CALARTS SHOW DRAWS ATTENTION : COMMERCIAL SUCCESSES BOOST ANIMATION FIELD.

Byline: James Sterngold The New York Times

It was the sort of crowd you'd expect at a glossy movie premiere: directors, agents and studio executives. And as usual they had come to check out the talent at the big Academy of Television Arts and Sciences theater in North Hollywood.

But the talent in the crowded theater was a college graduating class, and the students were wowing the audience with the sort of thing that turns heads at studios these days: An ostrich screeching in an effort to sing opera; a cactus with lethal, prickly arms trying to woo a little bird, and an ice fisherman who pulls a monster from the water.

There are numerous signs that animation has come of age, but few better convey Hollywood's surging interest than the sudden popularity of the annual show of student films at the California Institute of the Arts.

Once a modest showcase for students who would then head into the uncertain, underpaid world of animation, the show is now a must for anyone seriously interested in this booming field.

``It's sort of like the NFL draft,'' said Jeff Ranjo, a CalArts graduate who is now an animator at Walt Disney Studios. ``As a student today, you fight for this position, and then you enjoy the attention.''

Until three years ago, the show was held at a 125-seat theater at CalArts in Valencia. But when this year's show was held earlier this month, it was at the posh, 600-seat academy theater, and all the seats were filled.

After the event, Warner Bros. held a reception attended by students with leopard-spotted hair, dangling shirttails and, most important, talent with a pencil. (Despite the recent success of the computer-animated ``Toy Story,'' most artists at CalArts work with sketch pads, pencils and ink, doing animation much the same way it has been done since Mickey Mouse.)

John Lasseter, the CalArts graduate who directed ``Toy Story,'' was there basking in the adulation of faculty and colleagues. But he conceded he had also come to scout for Pixar, the company for which he works as vice president for creative development.

``We're always looking,'' he said. ``Why do you think all these people are here?''

CalArts has been the most respected training ground for animators since the 1970s and is considered a leader among its rivals, which include Sheridan College near Toronto and the Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota, Fla.

Other animation programs have also found increased interest. On Thursday, for instance, the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan will show its student films and animation at the Worldwide Cinema and will hand out awards for outstanding achievement. The event is sponsored by Warner Bros.' feature animation division, Hanna-Barbera, Eastman Kodak and Cineplex Odeon.

CalArts has 1,070 students, of which 228 are in the animation programs. Forty-nine of the school's 286 faculty members are in the animation departments. But the institute was founded in its present form by Walt Disney and others in 1961 as a general arts school. (Disney donated $40 million to the project.)

The school was to be an academy of the arts, with programs in the visual arts, music, theater, dance and film. Among its graduates are painters David Salle, Eric Fischl and Ross Bleckner, as well as filmmaker Tim Burton, clown Bill Irwin and actor Ed Harris.

CalArts did not start its animation department until 1970, when animated feature filmmaking was almost dead. Its first program was called experimental animation and focused on the exploration of new, abstract ideas and conceptual techniques.

It was not until 1974 that the school launched what it calls its character animation department, which trains students in the traditional skills used in Saturday morning cartoons and feature-length films.

Animation was still an arcane craft until the early 1990s, when ``Beauty and the Beast'' earned more than $100 million and the popularity of animation soared.

CalArts President Steven D. Lavine said the number of applications for the character animation program has risen from 242 in 1992 to 347 this year. In all, the school received applications from 557 students this year, of which 112 were accepted for the four-year programs.

Today, parents write on behalf of their 5-year-olds, asking how they might prepare them for admission.

The excitement is a product of the enormous profitability of animated films like ``The Lion King'' and ``Pocahontas,'' which were made largely by CalArts graduates.

Jules Engel, director of the school's experimental animation program, recalls how he used to have to travel to the studios to appeal for jobs for his top students. ``Today,'' he said, laughing, ``they come here to see me, especially this time of year. Believe me, I don't have to go out anymore.''

The studios agreed with this assessment. Max Howard, president of Warner Bros. animation division, said: ``We'd take the whole class if they wanted to come and if we could find the room. There are an insufficient number of artists to make all the films we want to make.''

In the past nine months, his department has increased in size from about 40 people to nearly 400, and it is producing two full-length animated features, one with the real Michael Jordan used along with animated characters. About 45 people on the Warner Bros. staff are animators.

Michelle Meeker, who graduated from CalArts with a bachelor's degree in 1993, is a good example of how the field has changed. When she graduated three years ago, she felt lucky landing a job with the Children's Television Workshop in New York.

This year she is receiving her master's degree from CalArts. Even before graduation she received an offer from her dream studio, Pixar, as well as feelers from several other companies.

``The big difference is there are so many places to go now,'' Meeker said. ``There are the CD-ROM companies and so many other things that you don't have to rely on the big studios.''

Starting salaries also have risen. Rebecca J. Bristow, director of the character animation department at CalArts, said that five years ago, $500 a week was considered a good offer; today, some students earn $1,000 a week, and experienced animators much more.

Agents also have entered the picture. About a year ago, the William Morris Agency set up a special division, which focuses on, among other things, representing animators.

``If we took the lid off animation, it could swallow up the whole school,'' Lavine said. ``But we're not going to take the lid off. The challenge is not to let CalArts become imbalanced by this.''

For their part, the animation students remain a peculiar lot. ``Comic books are a big part of their history,'' said Bristow, of the character animation department. ``They're really into `Star Wars,' too. I don't know why, but they talk about it all the time.''

If ``Star Wars'' and comic books are touchstones, the students also enjoy taking a good jab now and then at their own professional establishment. This year's program closed with an insolent nod to the school's founding father in ``2001: Dalmatians,'' a short that showed Walt Disney preserved in a monolith.