collageThe CalArts animation program is geared for students who want to work in the field of animation after graduation. The animation program has a low acceptance rate and it may seem difficult to get into this program. This article looks at ways that you can increase your chances of getting in and what you can do if you’re not accepted.
If you’re reading this, it’s probably because you’re thinking about applying to CalArts.
CalArts is an incredible school with a lot to offer both incoming students and their families. We’re very proud of our program and how it shapes the next generation of artists.
But we also know that applying to college—especially one as selective as CalArts—is a big decision, and not one that any student should take lightly. It’s in your best interest not just to be informed about the application process, but also to be realistic about your chances for acceptance.
That’s why we want to provide you with as much information as possible about our school and the admissions process so that you can make an informed choice when selecting a college. Thank you for taking the time to learn more about us!
You must have looked through the internet for information on how to get into calarts animation, and you often get confused with all the conflicting information you see online. You need not search farther, as the answer to this question can be found in the article below.
You’ll find all the latest information on college learners about how to get into calarts animation as well as details about how hard is it to get into calarts animation, do you have to go to calarts to be an animator, how to get into calarts character animation, is it hard to get into calarts on collegelearners.com
Do you have to go to Calarts to be an Animator
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we ask you to observe social distancing, mask wearing, and other safe practices while building all elements of your portfolio detailed below.
Part 1: Observational Artwork (minimum of 15 total)
Observational artwork consists of drawings done from the direct study of life. This can be any subject in your environment, human and animal alike.
You must include examples of the following categories of observational drawing in any number you chose.
A. Observational life drawings of human models:
- These observational drawings should range from short pose lengths (gesture drawings) to longer pose lengths, and should indicate the models’ faces, hands and feet. Drawings of nude models are preferred, but costume drawings may also be included. Applicants in the Character Animation program must have demonstrated experience working with the live model and ideally have at least one year’s worth of experience studying figure/life drawings.
B. Observational drawings from real life:
- Drawings and sketches of people (in this case, not models) and animals from real life
- Drawings of interior and exterior environments
- Urban sketching, location drawings, café drawings etc.
Keep in mind:
- Drawings should be from observing real life, exploring elements such as shape, form, contour, contrast, ambiance, and mood.
- Do not erase all of your construction lines while drawing from life – they are especially helpful to the faculty in understanding your approach to observational drawings.
- Do not submit traced pictures or copies of work by others.
Part 2: Other Creative Work
Images should be uploaded into the online portfolio and can include any combination of the following:
- Sequential image storytelling: Work that showcases your ability to tell a story and develop a character. For example: storyboards, graphic novels, flipbooks, short animations or short stories with thumbnails.
- Digital creative work (animated or still): Creative work that you produce, or manipulate, in one or more computer programs. This might take the form of 2D digital art, illustrations, concept art, character designs, prop designs, cartoons, photography, or computer graphics (CG).
- Other Work (non-digital): Paintings, drawings, illustrations, concept art, character designs, prop designs, cartoons
- Plastic Arts: Sculptures, ceramics, installations etc.
Online presence: provide URL’s to your website, Instagram, Tumblr, Behance, etc. Add the URL’s in the “links” upload of the online portfolio.
Part 3: Video Introduction
In this Video Introduction, tell us about one person, place, thing, or event that has helped shape your artistic practice.
- Duration: minimum of 30 seconds, maximum of 90 seconds
- Speak directly to the camera
- Do not read from a prepared statement
- No edits
- No special effects or on-screen overlays
- File should be uploaded or linked directly to the portfolio section of the CalArts Application
- Does not require professional-level equipment; cellphone cameras or consumer cameras are okay.
Calarts Animation Portfolio
The goal of the Character Animation program is to prepare you to be a storyteller and animator. Each year, our students create animated shorts in a variety of media, set in any environment they choose. We want to see that you’ve got excellent traditional drawing skills, and can tell stories and develop characters using sequential imagery. If you’re interested in computer graphics, this is the place for you—we’ve got all the tools you need.
We welcome creative work like digital art and traditional drawings but we also want to see your artistic interests and conceptual abilities, so feel free to show us what makes you tick!
Please carefully review the specific Portfolio Requirements listed below. Portfolio-related questions can be addressed to the CalArts Office of Admissions; we also encourage applicants to find solutions to questions through their own creative exploration and introspection.
The Program in Character Animation is a four-year program. All students begin at the BFA1 (first-year undergraduate) level because of the highly sequential nature of the curriculum. Transfer students please review our transfer credit policy. Transfer of courses may lighten a student’s academic course load, however, they will not shorten the length of residency.
