December 6, 2004

Animation Mentor Meeting

Last night I had a meeting with the Animation Mentor team. The meeting was hard on me, I was at the tail end of a somewhat nasty cold. So I hung out in the back drowsy on DayQuil, sucking on throat lozenges and OJ. But even drowsy on cold-meeds I couldn't help but get excited about the program. Bobby, Carlos and Shawn have really outdone themselves putting this together. It's one of the most amazing programs I have ever seen. And for what you get I have to say it's pretty darn cheep. Richard Williams charges $750 for his weekend classes and you only get 3 days out of it. This gives you far more for your money.

I can't talk much about it, obviously. But I've been to CalArts, this program promises to be every bit as good as CalArts is if not better. It's focuses on teaching you the art of animation. About character and acting as well as the basics. If you don't have the basics down you won't get very far with the acting. I even learned a thing or two about animation just by attending the meeting.

I have to say one thing, you can't just sign up for the classes and expect to learn animation. You have to do the assignments, if you don't have time or intrest to do the assignments you might want to save your money.

They have a power-house crew of mentors as well. Some of the most talented animators that I have ever met showed up at the meeting. Some of them I had new, the rest I had heard about and was glad to get to finally meet. I hope I didn't give any of them my cold. I read that your only infectous at the beginning of the cold not the end. If I did, I hope they'll forgive me.

That's about all I can talk bout. I"m really excited about this program! Keep an eye on the graduates, if they work hard, I'm sure they're sure to go far!

1 comment:

Ward Jenkins said...

Even though I'm "just" a 2D animator, I'm finding that this idea for Animation Mentor is such a great and needed thing, especially within the CG realm. I'm not familiar with how production flows and how animators work within the 3D work environment, but the idea that these guys are working on establishing a mentor program is a step in the right direction. If you can get better animators established early on, from the student level, imagine the possibilities when these animators break into the work field. Very encouraging!