animation ever since. James worked as an inbetweener at Filmation working on She-Ra and He-Man, and finishing his time there as an animator on Brave Star.
Fujiis resume includes working on prop and character models for Muppet Babies at Marvel before going to Disney Feature Animation, where he started again as an inbetweener on Oliver and Company, The Little Mermaid, as well as Beauty and the Beast. He finished his story training working on Aladdin, Mickeys Runaway Brain, Fantasia 2000, and Hunchback of Notre Dame.
In 1995, James moved to Dreamworks to work on Prince of Egypt, Antz, and Shrek. Since 2000, Fujii has worked at studios like Warner Bros TV Animation, Universal, Stars, Imagi, Paramount, and Netflix Animation Studios. As a result, James Fujii has contributed to over 40 theatrical features and over a dozen shots, direct-to-video animated features, and numerous TV series. James is currently working for Netflix Animation Studios on one of their feature productions.
Caroline Hu has been in the animation and consumer products industry for over 20 years and is happy to be working at LCAD. She has worked at WB studios, Disney, and is a freelance animator and designer.
Brad Kuha has worked professionally as a Character Animator for the past thirty years. Originally trained in the classical Disney Character Animation technique, Brad began his career with Disney, animating on such films as Rescuers Down Under, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Lion King, Pocahontas, and Hunchback of Notre Dame, as well as the Dreamworks features Prince of Egypt, and Road to El Dorado. Brad has also worked as Supervising Animator for over a decade at Wiki Wiki Cartoons, animating in various techniques, including full animation and digital puppetry. Brad has also animated in CG, working on the original Scooby Doo live-action/ animation feature as well as five years at Electronic Arts, creating animation assets for video games.
Industry Veteran 3D Animator - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0719799
Tim is an art director, visual development artist, and background designer with over 25 years of experience in the animation industry. He received a BA in Studio Art from St. Olaf College and also attended the Kansas City Art Institute. Tim started out as a traditional animator in Minneapolis before moving to Los Angeles in 2000. In 2010 he transitioned from animation to design and visual development. Notable projects include Cosmos, Mortal Kombat, Injustice, Bojack Horseman, Elena of Avalor and Teen Titans Go to the Movies. In 2015 he was hired to art direct Bunnicula and two Lego DC Superhero Girls films at Warner Brothers. Freelance clients list includes Disney, DreamWorks, Fox, Cartoon Network, Bento Box, Renegade, Oddbot, Six Point Harness, Titmouse, Nickelodeon and The Mayo Clinic. Currently he is doing visual development and design on a new series for Disney Junior and teaching background painting at LCAD.
Eric Walls has had a career in animation for over 30 years, with an extensive and versatile background in both traditional hand-drawn and CG animation for animated & live-action film and theme park attractions. His animation has been featured in many projects for Disney, DreamWorks, and Warner Brothers, including The Lion King, The Prince of Egypt, Meet the Robinsons, Bolt, The Princess and the Frog, and the Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi theme park. His scope of work includes character animation, effects, illustration, digital cut-out animation, and a considerable list of previsualization projects.
Through his career, Eric has had the opportunity to teach and mentor new artists, including serving in Disney Animations prestigious Apprenticeship Program, training several artists now in prominent roles in the field.
Erics goal is to help students become clear communicators with their art, while building on their skills to reach their career goals.
Admissions Information
Application Dates
LCAD has a rolling admissions policy and will accept applications until we’ve filled all spots for an incoming class. Applications will still be considered after the following priority dates: