Animation Mentor.com

[Animated Ape]

So Motion Militia asked about AnimationMentor.com so I thought I'd start a new thread to answer instead of hi-jacking one of our most active threads, the "question" posting.

He asked:

Originally Posted by motionmilitia

...APE! Can you tell us about your experience with Animation Mentor so far? I've been thinking about enrolling in the near future, but as you are aware it is pretty spendy. Granted, the Mentors are all very talented... but how it is working out? Are there any communication barriers when taking these classes online? Any other issues?

Well, as the guinea pig class of 2006 the program has changed quite a bit. There were a few technical glitches in the begining, we crashed the sever when all 300 something students logged on for the first "Global Q and A" session, and a few other glitches here and there. Those have all been fixed. Other than that, the program is amazing!! The best I've ever attended. Yeah, $2000 bucks for 12 weeks per class seems like a lot of money, but how much is an animation class if you took it at places like Cal Arts, Ringling, Goeblins, or other schools? Granted you don't have the brick and mortar feel or a traditional art school, but the school forums pages are very active and there is a great vibe with all the students, mentors and founders. Pluss you don't have to pay moving and housing expensies of moving to a different part of the world. You can take classes from anywhere around the world. I was still taking classes while I was on vacation in Germany for two months. I even was able to do it while taking a two week bus tour around Germany. That is something you just can't do in a traditional school.

Bobby, Carlos and Shawn, the founders, are all very attentive and when things come up they address and fix the problems, or impliment sugestions right away. The classes and instruction from the mentors is amazing! I learned more about animation in the first 12 week intro class than I did in all four years at the Academy of Art College.

Now this isn't an "art" school. They only focus on animation. At least for now. I don't know if they are intending to expand into art classes or not. That would be really cool. They focus on animation. How to achive weight, good timing, good poses, belivablility in acting, sincerity in acting, all the stuff that will make your animation stand out. They also throughly cover the basice as well. Timing, spacing, ease-in, ease-out, squash and stretch, arcs, overlapping action, secondary action. Thats all drilled into our heads durring the first two classes and keeps being brought up through out the other classes as well. These men and women love animation and they want to share it with others, and it comes across. They aren't professional teachers, and it shows , but they are passionate about the art and that passion is infectious.

In my oppinion, the best students right for this program are the ones who either know Maya or another 3D program first but never really learned animation. Or people that know animation and want to learn Maya. I'm the latter, although I quickly learned that I don't know anything about animation. Thats not to say if you've never animated AND never used Maya, that you won't do well. Everyone gets noticably better each week. I just think it would be alittle to over-whelming to have to learn animation and Maya at the same time. Hell, I had a hard enough time trying to get my damn ball to bounce right! Lol.

Any way, that's my take. I love the place. I actually want to go back and do the program again from the begining since they've changed a bunch of stuff and I know I still more I can learn. I've learned gobs at this school. I take my hat off to Carlos, Shawn and esspecially Bobby, who quit his animation job at PIXAR to head up the school full time. Those three have put forth a Herculiean effort to get things up and running.

End sales pitch

Aloha,
the Ape

[Splatman]

You deserve a discount!

(I'm jealous 'cuz I can't afford it at this very moment...dangit!)


Splatman

[ScatteredLogical]

If there's no objection from you, Ape, I'll offer my own services, being one course behind you and from the perspective of not yet a professional. Plus I love answering questions. I knew a great deal of information about animation, but it simply didn't show up in my work.

The first course in foundations told me all sorts of good things to know, and that got my excited just about the process of learning, but also brought things (80% of what I already knew) together in such a way as to finally make perfect sense and be useful to me as far as how all the different aspects interrelate.

The second course was an incredible transition. The lessons and assignments are tailored in such a way, and at the time are so exhaustive for developing animators, that you are -forced- to revise your organization and time management skills or die trying =) A near-tacit lesson in finding your own workflow that...well, works, best for you. It's also nice to really show yourself that you can apply those foundations you learned in a practical way.

