Animation Mentor Celebrates Its International Community at FMX 2011

files/pictures/picture-35.jpgPress Release from Animation Mentor

Emeryville, CA – April 26, 2011 — Animation Mentor (AnimationMentor.com), the state-of-the-art online animation school founded by animators for animators, is celebrating its growing international student community as the school continues to teach character animation to aspiring animators all over the world.

Animation Jobs Around the World
With graduates and students from over 86 countries, Animation Mentor continues to celebrate and support its alumni who are working at animation jobs around the globe.   Animation Mentor alumni say that the school has helped them shine as animators, contributing their skills and talents to leading studios.

"From an early age, I had always wanted to be an animator and did my best to pick up knowledge from any source I could find," said Simon Taylor, an Animation Mentor graduate currently working at Double Negative Visual Effects in London, United Kingdom. "The structure of Animation Mentor's classes was brilliant, not just starting with the basics but also explaining how those basics apply as your animation progresses. My mentors were really supportive and made sure everything was fully understood, to the point where by the end of the course things were starting to become second nature and I was confident in my abilities when I started my first job."

"I almost could not believe it. This professional animator who worked on these big films was teaching ME how to animate," said Cédric Lefebvre, an Animation Mentor alumnus now working at Cinesite in London, United Kingdom. "I loved hearing the mentors talk about working on a film project. It was helpful for me when I started working. On my first day, I started animating for a movie directed by Andrew Stanton. Everything that the mentors taught me I use at my job! They took such good care of me."

Top Professional Animators and Cutting-Edge Technology
Animation Mentor employs over 90 professional animators as mentors. Working at leading studios such as Pixar Animation Studios, PDI/DreamWorks, Walt Disney Animation Studios, the mentors are the masterminds behind the movies and games that the students love. Through cutting-edge technology, mentors use eCritiques to review student work within an online campus forum, and host question and answer sessions that are archived for future reference. Students can download lectures on demand by key industry experts on all aspects of production, and socialize in an online campus environment similar to Facebook.

Global Community
Unique to Animation Mentor is a global community of staff, students, alumni, mentors, instructors and industry professionals. Students have made incredible, lifelong friendships while sharing their love of animation.

"At first, I wanted to go to a ‘regular' school with students and the chance to meet people," said Philip Rudolph, an Animation Mentor graduate and character animator at Aardman in Bristol, United Kingdom. "I was surprised to see that Animation Mentor has a community all over the world. Whenever I needed help or wanted to talk to someone, I could find someone right away. Then I flew to San Francisco for graduation and you meet people for the first time, but you become friends forever."

"Animation Mentor goes far beyond any book or traditional classroom. The experience you'll have is as close as you can get to a real production environment, with some of the best animators in the world as your teachers," said Jeffrey Engel, an Animation Mentor alumnus now working at Weta Digital in Wellington, New Zealand. "The program is very challenging, but your friends, mentors and staff create this incredible community that is always there to help you out. Animation Mentor was one of the most positive and rewarding experiences of my life."

Animation Mentor at FMX 2011
"I can't wait to get to FMX and help spread our enthusiasm for animation!" said Bobby Beck, CEO and cofounder of the school. "Animation Mentor is truly a campus without borders. Our alumni go on to do some amazing work at great studios all over the world. We hope that by attending FMX, we might inspire people to take that plunge with us so we can help make their animation dreams come true too!"

Students, alumni, industry professionals and attendees are encouraged to visit with Animation Mentor staff during FMX 2011:

Animation Mentor
School Desk No. 2.0
Haus der Wirtschaft | Stuttgart, Germany
May 3 – 6, 2011 | 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.

For a complete list of Animation Mentor-hosted events at FMX 2011, go to AnimationMentor.com/Events/FMX.

About Animation Mentor
Animation Mentor (AnimationMentor.com) is a state-of-the-art online animation school focused on teaching character animation skills in a real-world production environment. Designed and taught by top animators working in the industry, Animation Mentor programs allow students to bring their animation school home by receiving face-to-face instruction from mentors 24 hours a day, seven days a week from all over the world. Students collaborate, network and grow both personally and professionally with support in a thriving community. After graduation, Animation Mentor coaches and helps connect graduates to their dream jobs in animation. For more information, visit AnimationMentor.com.