Animation Mentor had 51 mentors, students and alumni who worked on Ice Age 3!
This is one of those proud moments where we get to step back at Animation Mentor and feel proud of what we've helped create. We had 51 mentors, students and alumni work on Ice Age 3!
I was lucky enough to catch the film opening night with several Animation Mentor students and grads, some who worked on the film. It was a special moment watching the credits roll and seeing so many familiar names. Watching the folks in the room who worked on it with their significant others so proud of them was so touching. I remembered back to seeing my name roll up in the credits on my first feature film (Virus) and feeling that sense of pride and accomplishment! Congratulations you guys!!! We couldn't be more proud of you and all your hard work!
I'm so happy that we took this tack in our lives to help people fulfill their dreams. Although I don't animate anymore, I get to live vicariously through the many successful people who go through our program. Today I'm giving thanks for being part of something that feels like magic!
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!
This response was drafted internally here and sent out to folks who were worried about the state of the global economy and how that fared for the entertainment industry. Please, if you are interested, take the time to read this very informative and positive outlook. Even though it was written for Animation Mentor students I think anyone in the animation industry and students at other schools will be able to take comfort in these words. Enjoy!
Like you, we’ve been hearing the scary news about the economic downturn and how it is impacting financial markets across the globe.
Some of you have asked us how this is impacting the animation industry and wondered whether or not there will be any jobs available when you graduate.
While we can’t predict the future, there are certain facts that we do know.
1. We have an excellent relationship with the animation industry; film, television, advertising, gaming, and more. 2. We are still receiving requests from studios all around the world for well educated, character animators. 3. There are over 25 games and movies scheduled to be released in 2009 and 39 in 2010 from U.S. based companies alone. This does not include television or advertising. 4. Our alumni enjoy a 78% placement rate. That’s one of the highest in the industry. And we continue to have a department dedicated to creating relationships with new studios to increase that number.
So we feel, the answer is YES – there will be jobs. And now is a great time to get an education and ride out a year of slow growth while the rest of the economy gets back on track.
Now for some Fun Facts that Should Make your Day:
1) According to an October report, titled World Economic Outlook, created by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), an international organization of 195 member countries established to promote international monetary cooperation, stability and economic growth, we are experiencing a slow down in growth from 5% in 2007, to 3.9% in 2008 and 3% in 2009. Although financial and real estate markets have been hard hit, the balance sheets of non-financial companies in the US and Western Europe look to be a source of resilience for the economy. There is an anticipated recovery of the economy in late 2009.
2) According to an article called Is Your Job Recession Proof? on CareerBuilder.com, employers are still hiring and certain industries not only survive, but thrive in hard times. In fact 32% of those surveyed plan to continue adding staff.
3) Even better news for future animators: the two main industries we work in are virtually recession proof: Gaming and Movies.
4) The movie industry has historically been recession-proof because even during bad times people need entertainment. They still date, spend time with family and friends, and movies at an average price of $7 per ticket are an outstanding entertainment value. After the stock market crash of 1929, attendance levels at movies grew by 58%.
According to John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theatre Owners in America, in a recent interview in these pages, the numbers don’t lie. “In the past four decades there have been seven recession years in this country, and the box office has climbed strongly in five of those years,” he said. The strongest of those years was the most recent, in 2001, when US box office receipts rose by $650 million. (Source: The Times, October 16, How Will the Recession Affect Film?)
5) Just like movies, games also provide an inexpensive entertainment experience. According to an October 16 article in Reuters, titled Video Game Sales Still Strong, Despite Economic Tough Times, the video game industry is thriving.
Professor of media and technology at NYU Stern, Al Lieberman said although luxuries are often the first to go during tough economic times, the video gaming industry continues to do well.
“There have been many recessions before and there are certain things, certain elements and sections, sectors of the economy that survive straight through and electronic games is one of those," said Lieberman.
Dan Ackerman of CNET.COM said people are turning to video games for light relief, like they turned to movies, during the Great Depression. "They say that video games are essentially a recession-proof product, kind of like movies were during the Great Depression where people still wanted to be entertained," Ackerman told Reuters.
The industry made 10 billion dollars (USD) last year, and is expected to make 14 billion annually by the year 2012.
Although there is plenty of bad news to be heard about certain industries, we feel the future of entertainment and gaming continues to be bright. We encourage you to stay focused on your studies and concentrate on becoming the best animator you can be. There will continue to be a demand for great animators as these two recession-proof industries continue to grow.
Best regards and good luck with your studies!
If you have any further questions or concerns we encourage you to contact your student care representative.
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?
Okay, so I talked to a few other AMers who were staying at the same hotel and we all had the same "56k" slow internet experience. Eeek! Sorry the updates were not as often and vivid with photos as I would have liked. I thought I lost my camera at the Birds of a Feather event, but Michael Dauz grabbed it. Sweet. I'll pick it up on Monday so, for now, no pics.
I just got back home and I'm filled with inspiration and good vibes! I had such a great time with everyone. It was so fun getting to get to know so many of you. There are so many highlights to the whole event.
