Practicing what I teach

Our new class location is making a very positive difference in an already positive program here at the Academy, allowing me and our other instructors to work even closer with students and to participate in the creative process through demonstrations.

Here's something I came up with in the Visual Development class earlier this month. The assignment was to commit to a concept and use value rendering through free form sketching as a means of developing the art for the idea. This wasn't as much of a demonstration as it was my way of joining in on what my students were doing.


This next work was a demonstration in the Character Design 1 class last week. The subject being a traditional five pose head rotation. I came up with a design and then attempted to turn the form by drawing on 12 field paper on an animation disk.

The images will appear full size if you click on them.


With smaller groups in sessions dedicated to the subject, we're experiencing greater creative and artistic growth while having a lot of fun. We accept new and returning student enrollment on a monthly basis. If you're looking to develop your fundamental skills through an animation oriented venue, The Animation Academy offers a program that will greatly benefit you. Feel free to contact us if you have questions or would like more information.

Animation Evening - January 19, 2012

We'll be celebrating the 14th anniversary of The Animation Academy with An 'Evening of Animation' at the Burbank Public Library. Meet the Pros: Snakebite Cortez, Tom Narey of DreamWorks, Chance Raspberry of The Simpsons, Stephen Silver, EmCeed by yours truly, Charles Zembillas.

All of the guest speakers at this event are former students of the Academy and have gone on to careers of distinction.


The Academy enjoys a great relationship with the Burbank community and the Burbank Public Library. We're happy and excited to be spending our 14th birthday in the company of these superb artists and the fine people of the area.

An Evening of Animation will be taking place on January 19, 2012 at 7 PM at the Library's Buena Vista Branch, just up the street from Disney Studios. For more info please follow this link.

A Happy and Creative 2012

Hello and Happy New Year to all.

Here in Burbank, the Academy has gotten off to a great start for 2012 as we've consolidated operations into a single location. Here's a look at the building we call home in the Magnolia Park area of town, the geographic heart of the international capital of the animation industry.


We've wrapped up our first week of classes at this location. Things went smoothly and everyone is very pleased with our new system. As noted in my previous post, we're able to field sessions that are more focused and subject specific than the workshop environment we enjoyed. Although it had its positives, our students can make even more creative progress than before. We're scheduling classes throughout the week and are able to expand the curriculum as well.

I'm enthusiastic about what this year will bring to our educational community. We have a lot of new projects in the works and now that we're settled in, there's plenty of room to grow.

The next opportunity for new students to enroll will be for classes starting Monday, February 6, 2012. For more information please feel free to visit the Academy's website or give us a call at 818-848-6590.

Wishing our students, associates, colleagues, friends and fans all the very best for the coming year and beyond.

Keep Creating!

Charles Zembillas
President and Founder
The Animation Academy
Burbank, California
USA