Calarts Portfolio Review
We have added and changed our requirements in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Please read all of our portfolio and application guidelines carefully.
All parts must be completed in order to be considered for admission
- CalArts Application Materials
- Artist Statement (uploaded to the written materials section CalArts Application)
- Online Portfolio (Three part submission uploaded to the portfolio section of the CalArts Application)
- Observational Artwork
- Other Creative Work
- Video Introduction
- Sketchbook (to be documented via video and included in the online portfolio)
Artist Statement
- What inspires you to make your art?
- Why are you applying to the Character Animation program at CalArts?
- What are your artistic goals?
Calarts Sketchbook Meaning
- A complete sketchbook filled with your drawings, observations, stories, research for films you’d like to make, ideas, thumbnails, character designs, studies of images from films or other sources that interest you, etc.
- We want to see what you are uniquely inspired to draw. We recommend you do not use online sketchbooks for reference.
- Please draw directly in a sketchbook, rather than assembling pages together.
- Drawings in your sketchbooks should be different from the drawings submitted in your online portfolio.
- Sketchbooks come in many different shapes and sizes. Please feel free to work in the type of sketchbook that you like best
Calarts Acceptance Rate
As with any program, you only get out what you put in. And the $46,830 annual cost at CalArt isn’t an easy pill to swallow (This is the cost for two semesters, or one academic year, for both graduate and undergraduate programs).
Depending on which animation program you enter, you could be spending another $1300 to $3500 on necessary books and supplies. CalArts recommends factoring in another $12,500 for things like meals, transportation, medical fees, and miscellaneous expenses.
Are you ready to put in $60,000 dollars’ worth of effort every single year? Where you get your degree doesn’t matter—it’s the portfolio you build and the network you cultivate.
And before you start getting crafty by spending two years at a community college and trying to transfer to CalArts to save six figures—it’s not a viable option for these programs.
According to the portfolio audition requirements for their four-year character animation program, “all students begin at [the first-year undergraduate level] because of the highly sequential nature of the curriculum.” Your transfer credits might lessen your course load, but they “will not shorten the length of residency.”
There are financial aid options that you might be eligible for. But it’s still a lot of debt to take on. Let’s look at some of the reasons why you might want to pursue a degree at CalArts in animation.
Applying for the Character Animation Program
There’s a lot of opportunities to show yourself off, to showcase your originality, and to let your personality, talent, and passion shine through.
First, you’ll want to spend some time looking at other student submissions. YouTube is a great resource for this—you can find videos showing accepted submissions and videos showing rejected submissions.
On the admissions site, CalArts says “the committee values artwork that reveals a unique and imaginative voice, showcasing the applicant’s artistic interests and conceptual abilities. [They] welcome a range of creative work, including drawings and other traditional artwork, 2D digital art, and computer graphics.”
The whole submission process will require an artist statement.
The artist statement will focus on a few questions:
- What inspires you to make your art?
- Why are you applying to the character animation program at CalArts?
- What are your artistic goals?
You’ll submit a sketchbook (by mail). And you’ll also submit an online portfolio, including observational work, creative work, and a video introduction.
Calarts Portfolio Class
Experimental Animation promotes and supports animation as a fine art, and students in the program explore animation in varied contexts and forms, developing a personal aesthetic over a body of work. Experimental Animation is for artist-animators looking for an individualized curriculum that supports creative growth, enhancing technical skills, developing form and content, and collaborating with fellow students to create animated works.
In making admissions decisions, the program’s faculty looks for animation and other creative works that express a strong personal aesthetic in whatever media you choose. Applicants should submit portfolios that contain examples of unique, personal, expressive art that reflects their individual style, including samples of animation if at all possible. Group projects are discouraged because they are harder to assess. Class assignments such as technical exercises, CGI character rotations, or figure, landscape, still life, and perspective drawings are generally not acceptable. Please put time into your written statements, to reveal the breadth of your creative influences and your vision for what you would accomplish if you were enrolled in the program. It is important to explain why you are seeking experimentally oriented coursework.
MFA applicants who have passed the preliminary selection process will be notified in mid-February. At that time, candidates will be invited to visit CalArts in March for an interview day to meet faculty, staff, students, and fellow shortlisted applicants. The interview is required of invited applicants and is an important component of the final selection process. Video chat interviews are available in exceptional cases; however, attendance at the in-person interview day is preferred. In addition to giving the faculty a better sense of who you are, it gives you an opportunity to see the school, and meet and talk to many members of the CalArts community.
Artist Statement
An artist statement is very important in the admissions process and should answer the following three questions:
- What issues and concerns inform your artmaking practice?
