By  Taya Zoormandan

Rows of tables took over California Institute of the Arts’ Main Gallery on Tuesday, Feb. 13, with students from the programs in Experimental Animation and Character Animation weaving around them, eager to showcase their work to studios for Portfolio Day.

The annual event is an opportunity for CalArts animation students to interact with representatives from various animation studios and receive feedback on their work. This year, 229 students from both animation programs participated in Portfolio Day, as well as representatives from 49 studios and companies from the US and beyond. The studios represented all corners of the industry, encompassing feature films, television shows, commercials, stop-motion, motion graphics, and more.

Students and studios set up two types of appointments: callbacks and student-initiated. Callbacks took place in the morning, in which studios interviewed students after reviewing their virtual portfolios. These were followed by meetings booked by students to receive direct feedback on their work from studio representatives—an option introduced in 2021. All told, 780 meetings took place throughout the course of the day.

Student portfolios and other related work from this year’s student participants can be viewed on the Animation Student Portfolios website, which is organized by year level in both programs. The site was also established in 2021, when the event went virtual in response to COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.

Watch a video recap of the 2024 CalArts Animation Portfolio Day below.