Animation was started by Mr. Lightfoot at Mt. Carmel High School in 1994 as a club and quickly moved into a 7th period class with 80 students.
Mr. Lightfoot saw this as a school to career path for students in the schools and approached Disney Feature Animation with the concept in spring of 1996.
At the first meeting the ground work was laid to bring all of the District Administrators to Disney Studios to hear the plan for a pilot program that was established and implemented at all four high schools in the Poway Unified School District that fall where Mr. Lightfoot became PUSD Animation Coordinator. There are now 1000 + students enrolled in animation classes district wide.
In the summer of 1997 the new Animation Lab was constructed at Mt. Carmel High School to service the 420 students per year that now use these facilities. Animation is offered 6 periods per day and includes two section of ROP and two sections of 7th period animation after school.
All of the equipment, software controller for the pencil testers, Animation Workstations, discs, and round hole peg-bars were designed, developed, and tested by Mr. Lightfoot in his home studio for use in the schools that add animation to their Art Department Curriculum.
Now Mr. Lightfoot conducts Animation workshops for instructors and ROP Coordinators in the State of California and Arizona who are putting together programs for their districts. Mr. Lightfoot spends his summers rewriting curriculum and lesson plans to keep them current with his expanding program. The curriculum, tools, and equipment that Mr. Lightfoot has developed for his program is being offered to other schools as a method of introducing animation without having to struggle as he did in the beginning.
The innovative and progressive equipment developed by Mr. Lightfoot has saved districts thousands of dollars already. Without these innovations other districts would not have been able to afford to add animation to their curriculum.
Mr. Lightfoot is constantly looking for cutting edge ideas to move education forward in ways that will be exciting and relevant for all who wish to explore the exciting world of Animation as a tool for visual communication.
Call Seomii Lightfoot to book workshops at : (951) 693-5165
e-mail: ltfoot@lightfootltd.com
Lightfoot Ltd. 36125 Travis Ct., Temecula, CA 92592
voice: (951) 693-5165 fax: (951) 693-5166
For School PO's Call: (951) 693-5165
