CG Spectrum animation school

Has it really been 4 years already? I recently got a few posts to my Linkedin page letting me know I have been teaching online at CG Spectrum for 4 years now.

Before CGS, I started teaching online animation for a sketchy online service with students who only would try it out for one or two sessions and then would not return. I was also paid a very small fee where most of the income went to the website. I was not very happy and did not trust this situation.

Eventually, a good friend of mine told me about CG Spectrum and I am so glad he did. It is a very professional outfit where Mentors teach online to a small group of students. At the time, I had about 4 at the most and usually it was more like 2 or occasionally only 1 student for the 12 week term.

Students learn from video instruction, given an educational license to ToonBoom Harmony, work on the weekly assignments and meet online with their Mentor for a 1 hour Q/A meeting every week. 

The best part in my opinion is that no grades given. The Mentor is there to give their feedback and help guide the student in their own way. It allows the student to learn from their mistakes and giving them more knowledge and experience than just watching a video tutorial.

Below is a recent advertisement for CG Spectrum. The first animation you will see was done by one of my students, Craig Morris Jr. I was so happy to see that 2 of his works made it into this video. Congrats Craig!!!

I am still a mentor at CG Spectrum and hoping to be there for another 4 years. If you are interested in learning more about CGS, click on this link to learn more.

Drop me a comment below if you enjoyed this post.

I'm a 2D Mentor

I have become a 2D mentor for an online school called CG Spectrum. The school is in Australia, but has been teaching animation online for several years and has an international reputation. I am currently teaching 2D animation to students internationally learning 2D animation and to become better animators. 

The classes are only 5 students at the most and there are no grades! Its based on the individual to learn from weekly projects and build their own portfolio and meet once a week for a Q/A meeting. I review work, give them feedback and help out with any animation problems they might be having. And nobody is asking, "Do I get an A on this?" Finally its about the work, not the grades and I am happy seeing students learning animation and not doing it for a grade.

Here's a portion of a recent article posted on Cartoon Brew.

The 2D Masters

2D Animator Jim Richardson–who worked on Scooby Doo, 101 Dalmatians, Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid–grew up on a steady diet of Warner Bros, Hanna Barbera and Disney cartoons. 

His first attempt at making his own animation was a clunky stop motion short using a ball of kneaded dough. He then moved onto flip books, hand drawn animation, claymation, and animated magazine cut-outs inspired by Terry Gilliam and Mike Jittlov. He began the mastery of his craft with his own evolution of animation techniques. 

“I love showing students classics from Lotte Reiniger, Tex Avery cartoons, MGM Tom and Jerrys, Chuck Jones and anything else they need to know about. We have control now to study certain scenes frame by frame, learn how they made the drawings move, how they used dry brush and other techniques. There’s so much to learn from these films of the past.”

Jim sees a lot of anime influence in student work, and is amazed when he sees an original style from a student. There are so many styles of animation to draw from, the trick to originality is to master those styles and fuse them to discover your own style. This takes time, practice, and patience, but it is the road to true innovation. 

Disney Junior, 2D animation by Jim Richardson

DisneyDemo from Toondini on Vimeo.

Here's a Cartoon Brew article about teaching animation and I'm also mention here as well. https://www.cgspectrum.com/mentors/jim-richardson

If you are interested in getting into animation or brushing up your skills, check out CG Spectrum to learn more about their 2D and 3D animation courses.