5th - 12th Grade Animation Production Summer Class
A safe place where kids and teens unleash their wildest imaginations to design, voice, and animate characters and stories in a digital playground bursting with endless excitement and creativity!
1,187+
Students
7+
Years in Business
2204+
Classes Taught
YOUR CHILD WILL CREATE ANIMATED STORIES & BE PART OF THE CREATIVE PROCESS
LEARN to create digital cartoons
DESIGN their own characters
ACT as the voice of their characters
WRITE their own scripts
COLLABORATE with other students
Our classes are designed with our students in mind. We understand the challenges they face because we've seen countless students transform their passion into polished animations. We know that what they need is not just instruction, but inspiration and interaction.
Our classes provide a safe, exciting space where they can unleash their imagination, learn at their own pace, and collaborate with others who share their passion.
Join us, and let's turn creative potential into animated reality. Together, we'll navigate the path from a first sketch to a fully animated story, making every step of the journey as enjoyable as the destination.
What's Included...
Weekly classes
Contribute to student projects as an animator, character designer, background artist, script writer, or voice actor
Participate in live online voiceover performance sessions
Interact with other students in our online community
Get support during the week when needed
Check out some of our student-made creative work
Imagine a young artist named Alex, brimming with ideas and sketches, dreaming of bringing their characters to life. Alex is passionate, spending hours drawing and imagining stories, but something is missing. Despite endless tutorials and online videos, the process of turning those static images into animated stories feels overwhelming. Alex wants to create vibrant, moving characters, but the path from idea to animation seems like an uncharted maze.
Sound familiar? You have an incredibly creative and driven child, but translating their vision into animation makes them frustrated. Tutorials can be dry and uninspiring, and working alone can be isolating.
They need more than just technical skills; you need a community that supports your journey and makes learning FUN!!
Animation Production Fundamentals
We will focus on the 12 Principles of Animation to create fun animations together, enhancing your drawing skills for faster and better animations. We'll also delve into character animation and visual effects.
Intro to Animation
Hands on, step-by-step animator training to compliment and support skill development together with our animation production classes. Weekly lessons released on 5 Fridays
Three Live Q&As
on Wednesdays or Fridays
4:00-5:30PM Mountain Time
(3pm Pacific / 5pm Central / 6pm Eastern)
Online Voiceover Sessions
Live Online Class on three Saturdays* –
Join other students and perform character roles together in a live recording session.
9:30-11:00 AM Mountain Time
(8:30am Pacific / 10:30am Central / 11:30am Eastern)
*not included with the late summer class
DAILY Online Community Interaction and Support
Connect with other students, build friendships, and work together on projects. Receive help and support any day of the week through our safe, private online community.
Animation Production Fundamentals
We will focus on the 12 Principles of Animation to create fun animations together, enhancing your drawing skills for faster and better animations. We'll also delve into character animation and visual effects.
Intro to Animation
Hands on, step-by-step animator training to compliment and support skill development together with our animation production classes. Weekly lessons released on 5 Fridays
Three Live Q&As
on Wednesdays or Fridays
4:00-5:30PM Mountain Time
(3pm Pacific / 5pm Central / 6pm Eastern)
Online Voiceover Sessions
Live Online Class on three Saturdays* –
Join other students and perform character roles together in a live recording session.
9:30-11:00 AM Mountain Time
(8:30am Pacific / 10:30am Central / 11:30am Eastern)
*not included with the late summer class
DAILY Online Community Interaction and Support
Connect with other students, build friendships, and work together on projects. Receive help and support any day of the week through our safe, private online community.
student made character and walk cycle animation
Master Concept to Creation
Comprehensive Skill Development
Students will learn to create digital cartoons, design characters, write scripts, and voice their characters. This holistic approach ensures they gain a wide range of animation skills.
student made character and walk cycle animation
student art by Nina G.
student art by Nina G.
Create Together, Grow Together
Collaborative & Supportive Environment
We encourage collaboration among students, offering opportunities to work on projects as animators, designers, writers, or voice actors. Additionally, there is continuous support through live classes, Q&A sessions, and an online community.
student art by Angeline S.
Learn Your Way, Anytime, Anywhere
Flexible & Engaging Learning Formats
Both live and recorded sessions, in-person and online options, and various schedules offered to accommodate different needs. This flexibility, along with interactive elements like live voiceover sessions, keeps learning engaging and accessible.
student art by Angeline S.
Testimonials
What students are saying...
“I loved the knowledge of the animation programs that I learned.
A huge benefit was the community feel. It’s a wonderful place to come and explore your passion, or just laugh with some new friends. This class was much better than online videos that have no structure or new material. It was a wonderful experience.
I wish I had more time to explain how much I admire this class. It perfectly combines a friendly environment, allowing everyone to learn at their own pace and enough challenge to keep me engaged.”
-S.H.
“The class experience was awesome!!! Before this class I used to lock myself in my room and try to learn off the internet. This class is better!! I got to work with cool people and I love the method of art teaching.”
-M.S.
Cooper H. says, “You get to talk and show what you are creating, and experience it with other people who are doing it with you. Its great!”
