I completed Animation Mentor last year.
The main advise Shawn Kelly (one of the founders ) was given when they were being taught was to bury your computer in the garden and don’t touch it till you’ve learned the principles of animation.
Obviously they didn’t mean literally to bury your computer. But there is this assumption by a lot of people that the software really helps make the animation. The amount of posts I’ve seen where someone has posted up some great animation and the first thing someone says is “amazing, what software did you use?” There was a great lecture by Richard Williams (traditional 2D artist) in which he was showing some students some of his animations. One student said “Wow what software did you use?” To which he replied “2B”(in reference to a pencil).
My advice then is to get your self two books and some tutorials
First Book. The Animators Survival kit by Richard Williams
Second book. The Illusion of Life. Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas. Chapter 3 is most relevant.
Tutorials. Visit Keith Langos site. He has been doing lessons every month for around 5 years now. Every single one is worth it’s weight in gold.
Here is his blog http://keithlango.blogspot.com/
and here is his tutorials. https://keithlango.com/animationclinic/cart/
I’d recommend you buy all of his VTS’s http://animationclinic.com/cart/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=3&zenid=bl8bdsqt6ondjdhciqu9tndhs3
$299 seems like a lot but he’ll teach you everything you need to know. You won’t get the feed back and community that you get from Animation Mentor, but all of the knowledge is there and more.
Hope this helps and good luck on your journey.
Pete B
