Animation Mentor's New Curriculum And Online Campus Technology

AnimationMentor.com has announced its new winter term curriculum for January 2009 and released the new version of the school's state-of-the-art online campus.

Unique among art schools worldwide, Animation Mentor exclusively teaches character animation in an environment where students learn directly from professional animators from top studios including Disney Animation Studios, DreamWorks, Industrial Light & Magic, Pixar Animation Studios, Sony Pictures Imageworks, and more.

Within classes that maintain a mentor-to-student ratio of no more than 1-to-15, students learn the art of animation and the real-world production skills needed to be successful in a studio environment -- all within a truly interactive online classroom where students collaborate and learn side-by-side with direction from mentors. The personal attention, combined with a condensed 18-month online education program without the "fluff" of traditional art school curricula, produces production-ready graduates that are sought after by animation studios.

"Our goal is to create the best school on the planet for character animation," said Bobby Beck, CEO and co-founder of Animation Mentor. "We continue to look for ways to make our program more valuable to aspiring animators and cultivate a strong sense of community. I am humbled by the dedication and expertise of our mentors. Their contributions combined with a cutting- edge curriculum and advanced online technology helps us lead the way for innovation in character animation education and online learning."

Dedicated to continuous improvement, Animation Mentor's new curriculum incorporates feedback from students, ideas from mentors, and input from industry professionals to create best practices instrumental to having a successful career in animation. While still maintaining the core elements of the program that have led to an exceptional 78 percent job placement rate of graduates, Animation Mentor has also incorporated more training in developing body mechanics expertise. This new course content is designed to better teach students how to overcome the inherent challenges in animating body mechanics, avoid common mistakes, and allow them to better apply advanced concepts and complex acting choices to their characters.

In addition, the school has added a polishing and portfolio class that will give expert guidance from mentors to help students select their best work, polish it to perfection and create an outstanding demo reel. The new portfolio class will involve learning the ins and outs of getting a job in the animation industry from professional recruiters and other industry experts.

The new curriculum, which is still 18-months in length, will no longer offer the two short film classes that were in the previous curriculum. These courses will be offered in 2009 as electives to all Animation Mentor graduates upon completion of the new program.

Animation Mentor's online campus leverages a hybrid of Web 2.0 and next generation technology to give students and mentors the most powerful tools available for remote learning. Within the virtual classroom mentors are able to easily view and critique student work and host real-time Q&A sessions. Here, students also download lectures on demand by industry experts on all aspects of production, and interact with other students and mentors in the same way they would on popular social media sites such as Facebook.

The new release of the online campus upgrades the functionality of the online campus and enables even faster uploads and downloads of digital content, and more intuitive navigation, documentation, and reporting of student work.

Animation Mentor is participating in SIGGRAPH 2008 in Los Angeles, California from Monday, August 11 through Friday, August 15, 2008. Event attendees are invited to visit Animation Mentor at SIGGRAPH 2008, exhibition booth #1401.