Animation Mentor launches the Summer Showcase Reel
Today the Animation Mentor Summer Showcase reel launched. We're so incredibly happy with the quality of work and dedication that has gone in to this. It's nice as I really feel it shows a good variety of work and also shows a depth to the "look" of the work, too. We've had some comments from recruiters that it would be nice to "mix it up a bit" and I"m proud to say that we've done a lot to mix it up and the next showcase reel will REALLY reflect a lot in these changes that we've made to add the variety to the work and reels. Here are some things we've done and are doing:
1. Bishop has a variety of looks and styles to him/her. Students are getting more creative each and every time they do an assignment; putting different hair styles and clothes and really designing their shots keeping this in mind for their final pieces. 2. The new curriculum has a lot of new assignments which will and have really mixed things up showing a greater overall variety. 3. Stewie now has a "costume picker" which allows students to choose from a variety of pre-defined costumes and sets that we've created. This will reflect in the next showcase.
Overall these small changes will make a HUGE difference in the quality of work coming and out and this showcase should give you a good sample of that. Enjoy and please let me know what you think! WOO HOO! Click Here to view
Over the last couple of weeks my life has been Animation Mentor from head-to-toe! It's been so inspiring hosting and participating in so many fantastic events! It was a pleasure meeting so many inspired students and graduates from all over the world.
Christa and Melissa welcome AMers to the Career Fair!
This is the stuff I LOVE to see. Alumni coming out to support the current graduates and having a blast. So stoked to see so much love and support going around. If you weren't there you wouldn't believe it if I told you how freaking awesome it is to be around this energy! WOW!
I was also fortunate enough to host a webinar with Don Hahn, the editor of the two book set "Drawn to Life," by Walt Stanchfield! It was such an honor to host this and I'm so stoked we're offering it for people to view for FREE! Click Here to view it. Enjoy!
So with that I'm getting a couple moments of rest and then getting ready to hit Animation Mentor Power Sessions Part 2 at Comic Con and then at Siggraph! It's going to be a VERY BUSY next couple of weeks and I'm SOOOOOOO looking forward to it! WOOT WOOT! Hope to see some more of you soon. I'll also be blogging more while at the events!
Animation Mentor : New lecture with Bret Parker on "Mechanics and Acting"
Bret Parker was at the Animation Mentor Head Quarters this past weekend doing a lecture for The New Animation Mentor Curriculum. We're finishing up the last few lectures for this program before moving on to new SUPER exciting stuff. Bret gave her best in this lecture. The cool thing is we got permission from Pixar for her to use one of her shots from Ratatouille to go over in her class! This marks the first time we've been able to use Pixar footage in our classes. More of this type of thing to come in the new curriculum and this is so freaking cool!!!
Front Row Left: Jonathan Gomez, Front Row Right: Heather McNabb Back Row Left: Veara Suon, Back Row Right: Nicole Demas Part of the New Curriculum format is doing classes where we invite several students to participate in the lecture. This way we get the student perspective right there inside the lecture and we're so proud of these guys as they asked some fantastic questions which really helps take the content to a whole new level! Thanks guys!
It's so great to be at a level where studios like Sony, DreamWorks and now Pixar are recognizing the importance of allowing footage in our classes to help make for better, more relevant instruction. So cool!!!!
Part of the new stuff is letting you guys get a sneak peek into the behind the scenes world of what we do here at Animation Mentor. I hope you enjoy this super sneak peek of what's to come!
It's always fun when we get all the students and graduates together at Animation Mentor. Even though this is an Online Animation School it's so fantastic to hear in the student's words just how personal an experience it is for them. When we started the school that was one BIG area we feared would not work so well; would people make friendships that would last even though they were esentially working from home? You've got to remember this was well before communities like FaceBook existed. Now we know, more than ever, this is a solid way to learn, people DO make friendships, build relationships that last and learn in a way that is absolutely mind blowing! Every day I'm so proud to come to work and be a part of this magic. I can never get enough of the good vibes that people feel and I will continue to push the company forward to being the best place to learn animation on the planet and the best place that the team ever works! This is my personal mission!
Trip to Sony Pictures Imageworks for new Animation Mentor Video Lectures
Rachel Ito (AM's Art Director), Michael Dauz (AM's Web Publications Specialist) and myself flew down to LA this weekend to shoot two new classes for the Polishing and Portfolio classes that are new to Animation Mentor. This marks the first of many upcoming classes that will feature real production shots! This is exciting for us as this will really begin to open things up as far as teaching goes, and being able to see real production shots, workflow techiniques, etc that take a shot from concept to the big screen is so absolutely invaluable!
