Laguna College of Art and Design

Wednesday October 26th

Dr. Gordon here...
Just got back from visiting the Laguna College of Art and Design with Travis Hathaway and Steve Purcell. Seems like they are doing some really cool stuff down there. The Animation department is really great and is headed up by a guy named Aubry Mintz. We took a tour of the place, gave a presentation and reviewed some films that students are working on. What I liked about the school was that it is small enough to really have a good teacher to student ratio. The students concentrate mostly on foundations and 2-d animation for the first 2 or three years then hop on a computer and do a film. The schools' animation program was started by Chuck Jones, so it has a good history. All students are required to have a laptop (mostly macs) They do most of there work on the laptop and can work on projects around the campus. It seems like a really great place. They just had a Glen Keane Lecture and Art show. We currently have an animation intern from the school named Rob Thompson. As you can see from the photos, Students get to work on Disney Animation Desks. I guess Disney was donating a bunch of them. I was told that if schools wanted desks, then you had to go and pick them up from the studio the same day. Apparently, they would not let employees buy their desks. I guess Disney needed the tax write offs...

Anyways, keep your eyes open for good work coming out of this place....

http://www.lagunacollege.edu/

Dr. Gordon