Foundation Courses Production Courses Animation Studies Computer Animation Courses

Writing and Design: Because animation is such a labor-intensive art form, many students complete only one or two short films during their studies. To provide additional concept development experience, De Anza offers a sequence of courses in screenwriting, storyboarding and layout that build students' pre-production skills through a series of creative exercises. These stimulate development of personal film projects and prepare graduates for advancement in the professional workplace beyond entry-level positions.

	Film/Television 70G Screenwriting for Animation Concept development and scripting for the animated film: dramatic, comic, documentary and experimental. Exercises in story structure, character building, dialogue and visualization for short personal films. Comparison of screenplay formats for television and feature films with the story/sketch method unique to animation.
	Film/Television 70H The Animation Storyboard Methods of planning and designing animated films using the storyboard technique. Focus on translating concepts into visuals, selecting camera angles and choosing editing style. Exploration of animation's unique cinematic vocabulary and its potential for personal expression, social advocacy and/or literary adaptation.

	Fine Art Skills: Many styles of professional animation require extensive drawing ability. In addition to traditional art classes in figure drawing and cartooning, De Anza offers a sequence of drawing courses which address problems unique to the animated film and nurture a specific set of design and rendering skills.

	Film/Television 67G Drawing for Animation: Human Figure Life drawing workshop, designed specifically for animators for study of staging, posing, movement, drapery and character design. Exercises include quick gesture drawings, silhouette form composition, multiple-pose memory sketches and analysis of action to determine key and breakdown drawings. Emphasis on rendering anatomical details of heads and hands and on keeping character volume consistent when drawn from a variety of angles.
	Film/Television 67H Drawing for Animation: Animal Expression Life drawing workshop, designed specifically for animators and focusing on animals, birds, insects and objects as anthropomorphic characters. Exercises include quick gesture drawings, silhouette form composition, and fast-pose memory sketches from live models and reference film. Design and construction of model sheets for both realistic and stylized characters. Analysis of comparative anatomy and locomotion.
	Film/Television 67I Drawing for Animation: Layout and Visual Development Drawing and art direction workshop for animators, concentrating on expanding storyboards into full layouts. Development of visual style for an animated film production. Design of props and backgrounds, utilizing one-point, two-point and three-point perspective, and including simulation of elaborate camera movements. Drawn representation of wide angle or telephoto lens perspective and depth of field.

De Anza's introductory courses for traditional animation media are F/TV 69 for drawn animation and F/TV 66A for miniatures and other media that are animated under-camera. Soundtrack aesthetics and technique are examined in F/TV 68. Students then refine their skills and create personal films in intermediate and advanced level workshops. Specialized seminars are offered with professional animators from Bay Area studios.

	Film/Television 66A Basic Techniques of Animation: 3D Media An exploration of the techniques of non-cel and three-dimensional animation, as applied to a variety of art media (puppet, clay, pixilation, shadow puppets and under-camera art media). Principles of movement and timing, lighting and cinematography, and multiplane dimensionality as applicable to computer and traditional drawn animation.
	Film/Television 66B Advanced Puppet Animation An workshop in advanced techniques of stop-motion animation, including fabrication, armatures, lip synching, facial animation, lighting setups and suspension rigs. Principles of movement and timing, lighting and cinematography, and computer motion controlled tracking camera movement. Development of film concepts created specifically for stop-motion.
	Film/Television 68 Sound for Animation Principles of soundtrack design to accompany the unique properties of the animated image. Aesthetics and techniques of film music. Recording, editing and mixing of voice, music and sound effects using location, studio and library sources. Methods of lip-synched character dialogue, musical synchronization to animation, and sound effects ambiences.
	Film/Television 69 Principles of Animation: Character and Motion Investigation of the fundamental principles of movement and timing when animating characters or objects, progressing from simple to complex motion. Experience in creating character weight, power and emotion; portraying the forces of nature in "effects" animation and manipulating the quality of the line and the image. Close analysis of the animation technique in exemplary professional films.
	Film/Television 71 Animated Film Production Workshop Practice in refinement of animation motion design and timing. Development of initial concept stages for a short personal film in any style of animation, e. g. drawn, stop-motion or computer, suitable for public screening, including Creation of storyboards, character models, soundtracks and motion tests. Course content and lecture-demonstration material are driven by student projects and change completely each quarter.
	Film/Television 72 Advanced Animation Workshop Creation of visual and audio elements for production of a personal film in any style of animation, e. g. drawn, stop-motion or computer, which can serve both as the student's diploma film and as a professional portfolio piece. Investigation of career options and marketing strategies as they pertain to each project. Formulation of portfolios and demo reels. Course content and lecture-demonstration material are driven by student projects and change completely each quarter.
	Film/Television 73, 73X,Y,Z Animation Production Laboratory Supervised use of film and digital video laboratory equipment and facilities to execute assigned projects in other animation production courses.
	Film/Television 79G Workshop with Professional Traditional Animator Intensive workshop in a specialized area of drawn or puppet animation production (e.g. writing, storyboard, layout, fabrication, lighting, motion design, soundtrack construction, etc.) with an instructor with full-time experience on feature films or national television commercials at a major Bay Area animation studio (Industrial Light & Magic, Wild Brain, Twitching Image/Skellington, Phil Tippett Studios, etc.) Repeatable as instructors, topics and/or student productions vary.
	Film/Television 79H Workshop with Professional Computer Animator Intensive workshop in a specialized area of computer animation production (e.g. character/prop modeling, texturing, lighting, skeletal articulation; animation, special visual effects or compositing techniques) with an instructor with full-time experience on feature films or national television commercials at a major Bay Area animation studio (Industrial Light & Magic, Pixar, PDI/Dreamworks, Wild Brain, Phil Tippett, Electronic Arts, etc.) Repeatable as instructors, software, topics and/or student productions vary.
	Film/Television 80G Independent Projects in Animation Advanced individual and group creative projects in animation production or animation history.
	Film/Television 80H Animated Film Completion for Certificate/Degree A course designed to record the completion of a student's certificate/degree film. Students enroll in this course only in the quarter in which the film will be completed.
	Film/Television 81, 81X,Y,Z Seminar in Animation Production Topics Intensive workshop in a specialized area of animation production (e.g. stop-motion animation, gesture drawing, special visual effects, the role of the producer, musical scoring for animation, or advanced computer techniques such as rigging, particle systems, rendering, compositing or character animation).

