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Major Animation

I dream of designing relatable characters that come alive inside worlds of my own imagination.

A student is working in a stop motion capture studio. He has his hands on a figure in the capture space. He is heavily focusing.

Entertain, Inspire and Educate

Breathe life into characters and worlds of your own creation. Unleash your imagination and bring joy to fans and audiences. Challenge the norms and redefine what is possible in the realm of visual storytelling.

Why animation at CIA?

Disney Connection

CIA grads have worked for Disney since its early years. Some early alums like David Hilberman, who studied at CIA in the 1930s, worked on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Today, we have students who spend their summers interning at Disney and then graduate to continue working with them. Zharia Rahn ’21 is a prop and character designer for Disney Television Animation.

A student is wearing a virtual reality headset and using handhelds. They are in a classroom with peers. The peers are observing them and seeing what they see on the screen behind them.

What I really enjoy about the Animation program is the great technology I can use; I really love the big tablets and computers. And of course, the professors are amazing and always push me to my greatest potential.

— Jazzy Blackwell ’25

Chase Leidy ‘23 is a 3D Artist at NASA Glenn Research Center. He has completed 3 previous internships with NASA. For his first internship, he created an animation for the Lunar Surface Propagation (LSP) project that would simplify intricate scientific concepts for a wider audience. Read more

Zharia Rahn ‘21 is a Prop and Character Designer at Disney Television Animation. She has worked on the shows Chibiverse, Chibi Tiny Tales and show-style song shorts.

Ty Scott ‘20 is a Designer/Animator for the Cleveland Guardians. He creates graphic content for the team’s social media and designs scoreboard animations. Read more

Alex Marek ‘19 is currently a Motion Graphics Designer for American Greetings. He has previously worked for Sesame Workshop as a 2D Animator, where he assisted with 1-minute PSA videos for COVID-19 awareness.

Derrick Nau ‘13 recently started as a CG Texture Lead for Sony Pictures Animation. He previously worked for Dreamworks Animation and worked on films such as Trolls World Tour, Puss In Boots: The Last Wish and Kung Fu Panda 4.

Meet Faculty

Lincoln Adams

Associate Professor

Lincoln Adams has worked for 20 years as an illustrator, storyboard artist and designer. His projects have included magazines, television shows, character design, book covers, and greeting cards and was…

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Robert Lauer

Visiting Assistant Professor

Robert Lauer completed his BFA in game design at the Cleveland Institute of Art. He has freelanced for companies like Bio Enterprise and Halo Media Works and taught animation courses…

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Gregory Leysens

Visiting Assistant Professor

Working as a storyboard artist, Greg Leysens has been active in the animation industry since 2014. He has also done work as a 2-D animator and as a stop motion…

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Anthony Scalmato

Associate Professor

Anthony Scalmato has created more than 100 published works which have been viewed on television, web and mobile devices. Before joining CIA, Scalmato worked as a Senior Creative Developer at…

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Jeff Simonetta

Assistant Professor

Jeff Simonetta began his path into animation by attending Bowling Green State University. While attending Jeff was active as the chair of the BGSU ACM SIGGRAPH Student chapter for two…

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Benjamin Anderson

Adjunct Faculty

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Matthew Brownstein

Adjunct Faculty

Owner of mb2media, Matt has more than 25 years of experience in the creation and creative direction of visual media for the medical, pharma, and tech industries. He has done…

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Margaret Li

Studio Technician, Integrated Media + Technology and Adjunct Faculty

Margaret W. Li, a visual artist who specializes in illustration. I devote my time to creating art with any artistic style or medium that caught my interest. As I was…

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Zach Owens

Adjunct Faculty

Zachary Owens is a CIA alum and received his Animation BFA in 2018. Zach is versatile with a background in Illustration, Animation, and 3D modeling. Just as new applications, software,…

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