Monday, July 25, 2011

Online Program Reviews

Last week we wrapped up the first semester of the Academy's Online Program. We fielded two live sessions of Character Design 1 on Wednesday evenings Pacific Time in the US. Shortly afterwards we received our first review, an unsolicited message from one of our students.

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Subject: Thank you for everything!

It was honestly the best course I've ever attended. Even better than my college courses. I'm really glad that I got the opportunity to take a course at this great academy! It has filled many gaps I wanted to fix in my work generally.

Thank you so much again! And looking forward to Character Design II ^^

Ameera
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

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We received this message from another of our online students...

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I have been wanting to improve my drawing skills for a long time and I haven't been able to successfully draw for animation. I had to struggle for a little while at the beginning of the class, but I found myself enjoying a new excitement for drawing. Charles is very good at finding and harnessing each students' unique talent. Even when I felt my drawing was not good, he always found many good points in my work and gave me very helpful advice to improve and continue. Charles reminds me of how fun and interesting it is to draw with my imagination. The class was very inspiring. Having a knowledgeable artist teaching an online class like this is very convenient and valuable. I learned so much.

Thank you very much, Charles!

Naomi
Santa Maria, California

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Reviews like these are greatly appreciated, but for me, the best confirmation of the success of our class is the artistic improvement our students exhibit as a result of the course. In the case of our first online classes, I'm happy to say that this group did a great job in furthering the Academy's legacy.

We're starting up another group in Character Design 1 next week, beginning August 3. If you interested in joining us, contact the Academy.

For more info click here.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Richard Gaines Expressions

On March 24, the entry for the Academy's blog was a character rotation by Richard Gaines, a new student who relocated from Florida to Burbank to pursue his education in animation and to further develop his burgeoning career.

Here's the rotation he did for the character he created as part of his class assignment.

Once the design of the character had been fully established, Richard embarked on the next phase of the class, bringing the character to life through a series of facial expressions. Here's the drawings that Richard created as part of this assignment.

Facial expressions are important in fully developing the character, and are also a significant aspect of character based production development in animation. They challenge the character designer to explore the nature of the character through its personality and enhance one's acting abilities as it relates to the art.

Richard is a very talented artist who has become even better since he enrolled at the Academy. Good things are happening for him career wise as a result.

If you're looking to develop your own abilities regarding character design and your art skills in general, The Animation Academy can help you take a big leap forward. With our expanding Online Program, we can help you grow artistically no matter where you may be.