What I Learned Teaching at CalArts in the 1990s: 25 October 2025

The CalArts Spirit
What struck me immediately was the tremendous energy at CalArts – the students had a drive and curiosity that was infectious.  The students lived and breathed animation — with sketches and storyboards on every wall, sketchbooks full of ideas, test scenes running late into the night.

Frank Terry

The hallways at CalArts were painted white, but were completely covered with drawings, as the students were encouraged to draw on the walls – creativity unshackled. Anything was permitted, no matter how risqué or bizarre.  At the end of the school year the walls would be painted again, ready for a new intake of talent, and fresh graffiti.

And the animation students worked hard.  What was most impressive to me was the willingness of CalArts students (most of them just kids, in their late teens or early twenties) to sit through an entire evening class listening to me lecture about animation, at a time when most students in the UK would long ago have left for the pub.

What I Learned

Animation notes

Teaching at CalArts reminded me that education is a two-way street. When you teach, you are forced to clarify your own thinking; I had to learn how to break down the animation process into easily digestible steps.  At the time, my chief resource was Art Babbitt‘s notes from the classes that Art had given at my Dad’s studio in Soho Square in the 1970s, and Stan Green (formerly Milt Kahl‘s assistant)’s lectures on Who Framed Roger Rabbit – as well as trying to figure out how I applied Art’s principles to my own animation workflow.

I am sure that I learned more from the students than they ever did from me.  In particular, their creativity was amazing to me, especially the willingness to take risks, to try something completely nuts – even if it didn’t always work out.

My education in the UK had always been about finding the right answer to a question; but at CalArts I learned that there are no right answers, and that if you’re not prepared to take a chance, and be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original or inventive.

CalArts students meet Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnstone

Alumni Network
CalArts has always had a remarkable sense of community.  Many of its graduates have gone on to work in the animation industry in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Disney legends like Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnstone, authors of The Illusion of Life, visited CalArts in 1995, passing on their knowledge to the next generation.

John Lasseter was a CalArts graduate – and one of the founders of Pixar Animation.  This informal alumni network is sometimes known as the “CalArts Mafia” — a nod to how deeply the school’s graduates have shaped the style of modern animation.

Pete Sohn
One of my students, the very talented Pete Sohn, went on to become a director at Pixar. You can see an interview with him below, talking about Good Dinosaur.