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Today, Animation Mentor announced their new digital campus, a social learning platform where students will attend classes, meet friends and classmates, and get one-on-one feedback from their mentors—professional animators working at Pixar, DreamWorks, and Industrial Light & Magic, among others.
"The most exciting thing about
Animation Mentor has always been the incredible community of mentors and
students. It's literally a big family," says Bobby Beck,
co-founder and Pixar alumnus, "And now it feels like our new platform
will better facilitate what we've been doing all along, helping artists
achieve their dreams through the power of community and social
learning."
Animation
Mentor's new campus will offer social-media-style community feeds,
allowing students and mentors to customize what they see. In the
classroom, they'll see student work, messages, notifications, and stay
up to date on critiques and peer feedback. On their personal feed,
they'll follow friends, classmates, and others they find inspiring.
Sophisticated
annotation and commenting tools will enable mentors and fellow students
to give detailed feedback on student work, bringing new dimension to
the group learning and mentorship model that Animation Mentor has
championed since they launched as the very first online animation school
12 years ago.
"When
you're an animator in the industry, you rely so heavily on your
colleagues for inspiration, criticism, positive reinforcement, you name
it," says Shawn Kelly,
co-founder and Lead Animator at Industrial Light & Magic, "Our goal
is to recreate that experience for our students so they're not only
learning from their mentors and peers, but they're learning HOW to learn
from other animators."
Animation Mentor was founded in 2005 by three animators. Bobby Beck and Carlos Baena worked at Pixar at the time, and Shawn Kelly
was already at ILM. They started the school after asking themselves,
"If we were to start over again, what would we want to learn?" They
focused on the art of animation and the importance of community, using
the tried and true mentor-based approach vs. the 3D software-heavy
curricula they commonly saw, and still see, at art schools.
"I'm very
inspired by what our students and mentors create each term. The
acting/performance and locomotion bar gets raised each year" says Carlos Baena,
co-founder, "We see alumni going on to work at the best studios and we
couldn't be happier for them. We are very proud of how the Animation
Mentor community continues to grow and how the students continue to help
each other throughout their careers."
Animation
Mentor's new digital campus will be the new normal for all students
registered for the Winter 2018 term and beyond. Winter courses start the
week of January 2nd, and aspiring animators interested in learning from industry professionals can watch the 2017 Student Showcase and take a tour of the new campus.
About Animation Mentor
At
Animation Mentor we're passionate about helping aspiring 3D animators to
achieve their dreams. We empower animators to reach their full artistic
potential with the help of more than 80 mentors who work at a major
studios including Pixar, DreamWorks, and Industrial Light & Magic.
Since 2005, we've been proud to be the first online animation school and
a diverse community with students from more than 105 countries.
Learn
more at www.animationmentor.com.
Source: PR Newswire