Matthew Munn did the first class in which he went over some great shots he did on Surf's Up! He was full of energy and excitement for this class. We had a blast and we all laughed A LOT!
Joshua Beveridge did the second class where he also went over a shot he did on Surf's Up. Josh has an excitement and enthusiasm for animation that radiates from him! This totally came through in the class and although we had a lot of technical difficulties throughout the day it wound up being absolutely amazing and very memorable for all of us!
I wanted to give a HUGE public thanks to both Michael and Rachel for being rock stars and sticking through two shoots in one day! WOW, that was a lot of work for all of us and they kept up their energy and the results will pay off when these classes air later this year.
I wanted keep the readers of the blog abreast of all the cool things we're doing on a regular basis because it helps everyone see the effort and energy that goes into this crazy place. We're so happy and 2009 is proving to be a fantastic one indeed!
A couple weeks back we had our much anticipated winter graduation ceremony and it was a HUGE success and massive blast! I can't tell you how much these graduations serve as crazy inspiration to all of us involved. The mentors are now playing a BIGGER and BIGGER role in the whole thing because they get the pump up just as much as the student's do! I've never experienced anything like this at all. So much energy all in one place and it's really positively overwhelming to hear so many inspirational stories about people's journeys in making it to this particular point in their life.
Despite the state of the economy I am more than optimistic about how well the animation Industry is doing as a whole world wide. Yes, some studios are closing, however I can only judge how we are doing based on our placement rate. We review this often and report on our number every 6 months. Last time we reported it was at 78% worldwide placement which is HUGE. We just ran the numbers this week and I can't wait to share the new numbers when they are official. Keep your heads up, keep on animating and never let your fire die. It's all possible and WILL happen for you. Never doubt it. It's really just a matter of time! Until then I'll be riding high from the amazing energy that this place seems to breed. I LOVE it!!!!
I always talk about how the team at Animation Mentor makes it so amazing and so special. Here's a sneak peek of the video news boardcast for week 1 this term. You get to see all the amazing people who help bring it to life every day. I'm proud to be a part of this and am so happy to be working with the best, most funnest team on the planet!
So, besides a mix up that sent out emails to people early for having late grades before the term started (whoops) we launched version 3.1.0 today without a hitch! This is HUGE because it's been about a year in the making. Most people will not notice much of a difference right off the bat. However, on the back end the site is completely new and the server environment is 100% brand new and co-located at a new, super reliable location.
Huge props to the Animation Mentor Software Development and Network Operations teams!!!
What 3.1.0 gives us is the ability to have both Alumni and Student sites in one place. I'm an admin/beta user so when I log in the site chances color to reflect alumni or student. It also allows me to co-mingle with alumni and students together in one place. My buddy list has students AND alumni in it! So cool. We're testing this out and are not releasing it this year, however the "pipe" is laid and we're SUPER excited to be moving in the right direction. After some testing we will slowly open it up to both students and alumni together. Once we do this the community will feel so much more robust and solid. Becoming an alumni will be that much cooler and we have a lot of awesome stuff that we can now begin working on which will make the alumnni site super duper crazy awesome! I wanted to share because I'm a bit excited about this project. :) I know it's a little early to be celebrating as we can only see and feel the results internally, but I see the future of AM and it looks awesome!
Also, a little birdy told me that there is a brand new Animation Mentor public site launching some time tomorrow! So stay tuned for that at www.AnimationMentor.com . WOOT!!!!
Animation Mentor Rigs: Don't ruin your chances of getting a job
This is a tough one for me to write about. I'm not sure the best way to say this so I'll need to come out and say it. Animation Mentor rigs are meant for AM students and graduates. When people outside of AM use these rigs or distribute them to non AM students it creates a lot of problems; let me explain:
The biggest problem is that Animation Mentor is recognized in the industry now quite visibly. So, if a studio (especially the major studios) see someone's work with AM characters they will inevitably ask that person, "Did you go to Animation Mentor?" or, "Who were your mentors at Animation Mentor?" If they find out that the person did not go there this could blow up in the persons face. This is worth noting as it has happened. Ouch! Talk about uncomfortable.
