Up to date as of the 11th of July '04

Unofficially compiled FAQ for Animation Mentor

Latest news from Siggraph '04: Animation Mentor will be accepting signups in December of this year, and will be beginning classes in January!

All these questions have been answered by the founders of AM. These founders are Bobby Beck (animboom), Carlos Baena (baenca00) and Shawn Kelly (skelly6). The questions here are in the order in which they were answered in the thread, so the newest questions are down the bottom.
Who are some of the animators involved in AM?

Gini Santos (Pixar)
Gavin Moran (Dreamworks)
Tracie Horie (Tippett)
Jeff Vacanti (Wild Brain)
Matt Logue (WETA)
Kevin Martel (ILM)
Jeremy Cantor (Sony Imageworks)
Dylan Brown (Pixar)
Scott Robideau (Disney)
Mike Belzer (Disney)
Jay Rennie (ILM)
Mark Behm (Blue Sky)
Mark Walsh (Pixar)
Mike Gasaway (DNA)
Mariko Hoshi (PDI/Dreamworks)
Rick O'Connor (ILM)
Jeff Riley (stop motion animator)
Carlos Baena (Pixar)
David Weinstein (ESC)
Glen McIntosh (ILM)
Bobby Beck (Pixar)
Mike Thurmeier (Blue Sky)
Delio Tramontozzi (ILM)
Cameron Miyasaki (Pixar)
Pepe (Sony Imageworks)
Shawn Kelly (ILM)

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What is AM and how much will it cost?

We have carefully designed AM as a one year intensive character animation boot camp. Our school will consist of 4 courses, each made up of 12 video classes focused 100% on various aspects of character animation, and each with a corresponding assignment tailored to reinforcing the topic of that class. While you are encouraged to work at your own pace, 1 class per week will get you through a course in about 3 months. Because we are dedicated to bringing you only the absolute best personal mentors available, and due to our exceptionally high bandwidth demands, the cost of a full course will be comparable to the price of a 12 week traditional art course. In order to ensure that AM is as customisable as possible, students will also have the option to sign up for the individual classes they are most interested in rather than the entire 12-class course.

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How are the mentors chosen by AM?

All mentors are carefully selected by a team of professional animators and teachers at AM. Decisions are based on both teaching ability and animation skill, and all mentors are professionals currently working in a feature-animation studio. As currently working animators, we have a unique first-hand knowledge of the skill sets of many of today's top feature animators and we are dedicated to using that knowledge to bring you only the best animators available.

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What format is Professional Critique given in?

VIDEO! That's right! No text feedback from Pros - it is all recorded personally by your mentor as he/she interactively reviews your work!

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Should I take AM courses instead of traditional college classes?

AM has been designed to be an all encompassing source of character animation instruction for our students. However, traditional art classes such as figure drawing, sculpting, etc., would be extremely valuable companions to our program.

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How long does it take to complete a course?

It depends on how you sign up. We have developed 2 ways people can sign up for AM. Pick-A-Pace TM PACE 1: One class/assignment per week: Making each level 12 weeks in length (or 3 months). PACE 2: Our more flexible schedule: One class/assignment every other week: Making each level 24 weeks in length (or 6 months).

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Can I get feedback more than once on a particular assignment?

Absolutely! You will quickly find that multiple critiques are one of the most powerful features of our site. Each week you will be allowed one primary critique, but at the same time you will have an opportunity to upload up to 2 other assignments of your choosing for recurring critique of your latest efforts!

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Can I see other student's assignments and hear the feedback given to them ?

Yes! Our students will be constantly exchanging feedback with each other , something we feel is the cornerstone of a solid animation education. In addition, any professional feedback received by the students is viewable by any other student! You can never hear enough feedback - even if it isn't about your work!

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How long are the video classes?

Our lectures vary in length, but all are at *least* 30 minutes long!

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Is there an application process or can anyone sign up?

While we can initially only accept a limited number of students, acceptance will not be based on skill level. You will not have to submit a portfolio or a demo reel. We feel strongly that if someone has a positive attitude and the eagerness to learn, they have the potential to be a solid animator , and we want to make certain that those beginning students have the same opportunity to learn as the most advanced students have!

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When can I sign up?

If you've entered your email address at our teaser site, you will be among the first to be notified when the school officially launches and begins accepting students. Currently we are aiming for a Fall 2004 launch.

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Will I be able to do the course over a 56k connection?

Unfortunately not. Due to the nature of our project we are pushing the envelope of the internet. Because of this, broadband will be essential to getting the best possible access to the information at AnimationMentor.

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How many people can join?

