History
William Shull, a Disney animator, founded the UCLA Animation Workshop in 1948, as a group of animation classes. Upon Shull’s retirement in 1970, Dan McLaughlin became the area head and started the graduate (MFA) program in 1971. Dan was the sole Senate Faculty member for many years, advising students and teaching the core classes, while working with a variety of talented adjuncts to teach specialty classes in the ever-expanding area. Celia Mercer was hired in 1996 as the second Senate Faculty member of the Workshop. Upon Dan McLaughlin’s retirement in 2007, Mercer became Area Head and is currently Professor Emeriti. Our current Area Head is Chuck Sheetz. Chuck works with our MFA Candidates all throughout their 3 years of candidacy.
The program is supported by two full-time staff members – Josh Morgan, is our Academic Administrator and lecturer; Daniel Olivas, is our Director of Animation Resources and lecturer. Josh oversees the operations of the program. This includes researching software & hardware, coordinating the end of year screening (known as Prom), consults with the needs of faculty, and many objectives in between. Daniel keeps the labs and equipment up to date and running smoothly, industry studio recruitment and outreach, and more.
The Animation Workshop is rich in history, from the animation desks that our students work on (Disney’s background animation tables from Snow White), to the world-renowned guests who have lectured and taught here. Among them: Tex Avery, John Coates, Corny Cole, Elfriede Fishinger, Faith Hubley, Chuck Jones, Fyodor Khitruk, Ward Kimball, Sue Kroyer, Bob Kurtz, Bob Skir, Normand Roger, Bill Scott, Raoul Servais, David Silverman, Jan Svankmajer, Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, Mike Johnson, Amy Winfrey, Chris Sauve, Walter Lantz, Rich Quade, Bill Plympton, Nina Shorina, Paul Driessen, Yuriy Norshteyn, Fred Wolf, Chris Sanders, Cordell Barker, Emily Hubley, Floyd Norman, Glenn Vilppu, Bob Kurtz, Charles Solomon, Chris Appelhans, Stephanie Maxwell, Andreas Deja, Graham Annable, Anthony Stacchi, Yoni Goodman, David Polonsky, Arthur de Pins, Fabien Vehlmann, John Canemaker, and Brown Johnson.
The UCLA Animation Workshop is a complete animation facility, which includes a fully operational studio, with traditional animation desks, 16mm film animation cranes, and Video Lunchbox pencil test units. The computer labs contain Mac computers, Wacom Cintiq monitors, and Windows workstations that run a number of 2D animation and interactive programs. Many computers are equipped with Maya, the 3D animation program. In addition, there are non-linear editing, audio and viewing, and digital Ink & Paint facilities. Available for student check out are cameras (digital and 16mm), audio recording equipment, tripods, and light kits; these are used for stop-motion shoots, and for the recording of interviews (with notable members of the animation community – for the class Seminar in the Animated Film).
Dan McLaughlin envisioned this contemporary studio as the ultimate expression of the philosophy of “one person-one film.”