De Anza offers one of the world's most extensive animation studies sequences, featuring five full term courses, as well as weekend seminars. Twelve-week courses include chronological historical overviews of the short subject (75G) and the feature (75J), as well as area studies of particularly important periods or national cinemas (75H, 75I and 75K). These courses are complemented by a multitude of ASIFA-SF events and visits from distinguished international animation directors.

	Film/Television 75G History of World Animation An international survey of the historical development of the animated film, from its pre-cinema origins to a contemporary art form, with emphasis on the contributions of major studios, including Bray, Sullivan, Fleischer, Disney, Warner Brothers, UPA, Zagreb, Shanghai, the Canadian Film Board and England's Channel Four, as well as many works by important independent artists. Close analysis of social messages, historical significance and exemplary artistic technique.
	Film/Television 75H Classic Hollywood Animation An exploration of films produced by major American animation studios during their Golden Age (1933-1948), analyzing their development of narrative form and perfection of animation technique. Appraisal of the films' controversial social content regarding race, gender and international politics. Studios include Disney, Fleischer, Warner Brothers, M-G-M, Columbia, Lantz, Terry and the George Pal Puppetoons.
	Film/Television 75I Contemporary World Animation A survey of international animation from 1970 to the present, concentrating on England, Canada, Eastern Europe, Japan, China and other animation centers, including many masterworks never released in North America. Emphasis on short films created by independent artists in art media ranging from traditional hand-drawn to puppets, cutouts, clay and computer. Close analysis of social messages, historical significance and exemplary artistic technique.
	Film/Television 75J The Animated Feature Film A survey of the evolution of the full-length animated film from its origins in the silent cinema to the present, including rare masterworks. Emphasis on hand-drawn, puppet and computer creations from England, France, Russia, Czechoslovakia and Japan, as well as Hollywood and the San Francisco Bay Area. Close analysis of social messages, historical significance and exemplary artistic technique.
	Film/Television 75K Japanese Animation An examination of the post-1960s evolution of animated films in Japan, a national cinema famed for its exciting range of subject matter and outstanding graphics. Screening of exemplary and influential works by distinguished artists, writing collectives and production studios. Close analysis of social content, reflections of history, adaptations of literature and artistic technique.
	Film/Television F/TV 77X, Y Animation History Area Studies Concentrated investigation of an influential animated film director, studio, genre, movement, national cinema, historical period or applied technique. The topic studied is different for each section of this course, e.g. Aardman and the U.K., Disney, the Canadian Film Board, Bay Area Animation, the Animated Documentary or Visiting Animators. Credit/No credit grading only.
	Film/Television 80G Independent Projects in Animation Advanced individual and group creative projects in animation production or animation history.

At De Anza, all traditional animators have extensive exposure to computers to enhance their work, and all computer animators develop their traditional skills in motion design, timing and character animation while becoming immersed in digital imagemaking. De Anza's state-of-the-art computer animation lab is bustling with advanced student work, but we recognize that a student's classic animation skills are far more important to leading computer animation studios than mastery of any hardware or software. F/TV 83A and 83B concentrate on deployment of computers in multimedia and cel animation; 84A, 84B and 84C on creation of fully three-dimensional computer-generated character and effects animation.

	Film/Television 83A Introduction to 2D Computer Animation Utilization of the computer in the creation of two-dimensional animation with application to educational CD-ROMs, video games, television or the Internet. Strengths and limitations compared to traditional animation techniques. Concentration on methods of creating sequences of character movement in the drawn image, timing soundtracks for synchronization, constructing storyboard reels, and adding color and texture to artwork.
	Film/Television 83B Advanced 2D Computer Animation Deployment of computer software in the production of professional narrative drawn animation, such as feature films or television series. Emphasis on digitizing and layering imagery, designing simple and complex movements of the virtual camera, and employing digital coloring techniques in lieu of traditional cel inking and painting.
	Film/Television 84A Introduction to 3D Computer Animation Orientation to the concepts and production process of three-dimensional (3D) computer animation. Introduction to the software interface, to basic design and construction of computer models, and to fundamentals of texturing, lighting and rendering, culminating in the creation of 3D cinematic stills.
	Film/Television 84B Intermediate 3D Computer Animation Application of the classic principles of traditional animation regarding movement and timing to computer animation. Digital motion design in a professional software program via techniques such as keyframing, motion path animation and shape blending. Fundamentals of rigging models for expressive movement, including introduction to forward and inverse kinematics. Principles of simulated cinematography and visual aesthetics.
	Film/Television 84C Advanced 3D Computer Animation Utilization of sophisticated professional computer programs to produce individual or collaborative animated projects with increasingly complex character models, animated movements, lighting schemes and visual effects. Exploration of advanced computer animation procedures, such as particle systems, or digital compositing, including the use of complementary software.