Advanced Visual Storytelling : 9 Week Intensive Mentorship by Michael Jones

 

We have decided to re-work Art Direction & Creative Execution and Advanced Visual Storytelling

and create new Learning Paths which include our full range of courses.

 

We are a small team of passionate artists actively working on new mentorship experiences and on-demand training to best serve our motion design community. We believe our new approach will help us better serve the diversity of styles and career paths that exist in our industry.

 

Our learning paths will start with our flagship mentorship class, “Introduction To Design & Animation”. This is our foundational mentorship class and is designed to teach you the fundamental principles you need to continue your growth into the industry. Instead of moving on to Art Direction & Creative Execution or Advanced Visual Storytelling, we encourage you to take one of our other, more specific workshops. Motion Design is a broad industry and we want students to pursue the portfolio that makes sense for them and their career goals.

 

We are also announcing new 9 week mentorships, including an intensive Cinema 4D introductory course.

As we make changes to our curriculum we will keep you in the loop!

 

WEEK 1

Introduction To Visual Storytelling

How do we most effectively tell stories with sight & sound?

We start this class with a distinction between narrative visual storytelling using traditional filmmaking techniques, and abstract visual storytelling using a different creative process. On the one hand, storyboarding, writing and editing, versus discovery, generative art and experimentation.

 

During week one you will:

 

Watch Week 1 Videos

Attend Livestream W/ Abstract Visual Storytelling Focus

Turn In Your Assignment By End Of Thursday

Receive Written Feedback By End Of Saturday

WEEK 2

Science Of Creative Filmmaking

Creative process meets a cloud-based collaboration framework.

We are interested in helping you become a working artist, so in this week we’ll focus on pipeline and film structure. Relying heavily on AV scripting for narrative work, and project boards for more abstract work.

 

During week two you will:

 

Watch Week 2 Videos

Attend Livestream W/ Creative Production Focus

Turn In Your Assignment By End Of Thursday

Receive Written Feedback By End Of Saturday

WEEK 3

Look Development For Abstract Storytelling

A look at using generative art and CG to tell stories for clients.

This is the avant-garde of commercial work in our time. Non-traditional, non-narrative visuals that still accomplish effective communication arts. Artists like Nidia Dias help shed light on how this creative process plays out in practice when real world commercial considerations exist for the work.

 

During week three you will:

 

Watch Week 3 Videos

Attend Livestream W/ 3D Look Development Focus

Turn In Your Assignment By End Of Thursday

Receive Written Feedback By End Of Saturday

WEEK 4

Visual Metaphor & Composition

Doing both well is the key to effective communication art.

This week students will be designing their artwork. Whether 2D or 3D, the principles of visual storytelling apply equally. We’re looking for strong compositions with high visual polish, but also insightful use of visual metaphor to tell the story. No text, no icons. Original communication art.

 

During week four you will:

 

Watch Week 4 Videos

Attend Livestream W/ Design & Communication Focus

Turn In Your Assignment By End Of Thursday

Receive Written Feedback By End Of Saturday

WEEK 5

Motion Design Pipeline For Broadcast Media

An overview of how 2D & 3D work is made for broadcast.

As you continue your thesis film, we want you to be exposed to information about the motion graphics pipeline for broadcast use. While not wildly different, the project constraints are often a bit different, so these project case studies will shed light on how this work gets made.

 

During week five you will:

 

Watch Week 5 Videos

Attend Livestream W/ Production Pipeline Focus

Turn In Your Assignment By End Of Thursday

Receive Written Feedback By End Of Saturday

WEEK 6

Handmade Art & Visual Storytelling

A look at making 2D work that feels hand crafted.

As you continue your thesis film, we want you to be exposed to information about the motion graphics pipeline for 2d illustrative styles. Even if you’re a 3D artist it’s good to consider the unique quality that illustrative films can deliver.

 

During week six you will:

 

Watch Week 6 Videos

Attend Livestream W/ 2D Storytelling Focus

Turn In Your Assignment By End Of Thursday

Receive Written Feedback By End Of Saturday

WEEK 7

Achieving A Unified Film

Sight. Sound. Viewer experience.

As you continue your thesis film, we want you to consider the overall presentation of your film. Given the sights and sounds viewers see, how do we feel your film is shaping up, in the context of the project goals we set earlier on.

 

During week seven you will:

 

Watch Week 7 Videos

Attend Livestream W/ Filmmaking Focus

Turn In Your Assignment By End Of Thursday

Receive Written Feedback By End Of Saturday

WEEK 8

Focus & Directing

Bringing a directors vision to life on screen.

As you’ve seen by this point, directing original work is hard. Bringing a director’s vision to life on screen gets complicated by time constraints, technology issues, artistic in-ability, and a host of other reasons. This course is about mastering the process of bringing your vision to life on screen.

 

During week eight you will:

 

Watch Week 8 Videos

Attend Livestream W/ Directing Focus

Turn In Your Assignment By End Of Thursday

Receive Written Feedback By End Of Saturday

WEEK 9

Contributing Your Art In The World

The world is messy, artists can help make a difference.

As we close out this session we look at how our art can make a difference in the world. No matter the style or production technique, there is a place for art that helps further the common good.

 

During week nine you will:

 

Watch Week 9 Videos

Attend Livestream W/ Career & Networking Focus

Turn In Your Assignment By End Of Thursday

Receive Written Feedback By End Of Saturday

What is Everything Else?

Everything Else is a product category on Amazon that is meant to be a catch-all for items that don’t fit into any other categories. Over time, as the Amazon catalog has grown and more specific product categories have been added, Everything Else has become less useful and more of a junkyard for cast off and forgotten listings.

Until recently, however.

Why are items listed in Everything Else when they shouldn’t be?

The answer to this is fairly simple. Some sellers are using Everything Else as an opportunity to get around Amazon’s gated category requirements. For example, DVDs with an MSRP of over $25 are now gated  Selling certain products and bran… More and require permission to list. So we’ve seen some sellers create new listings in Everything Else to get around these requirements. We’ve noticed similar “workarounds” for other gated or restricted  Selling certain product categorie… More categories as well.