We have big news! Animation Mentor is going to look and feel a lot different starting in the Winter 2018 Term. You may have already heard stirrings—or excited announcements from Bobby—but now we want to tell you more about what you can expect in the New Year. Let’s go!

Here at Animation Mentor, we’re pretty obsessed with our community (that’s you guys), so we designed our new campus 100% around building a stronger community. Think Facebook and Twitter but in your classroom, helping you connect with friends and mentors to share work, advice—and, most importantly, support—as you’re working toward your dream of becoming the best animator you can be.

For the past 12 years we’ve been cheerleaders for group learning and the tried-and-true mentorship model. We’re proud that our new campus will bring about a more connected and supportive learning experience—in addition to just being a LOT faster and more intuitive. (Woo!)

So, without further ado, here’s a preview of some of the new things you’ll be able to do in 2018!

Keep your ecritiques!

We know this is a big one, which is why we’re so excited about it. Now you’ll retain access to all your ecritiques even after the term has ended! Even after you’ve graduated! Or if you’d rather save them elsewhere, you can also download them.

That goes for peer critiques as well, which brings us to our next point…

Give and get better peer feedback with new annotation tools.

The new campus will allow peer-to-peer critiquing with access to all the tools your mentors use! By clicking on an image or video you’ll gain access to feedback tools where you can draw frame-by-frame over work to make sure your comments are clear and detailed. We also added onion skinning and tracing paper options.

When you’re submitting your own work, you’ll be able to add multiple submissions to get some initial feedback from peers before you have to submit a final version to your mentor. That’s SO many more pairs of eyes helping you to improve your work!

You’ll also be able to view other students’ mentor ecritiques, and we strongly encourage you to check out others’ feedback! Studying the work and feedback of your peers will offer new perspectives on animation and help expand your learning experience.

Make an eye-catching profile page.

We’ve built new profile pages to give you more power to customize! You’ll still be able to add an avatar as always, but now you can also include a cover image to give your page more personality. Add your demo reel and a brief description so people know who you are. You can also add skills so others see what you can do.

If you’re interested in someone’s work, click their name to view their profile. This is where you’ll view their work, follow them, send direct messages, and more. Making connections is what it’s all about!

Stay up to date with smarter feeds.

Your feeds are how you’ll stay up to date with everything and everyone on campus! There are a few different ones, so let’s break it down. Your Activity Feed is a living stream where you’ll see all the work, comments, and goings-on posted in the whole AM community. You’ll also have specific Course Feeds for each of your courses as well as your Profile Feed that’s just your own work along with any comments/feedback you’ve gotten from others.

You can also always filter these feeds to only see what you want to see. Find your friends, classmates, mentors, or search for one specific person.

Communicate more effectively.

Now you’ll get handy notifications whenever you get a message, comment, or new critique so you’ll never miss a thing. If you don’t need to know every time, customize your notifications and only get what’s helpful to you.

Find what you need in a more intuitive classroom.

You’ll find everything you need for class in the My Courses tab, where you’ll view your lectures and gain access to all your course-specific materials, including ecritiques, lectures, your syllabus, and assignments. You can also attend your Q&A, submit your work, view and critique others’ work, and even message your whole class all in one convenient spot. It’s so much more intuitive than our old classroom—you’re going to love it.

Take Animation Mentor with you anywhere.

Lastly, the new Animation Mentor will be mobile-friendly! That means you can watch your lectures, view your comments, view others’ work, view your own critiques, and even attended your weekly live video sessions on your phone or tablet.

Woot! Want more? Check out this video tour with Bobby.

Can you see now why we’re SO EXCITED? The new site will be the new normal for everyone registered for Winter 2018 and beyond. Welcome to your new campus!

Want to get your dream animation job?

Start your journey by learning with professional animators from a variety of major studios and career paths! Get more information about Animation Mentor’s Character Animation Courses and learn how animators have landed their dream jobs.