Parent Advice when Student is interested in Animation

Parents Forum
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Hi All
New here and looking for some general advice from any parents that have have BTDT with a child wanting to pursue a degree/career in animation/art.

Daughter 2021 wants to major in animation, but wants to go to a more traditional university rather than an art school. We live in CA so there are many good options close by (right now have UCLA, USC, LMU, and a few others on list including out of state to look at).
She is in an animation course now which earns a semester of community college credit - and plans on taking the course for the next two years. Guessing one year she’ll also do a summer program at LCAD and possibly some other art/drawing classes. If she’s any good…? (I’m her mom of course I think it’s good!) But honestly, I have absolutely no idea and she’s not too into sharing her work with her parents.

On the flip side she’s an excellent student at a large competitive public school - GPA W 4.6 with plenty of AP courses currently and on tap - in the highest track for math and science. I expect her SAT based on practice tests to be in the 1400 range. EC are average - she’s trying to start up an animation club at school but cant find enough students interested.

How should top academics be balanced with the need to spend a significant amount of time on art/animation? Can it be?
As a parent I’m also worried about the “starving artist” outcome of having an animation degree. I hear how difficult of an industry it is. Is double-majoring a possibility (I get the impression the answer is no)? Is it possible to minor in art/animation and then go to grad school for it?

Obviously all final decisions are hers, but I’m just not sure where to place my encouragement.

Thanks for reading!

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I have one like that but she’s at an earlier stage in her path. Does she do animation/art on her own at home or has she just been exposed via the course/assignments? My rule for my kids is if they self-study on their own at home without the scaffolding of a course, they are ready to study it in college - in other words, if they do it when no ones is looking. If she’s only done it as part of a course where it’s all scaffolded for her, I would want to know first whether she would do it when it’s not homework. Almost all professional jobs are contracting due to automation/outsourcing/competition/globalization, so I would not consider any major to be a sure bet. But I would only encourage it if it’s the thing that makes her breathe. At least you are near the industry center for animation!

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She has a Wacom tablet at home and pays with her own money for a monthly student subscription to the Adobe suite of tools including Animate. She used to draw and use the tablet a lot until this year. All of her academic classes except for Spanish are AP or honors so all her time is going to studying,
.
It’s one reason I’m trying to figure out if I need to encourage her to back off the academics (within reason) to get more art time if that’s what she wants to do. I’m not sure she grasps what getting into one of these programs really requires. But also don’t want that to backfire if she ends up not being good enough to get into a program.

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RISD does a dual enrollment with Brown University. Have you considered that?

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I have heard good things about San Jose State for animation.

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Post also on the Visual Arts and Film forum. And keep asking away!
Lots of parents there with kids in animation going to different schools. Check out some of the older threads on animation about different schools, national portfolio days etc. Most advice hasn’t changed much.

My D attended Ringling for animation. It was a super experience and she easily got a job post graduation.
Ringling’s motto is “destroying the myth of the starving artist” and as such has an excellent career services department.

There are two sides to animation–art and computer science. Many people in the animation (as well as gaming) industry have CS degrees.
Ringling focuses on the art side–story, character, art and the entire pipeline of creating a film. There are lots of facets to the animation field. Many people are not involved directly with animation but work in other parts of the pipeline. The number of actual animators is small compared to the the overall work force.

The application (for Ringling) is portfolio based emphasizing action versus still life. Some schools are not portfolio based and will give merit aid based on academics (like SCAD). Some of the universities have animation only as a graduate program (requiring extra years), some require portfolio after two years to get accepted to the program–lots of variation on a theme!
It’s easier to major in business…lol.

As to personality and whether you should encourage the career choice…I feel for you. When I started this journey I had to google animation to find out what it was! My entire background is science and it was scary to even think about it!
My D was art-centered from the get go but she was also the first one to start designing her own websites, learn computer programs on her own, write an inordinate amount of stories and draw the characters too.

One big turning point in our decision was sending her to a “pre-college” experience. Ringling’s was a residential month long experience where she got to try out what the art school (and animation) experience was really like. She never looked back. Her friend in contrast who wanted to do animation transferred OUT of animation–sitting in front of a computer all day wasn’t her thing as it turned out.

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So awesome to hear that your daughter is looking at LMU!

First off LMU is a very small program within the School of Film and Television, where interaction between grade levels is encouraged. The animation students are a very tight knit group. I believe it totals around 50 students in the whole program. My son entered the school in the fall, his freshman class totals around 18 kids.

As for my son, he did not want to attend art school. He wanted a balanced education where Animation is the focus and studio art and core classes are balanced. The faculty really encourages students to explore the core classes, because when you just focus on art 24/7, where will you gain real life experiences. He is currently enrolled in a history core class about Colonial America that he loves because the professor lectures as if telling a visual story. Many core classes will also take you off campus to see the world and museums, etc. This in turn allows you to become a greater storyteller as you are gaining experiences that you can tell stories about. This is not to say art isn’t emphasized, which it is.

