I am BEYOND excited to share this review with you! My daughter, who is 12 and recently finished 6th grade, just completed her first course thanks to my partnership with The Animation Course. She will DEFINITELY be continuing, it is a perfect fit for her and I am so grateful to have found this for her.

What is it?

The Animation Course is both a school and a community created especially for school-aged kids, ages 11-18. Each student is able to interact directly with the instructor, and also receives personalized video feedback from industry professionals on every weekly assignment. Each student attends a class full of students that are just like them. Students interact with real people, receive encouragement, and are given personal guidance. Taking a class isn’t just about learning skills; it’s also an opportunity to join a growing community of people who love animation.

The Animation Course consists of five levels with the goal of giving the student the tools they need to enjoy the process of creating stories and animating them, thus producing their own short films.

COURSE OFFERINGS

Level 1: An introduction to animation through 12 principles of animation.
Level 2: Basic concepts of physics and how they apply to animated motion, emotion and acting, and body mechanics.
Level 3: How to tell a story—everything from basic story structure to staging and cinematography.
Level 4: Combines concepts learned from Levels 1-3 to help students create their own animated short film.
C.A.T. (Continual Animation Training): Students work together just like a real animation crew to complete a joint film project.

Who teaches it?

The courses are taught by Chad Stewart, who has worked as a professional animator in film and television for almost 30 years! We were very impressed to learn that he has worked with both Walt Disney Feature Animation and Sony Pictures on films like Emperor’s New Groove, Tarzan, and Polar Express, and more! He’s also a homeschooling dad, which makes it even better. Click here to read more about him!

Our Personal Experience

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, we LOVED this course. My daughter has had dreams of being an animator for some time now but I didn’t know how to help her with this desire. I am NOT an artist and knew I needed to find something for her. In comes The Animation Course at just the right time. I signed her up for Level 1 – The Principles of Animation. Below you can read the course description:

The main goal of Level 1 is to introduce the student to the concept of animation. Not merely making something move across the screen, but rather making something come to life. We learn how to do this through The Principles of Animation, ideas and concepts that were identified and written down by 2 of the original Disney Animators. Each week we will examine and explain one principle and then put it into practice as the student will have an assignment to create their own animation during the week (3-5 hours per week). By the end of Level 1 the student will have created 4 animation projects.

My daughter is constantly drawing and had created many stop-motion projects on her own prior to this course. She was completely self-taught until taking this course. While taking the course, she was only 11, so the youngest in her class. She amazed me with her ability to do this independently. The support and encouragement from her teacher and her grader were so valuable to her {and me}. With every project she completed, she got detailed video feedback, which she found very helpful. I was so impressed that the grader sent her a personalized video with feedback for every assignment, She looked forward to this, even when tips for improvement were given. She wants to get better and knows that she has to learn from the best to do that! As a parent, I just love that people who share her passion are out there and can pour into her as she develops her talent. I feel like I hit the jackpot when I found The Animation Course.

She is a bit private about her projects and I want to respect her and her privacy desires so I won’t be sharing all of her projects. She did give me permission to share one of my favorites – The Bouncing Ball. She completed this from start to finish on her own {drawing, shading, animating}.

In the fall, my daughter will continue her journey. If you would like your child to participate, you can see animation class options, prices, and schedules here. There are also drawing classes, which you can see here. Classes fill up quickly, so don’t wait!