Because we have so many animators, mentors and studio recruiters that know us they will really take offense at this. Why? Well, who's to say that this person won't steal their rigs and put them on the net, or take footage that is not yet released and put it on their reel? These things are BIG flags for studios.
I wanted to mention this on my blog so that people are aware of this and can pass the word on. If you are not an AM student or graduate and you are using our rigs I would point out that you're doing yourself a huge disservice. Why take the risk?
At the Animation Mentor graduation this year the grads made this fantastic "Thank You" video that really touched everyone.
It's things like these that make AM so completely special to us. This comes 100% from the heart and it shows and that's why it hits us so hard. Thanks to GC7 and GC8 for your awesome energy, talent and enthusiasm!
Thanks for Carlos Baena for hosting this video from his site:
4th Graduation at Animation Mentor a HUGE Success!
This year we held the graduation outside at a new location in Berkeley. It was fantastic! The weather was great and the energy was SUPER high. The graduates were bubbling with enthusiasm and it kept the mood on the highest note!
There are so many details that go into an event like this and I have to thank Molly our super NINJA event coordinator for making this one of the most memorable graduations we've done at Animation Mentor yet! And leading the fantastic team of Animation Mentor staff! This was one of the coolest yet!
Chris Derochie and Luci Napier hang out backstage with one of the Mentor Choice awards! This year we had a host of mentors present awards and it was so great! It was super touching for them to see their students glowing eyes and enthusiasm. They all explained it was a tremendous experience for them too as it really made the impact of what they are doing as mentors so much more powerful to them! COOL!
Glen McIntosh was our special guest speaker and he did an excellent job inparting his words of wisdom to the 7th and 8th graduating classes of Animation Mentor! Thanks Glen!
We took all the mentors to lunch before the graduation which was great to chill out a bit and exchange stories about their experiences at Animation Mentor as well as some cool inside scoop on what's going on in the CG world!
Here's a snap of Shawn, Carlos and I at the graduation event! WOO HOO, it was so great, we all spoke from the heart and it made the experience one of the most memorable graduations for me yet.
At the end it was so much fun as the graduates put together a video of them all saying, "Thank you" to us in their own words and different languages. It was so touching. Shawn, Carlos and I thought we'd get through a graduation without shedding tears, but when this went on it really hit us again at how many lives this place changes and even though the 3 of us came up with the idea and got it rolling, we owe the success all the many people who make it so great; The Staff, them Mentors and the Students. Honestly, I'm in awe of what we are doing here and I'm proud to be a part of it!
It was awesome hanging out with the graduates and getting to meet everyone and hear their fanstic stories of the journey they've been on to get to this point. Meeting the spouses, boyfriends, girlfriends and families is so outstanding. I feel a close connection to each one of our graduates in so many ways. I told many of them that these events are equally as much for us as they are for them. It keeps up in check on what we're doing and where we're going!
After the graduation we had dinner with Robin Linn from Sony Imageworks. It was great! We were able to finalize some of the details of a fantastic addition to Animation Mentor with Sony IPAX which we will be announcing at Siggraph. I met Robin Linn in Siggraph about four years ago which was my introduction to the cool things they have been doing at Sony and in particular with IPAX. Robin has been a big instigator in fostering the relationship between Animation Mentor and Sony and we're excited to be growing that relationship to the next level! WOO HOO!!!!
See you guys at Siggraph soon! I'm off to the airport now. Expect daily updates with images. This time I'm bringing my battery recharger so I don't have an excuse. :)
Things have been non-stop busy for me this year. It's been amazing, all sorts of new things happening at Animation Mentor and I'm so proud of them all. We've been doing a lot of foundational work internally. We have many cool things planned and had some minor set backs as well (Q&A 2.5/3.0). Sorry about that stuff.
We lost the lead engineer on the Q&A project to Adobe. Damn! That's one of the trade offs for living in the Bay Area; there are so many great companies to work for it's pretty difficult to find engineering talent as they have plenty of choices, and the market is quite hot for Engineers these days. The good thing is that we will get back to the project, but the timing is still to be determined. I just do not feel comfortable putting something out into the world that we can not fully support 100%. That is critical to me and to the students/mentors as well.
And while I'm at it I might as well add a shameless plug: If you know anyone who you think might be a good fit to our engineering team please let me know. Our job description is located here.
