Educational Partners
Yellowbrick Learning
Animation Mentor became part of the Yellowbrick family in 2021. We’re proud to be part of an organization committed to building meaningful and accessible online educational opportunities. Their online certificate courses in animation, film, and entertainment business are a great addition to any Animation Mentor student’s education plan.
About Yellowbrick Learning
Ranked #1 in the United States in TIME and Statista’s “World’s Top EdTech Companies 2024” list, Yellowbrick is on a mission to empower the next generation of talent in the creative arts, media, and entertainment industries to advance their careers through transformative educational experiences developed in partnership with leading institutions, brands, and industry experts.
Women in Animation
Animation Mentor is excited to partner with Women in Animation, an organization that is committed to promoting women in the animation industry and diversifying the stories that appear on screen. With WIA, we hope to further opportunities for women in the Animation Mentor community and beyond, and are so excited to connect our students with this wonderful organization.
About Women in Animation
Women in Animation (WIA) envisions a world in which women share fully in the creation, production and rewards of animation, resulting in richer and more diverse entertainment and media that move our culture forward. The mission of WIA is to bring together a global community of animation professionals to empower and support women in the art, science and business of animation by increasing access to resources, creating opportunities for education, encouraging strong connections between individuals, and inspiring excellence.
The Lighting Lab
Animation Mentor is a proud education partner of The Lighting Lab. The Lighting Lab’s students will be instrumental in taking Animation Mentor students’ animations to the next level with top-level lighting. We’re excited to launch this partnership to allow our students to work together throughout their educational journeys.
About The Lighting Lab
The Lighting Lab is an online 3D animation academy with courses and mentorship in 3D Lighting, Compositing and FX. Courses are offered in both Spanish and English and consist of recorded lessons students can complete at their own pace with regular feedback from the course mentor and student community. Learn more about their courses here.
The Animation Course
Animation Mentor is delighted to partner with The Animation Course, an online school that gives young animators (ages 11-18) the structure they need to start their animation journeys. Once they are old enough (18+), we welcome Animation Course grads to attend our courses at Animation Mentor.
About The Animation Course
The Animation Course, LLC was created and developed by Chad Stewart, who has worked as a professional animator in film and television for almost 30 years! He has worked with both Walt Disney Feature Animation and Sony Pictures on films like Emperor’s New Groove, Tarzan, and Polar Express, just to name a few. Now he brings his wide experience—both in hand-drawn and computer animation—to the teaching world. His wife, Kayla, partnered with him to begin The Animation Course in 2015 and through the years it has become an award-winning school for students between the ages of 11-18.
This school is completely an online experience with weekly classes and other online learning opportunities. All work is given video reviews by other talented professional animators, which allows for the best growth for each student! The students begin with the basics of animation learning the 12-principles during Level 1 Animation and then continue on to the learning of physics and motion in Level 2 Animation. Levels 3 & 4 Animation are for the writing and developing of the students’ individual films. Each level is 12-weeks long.
Software Partners
Autodesk, Inc.
We are proud to be an Autodesk Learning Partner—students in our Core Animation Courses use Autodesk Maya extensively. Autodesk has also sponsored many Animation Mentor events, including webinars and other educational events.
Curriculum Partners
We worked closely with industry professionals from major studios and production houses to develop our curriculum and exclusive production pipeline. In addition, many of these industry professionals serve as mentors, working directly with Animation Mentor students.
Character Development Partners
Twisted Mountain Animation
Animation Mentor is excited to partner with Twisted Mountain Animation for our character rig development. Rigs play an important role in helping students tell their story and we believe this partnership will help create studio quality rigs for years to come. The quality of the work that TMA does is fantastic, and we can’t wait to see what new stories our students tell with these characters.
About Twisted Mountain Animation
Twisted Mountain Animation (TMA) is a full service 3D animation and pipeline studio. Founded with a mission to develop a better way to create, deliver, and support the production of animated content. As Partners in Production, they’ve produced highly ambitious projects, such as Brawl Starrs CCTV by Supercell, an in-game origins story experience, for which TMA built a fully functioning theme park simulation in Unreal Engine, creating and delivering over 60 hours of content. Other amazing projects TMA have been a part of are Disney’s Big City Greens 3D Holiday Special: Virtually Christmas. This was the first Unreal Engine episodic work produced by Disney—and the longest single animated episode they’ve created primarily using real-time technology. Recently TMA created hero assets and animated sequences behind Nicki Minaj’s Pink Friday 2 World Tour. You can find out more about their work and studio capabilities on their website.
Additional Character Partners
CGCircuit
We are honored to work with CGCircuit as a preferred partner for character rigging needs. CGCircuit provided all rigging for our Hatch character.
Josh Sobel Rigs
The Kayla and Kyle rigs were created and rigged by Josh Sobel Rigs. They are available to all our students.
Truong CG Artist
Truong CG Artist provides dynamic creature characters for our creature animation students.
Media Partners
Rhino House
Our friends at Rhino House have an incredible library of animal reference footage that is an essential resource for any animator. Animation Mentor students enjoy a discount on Rhino House’s library of reference footage!
Become a Partner
Please get in touch to discuss our partnership opportunities and learn how our school might benefit your company.