AEF Online:

Animation Educators` Forum web site officially opens. http://www.asifa-hollywood.org/aef/index.html The AEF Web site has been up for a while but we have just linked to it from the main page of the ASIFA-Hollywood site. I have also added a link from this site. (See the right hand side of the page)

The Animation Educators` Forum is made up of a group of concerned Southern California Animation Instructors from a vast array of colleges and universities. We have banded together under the natural umbrella of ASIFA-Hollywood for the betterment of animation education.

As Animation goes into its second hundred years the state of training is still haphazard at best. Animation education has moved from studios to schools. There is no standard core skill set that is taught across the board in the schools. The august bodies responsible for program accreditation often force schools to mix and match skill sets from other disciplines to cover our own discipline which frankly may not be very well understood by these accrediting bodies.

This is because Animation has only recently come out of the shadow of studio apprenticeships into the realm of higher education. Animation program heads, who learned under the old system, have to scramble for qualified faculty, often in the face of accreditation obsessed administers who need to look degrees not skills.

At some schools non-animating degreed academics are preferred to non-degreed animators with the hands on knowledge and experience really needed, thus doing a great disservice to students.

The entry-level jobs of old; inbetweening and animation camera operator are gone from our shores and / or industry. Students are trained in the physical craft of animation but not the business of animation and then released to make their own way into the marketplace.

AEF has been meeting for the last 6 months to address these and other areas of concern to animation educators. Our first major project is a Southern California Student Animation Festival scheduled for Oct. 18th 2008.

Next Animation Educators` Forum Meeting
Jan. 10th at 10:30 AM to 12:30 PM
Room 108 Fine Arts Building #4 (FA4-108)
Cal State University Long Beach

Driving directions: http://www.asifa-hollywood.org/aef/csulbmap3.pdf