As far as new announcements go, I've learned it's better to be quiet about new things we have planned than to announce them way ahead of time. I think I like a balance between Apples "unveiling" of new products and Google's "beta tests" that last for quite a long time on products that are pretty darn solid. This balance is a new one I'm adopting so you may notice I'm a bit more "tight lipped" these days about "future plans" but I will say that 2008 has a lot of great things happening and I'm excited to announce them when the timing is right!
This is just a mini "whasss up" update.
Here's a wide angle picture of the first official AM staff "ping pong tournament!" Photo courtesy of Carlos Baena (who plays ping pong REALLY well)!
This past Saturday we had our 3rd graduation for Animation Mentor. If I tried to put into words the feelings I have during these ceremonies I'd have to say it's like an emotional milkshake. :)
A very well respected professional animator sent me this fantastic email which sums it up and gives me goose bumps:
Thank you very much for inviting me to an event that surpassed my expectations. Fine words of encouragement and sentiment are definitely a must, but the comedy is what made it spectacular to me. You guys nailed it. I also love that you addressed the families of the students and let them know that you understood the sacrifices they made so their animator could meet their dream.
After a year and a half of hard work and learning more than one person should be able to compute in such a small amount of time, the students have become animators, damn good animators, and the graduation ceremony that I saw sends them off into the industry in a very respectful way. The amount of energy that went into the Graduation indicates to these students that you did care and that you still do care about making them feel like they are more than just a student number. The three of you have shown these students what true animators should be by your example and the by the code of conduct taught by the school. Every student I meet is void of an ego. They all speak confidently about the knowledge they've obtained, but they have been removed from a heightened sense of self importance.
You didn't just provide them with a school for animation but you provided them with a way to understand and accept humility. You allowed these individuals a place where they could find out what they can achieve, no matter how difficult the struggle may be. You've given them a place where they learn to ask for advice, and a place where they can pass their knowledge onto others who need an extra helping hand. You've given them a place to create their own community where they all feel accepted. Because of you guys and your dedication to the industry, you have offered these animators a chance they might not have ever had.
........I just hope none of them take my job; otherwise I'll be pounding on your front door!!!
I'm so proud of this school and everyone involved in it from the staff, to the mentors, to the students it's all one big huge animation melting pot! I love it!
Pete Docter, the director of Monster's Inc. gave the commencement speech with great enthusiasm. Pete is such an amazing guy. It was such an honor to have him there. He's one of the most amazingly talented and humble guys you'd ever meet. I can't wait to see what he has in store for us with his next film. :)
This time around we got mentors involved in giving some of the awards. This added such an awesome level of involvement. Before the event Shawn, Carlos and I took the mentors out for lunch. It was cool as everyone was dressed up really nicely and it was great being able to sit down with so many great people and talk shop and laugh. These guys and gals care so much about this school and it's great to see the effort they put in to making this a special event!
In this Photo Morgan Kelly and Victor Navone hand shake hands with up and coming super stars!
Jason Schleifer and Michelle Meeker give their words of wisdom to the grads!
Cassidy Curtis hams it up to the audience in his speech about the importance of ninjas in the art of animation. :)
After graduation is my favorite part. That's where I get to meet the families of the people who have traveled so far and are so proud of their loved ones. It's great to see people's enthusiasm for this huge accomplishment. It's something I hope they remember forever. The energy is outstanding and something I can not quite put into words. It feels so real and so fantastic. I feel extremely honored to be a part of this school knowing full well that it would be nothing without the support and dedication of so many amazing people. I am truly blessed.
I have gotten a few inquiries wanting to know who did the Spike (AM Mascot) animations. The Spike Intro was done by one of our graduates, Brandon Beckstead who just got a job at DreamWorks Animation. Woo hoo! The end Spike Animation was done by another one of our graduates, Chris Mullins who is now working at Tippett Studio. They did great work on these!
Okay, I may be a tad biased but I think Animation Mentor has the most amazing student body on the planet! Seriously! I love them all like crazy and have been hearing so many amazing success stories from them and the support they have for each other is truly outstanding.
I've been pretty deep in job placement duties lately as I'm happy to say the industry is very strong. We have now brought on a Career Services manager, Bridget Haley and she is rockin'. I've been helping her out with placements and training. We track our placement numbers as the Board of Education requires that we do so and I'm extremely proud of where we are at which I will reveal soon in a post.
