Kevin Mannens.

There's a new online school specifically aimed at getting students production-ready for careers as technical directors. TD-College (http://td-college.com) utilizes instruction and mentoring for the tough realities of CG production. The online school was formed by Rudy Cortes, a senior TD at Digital Dimension (Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow); Mannens, effects TD at Sony Pictures Imageworks (G-Force, 10,000 BC and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian); Erick Miller, a technical manager at Disney and former character technical supervisor at Sony Pictures Imageworks (Surf's Up and Beowulf); and Arthur Shek, manager of Disney's FX/Dynamics software group.

Bill Desowitz: How long has TD-College existed?

Kevin Mannens: We've been taking students for six months but have been building and tweaking our website and courses for two-and-a-half years. Our official launch got pushed back quite a bit, because we ran into problems with our initial investors and actually had to start over after being almost launch-ready. It's the nature of the start-up beast, I guess.

Building a strong network of super experienced people also took a while. You see, our whole premise is that our courses are developed and taught by vfx veterans --all of which are working in production. As you know, vfx production is pure madness, so scheduling people took a bit getting used to as well.

On top of that, if you want courses to be taught by the best people available, you have to offer them industry standard money, even if they are your friends. People who have been working in the industry for 10 years are most of the time people with families, so their time is valuable. We want to make sure that everyone gets the best experience: the student, the mentor and TD-College as a business.

BD: And how is it working out?

KM: It's working out nicely: our classes are filling up and we are getting amazing feedback across the board. Because we are a start-up, we haven't been able to advertise as much as we wanted to, but we are overwhelmed by the response we've been getting from students.

TD-College's premise is to offer something much more targeted and specific than computer science or computer animation courses at traditional universities, which are generally not production-based at all. Not to mention that most professors have nil production experience. Graduates from these four- year courses are still very green behind their ears -- if they ever land a job in the industry. Not to mention that they are most likely $50,000 in debt. At TD-College, we bypass the need of having to adjust one to two years after graduation, by offering courses straight from production. On top of that, attending a four-year course at a traditional university is insanely expensive, especially in the U.S. You're probably going to have to relocate and pay rent. TD-College is completely online; you don't even have to leave your living room to get taught by Hollywood's vfx veterans -- even if you are in Dubai, India, or South Africa.