Santa Monica College's Academy of Entertainment & Technology was the first community college in California to offer a special animation program. Credit for all SMC images: Randy Bellous Productions.

Ten years ago, Santa Monica College, in California, started a special animation program in a new facility that was set up just for this newfangled thing called "digital animation." With the establishment of the Academy of Entertainment & Technology, SMC became the first community college in California to offer this specialized curriculum.

Many types of schools now teach animation and digital media. They range from vocational schools, to private specialty schools, to major universities, and community colleges are among the leaders in this discipline.

Today there are community colleges across the country teaching traditional animation, 3D animation, game design, Web animation and other forms of digital media. Why are there so many schools teaching this curriculum in all parts of the world?

"Santa Monica College's program was developed in response to local labor market data and many meetings with entertainment executives who were publicly bemoaning the lack of local talent to fill digital entertainment media jobs," said Katharine Muller, Dean of External Programs at SMC.

"The Academy of Entertainment & Technology is in the heart of the entertainment industry, which provides us wonderful opportunities for our faculty and staff to keep pace with industry needs," continued Muller. The academy is located in the center of 3D and game animation production in Santa Monica, CA.

But why would a school in New Jersey and one in Michigan include animation and digital media in their curriculum?

"The rationale was that there were few strong animation programs in the region and those that were around tended to focus upon traditional animation," said Van Muse, Dean of Instruction and Director of the Center for New Media at the Arcadia Commons Campus of Kalamazoo Valley Community College in Kalamazoo, Michigan. "Our focus was on 3D animation with a foundation in drawing and traditional animation, which created uniqueness for our region."

KVCC's program started in 2002 and became a degreed program in 2005. Muse keeps abreast of current animation trends as the Director of Operations for the Kalamazoo Animation Festival International (KAFI), one of the premiere animation festivals in the country.

At Mercer County Community College in New Jersey, the program was spawned by one professor's personal interest in computer graphics back in 1985, according to Yevgeniy Fiks, the head of the current animation program. "It was started by a painting/design professor, Frank Rivera, who became interested in 3D graphics at the time. I believe the program grew out of his personal interest and fascination with digital media. And I believe at that time MCCC was one of the first community colleges that actually offered computer graphics courses."

MCCC's program began with a professor's interest in computer graphics in 1985, making MCCC one of the first community colleges to offer computer graphics courses. All MCCC images courtesy of Mercer County Community College.

Learning It All
Each of these programs starts out with the basics, teaching the foundation of art, basic drawing and life drawing. Then they move into digital, each with a focus on what is important regionally.

KVCC offers a curriculum in character design and visual effects, as well as video game art. The latter shares some of the same courses as the animation degree program, but also has a unique core consisting of video game design, business and legal topics, and a sociological course on "video game culture." According to Muse, KVCC is also addressing regional needs and offers curricula that will direct their digital animation students to careers in technical animation for the medical and legal professions.

Kalamazoo offers a full range of digital instruction in Adobe Suite applications, 3ds Max and ZBrush, along with a foundation in art and drawing, and a grounding in career education. Flash, multimedia and motion-graphics classes help to round out the program.

"For game animation, students experience the same drawing classes, image design and Flash as students in animation, as well as the 3D animation sequence," according to Muse. In addition, students in the video game art program can take intermediate and advanced classes in character design, 3D modeling and materials and texture mapping.

"In their final semester, the students take a portfolio development course, which requires them to have 12 completed pieces and a professional demo reel, which are evaluated by a panel of professionals," said Muse.

Mercer's program is geared to character animation for television and independent animation. Fiks says they teach all of their animation courses in 3D using 3ds Max and then, later, Maya. Mercer recently introduced an interactive animation course using Flash.