For a student interested in a career in animation, what are the thoughts on the Art Center Entertainment Design program vs LCAD Animation program? Obviously, Art Center is much more expensive so, as with most families, that is one consideration.
Full disclosure: I am the parent, not the student who has some art school education and is accepted at both schools.
I currently have a daughter attending Art Center for Illustration/Entertainment Arts. She wants to do concept art and visual development for animated movies, rather than do actual animation. So, that’s where my perspective is coming from.
I do know that getting into Art Center’s Entertainment Design program for either animation or concept art is extremely difficult. Both are very small programs and the quality of your portfolio needs to be exceptional to be accepted. The animation track is relatively new and has not graduated a cohort yet.
My daughter talks about the high-caliber of teachers (mostly working professionals) and the school’s strong emphasis on professionalism and preparing students for the working world. Art Center’s close proximity to many studios is a bonus in finding quality teachers, internships, speakers, etc. It’s a VERY tough school that believes in mileage, so that everything becomes second nature. My daugher’s own skills have increased exponentially in a small period of time, so I see their approach does works. Many alumni say the real working world is not nearly as tough as the school. This level of toughness is not for everyone. Your student has to be ok with it and know that time management and self-care are paramount.
Class sizes at both schools are small, so there’s plenty of opportunity for 1-on-1. Teachers easily get to know the students.
Art Center emphasized the need to take a lot of figure drawing classes to build her skills and have pieces for the portfolio. They told her they consider figure drawing is difficult and it tells them a lot about your skills. Art Center prefers prospective students work with their admissions rep to build your best portfolio. (The reps do not decide if you are accepted; the department chairs do.) My daughter took advantage of that advice and had the rep review hers a few times until they no longer had suggestions to make it better. Laguna’s admissions rep will also look at your portfolio and offer suggestions. I do not know if their rep is the decision-maker. Tour both schools and see which one intuitively feels right. We found that on the tour they gave off different vibes.
Regardless of the school, make sure your student understands the filmaking pipeline for animated movies. Some students study animation in college, but ultimatley prefer to work in storyboarding or one of the other chains in the link. If that is your student, it may be easier to get into a college to study illustration with an emphasis on entertainment arts, or something similar, and ultimately reach the same career goal. Also, many schools have recently added Game Design, Entertainment Design, and other similar majors to help students pick a more specific path, so research those too. Here is a link to a small website I created a couple years ago when counseling some high school students on how to research colleges and careers in animation. I hope you’ll find it helplful.
@animal1096, thank you for the great reply and the link you you site. The information you shared is really helpful. It’s nice to hear your daughter is doing so well.
If you are interested in a strong animation program, but in a university setting… Loyola Marymount University (LMU) is a fantastic option. They provide students with strong studios arts classes and balance it with animation and core. The animation classes offered vary, and currently there are 2D, 3D, and even a new stop-motion class taught by an animator on Robot Chicken. For students that want the pre-production/concept art side of animation, that is offered too with character design, world building, and many intensive storyboarding classes.
Though the website is not too informational, when you visit the actual program, you realize how much LMU truly offers in their animation program, that is housed in the School of Film and Television.
The program is relatively newer compared to others and is currently ranked #12 on the West Coast (Animation Career Review) and is climbing the rankings every year!
Alumni work at Dreamworks, Disney Animation, nickelodeon, Warner bros, Sony, blizzard, stoopid buddy, bento box, bix pix, and many more.
I recommend checking this program out if you are looking for an intense, but worthwhile Arts/Animation program in a university setting.
https://sftv.lmu.edu/academics/undergraduateprograms/animation/
Thank you ohmywaht. My student was accepted at Loyola for Fall 2018 but it was not a good fit for a number of reasons. That said, it certainly is a great school with an excellent reputation.
It’s really just down to LCAD vs. Art Center for Spring 2019, with acceptances received at both Entertainement Design programs. He already lives in SoCal, so knows the area.
@animal1096 how’s the career services at Art Center? my son is considering transferring from Ringing (CA) to Art Center (illustration/entertainment arts). Any information is greatly appreciated. Is it possible for my son to contact you or your daughter for any questions? Many thanks.
@AskExperts I just PM’d you.