The required art classes are things like intro to drawing and figure drawing/sculpting classes. But if you take on some elective art classes you will see a great variety. They have an animal drawing class where they bring in animals to the studio but also they take frequent visits to the LA Zoo as it’s quite close.

As for the main part of the major, Animation:

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 side of animation, that is offered too with character design, world building, and many intensive storyboarding classes.

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 Disney Animation, Dreamworks, Laika, Marvel, Nickelodeon, Warner Bros, Sony, Blizzard, Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, Bento Box, Bix Pix, and many more.

LMU encourages a broad approach to animation at first, then allowing students to pick a concentration. This school does not just focus on one thing. But for the 3D concentration, video games and virtual reality can be created instead of films if the student so chooses. Most students are 2D oriented but, stop-motion is getting more popular too. My son will be taking the class this spring, which will be taught by an animator from stoopid Buddy stoodios who works on shoes like robot chicken and tumble leaf.

Guest speakers are also a major thing that LMU offers. In the past, John Lasseter came to speak. Disney legend, Eric Goldberg as well. They had one of writers of Moana and Wreck it Ralph 1 & 2 come to speak. Also an animator that worked on Pixar Coco.

Job placement at LMU is very strong. The career center is very powerful with connections. Here is a link to some of their alumni outcomes:

http://outcomes.lmu.edu

Animation alumni work across the industry in many different roles, from animators, to layout, to storyboards, to directing, etc.

Kevin Molina Ortiz, recent alumni, was just nominated for an Annie award for TV storyboarding on ninja turtles.

Sorry this post was so long, but LMU has a lot to offer and much for me to mention. The program keeps getting better each year. If someone wants to hate on what the program offers, then they should first visit the program, speak to faculty, alumni, and students, before jumping to conclusions.

Here is the animation majors 4 year plan and program details:

http://m.bulletin.lmu.edu/#programdetails1

To keep up to date with the LMU Animation program, feel free to follow its new Instagram account @lmuanimation

@calmomto3 If you have any questions feel free to reach out to me. I could also put my son in contact with your daughter if she has any questions or interest to visit the department.

Thanks

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Since you’re located in CA, be sure to look at the California State Summer School for the Arts, which has a hugely prestigious animation program, with competitive admission by portfolio. Deadlines in February.
https://www.csssa.ca.gov/

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Thanks all for the replies and great info/advice!

I had not heard about the RISD/Brown program or CA State Summer School for the Arts so some new leads to look into.

@ohmywhat thanks for all the details and links. We’re hoping to visit LMU possibly over spring break so I just may follow-up with some questions for you or your son.

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@calmomto3 good luck in finding the right path. It sounds like she has a good sense of what she wants to do :). Which helps a lot.

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@calmomto3 The RISD-Brown dual degree program truly confers 2 baccalaureate-level degrees on the graduates – one at RISD and one at Brown. It is a 5-year program, highly selective, but I think a promising idea for someone like your daughter. It requires separate applications at Brown and RISD: http://risd.brown.edu/faq/index.html.

It is also possible for RISD students who are not enrolled in the dual-degree program to take some of their courses at Brown. My daughter, who graduated from RISD with a major in industrial design, tool 3 or 4 courses at Brown. Those played an important role in stimulating her interest in environmental-ecological issues. Though she ended up with just one degree (the dual degree program was established after she graduated), her career has focused on environmental design [and she earned another degree, an MBA, which allows her to play a role in promoting ecological design in business and industry].

Good luck to your daughter!

Added: The Brown and RISD campuses truly are adjacent to one another, so there are few practical obstacles to working on both campuses. My daughter enjoyed the fact that a cousin of hers was attending Brown (studying computer sciences) at the same time my daughter was at RISD.

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@mackinaw It sounds like your daughter is in a really interesting career area! Thanks for the info!

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Check out UT-Dallas. Her academic stats might qualify her for merit. I know somebody who is studying animation and graphic design there on a full tuition scholarship.

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Also check out Texas A&M’s Visualization program in the College of Architecture – my S is a senior there. Animation is one track, but the program also has a Game Design track. The career options are pretty broad, as I discovered while helping him research internship possibilities. It’s not all about making movies or video games!

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I echo looking at CSSSA for animation. It’s a 4 week program where the kids stay at CalArts (but the program is run by the state) and are immersed in animation fundamentals. The competition to get in is fierce, so most kids apply to animation, and then a second option like fine arts. My D attended as a rising junior two summers ago and LOVED it. The program confirmed her decision to be an animator.

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Look/ask in this sub forum http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/visual-arts-film-majors/