Wow
Cool interview and a good thing this AM stuff. if i win the lottery (not that i ever play) i´m in. i will graduate from animation class at my uni in two weeks and fairly i still have a long way to go animationwise. I´m a quite good modeler and texturer though. I feel so bad for not having to pay for my studies so far, as it´s usually quite cheap in germany to study. if i lived in the US i couldn´t have ever found the money to go to artschool 40 to 70 grand for three years, aaahhrgh. that would have either killed me trying to rob a bank or stopped me from dreaming and go streight to mcdonalds to flip those burgers. i would love so badlly to attend this online class but i´m afraid at this cost i will have to learn further from books videos and good old practice, practice and practice.
If i get a job that pays well enough for what i allready know (i.e. modelling and texturing) then maybe i will attend some parts .
Www.animationmentor.com
Great work everyone who put that article together!!
What do you mean “at this cost”? They haven’t annouced any prices and they’re trying to make the price as accessible as they can.
posted earlier by kevan
" 1. Q: How much will AM cost?
A: We have carefully designed AM as a one year intensive character
animation boot camp. Our school will consist of 4 courses, each made up of
12 video classes focused 100% on various aspects of character animation, and
each with a corresponding assignment tailored to reinforcing the topic of
that class. While you are encouraged to work at your own pace, 1 class per
week will get you through a course in about 3 months.
Because we are dedicated to bringing you only the absolute best personal
mentors available, and due to our exceptionally high bandwidth demands, the
cost of a full course will be comparable to art school prices; however, the
intensity of our program allows you to finish in 1/4 the time it would take
at a traditional art school, providing you with a much cheaper and more
focused experience! In order to ensure that AM is as customizable as
possible, students will also have the option to sign up for the individual
classes they are most interested in rather than the entire 12-class course."
mocking bird posted
“the cost of a full course will be comparable to art school prices…
i hope this doesnt mean $40,000 !!
anyone have a closer figure?”
and after that peanuckle posted
"$40,000 crap the art school that I ALMOST went to cost $70,000 for 3 years and they said if you knew it just test out of it. Great I want to test out of what I wanted to goto school to learn more of. I hope this will be less than $10,000 if so I think it would be a good investment. I am REALLY hoping for it to be less than $5,000 though, but I doubt it will.
Tanner"
I don´t have any information on the real pricing but reading numbers like that makes me feel dizzy.
if i understood right then kevan quoted something from the makers of AM, at least it seemed like. I don´t study in the US so i don´t know how much it costs to study there i also don´t know if they meant that it would cost as much as a complete 3 year artschool or just one year of artschool as the AM program seems to be just one year long. If it costs as much as a 3 year artschool program to get throu a 1 year course it´s pretty hefty. if it means that ti costs the same as 1 year ot artschool i think it´s reasonable . but still a third of 40 to 60 grand is still too much for me, as i missed the last chance to attend the how-to-survive-12-months-without-food-crash-course at uni this semester.
Great interview (thx sheep factory), just makes me want to join more and more, but…I was hoping to have some figures like price and number of students/level. It´s all so vague. They could at least give us a range like (U$ 5,000 to U$10,000) 
Cheers,
Felipe
I think they mentioned it will be comparable to an Art School Course in terms of pricing. So Im guessing that each course (Level) for AM will probably be around $1200, give or take a few hundred. Probably looking at $4000 - 5000 for the entire school. Just my personal guestimate.
Yeah, me too but I really doubt it will be less than 5,000 since an art school costs like 40,000 as we have been reading here so far, and they used an art school as reference. I will be really really happy if we are talking about 500 - 1,000 range per level here
Hey Mattmos: I don’t think “autumn” is quaint… “fall” is quaint. I think the US is the only country that uses that term… lol
Well, like everyone else, I super-enjoyed the article. Thanks Ali, and Bobby and Carlos, and Shawn!
I love the idea of the ‘documenary-style’ teaching! One of the steepest learning curves for me has been observing people. Oh, I can watch people, and I can see some general things to take note of–but when I’m in a situation where I’m being shown HOW to look and WHAT to look for, things become so much clearer. And it really feels like AM is going to have a large concentration on observing.
So excited about this program!
Now all that’s left is to patiently wait for the “we’re open” sign to be hung in the doorway…
- M
Wow… i can´t believe this is true. It is just fantastic for those who lives far far away (hehe) from any animation or arts school. Thanks a lot animationmentor :).
Greetings from Argentina.
Totally valid question - I’d be wondering the same exact thing!
Honestly, the whole project is born from two things - our love of the art of animation (watching it, doing it, studying it, talking about it, etc) and our love of teaching.