I caught up with Mike Stern "Sternio," AM graduate as he just wrapped up on "The Bee Movie." He sent me this picture of him and, YES, Jerry Seinfeld!!! How cool is that!!! Wow, Jerry is so amazing and cared enough to be deeply invloved with the whole process including animation dailies! Mike had a great experience working on the film and continues to be rocking out at DreamWorks. We could not be more proud of him!
I got a chance to hook up with Stephen Melagrano as he was finishing up his internship at Pixar! He said the whole experience was amazing and the experience he gained there will definitely help catapult him into something amazing!
There are so many success stories like this that it makes every day so special. I wanted to be sure to spread some of these good vibes out to the readers here so you can get inspired and excited about the journey you are on as animators!
I have heard from some that they fear there are "not enough jobs" out there. I have to say that animation is growing and not just in the U.S. but world wide. Not everyone will go and work at Pixar, but it is important to believe in yourself and know that you will be successful. It is a "leap of faith" you have to make, but honestly, if anyone wants it they will get it. Work hard, practice and support each other and you WILL be successful.
ps. Stay tuned for a blog overhaul soon. It's coming VERY soon!
We are proud to officially announce that we have been accepted into Sony Picture Imageworks IPAX program (Imageworks professional academic excellence program)!!! This is the beginning of an amazing relationship with Sony.
Animation Mentor has worked hard to overcome a lot of hurdles as we’re really been paving new ground for online education. It has always been our goal to be a school. Not an online tutorial service, but a full fledged school. The fact that we are online brings a big barrier in people’s minds right away. However we have made huge strides in getting people to understand that what we are providing to people IS truly a super high quality educational experience.
After the Animation Mentor graduation (see below) I went to a special ceremony to represent Animation Mentor as one of the newest members of the IPAX community. At this dinner I got to sit with Tim Sarnoff, president of Sony Pictures Imageworks. I also learned more about the IPAX program and how it works.
Each table had an envelope with a challenge to discuss. The topic was “online learning and how to overcome the obstacle of making it more personal.” This was right up my alley and I felt at ease as this is what we’ve been working towards since day 1 with AM. I was floored by the topic and got to share some of the cool things that we are doing at AM to overcome the hurdles many people see with online learning. Tim then went on to explain what his vision of online learning would be and I was happy to explain to him that this is exactly what we are doing at AM. We had addressed all but one idea he had but I was happy to explain we were getting closer to that as well.
Overall the dinner went great and it was nice to meet some of the other amazing educators involved with IPAX as well as many talented executives at Sony. It was a meeting that I was very proud to attend and I know that IPAX is going to be a great step forward for our school.
I wanted to give an update on some of the cool things that have been happening. Animation Mentor has been going crazy in such a great way. We received acceptance into something very prestigious but I'm not allowed to say just what yet. It will mean good things for the school and our students. Sweet!
This past week was all about "brain meetings" on some of our upcoming projects. Most of these projects launch the last quarter of this year and will be announced at Siggraph. Whew, it's been really busy, but I'm excited. I like it that way because it keeps me fresh and excited!
Spring term has officially started at Animation Mentor and we're really excited. We're always in development on new ways to bring animation and online community together. We have made some nice strides forward in this regard this quarter. We launched two new tools. One is our Instant Messaging tool; aka chat (AMim). This is not just any old chat tool, it allows students to link from any area of the site (forum posts, notes, workspace comments and buddies list) and see when they are online and easily chat with them! It's very cool. Animation Mentor is pretty big on online community but this tool will really help bring the whole experience together. Now we just hope students don't spend too much time chatting and forgetting to do their home work. :)
We also created Spike Emoticons; aka Spicons two of which are featured in this image. So when students type things like :) or ;) they get the appropriate Spicon. Just a nice added touch.
We also introduced a new support tool that allows students and staff to interact with each other much more easily and it is already a HUGE success.
We've made a lot of curriculum changes, as we do each quarter, to help tighten things up more and more. We are also in development on some new additions and changes that will be coming later this year. Overall I'm so pleased with where the school is at and where it is going. Each quarter we make big steps forward. 2007 is sure to be one of our best years yet!
We're so excited to launch the winter showcase reel today! We hope you enjoy some of the amazing work coming from the school. All the work on this reel was completed by our students. We had so many amazing submissions this time around and it's always hard to narrow it down, but we feel we did a good job selecting shots that show a variety of things that can be achieved while at Animation Mentor. We hope you enjoy!
