Animation Mentor

Specialties

Animation Mentor is an online school focused on animation and VFX classes taught by industry professionals within the first fully distributed production pipeline of a studio school. Our programs and curriculum teach you the exact skill set that film, animation, and visual effects studios seek — the ability to professionally collaborate and apply studio best practice workflows within a studio production pipeline and across multiple disciplines — and do so in a customized, affordable, and quick fashion. You work collaboratively with other students on an online production and leverage the full capability of our state-​of-​the-​art, patent-​pending AMP™ studio production pipeline.

History

Established in 2005.

Ani​ma​tion​Men​tor​.com was founded in 2005 by three experienced professionals — Bobby Beck (CEO and cofounder), Shawn Kelly (cofounder) and Carlos Baena (cofounder). As CEO, Beck oversees Animation Mentor’s day-​to-​day business, animation courses, educational programs and culture.

Before Beck launched Animation Mentor, he worked for Pixar Animation Studios, Tippett Studios, and Walt Disney Feature Animation. Beck was the character animator for the movie Finding Nemo. In addition to their roles in defining the school’s direction, Kelly works as a senior animator at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and was the lead animator for the movie Transformers in addition to Star Wars: Episode 2 — Attack of the Clones, AI: Artificial Intelligence, and Indiana Jones 4. Baena works as a full-​time animator for Pixar Animation Studios where he worked on WALL-​E and the upcoming Toy Story 3.

Meet the Business Owner

Bobby B.

Business Owner

As CEO and President, Beck works with partners and cofounders Shawn Kelly and Carlos Baena to define the animation program’s overall direction. He oversees the implementation of their collectively developed vision. Beck attended the Art College of San Francisco until he landed a job at a game company based on character tests he taught himself. In 1997, he joined Tippett Studio, where he worked on the feature films My Favorite Martian and Virus. The following year, he moved to Los Angeles, where he animated on Dinosaur at Walt Disney Feature Animation. In 1999, Beck was offered one of the most coveted positions in the industry as an animator at Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, Calif. At Pixar, he worked on Toy Story 2, The Incredibles, Cars, and the short film Boundin’, before being promoted to senior animator/​character developer on Monsters, Inc. and Finding Nemo. In September 2004, Beck left Pixar to devote himself full-​time at Animation Mentor.