Animated Arts is one of the most popular majors at Pacific Northwest College of Art at Willamette University, and for good reason– Portland has been a hub for animation since Will Vinton started stop-motion animating here in the 1970s.

Stop-motion animation is a filmmaking technique in which artists move objects in tiny increments, taking a still photo between each movement. When these photos are shown in order, the object appears to move on its own. The medium has established a regional cult following, with studios like LAIKA, ShadowMachine, and Bent Image Lab, MOSMA (Museum of Stop Motion Animation), and hundreds of talented stop-motion professionals and independent creators now calling Portland home.

Since the college’s founding in 1909, PNCA has grown alongside and served as an incubator for Portland’s creative industries. PNCA Pre-College supports youth ages 14-18 during the early stages of their creative careers with one-day Saturday Classes and two-week Summer Intensives.

This July, PNCA Pre-College is building on Portland’s history as an “animation city” with a new Animation Summer Intensive. The program is designed to provide high school students with an authentic glimpse into the world of professional animation.

“The Portland region is home to a growing and dynamic film, television, and animation industry,” said Jennifer Gilligan Cole, the Jordan Schnitzer Dean of PNCA. “Our Pre-College program helps youth build foundational skills in character development, storytelling, and software that are key to professional success.”

The new Intensive will be taught by professional animator and PNCA professor Adina Cohen, recognized for her work on the Emmy Award-winning show Robot Chicken, Supermansion, Buddy Thunderstruck, Hulu's M.O.D.O.K., Netflix’s Wendell and Wild, the Oscar-nominated film Anomalisa, and LAIKA’s newest film Wildwood.

Cohen herself first discovered stop-motion animation in high school. She recalls being amazed by the 2007 film Madame Tutli Putli, directed by Chris Lavis & Maciek Szczerbowski.

“It incorporated my love of fine art and my passion for filmmaking,” said Cohen. “I thought, ‘oh, I can merge the two, I don’t have to pick!’ It was magical. I realized that I could finally tell the stories I'd always wanted to tell.”

Cohen hopes that this Intensive will demystify the process of stop-motion animation for Pre-College students, inspiring them in a similar way. As technical as stop-motion can be, Cohen feels that the process is also deeply intuitive.

“Stop-motion requires constant creative problem solving, and so much inventiveness on the fly,” said Cohen. “Because it’s so start-to-finish, it’s almost like an improv performance.” She encourages all of her students to “go with the flow,” follow a funny idea when it feels right, and embrace the performance aspect of stop-motion animation.

“Working in stop-motion forces you to be very present, to slow down and notice the small things,” Cohen added. “You need to live in the movement, in the moments between each frame.” 

PNCA will offer two sessions of the new Animation Intensive in July 2026. Cohen, drawing from her experience in major stop-motion studios, will feature lessons in clay techniques, practical effects, pixelation, and the industry-standard animation software Dragonframe. By the end of each two-week session, students will have created a final animation to be presented on a big screen at Pre-College’s Friends and Family Reception.

The Reception is an important part of all Summer Intensives at PNCA. Despite occasional nerves, students find it empowering to present their professional creative selves and their most recent work to an audience. This structure also resonates with Cohen, who describes “pressing the ‘play’ button on a finished film” as the most exciting part of animating.

“Pre-College is, first and foremost, an opportunity for emerging creatives to plug into a professional creative environment and build confidence,” said Riley Currie, Community Programs Coordinator at PNCA. “Portfolio development and career readiness are a part of it, but for Pre-College, those things come secondary to creative practice.”

“I think the best thing that you can do as an artist is be vulnerable,” added Cohen. “Allowing yourself to be vulnerable is what creates work that connects us all.”

Learn more about PNCA Pre-College and this summer’s Intensives at https://pnca.willamette.edu/academics/pre-college-programs. The priority registration deadline for Summer 2026 is April 1.