Online digital training is an emerging sub-industry in the animation and visual effects business. Luci Napier of Animation Mentor talks to her students during a session. © Animation Mentor.

Excuses:
"No money."
"No school teaches what I want to learn in my city."
"I am working and have no time."
"How in the heck am I supposed to master that software?"

... and the excuses continue for those that want to take the next step in their careers toward digital animation and visual effects.

Today there is an emerging sub-industry in the animation and visual effects business. It is online digital training that can be done from the comfort of a laptop in any corner of the globe.

Online education is not new. Most colleges and universities for the last several years offer courses for students that are taught in their homes and dorms. Many of these courses are book-learning type subjects, where the topic is lecture based. However, back in the day of CD-ROMs, technical education such as certification in software, had to be taught in a digital method. Today, the online experience is more interactive and the method of teaching is far more comprehensive.

Director of photography Steve Newman lead a seminar for the Australian Cinematographers Society and fxphd members. © fxphd.

Many of the CGI and vfx programs being offered are still in their infancy with only a couple of years of teaching, but the results are phenomenal. The programs being offered vary in price, length, method and flexibility for the student who is just starting out or for those pros that need to learn a new technique or software.

In examining four online educational opportunities, not all training programs are being offered through a school or academic institution. Two of these programs will confer a certificate diploma upon completion, one school is an offshoot of an online community and the last is a "guild."

Licensed Schools
Gnomon and Animation Mentor are two schools that offer certificate diplomas under the California Bureau for Private Post-Secondary and Vocation Education. Because of this regulated certification, each of these schools can offer student loans under Sallie Mae. As they are certified academic institutions, the education is more formalized.

Animation Mentor is a program focused on character design and offers an 18-month program for someone who is on the junior animator career track. Animation Mentor students learn how to accept guidance and criticism from their mentors and other students, and learn to meet deadlines, to budget and schedule their time. Animation Mentor was founded in spring 2005 by Bobby Beck, Carlos Baena (Pixar) and Shawn Kelly (ILM), all working animators, to train character animators worldwide for employment in the studios and at gaming companies.