What makes that term amazing is that you go from knowing facts, and hearing great tips, and saying to yourself "Someone more successful and experienced than me said this was a good idea, so I'll do it" to understanding the whole process so well and at such a level that you begin to come to personal conclusions and really OWN the idea of animating. You can do it yourself, and you finally get WHY those tips work because you get where they're coming from, how they were arrived at, almost like a mathematical proof.

Directly addressing MotionMilitia's questions:

1) For the amount of time, it is very expensive, but aside from being cheaper than most alternatives, cost-benefit actually wins out, which is saying something because it's basically rent money each month =)

2) It works out well, even if you fall into interaction with a less-experienced mentor, because they are the eyes and the motivation. You're still doing all the work. Often, when you've got someone high-up (My current one for intro to acting is a Vice President of Production) they're an added benefit in that much of what they say inadvertently inspires you pep-talk style, and have their own personal lessons that they'd like to hand off to you, giving you a taste of each corner of the industry.

3) Especially as it concerns the Question & Answer sessions, for me the experience vs. actual teachers is that I can't smell my mentor and there is glass in front of his face. Long story short, any other issues you'll encounter of any sort of serious crop up by being there and experiencing for themselves. No one else can tell you about them and you'll have your own way of dealing with them. Nothing major, though.

[Sukie]

Thanks, guys, for posting info about Animation Mentor here. I was really excited to learn such a school exists! I know I have alot to learn in animation, and I feel this is exactly what I've been looking for. I am saving up to try for the summer course. I am especially excited now that they accept macs
I was saving up for a PC, too.

[ScatteredLogical]

I know on this board the few mentions AM gets are for indirect hiring done via mentors (or through the legwork of the student as it applies to many game jobs), but it should be noted that unlike many other schools, AM has instituted an active placement program for its graduates to help facilitate them into jobs. Rather than provide an office or small building to store reading materials and house phones and having the burden be entirely yours, the plan acts on an official level for the school to evaluate your progress, your proficiency, and use its connections to help find you an appropriate position in the field.

From anything I've been told the "plan" behind AM is to have you genuinely prepared for an entry-level position by the time you get through the full 18 months. That includes emulated production experience with the final two courses.

[Larry L.]

Hello.

Someone mentioned Goeblins is expensive. While in Paris, I spoke to Eric Revers, the coordinator of Goeblins a couple of months ago ... he said next year, the cost was gong up to 2200.00 - a year! That's a great education for the cost of one class. For the cost of what a normal term (of three classes) cost at most schools- you can complete their entire three year program.

They do accept ONLY top quality talent and develop them from there- the results speak for themselves.

Thanks

[ScatteredLogical]

No way! Wow...That's one of the schools whose work almost intimidates me, because it's so teeth-smashingly good. Their 2Ders make me appreciate that medium more each time I see them.

I have to ask though, just from a logic standpoint: If they go in high and leave high, has a difference been made or are they just picking the freshest vegetables and claiming the tastiest soup? Or is it truly leaps and bounds greater than the level the students came in at?

[Animated Ape]

Wow, a year?! That is a great deal. Is that for domestic students or is it different for international students? Either way that is an incredible deal for the quality that comes out of that school.

Aloha,
the Ape

[motionmilitia]

Ape, Scattered... thanks so much for your insider critique of AM! It really sounds like a great program. I feel like I can make a much more educated decision now that I've talked to some fellow AWN locals!

[Animated Ape]

Oh, a couple things I forgot.

One of the great things that AnimationMentor.com has going for it, and in my mind makes it stand out from other schools, is that they don't teach you the program. What I mean by this is that they teach you what you need to know to animate a character, translate, rotate, parenting, setting keyframes and the like. But they don't teach you modeling, lighting, and all that other fancy CGI stuff. They encourage you to learn it on your own, but they don't have classes on it. They recognize that in the Feature Animation and Games studios that the animators just animate, so thats what they teach.

Also it's not just Maya animation. They encourage the students, and students do, animate projects traditionally, or with stop motion, or Flash, or other CG programs. They actually have a couple of classes on traditional animation and stop motion.

Oh, and you can buy the full Maya program at the student price when you enroll. Great bargin!!!

Aloha,
the Ape