Animation Mentor Student
This past week has been an exciting one for me as an animator. It was then that I officially began my schooling at Animation Mentor, the online character animation school. The story leading up to this is a lengthy one, but can be summarized adequately in this opening paragraph. Upon my final semester at Purdue University, it became apparent to me that I was not the animator that I wanted to be, nor was I even close to being prepared for a job in the film industry. I knew that if I was serious in my dream to work in feature film as an animator, I would need to go above and beyond what undergraduate studies had to offer me. The reasons for my lack of real-world preparation are many, ranging from a fairly laissez faire attitude toward my own education, to a curriculum that is inadequate to the demands of the animation industry (I could go on and on about this last point, and have discussed it at length with several friends, but now is not the time or place). Suffice it to say, I looked into several options for self-improvement, including graduate studies at Purdue, other universities such as Savannah College of Art and Design, and lastly, Animation Mentor. One of the best things that I can say about Animation Mentor is that it passed my rigorous “Google test” with flying colors. I attempted time and time again to find negative press on the school, from keywords such as “Animation Mentor sucks” to “downsides to Animation Mentor.” Negative press is simply nowhere to be found. Praise of the online program, however, is found in abundance, from personal testimonies, to online news reports, to live recommendations I received from professionals working in the animation industry. In addition, the work coming out of this school speaks for itself. So after much deliberation, I applied to both Animation Mentor and graduate school at Purdue, received acceptance from both, but decided to proceed forward with Animation Mentor alone, so as to give it my full and undivided attention.
Even though I had read up on the class structure extensively, I still didn’t know exactly what to expect out of my first week. Fortunately, my experience has been overwhelmingly positive in this short amount of time, and has allayed many of the fears that I had coming into the program. The course has started off easily enough, easing in students of varying skill levels. My classmates include a range of individuals, from kids fresh out of high school, to professionals who have been working for notable animation studios for years already. It is simultaneously intimidating and refreshing to be surrounded by individuals who are currently much better animators than I am. I definitely have a lot to learn from my classmates alone, not even taking into account my mentor (Animation Mentor’s equivalent to a “professor”). My mentor, fortunately, does appear to be a top-notch individual, and was just the type of person I was hoping to encounter in my first class. For the next 12 weeks, I will be taught by Anthony Wong, current Pixar animator and contributor to such works as Ratatouille, Cars, Fantasia/2000, Tarzan, Mulan, Hercules, and The Simpsons. Not only is his curriculum vitae impressive, but he also seems to be a good communicator and teacher as well. His passion for animation is apparent in lectures, where he talks quickly and jumps from topic to topic in rapid succession, seemingly excited to share as much as he can. I cannot go into detail on any of the lessons at Animation Mentor, for legal non-disclosure reasons, but suffice it to say, having a professional take you through shot by shot of a film and point out important details is enlightening.
I haven’t had much real work to do yet; this is likely in order to give everyone an opportunity to become well-versed in the software (Autodesk Maya). An optional Maya training course was offered, but fortunately Purdue gave me a good enough overview of Maya that this course was unnecessary. My main task for the week was actually an optional scavenger hunt featuring a number of questions about Animation Mentor. This assignment gave me an opportunity to meet and talk with some of the other 13 students in my class in order to collaborate on it. I was definitely surprised at how friendly and approachable everyone seems to be at Animation Mentor. This is due to both the culture of the site, which encourages peer review and collaboration, and the dedication that each student has to animation. Everyone is anxious to get the most out of the experience, and thus is quick to make new connections. This was apparent in my first out-of-class virtual meeting that I had with my classmates, in which several of us joined a Skype conference call in order to assist one another on the scavenger hunt. With the effort of many, the work went quickly, and we ended up spending a long time afterwards simply talking about animation in general and sharing favorite animated shorts and films. Never before have I so quickly connected with classmates, even in a physical classroom. With the first week of Animation Mentor out of the way, I look ahead to the many weeks of hard work in what will most assuredly be a very rewarding experience.
It’s sweet that you actually spoke with your classmates already via Skype. Does AM encourage peer discussions and help?
Yea, but not on Skype in particular, that was our idea. But there is a chat room built into the site (I’ve never seen anyone on that actually), and there is “Post 5″ policy, where everyone’s encouraged to post five messages on others people’s workspaces each week.
dude you are so lucky,
Im currently saving to get on this course. I watched their online tour and Q&A today. They know what they are talking about and their course is so well structured. Not like any of the crap courses we have in England (home of the students, universities could’nt give a toss about.). will keep reading your blog to see how you get on. Hope its as good as I think it is.
Hey Luke,
For me at least, Animation Mentor has been 100% worth it. I’m in Class 3 now, but I just haven’t updated my blog at all recently; busy with classes and all. As long as you are interested specifically in computer animation (and not modeling, texturing, lighting, etc), AM is the best resource I have found.
Best of luck to you and I hope to see you in Animation Mentor some time.