Careers in Animation: Developing Your Talent (Ages 13-15)

The objective of the class is to give students a well-rounded and realistic view of what it takes to develop their artistic talent with the objective of a career in the animation industry. The goal is for students and parents to have the necessary tools to assess what is required in the way of skills, honing one’s talent, intelligently vetting animation programs, and ultimately deciding if this is the field of study and professional trajectory that the student wishes to pursue.

David A. Bossert is an award-winning artist, filmmaker, and author. He received his B.A. from CalArts School of Film and Video with a major in Character Animation. As a 32-year veteran of The Walt Disney Company, he contributed his talents to The Black Cauldron (1985), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), The Lion King (1995), Fantasia/2000 (1999), and the Academy Award©-nominated shorts Runaway Brain (1995), Dali/Disney Destino (2003), and Lorenzo (2004), among many others. Bossert is now an independent producer, creative director, and writer. 

Bossert is a member of the CalArts Board of Trustees, Visual Effects Society (VES), Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), and is a visiting scholar at Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) in Pittsburgh. He has presented and lectured at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Salvador Dali Museum, School of Visual Arts, NYU Film School, Bowers Museum, Newport Beach Film Festival, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí (Figueres, Spain), Oscar Pomillio-Blumm Forum (Pescara, Italy), and at other venues and festivals. Bossert is considered an authority on Disney animation art and history.

He co-authored Disney Animated, which was named iPad App of 2013 by Apple, and in 2014 won a prestigious British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) award. In 2018, Bossert was awarded a U.S. Patent for his invention Parallax Based Monoscopic Rendering, and in 2020, he received an additional U.S. Patent for Varying Display Content Based on Viewpoint. 

Bossert has published ten books, numerous articles, liner notes, and program notes as an author. His latest book is Claude Coats: Walt Disney’s Imagineer—The Making of Disneyland (2021, The Old Mill Press). 

55 minutes per week in class, and maybe some time outside of class.

This list of book titles, which are readily available from book retailers or your local library, are not required but are suggested for further reading that will continue to inspire learners about art and animation: 

• The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation, by Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas
• Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain: The Definitive, 4th Edition, by Betty Edwards
• The Animator's Survival Kit: A Manual of Methods, Principles and Formulas for Classical, Computer, Games, Stop Motion, and Internet Animators, by Richard Williams
• 30-Minute Drawing for Beginners: Easy Step-by-Step Lessons & Techniques for Landscapes, Still Lifes, Figures, and More, by Jordan DeWilde
• Bridgman's Complete Guide to Drawing From Life, by George B. Bridgman
• The Art of Animal Drawing: Construction, Action Analysis, Caricature (Dover Art Instruction), by Ken Hultgren
• Perspective Made Easy (Dover Art Instruction), by Ernest R. Norling
• Beginner's Guide to Life Drawing, by Eddie Armer