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Course Description

Instructor: Erin McDermott

Offered in Summer and Fall.

CalArts' Character Design Portfolio Development Workshop is an eight-week online intensive designed to help you incorporate techniques in character design to enhance your application portfolio for college animation programs.

Each week, the instructor will introduce different character design styles from a variety of sources to inspire new work and teach you about visual composition and storytelling through character design. Weekly assignments based on these resources give you the opportunity to produce work that integrates costume, gesture, shape, story, and character.

Portfolio Development Workshop class sessions and critiques are not live streamed. You are free to access the class materials each week at your convenience. You will work on your assignments on your own time and upload them to the class module on Canvas, CalArts' online learning platform, by a set deadline. At the end of the week, the instructor will give you direct feedback on submitted assignments with video critiques. Lectures and video critiques are pre-recorded.

Prerequisites

  • You must be 14 years old or older to take part in this workshop.
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Section Title
Portfolio Development Workshop in Character Design
Type
Online
Dates
Sep 29, 2025 to Nov 28, 2025
Delivery Options
Online-Asynchronous  
Course Fee(s)
Tuition non-credit $1,100.00 or $250.00 deposit Click here to get more information
Section Fees
Adobe Creative Cloud $250.00 Optional
Section Notes

For an example materials list, click here.

THIS COURSE IS ACCESSED THROUGH CANVAS

The Canvas platform provides an instructor-led learning experience where all coursework is completed asynchronously with feedback being delivered in the form of recorded critiques. This allows students to access the course content and complete the work at their own pace with set deadlines. Class sizes are small, allowing students to get to know one another through their artwork, and engage with faculty and peers through discussion boards. The instructor is available to respond to student questions through Canvas messaging.

Most Canvas online courses qualify towards a CalArts Certificate.