Animation Mentor

The Challenges of Learning to Animate the Body

Submitted by reuel on Wed, 12/29/2010 - 8:49pm

I've just finished my second term at Animation Mentor and honestly, it was a very challenging class. The first class, "Basic Foundations," was not too hard. Taking the principles of animation and applying them to simple objects is pretty easy. But applying them to actual characters to give them a sense of life? That's hard!

The second class is called "Psychology of Body Mechanics." We have three shots we work on during the quarter so we work on each shot for about four weeks. We can pick from a list of different themes but we're restricted in which character we can use and the length of the shot. Every week, we have to submit our progress on the shot and get feedback from our mentor... Read more »

My First Animation Mentor Class Is Over!

Submitted by reuel on Thu, 09/16/2010 - 2:32pm

After 12 weeks of watching lectures, sketching poses, animating various rigs, and attending Q&A sessions, I am finally done with the first class of Animation Mentor. It's been a fun and challenging quarter and I've learned quite a lot.

Most of it has been about internalizing the basic foundations of animation so that they're second nature to me and developing a more critical eye for animation. During much of the class, I've also worked on improving my workflow so that I'm used to planning, the tediousness of animation, and receiving feedback... Read more »

I'm Getting the Hang of Animating With Maya

Submitted by reuel on Mon, 08/09/2010 - 1:59pm

I'm about 6 weeks into the Animation Mentor program now and I must say that I love it. It's challenging, interesting, the learning environment is great and the people are great too.

I've learned a lot of different basic animation concepts but the biggest thing is being able to practice with assignments and receiving professional feedback. That's where I've learned the most. There have been so many details in my animation that I wouldn't have noticed without someone else with far more experience looking at my work... Read more »

My Animation Mentor Journey Begins

Submitted by reuel on Mon, 07/12/2010 - 9:48pm

I decided a few months ago to shift my career fully into 3D character animation. I had dabbled in 3D animation while working on commercials with my previous company and really enjoyed it. But character animation is pretty darn hard and if I'm going to do it, I want to be awesome at it.

That's why I enrolled in Animation Mentor. It's an exclusively online program and the instructors are all professional working animators. The demo reels produced by students of the program are excellent and the demo reels are what matter in this industry. I went to a USC Cinema job fair a few months ago and I was encouraged to learn that the Pixar and Dreamworks Animation reps both spoke very highly of the program... Read more »

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