ANIMATED CLASS IN CYBERSPACE.

The animated cat, drawn in dark pencil lines, crouches and jumps up onto the chair. At the same time, it flies through the air from a California State University classroom in San Jose, where it was created, to the Warner Bros. Feature Animation building in Glendale, and leaps through cyberspace into the new digital age of arts education.

In Glendale, professional Warner Bros. animator Jennifer Cardon assesses the drawing on a television monitor and reacts. ``Let me go to the drawing table,'' she says, sitting down to illustrate as students watch her on live, interactive television at the San Jose classroom and at California State universities in Northridge and Fullerton, John A. Rowland High School in Rowland Heights and four schools in Alabama.

``You need to try to get more `squash and stretch' in there. Think of it as a group of simple shapes that move, rather than as a cat that has to stay the same shape,'' she advises.

And, as the animation students in distant locales watch her draw, a better approach to the problem becomes perfectly clear.

Since last October, Cardon and other Warner Bros. animators have been offering live on-line instruction two hours a week through a project called the Acme Virtual Training Network.

Program founder Dave Master, who is director of artist development and training at Warner Bros., celebrated the program's successful first year with a special demonstration held at the Warner Bros.' animation facility in Glendale on Thursday.

``This is the first time Cal State Northridge has had this industry link for animators, and it's been great,'' said Laurel Long, an associate professor at CSUN whose class of 30 animation students tunes into the program each week via a one-way, secondary video link.

Though CSUN lacks the resources for a full interactive hook, the school is able to send two students directly to the Warner Bros. building in Glendale each week for one-on-one instruction by the pros.

``Our involvement with this program is very much in line with what we're proposing as a new direction for certain parts of the university,'' said Philip Handler, dean of CSUN's College of Arts, Media & Communication, referring to the school's current bid to begin a Hollywood-linked entertainment institute on the campus next fall.

The Warner Bros.-based program was developed during the last four years based on a goal Master had of bringing professional animation instruction into classrooms around the country.

``The idea was to give the students access to professional animators on a weekly basis who could review their work and demonstrate a way to improve,'' said Master. ``I now get thank-you letters from kids all over the country saying, `Thank you for helping me out. I'm now working at DreamWorks, or Disney.' ''

The program was developed partly in response to the current demand for talent in the burgeoning animation industry, Master said.

``But this is only an adjunct to classroom teaching, not a replacement. The most appropriate move the schools could make is still to bring back art programs in grades K-12, because strong drawing skills are essential.''

Master said the program aims at boosting students' chances for a career in animation, regardless of where they may end up.

``It's not about creating a farm team for Warner Bros. If they can get a job elsewhere, that's great.''

The size of the Acme Training Network is limited to the host site in Glendale plus three primary (fully interactive) and five secondary sites. But Master says some expansion is being considered.

Students interested in animation careers whose schools do not participate should concentrate on their drawing skills, he said. ``They need to be able to draw so well that they don't even have to think about it. It's just inhale, exhale, draw.''

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2 Photos

Photo: (1) Lennie Graves teaches animation techniques from the Warner Bros. Feature Animation building in Glendale to students in California and Alabama in an interactive television class.

(2) In the Warner Bros. animation classroom the monitor at left shows students at California State University, San Jose, while the monitor on the right shows one of the professional animators.

Terri Thuente/Daily News