Our Legacy Lives In Our Students
SEMESTER 28.3a
*Online - June 2025 - Celebrating 27 Years
This is the entire series for the first season of Montghomery Thump and Timbuk Too. The project that started The Animation Academy. Running time is 54:32. There are 20 indfividual videos that have been edited into a single timeline. Enjoy the series and thank you for followng the Academy on YouTube by suscribing to our channel.
This is the project that led to the creation of our school The Animation Academy. Authoring your own character based properties has been at the core of what we teach and a direction we have long encouraged our students to head towards. This is the era we have fully entered in the modern animation industry.
The video is a great accomplishment. It was among the very first videos to utilize digital animation production for hand drawn animation. Many of our earliest students got their break into the biz by assisting with it. For a comprehensive history of the pilot episode of Montgomery Thump and Timbuk Too you're invited to read the description in the link to the YouTube video. You'll find all the links to the other chapters in this story there as well.
Keep Creating everyone! It's your ticket to the future!
For generations artists have trained for the animation industry in preparation for studio employment and rightly so. That's where the great majority of creative activity and opportunities were. There was a genuine need for massive amounts of creative labor.
Now that time has passed. We're entering an age where creative labor is supplemented by great advances in production technology making content creation accessible to all. We've been focusing on that here at The Animation Academy way before it had become a reality. Artists creating their own original content is the way of the future. Author your own properties which you own. Structure your education around the art of visual storytelling while focusing on the development of your fundamental skills. Create your own characters and tell a unique story. Get started and Keep Creating!
Here at The Animation Academy we've structured our program around the concept of independent authorship. As the industry rapidly changes we've encouraged our students for the past several years to create their own content and position themselves for a future that is moving away from creative labor towards one of content creation and ownership.
This is the first trailer for a project I've produced that was the motivation behind forming the school. I've kept at it and now it's an episodic series on YouTube called "Montgomery Thump and Timbuk Too". Our students have been heading in a similar direction with their own properties for a long time. Keep Creating your own content and you'll be in a good position for the era of the New Hollywood that's emerging.
It was bound to happen. The Animation Academy's Kelsey Mann is an Oscar nominee! Kelsey is the Director of Pixar's blockbuster "Inside Out 2". It was announced yesterday that he is a nominee for Best Animated Feature Film. Kelsey was with us in the early 2000's as a student. He then became one of our instructors. Now he is at the top of the animation world. A big congratulations to you Kelsey! You are an inspiration and an awesome talent.
In honor of the 27th anniversary of The Animation Academy we are looking to do new things with a focus on content creation and all that entails. Here's a video of what to expect. Keep Creating! It's the key to the future.
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.
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
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.
