Overview
The Animation Program provides students with a unique opportunity to experience a broad range of possibilities within the world of animation. From fine art to digital animation, this program encourages students to explore their potentials, and bring movement to their artwork through an intense and rigorous curriculum. CSSSA Animation students learn diverse experimental and traditional animation techniques under the guidance of leading artists in the field. They study the history and work of animators from all over the world, they participate in figure drawing classes, and they learn from professional animation artists. Animation students at the summer program are dedicated, hardworking, and open to new ideas.
Students currently enrolled in grades 8 through 12 are eligible to apply. (CSSSA is open to students entering grades 9, 10, 11 or 12 next fall 2026. CSSSA is also open to students who are graduating from high school in the spring of 2026. You can still do the program the summer after graduation.)
Animation Curriculum
Core Classes
CSSSA Animators spend Mondays through Saturdays in workshops and classes on animation, storyboarding, life drawing, digital animation, and other related subjects. They also attend screenings of animated films (historical, contemporary, international and experimental), and additional workshops on subjects such as stop-motion. Students complete several projects during the program, involving traditional, cutout and digital animation techniques. Over the course of the session, each student produces five animated projects. At the end of the program, they have acquired an extensive toolbox for expressing themselves through the art of animation.
Guest Artists
Over the years, the program has hosted notable figures such as French animator René Laloux; internationally renowned independent animator Sally Cruikshank, known for her Sesame Street shorts; the late puppet animator Helen Hill; Steve Hillenberg, creator of SpongeBob SquarePants; award-winning stop-motion animator PES; Polish animation legend Balbina Bruszewska; Shrek 2 director Conrad Vernon; the late Joe Ranft, storyboard artist for The Nightmare Before Christmas and Toy Story 2; Alex Hirsch, creator of Gravity Falls; and Pendleton Ward, creator of Adventure Time. Both Hirsch and Ward are CSSSA Animation Dept. alumni. Bobby Podesta, Stephen Gregory, Mark Walsh, and Sanjay Patel, who began their animation careers as students at CSSSA, later became top Pixar animators. Their work includes Toy Story series, A Bug’s Life, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, Cars, and Ratatouille.
Field Trips
The department takes at least one field trip each year. This outing emphasizes observation and drawing from life; and often also concentrates on exposing the students to local museums and/or animation studios. Past drawing field trips have included the Los Angeles Zoo, Venice Beach, La Brea Tarp Pits, Olvera Street, Hollywood Forever Cemetery and the Museum of Jurassic Technology. The students have also visited the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and animation studios such as Nickelodeon, Chiodo Bros., New Deal and Titmouse Studios.
Program Instructors
KATI ANGELOV
DEPARTMENT CHAIR
Kati Angelov was born in Hungary during the 70’s. She experienced the fall of communism and the system changes of Eastern Europe as a teenager. During her youth she studied traditional art and was drawn towards illustrative work. She moved to the United States in the 90’s and pursued her education in animation and media arts. Kati earned an MFA in Animation and Digital Arts from the School of Cinematic Arts at USC, as well as a BLA in liberal arts from The Evergreen State College in Washington state. Her animated shorts have been screened on public television and have been the official selection of Annecy and Zagreb International Animation Festivals as well as several others.
Currently she is the chair of the Media Art Design department at Cypress College as well as the chair of CSSSA Animation. Her focus is on projection mapping, motion design and animation. Her projection design class at Cypress College was the first class providing a single focus on projection mapping offered at a community college level in the USA. She found her happiness in education where she can see a direct result of her work by helping students find their way in the intricate world of digital art. She is an enthusiastic proponent of interdisciplinary work and loves the creativity that comes from working together. She believes that collaboration leads to innovative ideas and helps to create more cohesive and dynamic projects.
KAYLA VICTOR
faculty
Kayla Victor is an artist and art educator specializing in digital illustration, children’s books, and life drawing. Her work is driven by a passion for promoting diversity and inclusion. Drawing from her experiences as an African American woman, an active reader, and a devoted feminist, Kayla promotes these values in her artwork. She supports diversity in her work by including different cultures, ethnicities, and genders. For Kayla, it’s not just about depicting diversity but also about encouraging viewers to embrace it. She sees her ability to create illustrations that positively influence people as an expressive superhero power.
