Art Springs to Life in SHS Animation Program

Sherman High School students inside Jeff Clements’ animation classes are discovering hidden strengths, such as 3D modeling, background illustration or 2D animation, and are crafting works of art frame by frame.

“I start in Animation I by teaching a little bit of everything, and they’ll pick a pathway and spend the rest of the year doing unique projects,” Clements said. “By the time students are in the advanced classes, they’re experts in their role of the production.”

Senior Ben Harker always thought animation was interesting, but his drawing skills weren’t the greatest. However, creating 3D models for others to animate didn’t require that.

“I could look at something and then build it in the program. That’s what drew me to it,” Harker said, now in the third-year class, Practicum in Animation. “I just kept creating and getting better, and I fell in love with it.”

Harker, like other 3D modeling or 3D animation students, builds projects using the Autodesk Maya software program, the same one used by major animation studios like Pixar, DreamWorks and Disney.

For those who lean toward 2D animation, the classes currently use the Krita software program and will be switching next year to Toon Boom Harmony, the industry standard for 2D animation used by Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and Warner Bros.

“Whenever they have a project in here, that’s real world experience they’re getting,” Clements said.

Clements’ more advanced students in the Practicum class work on months-long projects such as a short film or large 3D landscape, and he recruits a small team to submit an animated short film to the UIL State Film Festival.

“Films go through multiple rounds of judging before we know the finalists,” Clements said. “This year, the team is really dynamic.”

Senior Rosanna Kim is the director of this year’s team with their 2D short film, “Two Bros, One Mountain.” It follows the journey of two friends who climb a mountain, and instead of physical obstacles, they encounter interpersonal conflicts they must overcome.

As the director, Kim has creative control and helped with some of the animation, but her job has been coordinating the team and making the film’s different elements come together.

“You have to delegate to people and may have to make compromises,” Kim said. “It’s not just your project. It’s the team’s project. You have to communicate everything.”

The UIL State Film Festival will be held Feb. 26, 2026, and Clements said they should have an idea of how they’re doing by late January. Regardless of the result, Clements is proud.

“What I love about what I do is seeing the students discover what they can do by themselves,” he said. “They had no idea that they would be good at it, but now they’ve become so creative and able to create amazing things.”