Academy's Kelsey Mann - Director of Disney Pixar's "Inside Out 2"

Charles Z - Sep 19, 2024

The director for Disney Pixar's latest animated feature film "Inside Out 2" is our very own Kelsey Mann.

Kelsey was a highly talented student at The Animation Academy in the early 2000's. He was also an instructor with us briefly before he was snatched up by Cartoon Network and thus began his great career. A few years later he joined Pixar and now he is the director of this summer's blockbuster movie "Inside Out 2" which has grossed more than $1.68 billion as of this writing. A huge success as that is the highest grossing box office ever for an animated feature.

You may recall that last year's blockbuster animated feature was "The Super Mario Bros Movie". That too was directed by former Academy student Aaron Horvath and is the third highest grossing animated movie in history.

Dedicate yourself to the development of your art at its highest levels. Keep Creating and you'll be ready for the opportunities that will come your way throughout your life.

To get started follow this link to our Affiliate Instructor Program.

Affiliate Instructor Program

Charles Z - May 01, 2024

The Animation Academy has initiated a new system. Our instructors are now conducting their own classes independently. We're calling this our Affiliate Instructor Program. Students can enroll directly with the instructor of their choice in the subject they are looking for.

CHANCE RASPBERRY - Character Design 101 - Character Design For Kids - Art Income 101 - AI Art 101 - Contact Chance Raspberry

JOEL VALDEZ - Advanced Character Design - Background Design - Visual Development - Contact Joel Valdez

RENEE VANCE - Digital Illustration Basics - Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator - Contact Renee Vance

GREG MANWARING - Masterclass Character Animation - Contact Greg Manwaring

ANDRES ALVAREZ - Storyboarding - Contact Andres Alvarez

The Academy recognizes the creative education you will receive from these instructors as we no longer enroll students directly into our program. We will instead focus on generating creative and educational content full time. I thank the thousands of students we've had over our many wonderful years for making The Animation Academy legendary through your success and enthusiastically look forward to what comes next. 

KEEP CREATING !!

Charles Zembillas / Director / Founder - The Animation Academy

Video Art Show

Charles Z - Feb 22, 2024

Enjoy a minute long video of assorted demonstration based art in multiple mediums presented in a thematic fashion. This is something we'll be doing more often as we organize the vast archive or educational content that's been created over the years at the Academy.

Spyro the Dragon Time Lapse Painting

Charles Z - Feb 12, 2024
This video features a class demonstration from a Visual Development session at the Academy completed in October 2019.
 
After each phase I would scan the painting in progress. You can see how it develops from a pencil drawing on illustration board to the final image. This was done in acrylics. The character is Spyro the Dragon which I created. The palette I used was unusual and as such I wound up with colors that are slightly off model from Spyro. So I figure he could be Dark Spyro instead.
 
I encourage students to work with traditional mediums as often as they can as I believe it makes one a better digital artist. It helps to stay grounded with fundamentals.
 

 

"Zenibeasts" premieres on YouTube

Charles Z - Jan 24, 2024

I'm thrilled and delighted to present a wonderful animated pilot video produced by our long time student Molly Heady-Carroll. She created "Zenibeasts" as a class project and now it's taking off with online viewers on YouTube. Molly has been developing her Zenibeasts franchise along with a comic and a board game. This is the debut of Zenibeasts in animation. Congratulations on this fantastic accomplishment Molly!

The Animation Academy is 26 !!

Charles Z - Jan 19, 2024

Cheers !! It was 26 years ago on January 19 1998 in the back room of a local restaurant in Burbank California that The Animation Academy held its first class. And the rest is history! We're heading in a new and exciting direction in 2024. Stay tuned, stay productive and Keep Creating !!

Crash Bandicoot on McDonald's Happy Meals

Charles Z - Dec 17, 2023

In 1994 I was fortnate enough to be invited by my friend and professional colleague Joe Pearson to participate in the creation and development of a video game project for a new technloigy called PlayStation by Sony. Now 30 years later Crash Bandicoot has once again been featured on McDonald's Happy Meals for kids for December 2023. Here's a commercial that is running in a nationwide campaign. Animation is an exciting and dynamic industry. Keep Creating !!

Happy Birthday Walt Disney

Charles Z - Dec 05, 2023

Today is Walt Disney's birthday! He was born on December 5 1901 in Chicago.

Here is a video I created on behalf of our community to honor him.

Character Design 101 with Chance Raspberry

Charles Z - Jun 19, 2023

New students looking to get started with their vocational training in animation can begin with Chance Raspberry's Character Design 101. This is a fundamentals oriented class that Chance is offering independently. The class is ideal for beginners and is open to a wide range of ages. Also his Character Design 101 Art Camp is dedicated to children from 7 to 11 years old.

Chance is a former instructor with the Academy as well as an accomplished alumni and has had many years animating on The Simspons. He is an excellent instructor and highly knowledgable in marketing and promoting one's work as well.

For more information you can contact Chance through this link.

Academy's Aaron Horvath - Director - Super Mario Bros Movie

Charles Z - Apr 26, 2023

It's a blockbuster movie. Super Mario Bros has grossed $782,452,239 worldwide as of this writing. After 21 days in release it has remained king of the box office with 3 consecutive weekends at number 1. The film has nearly 60% of total box office revenues.

And our very own Aaron Horvath directed the movie!

Click on this link to see samples of his student work when he was enrolled with us 20 years ago.

Great things happen over time when you Keep Creating! :)

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