As a graduate of CSU Fullerton, Kayla honed her skills and developed a keen focus on producing quality character designs. She has found success as a children’s book illustrator for Palmetto Publishing. Her passion for inclusivity extends to her work in children’s books, where she creates stories that inspire young readers and promote a love of reading through diverse and relatable characters.
Originally from Los Angeles, Kayla now resides in vibrant Las Vegas, where she teaches high school digital illustration, animation & design, and digital narrative courses. She inspires her students to explore their creativity and express themselves through art. Kayla’s work reflects her personal values and serves as a powerful platform for social change.
NICOLE YANG
faculty
Nicole has been a working illustrator and instructor for the last decade. She is an Illustration graduate of Art Center College of Design with a concentration on Entertainment Arts. After graduation she worked as a painter for Disney Publishing Worldwide and since 2015 she has served as a lecturer of Illustration and Special Studies at California State University Fullerton.
Her narrative driven curriculum specializes in developing artistic skills through visual storytelling and creating original concepts. She believes in story as the crucial element in successful work and that form follows function. Her goal is to teach her students to always design with intention. In 2019 she was named “Outstanding Higher Education Visual Art Educator” by California Art Education Association. In the fall of 2023 she was invited as a guest lecturer to the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, China where she held portfolios reviews and workshops on campus. In her own personal work she enjoys creating characters and experimenting with color and texture.
Her past clients include: Disney Publishing Worldwide, SHEIN, Museum of Contemporary Art, CISCO, Jet Set Studios for Universal Pictures, State Farm Insurance, Institute for Dental Implant Awareness, Ringling Bros, Disney on Ice, Feld Entertainment.
CHRISTINA GIORDANO
Faculty
Christina Giordano was born and raised in Massachusetts. She graduated from CalArts with a BFA in Character Animation in 2022. She has a passion for filmmaking and storytelling. She takes most of her inspiration from life which influences her filmmaking and art practice. Her films have been screened in many film festivals and have won many awards. Her film Lost Souls has been screened at the Acadamy Museum for the character animation producer show in 2022. Her film Stolen won best micro short at the BFI Young Film Festival where her film now screens every year teaching students about storytelling. Her films have also won audience pick at the Mystic Film Festival, and best animation and writing at Yellow Hammer Film Fest. She has made presentations to film festivals and classrooms about the process of creating an animated short. She currently lives in Massachusetts working as a freelance illustrator and animator while also working on her own short films. When she’s not drawing you can find her petting a cat, at an antique mall, in a forest foraging for mushrooms, or eating a lobster roll somewhere in New England.
DALE MCCALLUM
faculty
Dale McCallum is a multimedia animation artist and fabricator currently based in Los Angeles. Dale grew up in small-town South Carolina, where they fell in love with animation watching cartoons on the family VCR. Dale went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in Radio/Television/Film from Northwestern University, where they specialized in Media and Game Design. After that, they earned their MFA from the University of Southern California in Expanded Animation Research and Practice.
Blending traditional and digital techniques, Dale incorporates handcrafted media with 2D animation to infuse their work with soulfulness and evoke nostalgia. They love fabricating puppets, sets, paper prints, and other domestic crafts that they creatively composite with digital media. Dale’s pieces explore themes of bodily autonomy and the emotional landscape of the queer experience. They are passionate about using the inherent metamorphic qualities of animation to invite audiences to empathize with LGBTQ+ stories.
JONNY VAN ORMAN
faculty
Jonny was born in the swamp and raised on the beaches of Florida. He was yanked out of the water as a teen and dropped into the deserts of Utah where he shriveled up in the sun into a dry, lifeless husk. One day a high school art teacher walked by the husk. A blob of wet paint fell from his brush … and plopped onto the withered peanut of a man that once was Jonny. With renewed life, Jonny pulled his body (that had been baked to the desert floor) away from that place and got himself a job in TV animation where he’s worked at Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Netflix, WB, Amazon and Disney. He’s been a designer and background painter but mostly a storyboard artist. On the right day, you can still hear a little bit of southern swampland in his voice.
