Introduction to
Acting
Pro Animators Mentor You to Be Successful
Our mentors are the heart and soul of Animation Mentor: veteran studio animators from Netflix, DreamWorks and beyond, who work with you 1:1 every week to make you successful.
Why Take Introduction to Acting at Animation Mentor
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'll 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.
Studio-Level Animation Tools & 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 you'll use to bring your work to life.
Live Weekly Q&As
Once you're accepted, you can choose your mentor and register for class. Join live weekly sessions on top of on-demand lectures and acting assignments, and get real-time guidance on your shots.
On-Going Rig Access
Keep ongoing access to the professionally designed character rigs you train with, so you can keep building your reel and refining your acting and dialogue shots after class ends.
What You'll Be Able to Do
- Tackle pantomime acting, telling a story through body language and performance without dialogue
- Animate a dialogue shot, syncing a character's performance to a recorded voice track
- Apply the founding principles of acting and performance to your character animation
- Create clean poses and clear staging that convey emotion and tell a story
- Enhance your shots with secondary action, adding believability and appeal to any performance
- Sync animation to a soundtrack without sacrificing the clarity of your pose
- Understand the difference between method acting and character acting in animation
Skills You'll Gain
Reel Pieces You'll Walk Away With
Introduction to Acting is built around two hands-on acting exercises, each one a polished, reel-ready performance shot for your demo reel.
Pantomime Acting Shot
A character performance that tells a story through body language, emotion, and clear posing, no dialogue required.
Dialogue Shot
A character animated in sync to a recorded voice track, with facial performance and lip sync that brings the line to life.
The Introduction to Acting Curriculum
Principles of Acting & Posing
Learn the founding principles of acting and performance, and build clean, story-telling poses.
Lay the groundwork for bringing real performance to your characters.
- The difference between method and character acting
- Posing and staging for emotion
- Conveying a story before a character speaks
Pantomime Acting
Animate a pantomime acting shot that tells a story through body language and emotion alone.
Tackle one of the most challenging aspects of character animation: performance without dialogue.
- Storytelling through body language
- Adding secondary action for believability
- Refining and polishing your shot
Animating Dialogue
Sync your character's performance to a recorded voice track with facial performance and lip sync.
Bring your character to life through dialogue and facial performance.
- Syncing animation to a soundtrack
- Lip sync and facial performance
- Keeping poses clear under dialogue
Ready to Start Animating?
Introduction to Acting 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
Method acting draws on your own emotions and experiences to inform a performance, while character acting is about studying and embodying a character distinct from yourself. In this course you'll learn how both approaches apply to bringing animated characters to life.
Pantomime is performance that tells a story through body language, posing, and emotion without using dialogue. It's one of the two acting exercises you'll animate in this course, alongside an animated dialogue shot.
Pantomime forces you to communicate a story and emotion through clear posing and body mechanics alone, which builds the performance fundamentals every dialogue and acting shot is built on.
You need a working understanding of Autodesk Maya. If you're brand new to Maya, start with our Maya Workshop first, then come back for Introduction to Acting.
12 weeks, mentor-led: pre-recorded lectures, weekly 1-hour live Q&As, and 2 acting assignments with weekly 1:1 feedback from your mentor. The course is taught in English and open to students 18 and older.
Introduction to Acting is application-based. Apply at Animation Mentor, and once you're accepted you choose your mentor and register for class. Registration is open from May 18, 2026 to July 5, 2026.
