ianimate.net

#21

Thanks man! I can’t afford to pay right now unfortunately - even just for the month so I’m going to have to wait till next Semester but hopefully I’ll see around the community! Let me know how it goes :slight_smile:

  • J
#22

After looking through their websites, I wasn’t really able to find anything about job placement assistance or potential internship opportunities. Do they do any of that? Too soon to tell?

#23

This is the first term the program has been open so I doubt you’ll have any decent data on that for a year or two.

Speaking of it’s been going for a few weeks now…any feedback from current students so far?

#24

Yep! We’re all pretty busy getting assignments done and handed in!

Feedback from me:

  • The Instructors Rock, we get some amazing feedback.
  • Our classmates are amazing, the feedback and such from classmates really is a great help, we’ve got some very talented classmates.

Overall, a great experience, I cannot wait for my next assignment, Q&A’s, Reviews, Demos, and so much more!

#25

Good stuff, glad to hear it’s going well.

So what have you guys done for your first assignments so far? I’m curious how similar it is to the AM curriculum.

#26

Jason wants us to keep what we’re doing quiet, we’re trying not to let the curriculum leak. But, I can tell you that so far our first assignments are different than Animation Mentor’s.

#27

Well that’s…vague :slight_smile:

#28

All students want to WOW the public when we release our first school reel… so patient you must be. Torr is correct on the curriculum leak, we want to prevent that at the moment.

Don’t worry, it’s pretty epic.

If you scroll through the semester information on the website, you can get an idea of what we’re doing, but … it’s a secret…!

Your jaw will probably drop when you do see what we’ve been working on though.

Be on the edge of your seat…
(sorry, I really do wish I could say more…)

#29

No, I can understand.

I’m in a bit of a unique place though, I actually just completed Class 1 of AM and am taking this term off for some personal reasons (primarily to get married). Planning to start Class 2 in January but I’m finding iAnimate really interesting. I don’t doubt the quality of instruction, but at this point I’m leaning towards going back to AM largely for the networking aspect as well as the classes and investment I’ve already made.

#30

I too am very curious but I understand keeping it under wraps for the time being… looking forward to seeing what you guys come up with!

There is one question I think you iAnimators can answer though,

Based on your experience thus far, would you say that iAnimate truly caters to those who have never animated in Maya before? Or is it mostly full of students who have experience?

Thanks!

#31

That’s really interesting , I’m really looking forward for more informations about the school espacially student’s reel. I was saving money and preparing myself for AM, but iAnimate it’s really great opportunity with those mentors and I could start it earlier because of money.

Looking forward

#32

I think iAnimate is definitely a great option for those who’ve never animated in Maya; although Maya is the recommended software platform at iAnimate, I’ve noticed some classmates using blender, and 3dsMax also. We also work in Digicel Flipbook for our 2D conceptual ideas (if you want to, you don’t have to, but it’s a great learning tool).

I’ve barely touched animation in Maya, and have learned heaps in the first couple weeks; I’d definitely recommend it.

Congratulations on getting married!

As for the networking aspect, we’ve got that also! The Instructors at iAnimate all work in the industry themselves, and tons of our students do also.

Polg, I was originally going to go to Full Sail or iAnimate myself, however, the amount of money was a little too out of reach for me. iAnimate is a great option, at a low cost; but the curriculum and teaching does not suffer due to a cheaper tuition. Once again, I’d recommend it to anyone looking to get into Animation.

  • To all -
    Keep an eye out on the iAnimate site! And us students will try to keep updating you on it; and feel free to ask questions about the school, we’ll do the best we can to answer!
#33

But Full Sail gives you Bachelor what iAniamte doesn’t :slight_smile: that’s one of reason why you need to pay lot more.

#34

Though what is a bachelor in comparison to a show reel that shines?
all the bachelor says is you have a knowledge on animation/film history and can write about it to a good standard. Im working on my bachelors now and truely wish i’d saved that money and instead poured it into online courses with noteworthy studios like Gnomon/iAnimate; At uni your not learning souly about the subjects relevant to you, you have to go through the motions of learning subjects which you’ll never use again once you have that piece of paper :confused:

#35

MrJuzah you have a right on this but is depend of school, I guess.
I think that’s good in our industry most important is what you can do, and what you can show in your reel , than what kind of paper do you have, but if you have both it’s even better.

#36

I think a bachelor degree in our industry can actually help; I don’t think it’s a complete waste. On one hand, you may use the knowledge you learn in a Bachelors Degree program in the industry, such as Art History, or a History course could cause you to think of a story to write/suggest at your studio for a feature - which then you would have experience on how things work for that feature already.

On the other hand, it could be a waste of your time.

It’s all what you put into it, and what you take out of it. What you think is relevant to you now, you may wish you had done years down the line.
Like me, I wish I took physics in High School. Shot myself in the foot on that one. :0)

I think iAnimate is a good option for me monetarily, and training wise. At this point in time, I don’t have the time or money to afford a bachelors degree, I want the training; I want to learn my craft, and I want to learn it well - and from the best. So, iAnimate it is.
I’m glad I did it also.