Animation wise, the Frank and Ollie tribute we hosted was a MASSIVE highlight for me. There were 600+ people who attened (or so they told me) and I think everyone left that event with crazy inspiration!
DISCLAIMER: If you did not attend Siggraphh the below comments may not make sense to you.
MEMORABLE "NON-ANIMATION" MOMENTS: 1. The big group walking "in a straight line" at the Animation Mentor Industry Party. 2. Dancing like maniacs at the Blur party. AMer's know how to dance and have fun! NO DOUBT! 3. Mel's diner at 4am: singing Beatles songs, pancakes, meat earings (ha, ha!, sorry Alexiss) 4. Hanging out at the Sheraton lobby in the wee hours on the couches talking about life with AMers! 5. Eduardo, I will NEVER forget your name! 6. "Teresa, my one and only blogger friend!"
Hopefully this will get the words flowing in the comments section. I'm inspired by all of you and the friendships you share with us and with each other! This week has been a MASSIVE battery recharge!
I had a ton of cool images to upload today but the connection at the hotel is literally 56k. It's so slow I had to kill it after it was taking 15 minutes to upload an image. Eeek! Plus I was out SUPER late and have to take off in 5 minutes for day 3!
Yesterday was awesome. Each year Siggraph gets better and better. Here were some of my highlights:
2. The Animation Mentor Industry party. Several hundred AM students, mentors and guests gathered at the Elevate Lounge for an AWESOME party! We were excited to have tons of recruiters and the most mentors in one place at one time that I can ever remember! There was an awesome energy going on and the only bad thing is that it ended too early. 12:30 they were kicking us out and we were all ready to dance all night long. :( No worries. It was so great seeing some of the first ever students at Animation Mentor and we had the AM DreamWorks posse there, too. It's so exciting to see how many people are professionals now. It's like seeing your babies grow up. :)
Lots more but I've got to run! I'll try to get some photos in here later. I'll definitely repost pictures when I return home. Let Day 3 officially begin!
[This picture shows some of the schools gathered in a room to review each others top student work at DreamWorks Animation Studios in Glendale]
I flew in to Los Angeles last night. I started the day bright and early at DreamWorks Animation Studios in Glendale. I had never been there before. It is absolutely a gorgeous place to work!
Animation Mentor was amongst about 15 – 20 other schools for the DreamWorks educators symposium. The highlight was when they showed 2 minutes of each schools work for 2008. I had never seen our student’s work juxtaposed against all the other top art and animation schools and I must say I was pleasantly surprised at how well our work stood out. It hit me hard that we are doing things right and the results definitely show in the work our students are doing. It was a great way to start Siggraph!
There are a few points that I took away about demo reels:
1. Demo Reels are too long. 2 minutes maximum is plenty. They don't want to see EVERYTHING you've ever done. They only want to see the best and 2 minutes is more than plenty as any more than this and it just starts to drag.
2. Students need to specialize more. At Animation Mentor we've known this for a long time and when we started AM people thought we were crazy. The industry at large, not just the big studios, are requiring more specialization in one or two areas. Don't try to do everything otherwise you will not shine in any one area. If animation is what you want to do then ANIMATE really well and have someone else do the model/rig for you. It was awesome to hear this from theme carried through and supported by ALL of the schools!
3. Simon Otto, animation supervisor at DreamWorks explained he likes to see a maturity in students work. After many questions he explained that maturity meant animation that feels real and sincere. Not gimicky animation like overdone anticipations and characters scratching their heads to show they are thinking. I'm happy to say that at Animation Mentor we strive to teach the mature side of animation. The best way we've found to do this is by having students choose a variety of ideas and work with their mentor to focus it down to the best idea. From there the mentor helps the student really refine it into something special!
I hope this tips are useful for you guys.
Here’s a sneak peek of our booth at Siggraph this year! It rocks! We have an adventure theme going this year. Even though the show is not open yet I was able to sneak onto the floor to snap this picture of our booth! This picture does not do it justice. The Animation Mentor crew are so awesome and have really outdone themselves this year. It’s so cool and we have a lot of cool events happening at the booth this year!
Part of the adventure them is a case displaying “artifacts.” Among the artifacts is a “Mummified Tailor!” How cool is that. Our genius Art Director came up with this and it’s so fun. I love seeing the level of quality and attention to detail that goes in to every little thing that is in the booth. There’s tons of “Easter Eggs” to see in the booth!
After I got to check out the booth I had to rush over to our hotel where the Animation Mentor crew got together for a staff dinner to gear up for the next few days of insanity. I love our team and everyone is pumped and rarin’ to have fun! It’s always nice to get out of the office and simply have fun with the team.
I snapped this candid moment of the crew in mid-joke! I love the energy of the team and am so completely pumped for the next few days as I know we’re all going to have a blast. More to come, soon! Enjoy and I hope to see some of you at Siggraph soon!
Tomorrow we unveil the new Summer Student Showcase reel which will come online next Monday for the world to see!!!