We will be accepting a limited amount of students. Level A will be open to anyone up to a limited amount of seats, this way everyone has an equal opportunity to become a student. Level B and beyond will have a screening process which is mainly to make sure that students are at a level to handle these classes. For instance, if someone tries to jump to level C, then we have to make sure that they have done work that supports that they can handle a full body character and that they have a grasp of basic physical movement, weight, mechanics etc. Or else they will not grasp the material. If people go through level A and B they will fully be able to comprehend the more advanced stuff. It's really important to have a solid grasp of the basics because that is really what everything in animation is based around. We strongly believe this.

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What will the classes be like?

Each class is about 40 minutes or more in length. We've filmed and edited them in a "documentary" style where it's not just us in front of a black board talking for 40 minutes, but it's us going outside, looking at life, observing, filming footage, breaking it down, thumbnailing , planning methods, Going through shots, all new animations just for the classes as well as having a variety of input from all the amazing people we interviewed. We were also able to get permission to use a variety of different cartoons and film footage so we break this down and study it as well.

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How will assignments work?

Any assignment can be done in any medium or with any software people choose. We offer software training in Maya because that is the largest industry standard package that most of our students will be using when they get jobs. For being a student of AM there will be the student discount off Maya if they participate in a full level. Or they can download the Personal Learning Edition for free which will get anyone by for all their needs at AM. The assignments are based around the topic of each class. Each class builds off the previous class in any given level. Even though Level A might be seen as basic stuff we feel it is almost the most important of all the levels because this is the foundation of everything in animation. Getting to more advanced acting stuff is what everyone wants to do, but without a clear understanding of posing, timing, rhythm, cliche ', etc. most acting attempts can be frustrating. For people who want to "DO MORE" we have "overachievers" exercises to keep everyone challenged.

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How can we get feedback?

You can watch and learn from the classes, then practice the examples and assignments given in each class, then come back to the class if you want and watch it again for further understanding, then you can get real feedback from your personal mentor. Ask questions to professional animators in our periodic Live Question and Answer sessions, or on the forums or...the list goes on. There are many more things that make the experience pretty cool.

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What Operating Systems will it run on and what software do we need ?:

AM will run on PC's, Mac's and Linux boxes. It runs best on PCs Using Internet Explorer (which is where about 90% of our hits have come from so far). On macs and linux we're working out the kinks. I constantly look at it on IE, Netscape, Opera, Safari, etc. It's working on all of them currently so we're doing our best to make it very solid across the board. All a student or mentor would need to have is FLASH. So, if you can see the teaser site you will be 100% fine when we launch the full thing. All the "software" we've written is internal to Flash. I hope that answers your question. As for 3D software, new people to animation often get hung up on which tools to use. They spend too much time on this subject that they get overwhelmed with the choices. At AM we have decided to provide our students with Alias|Wavefront's Maya. We feel that Maya is the industry standard for most large feature animation and games studios. AnimationMentor provides built in software training in MAYA for all of our students for FREE as part of being a member of our school. As a student of AM you will be able to purchase Maya for special AnimationMentor pricing (More news to come on this topic). We are looking into providing students with other tools if they choose to use different mediums.

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Do I get a job offer at Pixar upon completion of this course?

Good one!! Our best students will definitely be making contacts and connections from AM. Also, there are other features that allow our students to have their work seen by recruiters from the industry. You'll understand this more when you see the site. Hard work, practice and a good attitude will ensure that any person goes far!

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I don't like Maya, can I use Max/XSI/Cinema4D/Lightwave etc?

We do not believe that animation is about software and we hope you don't either. Once you've mastered one animation program, you have a general understanding of them all, as their functionality and even many of the buttons are generally the same across the board. Maya is the industry standard at most major studios and game studios, so we have chosen it as the program we will officially support as far as examples, assignments, and supplied models are concerned. In Addition, no previous knowledge of Maya is necessary. We teach the software in 3 sessions, Basic, Intermediate and Advanced. These 3 classes come free with enrollment, and will teach you the basics an animator needs to know to jump straight into animating. Animation concepts and principles apply equally to all mediums and tools, as such, we are teaching the ART behind animation and not focusing so much on the buttons you push in Program X. We encourage our more experienced students to use whatever favorite animation package or animation medium they prefer to create their AM assignments. We're hoping to review not only CG animation, but 2D, and clay/puppet work as well! On demo reel after demo reel we see the lack of knowledge about the ART of animation as students seem to be focusing more and more on software and technology. The end result of this lack of focus is that their dream jobs elude them. Our aim at AM is to help our students avoid this hurdle by focusing on the art, rather than any specific tool or software. Any major studio can teach you the animation software in a month, but they can't take the time necessary to teach you the art behind what we do.

