New Class Draws an Animated Response

In Dave Hasson’s El Dorado High School classroom, Gumby squares off against “Star Wars” for students’ attention.

As images of lasers and racing spacecraft dart across computer screens, students at a stop-motion work station struggle against gravity to keep their claymation figures erect.

The class, which started last fall and combines classic claymation and cutting-edge computer animation, is the first of its kind in the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District. Only a handful of such programs exist countywide, preparing students for possible careers in computer animation or filmmaking.

“This is everything our toys couldn’t do when we were kids,” said Josh Zehner, 18, of Fullerton. “We used to throw our jets across the room and they’d fall. Now we add smoke and lasers and make them go at warp speed.”

Because the class has only one claymation work area, complete with a security camera for filming, lighting and a white plywood stage, most students spend their time on the more than 20 computers that line two walls of adjoining classrooms.

Hasson said he expects to add 10 more computers to the $30,000 lab by next fall, which will increase the enrollment capacity from 25 to 35 students.

A 5-minute claymation film usually takes about three weeks to complete, but partners Cole McKinstry, 17, and J.R. Brink, 16, said they’ll spend the rest of the semester completing a 15-minute film of a fast-paced, nine-inning baseball game.

“This is exactly like Gumby, except with better backgrounds,” Brink, of Placentia, said as he pulled off the pitcher’s clay arm, which on screen will look like it was ripped off by a line drive.

In the adjoining room, beginning animation students set characters in motion with one keystroke and created soundtracks for their short films.

Kyle Sanger, 16, and his partner Suzanne Mustain, 16, grinned as they watched a 15-second clip of a spaceship floating through a fantasy world and firing at a nearby castle.

“First, we had it just fly around, and we thought that was pretty boring,” Sanger, of Placentia, said. “So then we said, ‘Let’s blow something up.’ ”

Hasson said some of his advanced students plan to team up and work on a final film to enter in animation contests. However, he said his immediate focus is on getting some much-needed editing equipment, lining up a few guest speakers and mastering the animation programs.

In response to enthusiastic student interest, the class is also slated to become part of an El Dorado visual and performing arts magnet program, which is still in the planning stages, said Bill Wright, chairman of the school’s visual and performing arts departments.