- Why are you interested specifically in the program in Experimental
Animation at CalArts? - What are your artistic goals?
Additional Written Materials
- Synopsis: One- or two-sentence synopsis of each work submitted
- A one-paragraph autobiography indicating significant artistic, professional, and academic achievements, or other life experiences that would help the committee evaluate your application.
- Comments on films, books, art, etc., that you feel have influenced your thoughts and work as an artist. It is important to say why and how these works have influenced you. Avoid writing plot summaries.
- Project plans. Keep in mind that such a plan is meant to give faculty an idea of the type of filmmaking that interests you, not an idea of a project you will necessarily produce at CalArts.
Video Introduction
Tell us about one person, place, thing, or event that has helped shape your personality and/or your art practice.
- Duration: minimum of 30 seconds, maximum of 90 seconds.
- Speak directly to the camera.
- No edits.
- No special effects or on-screen overlays.
- File should be uploaded or linked directly to the portfolio section of the application.
- Does not require professional-level equipment; cellphone camera or consumer cameras are okay.
Portfolio Submission Format
Portfolios must be submitted using our application’s online portfolio submission.
- The application accepts MP3’s, documents, images and video. You may scan or photograph your drawings to submit them digitally.
- Submit individual images of individual works. Do not submit a pre-formatted portfolio. Do not submit composited images, PDF’s, and please make sure that the image fills the slide. Otherwise, we will not be able to view the work.
- Enter any captions, descriptions, or titles of your work in the fields provided under “edit details” of the portfolio upload. Do not add captions, descriptions, titles or other extraneous text within the area where you upload your image.
- Once your portfolio is uploaded, it can be viewed and rearranged until the final submission is made. No changes can be made following the final submission of your portfolio. Be sure to submit your portfolio to the correct degree level and program.
Animation Portfolio for College
Calarts character animation has an insanely low acceptance rate. Like, over a thousand people apply every year, and between 60 and 70 get in. That’s a 6-7% acceptance rate, on par with Princeton and Yale universities.
This means that, unlike most art schools with acceptance rates of over 50%, Calarts is picky. Calarts wants students who already know how to draw. That’s the defining thing. They want students who have creative and interesting styles that don’t look like anyone else’s stuff, but also have a very, very good grasp of anatomy and color theory and how to stylize things so that they would actually move in a believable way when animated. Calarts wants people who are almost ready to enter the animation industry, but want to go to college for four years before they actually do so. Therefore, their portfolio requirements are extremely specific: a sketchbook, a selection of figure drawings, and Other Work that shows you can do visual development and character design and storyboarding pretty well without them needing to teach you.
Most art schools are not like this. Most art schools have rigorous foundations classes that will, in fact, teach you all the fundamentals Calarts wants you to have nailed down five years before you apply. What those schools want from your application portfolio is proof that you’re willing to learn.
Your figure drawings can suck, your designs can be sloppy, but you have to show that you want to experiment. Use a lot of materials, draw a lot of different things in different styles, try collage, try sculpture, try photography, try as many things as possible. And spend time on your pieces. Having the fundamentals is great and will probably help, but what’s more important is that you have a passion and a desire to put time and effort into the art that you make.
Also, for Calarts, you’re applying to a very specific program with a very specific direction. Most schools, you indicate an area of interest on your application, but you don’t declare a major until you’ve actually been there for a few terms. A willingness to explore and experiment with things that aren’t directly related to animation will make those schools think you are right for them.
Someone messaged me to look at their application portfolio for SCAD. It was all figure drawings in colored pencil on newsprint, a character turnaround, some plain backgrounds, and a storyboard. I could immediately see this person applied to Calarts. I could also immediately see that a) they did not get in and b) this portfolio would not get them in anywhere else without other things to back it up. Figure drawings and concept artwork for one simple animated movie don’t show enough training, which art schools like because it means you’ll do well in the foundations classes, or enough of that willingness to learn, to experiment, to break out of your comfort zone and try shit that scares you. Which Calarts also wants, of course, they just want controlled experimentation in a very specific direction. Think of it as being more willing to do anything because you’re still growing and figuring things out as opposed to being more set because you’re more developed as an artist and actually know where you’re going.
CalArts is an incredible animation school, and it’s no wonder that so many people want to get in. Their program is renowned, their alumni are highly successful, and their location is ideal.
The admissions process at CalArts is tough, but you can make yourself a strong candidate by working hard and being honest with the college about your goals, interests, and abilities. The best thing you can do is be yourself! CalArts wants to see who you really are.
Your portfolio is a crucial part of your application. Take lots of time to work on it, and make sure it’s polished before you send it in.
Good luck!
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