Free Lessons in Animation

Overview

Many IT students in the multimedia discipline are usually looking to work in the animation industry. Students who are looking to become animators are also required to take art classes in addition to the IT classes required for multimedia, such as Flash, Photoshop and Expression Studio. The multimedia students that I’ve spoken to are always looking for more art classes because either their school’s curriculum doesn’t offer enough art classes or the art classes that they are taking are lacking. What if there was an opportunity to get animation lessons from an established animator and innovator of Flash animation? John Kricfalusi, the creator of Ren and Stimpy and a pioneer of using Flash for animation, is offering free animation lessons to qualified artists in his Cartoon College.

Cartoon College

John Kricfalusi launched his blog, All Kinds of Stuff (http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com), for fans who want to read about cartoons and its history and aspiring animators who want to learn about cartoons. The Cartoon College evolved from the blog to give aspiring animators a chance to hone their craft and improve upon their skills without having to pay a fortune in lessons.

The only requirement to participate in the Cartoon College is you have to audition for a spot. You post a comment on Mr. Kricfalusi’s blog, John K Stuff, requesting him to review your work. You should already have a repository for your work, such as a personal blog or a web site. If you are accepted, he sends you an invitation to join the class. To help your chances with getting accepted, Mr. Kricfalusi has posted helpful advice and information for the aspiring animator to follow. Below are the following links to the advice and information:

• Animation Lessons


• Preston Blair Lessons


• Construction Lesssons

The college is a self-paced learning environment, so there aren’t any hard deadlines to follow. Mr. Kricfalusi will analyze your work and provide helpful comments to help you improve on your craft. Your peers in the college will also provide comments about your work, and you are encouraged to comment on your peers’ work.

Another advantage of the Cartoon College is you have a chance to work on an actual project of John K’s if you do well in the lessons and get paid for it. While a portfolio is nice to have to show examples of your work, practical experience on a “real world” project often gives the student a leg up over students who have no practical experience.

If you are a serious animator looking to hone your craft with an animation legend for free, consider auditioning for the Cartoon College.

Note: The author is not being remunerated by John Kricfalusi for the site review, nor does the author have any association or affiliation with John Kricfalusi's site.

For Multimedia Students and Professionals: An Affordable 2-D Animation Program

Most of graphic design and animation is done using computers. If you are a Multimedia student or professional, you may have noticed that many applications used in your line of work, including the academic editions of the software, are very expensive. For those of you who are studying or working in Multimedia Technologies, famed animator Eddie Fitzgerald wrote a review on affordable 2-D animation programs that may be useful in your line of work.

At Last: An Affordable 2-D Animation Program

Fonts, fonts, and more good fonts...

While I was looking for some free fonts to use for site and application development, I stumbled across this site - Dafonts.com. This site is a community where font developers publish fonts that they have created. A number of the fonts on the site are free (both for personal use and public domain), but some are not. The person or company will typically publish the usage license with the font.


 Remember that publishing your work on IT community sites is a way to build your career portfolio!


If you're looking for some unusual fonts to use in your graphics or web applications, give the web site a try. If you are a font developer, review the web site to see if you would like to publish your work on this site.