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Do I have to be a US citizen?

Not at all! The whole point of our school is to offer training from industry professionals to anyone anywhere in the world! That's been a biggie for us.

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Do we have to rig our own characters for AM?

We have fully set up characters all ready to go. At my company as well as many major studios including many game companies animators focus on animation. We do have advanced software training where we teach aspects of constraints for props etc because that is something we have to deal with every day (as computer animators). But as far as setting up a full character and weighting it this is really an entirely different job. We will have very prominent industry riggers participating in our forums to help and explain the details of this. If there is a large demand we will try to do our best to add the resources if people see this as a need to progress their animation skills.

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Can we get financial aid?

We are looking into this.

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Can we get help on making our demo reel?

Absolutely. We are pretty much dedicated to your success and learning. We don't want to push you out the door with nothing to show for it. Quite the opposite. Each level will have a work review where we talk about your improvements and where you can continue to improve, which pieces are your stronger ones, etc. At the end of Level D we help you taylor your demo reel to get the best results.

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Can we use Animation Mentor characters in our demo reels?

Yes, that's the point. You can fully use AM characters for your demo reel and your continued education after AM as well.

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Do I have the same mentor throughout the course or do I have a different one per assignment?

We pitched this out to a lot of people and got mixed reactions. After talking with some of the mentors we decided it would be best to have a dedicated mentor for each student per level (each level students will get a different mentor). That way the mentors get to watch their students progress and it winds up being a more collaborative effort between them. If they get feedback from a different mentor each time, (which we used to have) it becomes very confusing for the student because they get conflicting comments and was frustrating for both mentor and students. However, if you purchase individual classes you get a different mentor with each class. That way we felt people will get the best of both worlds if they want to.

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Is there a screening process to see which level (A, B, C or D) I should start on?

For now, AM students will be starting in Level A and move forward from there. We really feel like that will create the best possible learning environment for the students, as all of the classes build on one another. However, in the future we are planning to offer a review process for professionals who want to skip a level or two...

That said, I have to say... the "Level A" classes do have a *lot* to offer to all but the most advanced animators. I'm constantly surpirsed (in a great way) by how much I've personally learned from the animators we've interviewed for various classes about concepts that I thought I had a complete handle on! Which, to me, is one of the coolest things about animation - you can never know it all.

Older answer below

We're working on the screening process currently. You will most likely submit a link for us to view some of your work and we place your according to where we think you should be. People should not feel offended if we ask them to start in level A or B. These levels are more demanding than people might think and are the heart behind what we feel will be a great learning experience. Again there are 4 levels (we'll be launching with 2 and adding the other 2 shortly thereafter).

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Do we have to pay up front?

We're also working this out. We're looking into options for our students. We'll keep you updated as we get these issues ironed out.

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Can I sign up to a course right now? Early?

I've been getting some emails from people who want to sign up NOW. We're not accepting students at this time however people who sign up for our private mailing list will be the first to be alerted to our open enrolment and will also receive updates as we get closer to launch.

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How will the guest speakers and live Q&A work?

The guest speakers currently are set up as pre-edited video interviews. We've already conducted several interviews with some amazing TOP animators with over 30+ years experience in directing/animating/teaching. We asked several students what kinds of questions they would like to know from these types of animators as well as asked more "advanced" questions that we would like to know. Hopefully this format will work very nicely as we wanted to have some guest speakers right out of the gate. As far as Live Video Q & A goes, this was designed pretty much with this purpose in mind. People will be able to ask questions to animators currently working in the industry and get to meet them and get familiar with them. A lot of the times these "guest speakers" (which is separate from the actual "guest speaker" Feature of our site so it's almost like you're getting two types of guest speakers now that I think about it. will be mentors. So you will get to know the mentors more one on one. As far as archives or "logs" go, we will always have the previous guest speaker and current guest speaker up for you to view.

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Do you provide figure drawing classes?

We definitely stress getting yourself a sketch book. We also have "sketchbook" pages for you to up load for review and for other students to see including thumbnails etc. We don't offer Online Drawing classes but have some GREAT things in the works that will help give people a good opportunity (phase 2). In the mini FAQ we posted last week we said we definitely see AM as a full animation training program, but taking classes at a local JC or public workshops for drawing would DEFINITELY complement our program.

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How are you going to handle so many interested students?

