A Digital Wonderlantz
By Daily Bruin Staff
Feb. 4, 2002 9:00 p.m.
 Courtesy of Todd Cheney, UCLA photography Graduate MFA
Animation students at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and
Television Jose Javier Martinez and Andrew
Blaiklock work in the digital studio.
By Michelle Gonzales
Daily Bruin Contributor
“Ha-hee Hachoo!”
The Chilly Willy theme song and Woody Woodpecker’s laugh
revive memories of afternoons with the babysitter. Animator and
creator Walter Lantz’s characters and cartoons have long been
a part of many college students’ childhoods and will continue
to affect them as they are able to work in a studio that, as of
today, carries his name.
Today, the official dedication ceremony of the Walter Lantz
Digital Animation Studio will be held at the James Bridges Theater
in Melnitz Hall.
The studio will be the newest addition to the UCLA School of
Theater, Film and Television and the graduate animation program.
Graduate students now have the full potential to develop their
thesis works with state of the art animation equipment.
Walter Lantz is known by most for his “Woody
Woodpecker” cartoons, a staple to many people’s
childhood list of favorites. The event will also include a
screening of Lantz’s Oscar-nominated animation shorts,
including the popular “Cartunes,” “Woody
Woodpecker,” “Chilly Willy” and “Andy
Panda.”
“He was truly a pioneer in the animation world. He was the
first person in 1914 to combine real (live action film) and
animation. He also was perhaps the only animator who only did
animation. He spent 65 years affiliated with Universal,” said
Edward Landry, president of the Lantz Foundation.
 Courtesy of the Walter Lantz Foundation Walter
Lantz and Woody Woodpecker.
UCLA’s animation program has been in existence for 53
years and is the leading graduate animation program in the country,
according to Professor Dan McLaughlin, chair of the animation
workshop. With a generous donation from the Walter Lantz
Foundation, the UCLA Animation Workshop was able to develop a
high-quality work area for graduate students.
“To develop the animation station workshop of the future,
my idea was to have all the tools, the traditional and new,”
said McLaughlin.
Part of the $500,000 contribution was intended for use in
archiving Lantz’s cartoons, helping to build up the archives
at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. This commitment
has been in effect for a long time.
The rest of the money provided by the Lantz Foundation was for
equipment. The studio includes work areas equipped with animation
desks and Macintosh and PC computers. The traditional animation
desk is used for sketching storyboards and drawing characters and
backgrounds.
The Macintosh computers work with these two-dimensional images
and other images that are scanned in. The PCs have programs that
have graphics, editing and sound tools and three-dimensional
animation.
“You have the production tools to make the film from start
to end “¦ You have the speed of the computer, hand art and
creativity all together, and you can distribute it over the
net,” said McLaughlin.
Previously, graduate students had fewer computers, which meant
that space and time were limited. The animation studio’s
extension includes nine workstations for graduate students to work
on their thesis work, three of which are fully equipped with two
computers and an animation desk. The developments of the
workstations allow more students to work on their thesis works
without being pressed for time and workspace.
 Courtesy of Todd Cheney, UCLA photography Graduate MFA
Animation student Christina Anderson shows her
thesis web site project to Celia Mercer, assistant
professor.
“As the capacity of the machines increases, you start to
up the ante in terms of what you can do with them. It’s
tremendous to have both machines and the table behind you to work
on storyboards,” said graduate animation student Andrew
Blaiklock.
Animation has developed into an art that encompasses more than
just cartoons.
Computer-animated films, like Pixar’s “Toy
Story” and “Monsters Inc.,” revolutionized the
typical animated feature. Live action films are enhanced by
computer-generated animated images.
“You can create with animation. Live- action records what
exists. Animation is what you imagine,” said McLaughlin.
“That never existed before. It’s more the mind and (the
students’) imagination. Today you have the hybrid of the two,
and what you see from the major films today, they are either
animation or (the) combination of live action and
animation.”
The workshop facility also gives graduate students room to
experiment with what they can produce with the equipment.
“Animation allows you to do it all, you can act it, direct
it, edit,” Blaiklock said. “You literally are a one-man
band. One day you’re doing lighting and the next day
you’re (doing) sound. That versatility opens up all sorts of
new roads.”
FILM: Walter Lantz’ Academy Award-nominated animation
shorts will be screened Feb. 5 at the James Bridges Theater in
Melnitz Hall. The program follows the dedication of the studio,
which begins at 6:30 p.m. It is free and open to the public. For
more information, call (310) 206-8365.
