LMU School of Film and Television’s (SFTV) Animation program ranked 7th among schools offering a Bachelor of Arts degree in Animation by Animation Career Review, up from 8th in the 2022 rankings. In their 12th annual rankings, nearly 200 schools around the country were judged based on criteria such as educational value, graduation rates, and employment data.
The Walter and Grace Lantz Undergraduate Animation Program at Loyola Marymount University provides students with an extensive understanding of traditional and digital approaches essential for success in film, television, video game design, and developing media forms. At LMU, students explore their artistic vision while gaining hands-on experience in visual effects, stop-motion, motion-capture, 3D filmmaking, and more.
The Animation program also offers a minor in Interactive, Gaming and Immersive Media in collaboration with LMU’s Frank R. Seaver College of Science & Engineering. Within the minor, students gain technical and creative experience in a variety of different disciplines, making them attractive to both businesses and graduate schools looking for interdisciplinary experience in media and modern technologies.
When LMU Animation students graduate, they leave the program as seasoned collaborators, with the technical craft and storytelling skills needed to realize all the worlds, characters, and stories they can imagine. For alumni, this has led to a myriad of successful careers. In speaking of the power of the alumni community, chair of the Animation department Tom Klein said, “The great reputation of LMU is not only made here by the faculty and students, it’s our alumni who really amplify and bring so much renown to the program with their amazing work in industry.”
The Animation faculty inspire and cultivate a tight-knit community of animators within the program, while also excelling in their own endeavors outside the classroom. Recently Animation faculty, Shane Acker and Matthew B.W. Sheehan, won festival awards for their films, Crusoe and Bird’s Eye View, respectively. Additionally, The Hyperion Alliance Annual, a journal of Walt Disney Studios history, is now published in association with LMU, with Professor Tom Klein as the Advisory Editor.