AM is not a school where we want to take EVERY applicant. We will allow anyone to take Level A (up to a limit of course) but our goal is not to shove as many students into the program as possible. It's more about accepting students who want an accelerated and "cost effective" method of learning character animation. Accelerated meaning we have 1 year of schooling and a short film program in the works. If you just choose to do the 1 year program we feel that most anyone who dedicates themselves fully to the program would be ready to work in the industry within a years time. Or they could continue to develop their own short piece to further their education. We've designed AM very much with your portfolio in mind. We want to see people succeed and make their dreams come true. Cost effective meaning our one year program costs a fraction of what most art school program costs in a given year.

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Is AM a good substitute for real school?

AM is for people who want an accelerated and cost effective learning environment. It's also for people who are animators currently and who want to push their skills "to the next level".

Student Experience: We feel AM is unlike any internet experience we've found on the internet. We have worked very hard to make as many "community" features as possible. But does that substitute for real interaction with students? I'd say no. I met some of my best friends in art school, including my wife. But we've done our very best to make an environment that is both collaborative and community driven as we could possible muster.

Teacher Experience: I actually believe that AM's learning environment is superior to learning in a classroom. Maybe I'm a little nutty for saying that, but our classes are well thought out video lectures with multiple points of views, examples, reference, us actually going through shots, etc. Not only will you have your own dedicated mentor who will get to know you but you will have things like Live video Q and A where you meet other mentors, other animators, etc. If your work stands out there are many ways for us to "see you" and the networking of AM is such an exciting part.

We really tried to design AM with you in mind. We want to dedicate ourselves to your success. We want to give the world the opportunity to learn from industry professional (professionals that we think are the absolute BEST). It's all an experiment because no one knows how well it will go. But we are dedicated to making it better.

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How much time will mentors have to help us if they're full-time animators?

We are asking for a commitment from our mentors that is roughly equal to someone teaching a class at an art school. However, you must remember that AM classes are pre-recorded video lectures so this time with the mentors will be directly spent on helping make YOUR work better.

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How many students are you accepting? How can I be first in line?

We are not concerned with shoving as many people as we can into the program to get your money. It is our priority to focus on giving our full attention to your learning and progression. Students will be accepted on a first come first served basis.

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Are you going to release the AM classes on DVD?

It's important to know first of all that although the classes are an important part of AM, the whole experience lies within the interaction with people. So if you have just a class, you will only have the frame of a car, but with the whole experience you will have the engine and you will learn and drive much faster than if you were to push the car Flinstone's style!

Again, AM was designed with the question "If we were to start over again how would we want to learn?" I would NOT want to learn through JUST a book or JUST a class. I would want to learn from experienced professionals, and with someone who personally helps me tailor my work and make it better. Books are definitely companions to our program. 'The Illusion of Life' is a must have, luckily it's in print again.

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Who is AM aimed at?

Again, AM is for anyone looking for a dedicated learning experience which is both cost effecient and time effecient. It's also for people looking to push their learning to the next level and at a flexible pace.

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Does AM replace art school?

It depends on who you ask. AM is based on what we think would be helpful for someone learning from the ground up. We plan to offer a short film studies course that will also compliment the learning experience (it will be added in our 2nd phase).

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Can I really take AM's course and be ready for an animation job after only 1 year?

That is honestly our hopes. It all depends on the student's level of dedication. But that's what we've designed it for. With the short film study course (which is in development and will be added in our second phase) the school would be a year and a half at a fraction of what an art school would cost for a year and a half.

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Should I take local college classes or full-time college at the same time as AM?

Local classes on figure drawing are definitely recommended. However, going to art school FULL TIME would require your full time attention, in our personal opinion. AM is really designed as a complete character animation program.

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Do I get a degree or some form of certification on completion of the AM course?

I can only say that we are looking into these issues. Bentagon (a CGTalk user), I understand that you need a degree in your country for security reasons. That's the exact reason we are looking into it. Although we strongly believe that your portfollio and attitude are the #1 keys to getting a job in this industry and with AM being full of professional animators, the Networking possibilites are very high.

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How will the live sessions handle the different time zones around the world?

Live Q&A will have to happen on the professional's time. We thought long and hard about this and we have decided to record the live Q&A's and offer them for students to view if they miss them. We can not fit to everyone's schedule but we're trying to make it so that no one feels "left out."

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If I sign up for priority registration, or I'm placed on a waiting list, can I cancel if something comes up?

If you get on our waiting list for priority registration, that doesn't mean that you're locked into it at all, it just allows you to have priority if you want to register when the time comes. By the time you actually sign up and pay to register, that will most likely be just before you'll start classes, so it won't be like you pay months and months in advance... It shouldn't be any problem.

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