In 1947 the UCLA Animation Workshop was founded by William Shull as part of the newly-established Department of Theater. Since that time it has become the leading university animation workshop in the world. The filmmaker learns the complete animation process by making an animated film. This includes films in traditional, computer, and interactive animation.
Animation is defined as the movement of created images in recorded time.
Live action film records or reproduces reality, animation records created images, with movement that does not exist until the film is projected. Today the Animation Workshop offers three undergraduate courses and seven graduate courses, as well as graduate thesis courses, in animation. Any regularly enrolled UCLA student can take the animation courses. The three year, Master of Fine Arts degree program in Animation, admits students only in the Fall Quarter, with applications due by March 31, 2000. Dan McLaughlin is the chair of the program.