Animation Mentor is an online animation school that teaches students

character animation Character animation is a specialized area of the animation process, which involves bringing animated s to life. The role of a character animator is analogous to that of a film or stage actor and character animators are often said to be "actors wi ...

skills. Headquartered in

Emeryville, California Emeryville is a city located in northwest Alameda County, California, in the United States. It lies in a corridor between the cities of Berkeley and Oakland, with a border on the shore of San Francisco Bay. The resident population was 12,905 a ...

, the school offers a 6 core animation courses in addition to Creatures and Maya Workshops where students are taught by “mentors,” experienced animators who are professionals working in the animation industry. Animation Mentor is a distance learning school at which animation professionals teach character animation to students in over 105 countries.

History

The school was founded in 2005 by three working animators:

Bobby Beck Bobby Beck is the CEO and cofounder of the online animation school, Animation Mentor, which was started in March, 2005. It was the first post-secondary school that helped students to pursue a career in animation. At the school, students work wit ...

, who is the

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especiall ...

and

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese f ...

of the school,

Shawn Kelly Shawn Kelly is an animator of movies and was a co-founder of the company Animation Mentor, an online animation school with student/mentor relationships at its core. Life and career Born in Sonoma County, Calif., and raised in Petaluma, Kelly ...

, who is a working animator at

Industrial Light & Magic Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) is an American motion picture visual effects company that was founded on May 26, 1975 by George Lucas. It is a division of the film production company Lucasfilm, which Lucas founded, and was created when he began ...

, and Carlos Baena, who is a working animator. The school opened on March 27, 2005, with 350

students A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution. In the United Kingdom and most commonwealth countries, a "student" attends a secondary school or higher (e.g., college or university); those in primary or elementary ...

and 5

employees Employment is a relationship between two parties regulating the provision of paid labour services. Usually based on a contract, one party, the employer, which might be a corporation, a not-for-profit organization, a co-operative, or any ot ...

Academics

Animation Mentor is an online learning institution and operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The program includes live Q&A sessions with mentors from the animation industry, and mentors provide audio-visual critiques of weekly assignments. Graduates of the program receive a Certificate of Completion in Character Animation and create a

demo reel A showreel (also known as a demo reel, sizzle reel, or work reel) is a short video showcasing a person's previous work used by many kinds of people involved in filmmaking and other media, including actors, animators, lighting designers, editors, a ...

Awards

The school has won several

awards An award, sometimes called a distinction, is something given to a recipient as a token of recognition of excellence in a certain field. When the token is a medal, ribbon or other item designed for wearing, it is known as a decoration. An aw ...

, including the 2006 Best Practices in Programming Award Gold Level, 21st Century Distance Learning Award from the U.S. Distance Learning Association, and was an honoree at the 10th Annual

Webby Awards The Webby Awards are awards for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over two thousand industry experts and technology innovators. Categories includ ...

. The school won the 2008 PRSA Bronze Anvil Award for its white paper "Behind the Characters: Job Satisfaction, Career Outlook, and Salary Survey Report" and was again named an official honoree at the 13th Annual

. In 2008,

Sony Pictures Imageworks Sony Pictures Imageworks Inc. is a Canadian visual effects and computer animation studio headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, with an additional office on the Sony Pictures Studios lot in Culver City, California. SPI is a unit of So ...

awarded its top scholarship to Luis Rodrigo Huerta to earn a

Master’s Degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M Unive ...

and participate in online animation courses at Animation Mentor.

Notable Animation Mentor alumni and productions

Students who have graduated from Animation Mentor have worked on box office features, including '' Frozen'', ''

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'', ''

How to Train Your Dragon ''How to Train Your Dragon'' (abbreviated ''HTTYD'') is an American media franchise from DreamWorks Animation and loosely based on the eponymous series of children's books by British author Cressida Cowell. It consists of three feature films: ...

'', ''

How to Train Your Dragon 2 ''How to Train Your Dragon 2'' is a 2014 American computer-animated action fantasy film loosely based on the book series of the same name by Cressida Cowell. Produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by 20th Century Fox, it is the ...

'', ''

Peanuts ''Peanuts'' is a print syndication, syndicated daily strip, daily and Sunday strip, Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz. The strip's original run extended from 1950 to 2000, continuing in reruns afterward. ' ...

'', ''

Horton Hears a Who! ''Horton Hears a Who!'' is a children's book written and illustrated by Theodor Seuss Geisel under the pen name Dr. Seuss. It was published in 1954 by Random House. This book tells the story of Horton the Elephant and his adventures saving Who ...

'', ''

Pirates of the Caribbean ''Pirates of the Caribbean'' is a Disney media franchise encompassing numerous theme park rides, a series of films, and spin-off novels, as well as a number of related video games and other media publications. The franchise originated with the ...

'', ''

Bee Movie ''Bee Movie'' is a 2007 American computer-animated comedy film co-produced by DreamWorks Animation SKG and Columbus 81 Productions, and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film was directed by Simon J. Smith and Steve Hickner (in the fo ...

'', ''

Monsters vs. Aliens ''Monsters vs. Aliens'' is a 2009 American 3D computer-animated monster comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film was directed by Conrad Vernon and Rob Letterman from a screenplay written by L ...

'', '' Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs'', ''

Kung Fu Panda ''Kung Fu Panda'' is an American media franchise that originally started in 2008 with the release of the animated feature film of the same name, produced by DreamWorks Animation. Following the adventures of the titular Po Ping (primarily vo ...

'', ''

Bolt The BOLT Browser was a web browser for mobile phones including feature phones and smartphones that can run Java ME applications. The BOLT Browser was offered free of charge to consumers and by license to mobile network operators and handset manuf ...

'', '' Garfield: The Movie'', ''

Transformers ''Transformers'' is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Tomy, Takara Tomy. It primarily follows the Autobots and the Decepticons, two alien robot factions at war that can transform into other forms ...

'', '' Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse'', and others.

References

External links

Animation Mentor website
{{authority control Distance education institutions based in the United States Universities and colleges in Alameda County, California Video game universities For-profit universities and colleges in the United States Educational institutions established in 2005 Emeryville, California Companies based in Emeryville, California Animation schools in the United States Private universities and colleges in California 2005 establishments in California

History

Academics

Awards

Notable Animation Mentor alumni and productions

References

Further reading and listening

External links