I was teaching animation classes at the Academy of Art, Bobby was mentoring a bunch of people one-on-one, and Carlos was starting up this whole DVD how-to animation set, so we were all teaching in various ways, and all three of us were discovering that we really loved doing it!
You can read in the Ali’s interview how the whole thing fully started, but basically we were frustrated with the way a lot of programs are teaching the technology over the art and wanted to create something for animation students that could help them create a reel that could actually get them hired at a studio. Something that could stand alone as an animation school, but could also be a great suppliment to students who feel like they could use some extra animation help.
The project evolved a LOT (from giving seminars to doing live classes online to doing pre-recorded one-take classes totally ghetto style, to what we have now, fully edited documentaries on aspects of animation combined with input from personal mentors) as we went along, and got bigger and bigger and bigger! There were a few times where I thought “what the hell did I get myself into!?” ha ha ha
But mostly we just kept getting more and more excited with each new idea.
At some point, things kind of changed, at least for me. At first it was something fun to do, and a way to teach animation the way we’ve always wished it could be taught.
But as the project grew, and we started talking to more and more animation ninjas around the world, and meeting amazing people like Dean Deblois (co-director of Lilo and Stitch), or comicbook heroes of mine like Scott Morse (Soulwind) and Michael Avon Oeming (Powers) who are contributing reference for staging/posing… Well, as things started to get cooler and cooler like that, I think we really developed a love and dedication to the whole idea, above and beyond any base love of animation or teaching. We really wanted to make it something special. It’s kind of our baby, you know?
I guess my answer to your question is that we worked on it for two years because we can see the huge potential this thing has to not only help animators all over the world grow in their art, or to help people get the jobs they want; but we see a potential for the project to help grow our art in general, as we bring so many different pros with different points of view together to talk about this stuff… And for us animation supergeeks, that’s a very exciting prospect!
What many of you probably don’t know about the people you see in our trailer is that not only are they (literally) some of the best animators in the world, but they’re very geniune and good people too. People who have found success in their art and want to give back. Just like we want to.
To me, that’s what this whole thing is about. And for me, that’s worth a couple years of nights and weekends…
(secretly I still took an hour here and there to watch Deadwood and The Shield though! …heh heh)
-shawn
ps - saw Spiderman2 last night. Doc Ock Rocked! wow. Between Doc Ock and Buckbeak, it’s a hell of summer for animation so far!
Awesome! Ever since we ditched the “seminar” idea, that has been one of the most exciting parts of this whole project! The idea that we can help to bring together animators from all over the globe to teach students from all over the globe - to me, that’s so amazing! Gotta love the internet!
shawn
Hi guys, I’ve updated the FAQ again today.
I added a new question, added a link to the new article and added links to Bobby and Carlos’ homepages (I would love to add one for Shawn but hey, HE’S TOO LAZY to make one!).
http://home.netspeed.com.au/mlanham/am_faq.html
PS. I’m just being annoying Shawn!
It is going to start today here in Brazil, just can´t wait to see this film, it is going to be awesome, at least the trailler is.
I dream one day i will be like this animation ninjas. I´m reading the Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston book “The Illusion of Life” and it is very good to see how the animation has evolved from the thirties when they were developing the first concepts and basics to today in this AM priject that will join lots of great animators in the world, to teach and evolve this thing to a higher level once more. congrats:applause:
Just another thing, when are u going to finish with this waiting and r going to tell us more details about how it is going to work and when it is going to start
Jozvex - good work keep it comming:thumbsup:
If anyone is still up in arms about the whole real school vs. virtual school debate, Shawn Kelly posted a reply to this topic at cgchar:
http://cgchar.toonstruck.com/forum/index.php?act=ST&f=2&t=1995&
Listen, these guys are all over the place. They are definitely not crackpots who are slapping together some cheesy web informercial. They are taking the time to answer all sorts of questions from anyone. So I personally cannot wait for this to open up. I don’t care what the cost is. For all I care, they could make a killing and travel the world for six months. I know that a year from the time I start, I’m going to be a hell of a lot better because I will finally be able to apply my dedication in a positive direction, and not be re-inventing the wheel in some cases.
cW
Also, the school (Animation Mentor) has not been provenyet. Until they get some graduates and prove that the great animators are also great teachers (often not the same thing) they shouldn’t really be compared to an institution with thousands of graduates with hundreds or thousands that work in the industry.
It’s kind of like all of the third party CG houses claiming they can produce Pixar quality or better. Until they do, it’s all talk.
Not trying to be negative, but realistic.
In a private college, the tuition for 1 course is around $2,000.
AM said the price would be much cheaper.
I dont know how much is “much”.
If I guess that “much” is half, $1,000 for 1 course. $4,000 for total.
Does it make sense?