The Animation Course

Chad Stewart has worked as a professional animator in film and television for over 30 years! He has worked with both Walt Disney Feature Animation and Sony Pictures on films like Emperor's New Groove, Tarzan, and Polar Express, just to name a few. Now he brings his wide experience—both from the professional animation field and from being an expert homeschooling dad—into teaching students ages 11-18 about this fascinating art form.

The Animation Course - Our first and primary course, The Animation Course consists of five levels with the goal of giving the student the tools they need to enjoy the process of creating stories and animating them, thus producing their own short films.

COURSE OFFERINGS

• Level 1: An introduction to animation through 12 principles of animation.

• Level 2: Basic concepts of physics and how they apply to animated motion, emotion and acting, and body mechanics.

• Level 3: How to tell a story—everything from basic story structure to staging and cinematography.

• Level 4: Combines concepts learned from Levels 1-3 to help students create their own animated short film.

• C.A.T. (Continual Animation Training): Students work together just like a real animation crew to complete a joint film project.

The Drawing Course consists of four levels with the goal of teaching classical drawing skills. Using this foundation, The Drawing Course then launches into the world of characters and design, allowing the student to bridge the gap between imagining a character and then putting that character on the page.

COURSE OFFERINGS

• Level 1, Fundamentals of Drawing: An introduction to the classic concepts of traditional drawing and how to use them to bring more life-like images to the page.

• Level 2, Drawing for Animation: The character and design of humans and animals; bringing life to the drawing through the concepts of gesture and expression.

• Level 3, Digital Illustration with Photoshop: Learn and use Photoshop to create vivid digital Illustrations, full of color, composition, energy and design.

• Level 4, Drawing Humans (Age Appropriate): A specific class dedicated to learning about how to draw the human body with an age appropriate approach.