Animation Mentor is a one-of-a-kind online school that teaches character animation to students worldwide. A place of learning for the new digital age, Animation Mentor moves the best of educational tradition in the arts—professional mentors, creative community and group critiques--into an Internet environment that is individualized, rigorous and fun.

Animation Mentor was the inspiration of senior animator and educator Bobby Beck, who founded the school with his colleagues Shawn Kelly and Carlos Baena. Together, the trios’ combined credits include more than 15 motion picture hits such as CARS, THE INCREDIBLES, FINDING NEMO, STAR WARS: EPISODE 3-REVENGE OF THE SITH and WAR OF THE WORLDS.

Animation Mentor offers an eighteen-month program structured around expert lectures; student pairings with a series of mentors, all of whom are top animators; personalized Web classes; eCritiques and community. Students learn from comprehensive, audio/video lectures delivered by preeminent animators and receive personal, weekly eCritiques from their mentors, also in AV form. They partake in fully interactive, synchronous Q&A session/classes during which their shared mentor teaches the craft of animation using a proprietary, interactive drawing tool, among other AnimationMentor.com-developed courseware. Animation Mentor’s program is taught in English, although approximately 40% of the student body is from outside U.S. soil.

These regularly scheduled events take place within a thriving, 24-hour community in which AnimationMentor.com attendees meet in forums and chat rooms, provide support and feedback; and view and learn from the expert classes and eCritiques? stored on the online campus. After a year and a half, they graduate with a diploma in Advanced Studies in Character Animation from the Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education, prepared for immediate employment.