There’s a place where character animators, creature animators, lighters, compositors, artists, and filmmakers can check for all the latest — the Animation Mentor newsletter.

Since 2005, the Animation Mentor newsletter has been a great resource for students like yourself. There, you find industry professionals sharing valuable animation tips and tricks, industry writers detailing insights on the latest blockbuster, Animation Mentor alumni offering an inside glimpse of studio life, and much more. Here’s a quick sample:

Rango Feature Story, March 2011
… Rango, (Gore) Verbinski’s first animated feature, draws on live-action techniques to light, texture, and film characters as richly detailed as any character in a photorealistic live-action film. Known for directing the first three Pirates of the Caribbean films, Verbinski wrote and directed Rango. His animated feature is not a children’s story seasoned with enough elements to keep adults interested … his animated feature is an animated spaghetti western — wacky, weird, and unpredictable …

Thor Feature Story, May 2011
… A team of 16 animators, four of whom were interns, performed the background and foreground giants. Among the animators in (Eric) Petey’s group were two Animation Mentor graduates, Agata Matuszak, who keyframed foreground characters, and Magnolia Ku Lea, initially an intern but ultimately credited as an animator, who worked on shots with background characters …

Tips & Tricks with Jim Brown, August 2011
Creative Blocks: Tippet Studio Animation Supervisor Jim Brown shares his experience dealing with creative blocks. Deciding how to start a shot can be a challenge in itself, and Jim offers his advice on how to get the creative juices flowing …

Brave Feature Story, August 2012
… Brave boasts new advancements in hair and cloth simulation in keeping with the rich look of the movie. “Brave achieves a level of detail that we haven’t really done before,” admits Victor Navone, a mentor with Animation Mentor … “For Merida’s hair, we can write tools right into it — so we can preview it while we’re animating the character,” suggests Paul Mendoza, another mentor from Animation Mentor, who served as crowd animation supervisor … Animation Mentor alumnus Jude Brownbill (who worked on last year’s Cars 2) attests to the flexibility and ease of use of Presto, and also marvels at Merida’s hair. Indeed, the curly orange hair is integral to her personality, so there was considerable research and development to solve the simulation. It required much faster and more complex hair-to-hair collision …

The AMP™ Studio Production Pipeline, February 2013
You remember our story. We were founded on a simple question: If we were to start over again, how would we want to learn? We want you to know that we asked another question — this time directly to the studios, with a huge benefit to you. And our cofounder and CEO, Bobby Beck, tells the whole story …

As you can see, the newsletter also keeps you up to date on Animation Mentor programs and workshops, events, and special offers.

Stay in the know and sign up for the Animation Mentor newsletter today.