As most of my friends know, I’ve spent the last year as a student in Animation Mentor’s character animation program.  This relatively new school has already built up an amazing reputation in the industry for the quality of its graduates.  I personally have learned so much and met some very talented, giving, and fun people during my time there.  This is school where they really take pride in their students and want them to succeed in the industry. As an educational experience I highly recommend it.

Like any school however, Animation Mentor is not the place for every student. Rich Fournier, one of my former classmates and currently an animator at Blue Sky Studios, has written a very good post addressing the complaints of some students who don’t feel like they have gotten what they wanted out of the AM experience.

It reminded me that I have been meaning to write my own guide for potential AM students- sort of a “what I wished I would have known at the beginning” sort of thing that also touches upon some of the problems I have seen others go through.  Because at the end of the day, Animation Mentor is really a community of students and every unhappy student impacts the community.

So is Animation Mentor right for you?
Ask yourself the following questions before you enroll:

1.  Do you really want to be a character animator in computer generated animated feature films  or high level, console type video games?

This question might seem a bit silly, but it really is important.  AM is a training school for a very specific type of job.  That’s not to say that what you learn at AM can’t be applied to hand drawn animation, or Flash work or special effects; it certainly can and will help you improve you as an overall artist.  However that is not the focus of the school and so it helps if you know that a job doing absolutely nothing except animating rigged computer characters at a company like Pixar or Blue Sky or Blizzard is what you really want before you begin.

2. Do you like social networks?

At it’s heart, AM is really a highly advanced social networking web site.  To be an AM student is to spend many hours leaving writing comments, instant messaging, tracking forums, and otherwise being online.  If you’ve never really gotten into Facebook and it takes you several days to reply to an email it is definitely going to impact how much you can interact and learn from your classmates.

This is something I do struggle with a bit.  I type slowly and badly, the result of a childhood spent as a dancer during a time (the early 80’s, yes I am old) when only kids who were going to be NASA engineers had their own computers. I have trouble instant messaging or chatting while also getting my work done. For me, the upside of having teachers from the best studios and classmates from around the world makes it worth the extra effort to stay involved, even if I’m not one of the most well known students around the virtual campus.

3. How much relevant experience do you already have?

I’m not going to say that you need to already be an animator to do well at AM because you don’t; many people who were not animators have become animators at AM.  However, be honest with yourself about what your current artistic and technical skill level is.  If you have never animated, never drawn a comic, never taken a life drawing course, never designed a flyer, never written a computer program, and generally never done anything even remotely connected to commercial art and computers before, consider taking some classes at a local community college or art center first.  Then if you decide to continue on to the AM program, you’ll  be a more confident, less stressed student.

4. What kind of learner are you?

Are you the kind of person who likes to learn things step by step or do you like to hop around within a subject? Do you learn best when given day by day deadlines, or are you able to stay self motivated even if an assignment takes many weeks?  Can you learn new skills from watching video tutorials or do you prefer to read instructional books? At AM the majority of the information is presented in videos and you must be able to express yourself in writing to your teachers and classmates, so it’s good to think about whether or not that style of learning suits you and if not what you can do to adapt.

Also consider what your classmates may be like and how that will effect your ability to learn. AM is a community of animators of all skill levels.  In one class you can have a 2D animator who is re-training in 3D, a biochemist making a big career change, a recent high school graduate, and someone who has been animating at a video game company for the many years, etc. This can be tough for the folks on the far ends of the ability scale.  If you are a very experienced animator, can you stay involved and interested even when the material being covered is pretty basic? If you are just beginning, can your ego take the constant reminder of how much you need to improve to get to a professional level?

5. Are you financially ready for AM?

Compared to a 4 year animation degree AM is a bargain. The tuition is still a large chunk of change though. AM does provide access to private student loans (think Sallie Mae) , but they are not deferred meaning you must start paying them back while you are still in school.  There are no other financial aid options, and in the current economic climate getting any loan has become complicated to say the least. Additionally, depending on your level when you start and how quickly you learn, you may find, as I did, that it is impossible to really give AM your all while working a full time job.  Being able to quit my job and knowing that I would still be able to meet my expenses added so much to my AM experience, and it shows in the improved grades I received after I stopped working! However, I have seen many students leave AM because they are too cash strapped to continue, or struggle through with a 9 to 5 job to the detriment of their progress and mental health.  AM isn’t going anywhere, so take the time you need to be on solid footing before you start.

6. Are your family and friends ready for AM?

AM requires a huge commitment of time and energy from you as a student, and it’s so engrossing that most of the time you won’t even notice how many hours you are putting into it.  Your family & friends will definitely notice though when you disappear from social events, cease to help out around the house, and generally are very very busy for 18 months straight.  Talk things over with them in advance and make sure they are OK with picking up the slack.  Trust me when I say that you do not want to be fighting over who didn’t do the dishes when you have an assignment due!

Some people are able to balance their family lives and AM well, even having babies and getting married during the program, but it doesn’t work out for everyone.  For those entering AM with major life changes on the horizon, it may make sense to think strategically about when you should start AM if you aren’t sure if you can juggle everything.

Again, I loved my time at AM.  This post is not meant to be a discouragement to potential students but a helpful guide and I welcome comments.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 at 4:00 am and is filed under animation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.