Carlos Baena will be hosting our next Webinar. The focus will be on Demo Reel Tips. Our hope with these webinars is to give outside folks the opportunity to see what Animation Mentor is all about. We will be recording it for all you HUNGRY Animation Mentor students and Alumni and will be showing it shortly after the event. In the mean time, please invite your friends and fellow animators to this event. It should be packed full of goodies. I talked to Carlos and he's been doing A LOT of research for this and I know he wants to make it great so expect a good one! WOOT!
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.
Alexiss is one of our super students. She caught up with her local news team in Utah and did this great story about Animation Mentor. Our Publicist, Rochelle Winters, is also featured in the story representing AM!
In the story Alexiss is quoted saying "I'm the only girl," but she told me that was related to a question about how many girls in Utah studied at Animation Mentor. They simply edited it strangely. The press is not perfect, but we're excited to have the great press! Enjoy the story.
Halloween has to be one of my favorite holidays for sure. I'm happy to know that as we get older we don't have to lose the love for such fun holidays like this one. At Animation Mentor just about everyone dressed up today and we have some fun activities planned for later today. :) It's great to be a big kid and even cooler to be surrounded by amazing big awesome and inspiring kids that I work with.
Here's a SUPER cool stop motion pumpkin animation that Matt Strangio and Fernanda Veloso did. Both Animation Mentor graduates. Fernanda is now at Disney Feature animation and Matt is now at ILM. Two crazy kids who met through Animation Mentor and have now fell in love. So awesome!!!!
And here is the most awesome pumpkin on the planet! Alexiss Memmott, Animation Mentor student carved this amazing pumpkin with our mascot, Spike. WOW!!!!! I'm so inspired by all the amazing energy and enthusiasm!
Mike Belzer went to the Creanimax conference in Mexico on behalf of Animation Mentor. He just got back and had nothing but great things to say about it. He said it was small in size but the people were VERY enthusiastic about animation and "extremely hungry for animation knowledge." I'm happy that Mike went down as he is such an amazing guy. He's also one of the most talented animators I know on the planet; no joke! He gave a talk down there called "Pencils, Pixels and Puppets, it's all animation." From the reviews of the talk it seems to have gone over extremely well.
Mike got a chance to hang out with some of the AM students from Mexico. He made a point to get together with them. I love this type of energy. That's one of the cool things about Animation Mentor that I hear a lot. It's nice to know that even the best animators on the planet are approachable and helpful. That's so cool and extremely inspiring to see!!!
Mike shared this cool story with me about this little girl (above) who ran up to him and wanted to show him her Spike drawing. He called her "The future of AM," and noted that her drawing "was really good, too!" If you check out the picture you can actually see the Spike drawing. Woo hoo!!!
Today we were packed full of super fun Animation Mentor events. The highlight for me was our Animation Mentor gathering (Birds of a Feather event). We had a panel of with the animation recruiters for Sony Imageworks, DreamWorks and Industrial Light & Magic. They answered and entertained a PACKED room full of eager folks. Mike Belzer (Supervising animator at Walt Disney Feature Animation) gave a short talk about AM and how his time being a mentor has shaped his work and energized his enthusiasm for animation all over again! Mike is a legend in animation so that was huge for us all to hear.
I also gave a special sneak peak look at our Q&A 3.0 tool which is absolutely amazing and this is the first time I’m writing anything about it publicly. It incorporates so much of the feedback we’ve gotten over the last year into a tool that will revolutionize online education and interactivity. I showed a working alpha version of the tool and it got an amazing response from everyone in the room. That was amazing! I will post more details about the features and such on the AM school and alumni sites in due time.
We did demo reel reviews which went over VERY well. In the above picture it looks like a lot of people walking through the aisle at Siggraph but this is actually a line of people waiting to get our “free special gift!” The line was insane and people were stoked to get their limited edition Spike’s Café coffee mug.
Shawn and Carlos gave an excellent talk about the importance of scene planning and the many different techniques they use to plan shots. It was great to see how they applied them to their professional work at Pixar and ILM.
In the evening we went to the Pixar party and hung out for a bit, but I bailed out because I was exhausted.
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!
Okay, so I decided to start a blog. I know, I'm late to the game, but life has been exciting and busy over the last few years and I feel I'm finally able to do something like this.
I started Animation Mentor with two of my best friends Shawn Kelly and Carlos Baena. It has been an amazing journey thus far. We just graduated our first class and the success has been outstanding. Student's have gone on to get jobs at Industrial Light & Magic, DreamWorks, Sony, Blue Sky, Bungieand tons of others!!! We're now able to see the entire program for the very first time in its entirety and see where the areas of improvement can be made. We're excited as the alumni and students play a HUGE role in making the school better and they care as much as we do to make it a great place to learn.
I'm so proud of the company we have built. Every person involved is truly dedicated to helping our students succeed and it shows in the enthusiasm of anyone who comes into contact with it.
I don't want this blog to be an advertisement for Animation Mentor, but it's really what my life has been about for the last 4 years and it's something very deep and personal to me so I wanted my first post to be about it.
I'll keep it short and sweet for the first one. It's great to have a place that is easy to update and post comments, thoughts and anything else I'm thinking about.
