The Academy provides students with the creative and technical skills needed to succeed in interactive and entertainment media. Created in 1997 in collaboration with industry employers, the Academy’s mission is to provide students with a comprehensive and rounded education, preparing them to be flexible professionals in fast changing media fields. Satisfying industry requirements for creative professionals who can develop ideas as well as execute them, the programs emphasize conceptual and design excellence while ensuring technical proficiency.
The Academy offers certificate programs in:
• Interactive Media, Level I & II – The programs focus on real world design and production for web sites, game development and interactive entertainment, with additional coursework in audio, video, eBusiness, and web animation.
• 2D Animation – Focused on story structure and development, the program emphasizes fundamental animation skills, drawing, and character development.
• Animation – With a foundation in story and traditional animation, the program focuses on the animation pre-production and production processes. Technical areas of digital production are covered in detail. These include modeling, character set-up, shading, lighting and rendering.
The program works in close collaboration with the interactive and entertainment industries to ensure that students learn practical, job oriented skills. Our full-time and part-time faculty are experienced media professionals who bring first-hand knowledge of industry practices to the classroom. Faculty and industry advisors review the curriculum annually to keep up with trends and changing requirements. And, participating companies often provide student internships and guest lecturers for classes.
The Academy’s campus is specially designed for media education and is located in the heart of the Westside entertainment production district, at 1660 Stewart Street in Santa Monica. The facility features 25 lecture and computer classrooms, a computer lab with over 80 Mac and PC workstations, video and audio editing bays, industry standard software (Maya, ProTools, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Director, Houdini, Flash MX, Final Cut Pro, etc.), a Unix web server, a bookstore, and on-site counseling and student services.
The Academy also offers an intensive Middle College program called LaunchPad for high school students. The program provides a head start on coursework at the Academy, plus an opportunity for the students to explore their interest in animation and interactive media. In addition, some Academy courses are available online through the college Distance Education program. See http://www.smconline.org/ for more information.
Many courses at the Academy are open to all Santa Monica College students, including drawing, video production, digital effects, web design and all courses in the Interactive Media Level I program. Courses in the Interactive Media Level II, 3D Character Animation, and 2D Animation programs require passing a portfolio course (ET50i for interactive, ET50a for animation) or submitting a portfolio in lieu of the class by December 13, 2004 for admission in Spring 2005. For more information, please call (310) 434-3700, or visit the Academy web site at http://academy.smc.edu/.