Feature Animation:
Acting & Polish
Pro Animators Mentor You to Be Successful
Our mentors are the heart and soul of Animation Mentor: veteran studio animators and supervisors from DreamWorks Animation, Weta FX and beyond, who work with you 1:1 every week.
Why Take Feature Animation: Acting & Polish at Animation Mentor
Personalized Mentorship
Learn 1:1 from a working studio animator who shares weekly feedback and reviews to grow your craft.
Studio-Level Animation Tools & Assets
Train the way professionals work, with exclusive access to production-quality character rigs and Autodesk Maya.
Live Weekly Q&As
Join weekly 1-hour live sessions with your mentor, on top of on-demand lectures and animation assignments.
Ongoing Rig Access
Keep access to the Aia, Jules, Moya, Viktor, Quinn and Aristotle rigs to keep building your reel.
What You'll Be Able to Do
- Combine your acting, body mechanics, and polish skills into a cohesive, feature-level demo reel
- Use advanced spacing techniques to nail the physicality and believability of your character actions and gestures
- Refine and polish your shots to a final film quality every studio hire is measured by
- Incorporate subtle acting choices to create stand-out, studio-ready performances
- Understand what it takes to create an awesome demo reel, including the key mistakes to avoid
- Develop your critical eye so that when you leave Animation Mentor you can continue improving your work into your career
Skills You'll Gain
Reel Pieces You'll Walk Away With
Feature Animation: Acting & Polish is the capstone of your character animation journey, where you refine your shots into polished, feature-level pieces ready to anchor your demo reel.
A Polished Acting Shot
A character performance refined to final film quality, with subtle acting choices that make it stand out to studios.
A Feature-Level Demo Reel
Your best work combined into a cohesive, feature-level demo reel, ready to send to recruiters.
The Feature Animation: Acting & Polish Curriculum
Advanced Spacing & Physicality
Use advanced spacing techniques to nail the physicality and believability of your character actions.
Push beyond the basics into truly believable movement.
- Advanced spacing techniques
- Physicality of actions and gestures
- Believable, studio-level motion
Acting & Performance
Incorporate subtle acting choices to create awesome demo reel pieces that read as real performances.
Turn animation into acting.
- Subtle acting choices
- Stand-out character performances
- Reading and conveying emotion
Polish to Final Film Quality
Refine and polish your shots to a high-quality finish worthy of a feature film.
Bring your shots to the finish line.
- Refining and polishing your shots
- Final film quality
- Studio-ready finish
Building Your Demo Reel
Learn what it takes to create an awesome demo reel, and the key mistakes to avoid.
Assemble the reel that gets you hired.
- What makes a demo reel work
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Developing your own critical eye
Ready to Start Animating?
Feature Animation: Acting & Polish is a 12-week, mentor-led course. Apply at Animation Mentor, choose your mentor, and register for class.
- 12-week mentor-led course
- Weekly live Q&As + 1:1 feedback
- Taught in Autodesk Maya
- $2,499 USD
Frequently Asked Questions
An animation portfolio (or demo reel) is a short collection of your strongest, most polished shots. In this course you'll learn exactly what a strong reel needs, including the key mistakes to avoid, with weekly 1:1 feedback from your mentor.
A 3D animation portfolio is a demo reel that showcases your character animation shots (performance, body mechanics, and polish) created in software like Autodesk Maya. It's focused on motion and acting rather than static artwork or 2D drawn frames.
Your demo reel is the foundation, but you can tailor it for each studio by leading with the shots most relevant to the work they do. Your mentor helps you keep refining and re-cutting your reel throughout your career.
12 weeks, mentor-led: pre-recorded lectures, weekly 1-hour live Q&As, and animation assignments with weekly 1:1 feedback from your mentor.
Working studio animators and supervisors from studios like DreamWorks Animation and Weta FX. You choose your mentor after you're accepted into Animation Mentor.