My .02 cents.

#37

For those of you in iAnimate, what’s a typical week like @ the school? Do you have an set class every week? A breakdown would be great, thanks! :slight_smile:

#38

I am in term 1. So far it works out like this: on Sunday evening/Monday morning (depending where you live) you get your assignment, which includes everything you need to get going (refs, tutorials, etc.). At the start of the week Jason does a general tutorial class (with interactive feedback) aimed at all terms, which is awesome, and shows a lot of extremely high level technique, a review of animation principles, and studio work-flow principles, catering for all terms. Next (or the day before, depending on the instructor you have), there’s a term and class/instructor specific interactive Q&A session, where we can ask all the questions we want. Principles and theory are discussed that relate to the assignment at hand, and there is excellent feedback, both from the instructor and the students.

Remember, it’s all interactive - very cool! Then we get the remainder of the week to work on our assignments, and the online community helps a lot. So far the interaction between instructors/school/Jason and the students has been excellent - I get a LOT of mail and messages, and I feel it actually works better than live courses I have participated in. And there’s direct instructor contacting through email as well. Furthermore, Jason provides all the students with a wealth of resources through his existing video tutorials that are freely accessible to us.

Then we upload our assignments on Friday/Saturday, and in the weekend a live interactive review session (like a daily in production) is held. Our work is individually critiqued in an one-on-one session (my instructor sees EVERYTHING that’s wrong, even a single missing frame) which is shared with the entire class (no more than 6 people in a class, so lots of individual attention), and in the following week we improve/perfect our work. For those of us who did a really good job first time around a second sub-assignment is given to work on. This week I worked two evenings and an afternoon on my assignment.

It’s well organized now (some kinks in the first week, but that was to be expected), and in these last three weeks I have learned more than I ever dared to expect. Check out the sample calendar for a weekly breakdown on the website.

Best decision I made in the last, oh let’s say, 15 years! I’m having a blast.

#39

I am in term 1. So far it works out like this: on Sunday evening/Monday morning (depending where you live) you get your assignment, which includes everything you need to get going (refs, tutorials, etc.). At the start of the week Jason does a general tutorial class (with interactive feedback) aimed at all terms, which is awesome, and shows a lot of extremely high level technique, a review of animation principles, and studio work-flow principles, catering for all terms.

With Jason’s general tutorial class, it’s the same time every week? How far in advance do your get your schedule? I work in retail so I need to give my boss a set schedule of when my classes will be and times I will not be available to work that’s why I ask.

Next (or the day before, depending on the instructor you have), there’s a term and class/instructor specific interactive Q&A session, where we can ask all the questions we want. Principles and theory are discussed that relate to the assignment at hand, and there is excellent feedback, both from the instructor and the students.

How long is the Q&A session? Is it the same time every week?

Remember, it’s all interactive - very cool! Then we get the remainder of the week to work on our assignments, and the online community helps a lot. So far the interaction between instructors/school/Jason and the students has been excellent - I get a LOT of mail and messages, and I feel it actually works better than live courses I have participated in. And there’s direct instructor contacting through email as well. Furthermore, Jason provides all the students with a wealth of resources through his existing video tutorials that are freely accessible to us.

Wow, that sounds incredible! I love all that direct feedback. I know I’m going to need A LOT of help!

Then we upload our assignments on Friday/Saturday, and in the weekend a live interactive review session (like a daily in production) is held.

You say in the weekend… again, same time each weekend or does it vary?

Our work is individually critiqued in an one-on-one session (my instructor sees EVERYTHING that’s wrong, even a single missing frame) which is shared with the entire class (no more than 6 people in a class, so lots of individual attention), and in the following week we improve/perfect our work.

So it’s a one-on-one critique in the classroom full of at most 6 people, or it’s a live one-on-one with JUST you and the instructor and just everyone gets to view it? Is your critique always the same time each week?

For those of us who did a really good job first time around a second sub-assignment is given to work on. This week I worked two evenings and an afternoon on my assignment.

What about for those who don’t do a really good job the first time around? They get a 2nd week to improve it?

It’s well organized now (some kinks in the first week, but that was to be expected), and in these last three weeks I have learned more than I ever dared to expect. Check out the sample calendar for a weekly breakdown on the website.

Best decision I made in the last, oh let’s say, 15 years! I’m having a blast.

Where is the sample calendar? The one one the site is blank under "EVENTS’

Thanks for all your input, I’m really excited about iAnimate as long as I can manage my time with work! :slight_smile:

#40

All the demos/lectures/reviews are all at the same time each week unless the teacher has a need to change time, but if you can’t make it, everything is recorded and you and everyone else can go back and look at the reviews.

The Q&A session is only an hour, but my teacher has stayed late to answer all of our questions, and the review, my teacher prefers us to have individual critiques, and we log on in intervals to get our stuff reviewed, but then we can go back and look at everybody’s.

I’m in semester two and we have had four weeks for our animation to fix it up. I believe there’s a two week minimum on activities, that way you can get feedback, fix it, and then get a final feedback.

So far its been awesome!