Advanced Acting

Oscar-Worthy Performances Start Here

Perfect Your Performance

Learn to create shots that cut together correctly, staging your acting to support the overall story and character arc. In the Advanced Character Acting Animation course, your assignments will focus on two-person dialogue shots and you’ll learn to find the balance between both performances. As an animator, you’ll need to bring each character to life without losing focus on the core beats of your shot.

After our class, the relationships between your characters will feel realistic and believable. Your audience will be able to feel the strong bond between characters who are friends and the rivalry between characters who are in a conflict.

12-WEEK COURSE

$2,499 USD

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Pro Animators Mentor You to Be Successful

Our mentors are the heart and soul of Animation Mentor. They are professional, working animators from studios like Pixar, DreamWorks, and Industrial Light & Magic, who will teach you the ins and outs of production-level animation. Perfect your performance in the Advanced Character Acting Animation course, the fifth of our Core Character Animation Courses.

Greg Whittaker

Senior Animator
DreamWorks Animation

Greg Whittaker has been a professional animator since 1994 and is a senior animator at DreamWorks Animation. Greg has worked on almost all of the most popular DreamWorks films, including the How to Train Your Dragon and Kung Fu Panda franchises.

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Susan Dehdari

Animator
Industrial Light & Magic

Susan Dehdari has been a professional animator since 2012 and is currently an animator at Industrial Light & Magic. She has also worked at Sony Pictures Imageworks and MPC. Her work includes the film Spirit Untamed and she graduated from Animation Mentor in 2011.

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Dave Burgess

Animation Supervisor
Animal Logic Vancouver

Dave Burgess has been a professional animator since 1984 and is currently an Animation Supervisor at Animal Logic in Vancouver. He worked as a 2D animator at Disney on hits like Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King before transitioning to 3D animation. While at DreamWorks Animation, he worked on Shrek 2 and Trolls.

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See More Mentors

Choose Your Mentor

Once you've applied and been accepted into Animation Mentor, you can choose your mentor and register for class.

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Studios that Hire Our Character Animation Students

On-Going Rig Access

AIA

JULES

MOYA

VIKTOR

QUINN

ARISTOTLE

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Personalized Mentorship

Our mentors are working professionals with years of experience under their belts, and they’re passionate about training the next generation of animators. In this course, you will learn from your mentor in live sessions as they share insights about what studios are working on and what qualities they look for in an animator. Your mentor will work directly with you to grow your skills, sharing weekly 1:1 feedback and reviews to help you improve your animation.

Studio-Level Animation Tools and Assets

We teach our students how to work in a studio environment so they are ready for jobs when they graduate. This training starts from day one, with exclusive access to professionally designed assets and character rigs. We ensure that they learn using the same tools and animation workflows that professionals use in their day-to-day work.

Course Requirements for Advanced Acting

Course Details

LIVE Q&As | Weekly 1-Hour Q&As

LECTURES | 12 Pre-recorded Lectures

ASSIGNMENTS | 1 Animation Exercise

ACCESS |Over 150 hours of additional content

SOFTWARE | Autodesk Maya

HARDWARE | Meet Minimum Requirements

AGE | 18 Years or Older

LANGUAGE | Taught in English

Skills You Need Before You Start

This character animation course requires you to have a working understanding of, and experience with, Autodesk Maya software. If you don’t you can take our Maya Basics Workshop.

What You’ll Learn

Enjoy the spotlight! In Advanced Acting you’ll create dynamic performances and subtle emotions that transport the audience. You’ll also:

Learn the importance of cinematography in your animation planning, including basic composition, lens selection, and camera mood
Analyze recorded audio and identify pieces that would make good candidates for animation, including clear beats, phrases, and contrast
Find balance in your two-person shot by giving each character life, while maintaining focus on the core narrative beats
Dive deeper into subtext to understand how to reveal your character’s internal thought process through your external acting choices
Learn to create shots that cut together to tell a cinematic story

Animation Mentor Interest-Free Payment Plans

Animation Mentor offers interest-free payment plans. Payment Plans allow students to distribute the $2,499 USD tuition into flexible payments throughout the school term.

^$333
Per Month

$500 to save your seat and
6 monthly installments of $333.

^$500
Per Month

$500 to save your seat and
4 monthly installments of $500.

^$625
Per Month

$624 to save your seat and
3 monthly installments of $625.

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FAQ for Advanced Acting

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How are character traits revealed through dialogue?

The way a character speaks is indicative of who they are as a person. The words, phrases, and expressions they use or the way they deliver dialogue tells the audience a lot about that character’s traits. A more relaxed person may use longer sentences, while a more energetic person may speak in short and straightforward dialogue.

How does dialogue develop a character in a movie?

By having a character interact with many people in different scenarios, a storyteller can reveal and test their character’s core traits for the audience.

What Advanced Acting Students are Saying

One of the Best Decisions Ever

Attending Animation Mentor has been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made for myself. I’m so glad you put this program together, thank you so much!!

Mentor Demos Were Fantastic

Every Q&A was great, the shot analysis was inspirational, and it all worked to help me focus on story, character and a smart workflow. My mentor’s demos were fantastic with tons of information and technique and I always wished the class wouldn’t end. She always happily answered questions and checked on shot progress.

I Feel More Confident and Capable

This course was perfectly laid out to ensure you got out of it whatever you put in. It was an excellent step up from Introduction to Acting, challenging yet not overwhelming. I feel a lot more confident and capable of making strong acting choices and animating them with precision after undertaking this course.

From No Knowledge to Animating Acting Shots in 1 Year

I’m really happy that I’ve made it to class 5 and finished it. I started to animate from zero knowledge and now I’m doing acting shots 1 year later. Great experience!

My Mentor is 10/10

Diving into dialogue in this course has helped me so much. My mentor is 10/10. such a veteran and a great communicator. He has immense patience and is always positive and energetic. He has an amazing eye for details and leads by example.

Pushed Work to a Professional Level

With each class, I have built on what I learned in the previous. It never feels as though I have to play catch up or get stuck reviewing. Advanced Acting pushed my animation to think of it on a professional level, being reviewed not by classmates, but by fellow animators.

So Glad I Came

I’m so glad I came here. No way would I have ever gotten a job with my reel from college. I came here and realized what it actually takes to be an animator.