@spark808 Which school did your child ultimately choose? My daughter is just finishing 9th grade, but I suspect that she will be applying to both of those schools when the time comes. She is doing a summer class at ArtCenter and another one at Otis this summer, and she plans to do an intensive summer program at LCAD in a future summer. Still unsure of precise major of interest at this early stage, although I suspect it would be some major/minor combination of illustration/entertainment design/painting and drawing at LCAD (she loves their representational approach) and entertainment design at ArtCenter. Understanding that it is all very personal and subjective, I would be curious to get your impressions of the schools based on your research and experiences, and was also curious if you looked at Otis and if at any point she considered non-art colleges. Coming to this as someone from a background in philosophy and law, it is all new to me but I am completely supportive of her goals. Thanks!
My background is about as far away from art school as you can get. My child is pursuing an animation/entertainment design education so that is the perspective of my response. We live in Nevada, but visited all of the SoCal art schools. It sounds like you live in SoCall, so that will be a huge advantage. Really, after spending time at each school, your daughter should be in a great position to make an informed decision. I am answering a bit more generally since others may find it useful.
My student wanted to pursue a BFA (65-80% creative / 35-20% liberal arts) rather than a BA (inverse ratio). He had strong academics and was admitted to several traditional liberal arts colleges but just wanted to go to an art school. Probably the most important thing you can do is to enroll you daughter in figure drawing classes. If you don’t live near an art college, your local community college or adult education resources are good places to start. There are good online opportunities too, but actual studio time is important. Second, try to establish some connections with mentors for your daughter. We eventually networked with a couple of wonderful local professional artists and a character designer at Disney Animation. The value of these mentors was immense, especially coming from a non-creative background like me. If you daughter is certain she wants to be an artist, she need to draw all the time and she will need critical feedback. Summer programs are wonderful, if you live in a location to take advantage.
It seems art schools are somewhat isolating compared traditional colleges. There is limited on-campus life, no group projects, very diverse student body ages, etc. It’s a bit more like a professional career, where you go to work with a diverse group of people and then you go home, rather than living with people in a dorm. SoCal is so expensive that I would give significant weight to a school that allows your student to live at home.
Here are the schools:
LCAD. This is where my student ended up. LCAD seems to provide a solid education and cares about their students, really doing their best to provide some of the college experience. This is a good place for college freshman, but it is far from a traditional college. Laguna/Orange County is idyllic.
CalArts. Most attendees are a bit older, with significant prior art background. Probably a better place to end training rather than start.
Gnomon. More like a technical college, focused on 3D. Probably a better place to end training rather than start.
ArtCenter. That is where I think my student should have attended, but it was not my decision. Entertainment Design in on the Hillside/Lida campus and Illustration in on the Downtown campus. I like the Hillside campus and programs much more.
Otis. Did not think the location, school, student work, etc. was a good fit for our student interested in animation.
Chapman/Loyola/USC. Traditional colleges.
My student treated ArtCenter as an afterthought when applying to schools and did not get into Entertainment Design for fall of freshman year. We visited Hillside after application and been submitted and he loved ArtCenter. He started at LCAD with the plan to transfer to ArtCenter. He applied to ArtCenter Entertainment Design and was accepted. By this time, he had been at LCAD for a few months and could not really imagine himself somewhere else. I think this happens so much with students; wherever they end up becomes the place they can’t really imagine leaving, so when a transfer opportunity arrives, the no longer want to leave.
@spark808 Thank you so much for this thoughtful and nuanced reply. I agree with you that over the next couple of years of taking classes at these schools, a clear front-runner will likely emerge. I’m sure that your son will thrive at LCAD and will take his education and career wherever he wants them to go - he is clearly both very talented and very intelligent.
I will say that the one thing giving me pause about ArtCenter at the moment is its reputation for having an extreme workload level. I’m not sure if the stories of constant all-nighters are exaggerated (but they do seem to be above and beyond what I hear in terms of the workload at even other challenging art colleges), but for my particular child, I could see that taking her in a direction where her physical and mental health could spiral. Some people thrive in those conditions and others do not - just like in my world, there are certain law firms that are known to be relentless pressure cookers where some people thrive and some people do not. But who knows - those reports could be an exaggeration. I’l definitely continue to keep my eyes and ears open as we learn more about the schools in the coming two years.
We happened to be down near Chapman and toured Dodge (and had an animation student as a guide, in fact) - it was an interesting and vibrant place, but like your son, my daughter wants the ratio of creative classes to be as high as possible (she draws constantly and has for years). Agree with you re: Gnomon and certain others as being probably more in the nature of a finishing program. Thank you again SO much for the detailed reply…your message was helpful to me and no doubt to many others as well. And best wishes to your son!