Amelia N. shares, “My favorite part of the Animation Production Group is getting critique from my peers!”
Student, Amanda H. explains how beginners and more experienced students learn together side by side
Lucas S. says, "My mom was looking for an animation class for me and came across this and the rest is history!"
What parents are saying...
“Mr. Fisher, You are such a wonderful teacher, encourager and inspiration to my daughter. Thank you for believing in her and helping her excel. We both appreciate your influence in her life.”
Parent of 7th Grade Student
“Thank you, Mr. Fisher! My son has loved your class! Thanks for all your effort that you put forth into an encouraging and positive experience for the kids!”
Parent of 8th Grade Student
Summer 2024 Classes
Hurry! Sign up before it's too late!
FLEXIBLE SCHEDULE
ONLINE CLASS
LATE SUMMER FLEXIBLE SCHEDULE CLASS
July 17 – August 21, 2024
LATE SUMMER FLEXIBLE SCHEDULE CLASS
July 17 – August 21, 2024
$177
(or three payments of $60)
To participate in this program, the student and the parent/legal guardian are entering into the following contractual agreement.
What to Expect...
After signing up, you will receive a welcome email with all the details.
You'll receive a link for the Registration Form to be filled out before first class.
Get ready to supercharge your drawing skills and embark on an epic artistic journey!
30 DAY FULL MONEY BACK GUARANTEE
If your student tries one of our classes and decides that it is not a good fit for them, you may request a full refund up to 30 days after the first class begins.
After 30 days, you may request a refund to receive back the tuition funds that you paid that have not been used up to the point that you request the refund. In this case of after 30 days, we ask that your student have attempted to do the work for the class. As long as they can show that they did the assignments and exercises for the class, we will send you a refund.
PLEASE NOTE:
• NO refunds will be available for missed classes or for classes already attended.
• NO makeups will be available for missed classes, but each ONLINE class session will have a recorded replay video available. These recordings will also be available to IN-PERSON classes.
• Some IN-PERSON class sessions will NOT have replay videos available. If the same lesson was taught in one of the online classes, the replay for that class will be made available to IN-PERSON students.
• For all IN-PERSON classes, students must be picked up promptly at the class end time. We will not be able to supervise students after the class ends.
Important Info
What will I need for this class?
1) Pencils/Paper
Students will need the following to fully participate:
BLANK PAPER (a sketchbook is recommended), PENCILS, SHARPENER, and an ERASER.
2) Digital Device
A DIGITAL DEVICE TO DRAW, DESIGN, AND ANIMATE WITH–
ONE of the following:
• Desktop or laptop computer (Windows or Mac) – with a drawing tablet*. 8MB RAM minimum is recommended for the apps to work well.
• iPad Pro – with an Apple Pencil. Apple Pencil ONLY works with the iPad Pro
• Touchscreen Chromebook – with a drawing stylus. 8MB RAM minimum is recommended for the apps to work well
.• Touchscreen Mobile Device – with a drawing stylus. Smart phone or tablet (older iPad, iPhone, Android, or Kindle Fire) with a drawing stylus: We recommend the Adonit Pro drawing stylus available on their website for $30 Also, right now the Adonit Mini 3 is available on clearance for $12. Test the RoughAnimator App on your mobile device to make sure that your device can support it. If RoughAnimator will not work well, other animation apps probably will not work on that device either.
*IMPORTANT NOTE about drawing tablets for Windows or Mac computers, either of the following options will work –
• Wacom drawing tablet – for Windows or Mac computers. You can find a good one on the Wacom website or on Amazon for approx $75 to $100. The Wacom Intuos S is a good starter tablet. Alternative options for drawing tablets include Cintiq, XP-Pen, Huion, and Gaomon.
• iPad Pro and Apple Pencil with Astro Pad Studio. If you already own an iPad Pro and a Windows or Mac computer, this is an alternative option to provide a drawing tablet that will allow you to use Windows and Mac only apps like Toon Boom Harmony, that do not run on an iPad or mobile device. With this option, you will not need to buy a Wacom drawing tablet.
3) Animation App
ANIMATION APP – RoughAnimator ($7).
We recommend every student have RoughAnimator installed on your device to follow along with live in-class demonstrations. We work primarily with RoughAnimator in our classes for many of our lessons and we will teach you how to use it. But in additional to RoughAnimator, you are welcome to use other animation apps for your assignments and projects if you already know how to use those apps. An optional student subscription to the industry standard animation software, Toon Boom Harmony will be available for a student materials fee. This software will ONLY work on a Windows or Mac computer, not on other electronic devices. We also have tutorials available to teach you how to use it.
We do not teach how to use the following apps but you are welcome to use them for your assignments and projects – Other recommendable industry standard 2D animation apps include: TV Paint, Clip Studio Paint EX, and Blender. Other recommendable iPad animation apps include Procreate Dreams, Toon Squid, Callipeg, and Clip Studio Paint EX.
The following animation apps are fun to use, but their features are too limited for many of our lessons: Krita, FireAlpaca, FlipaClip, Flipbook, and Pencil2D.
4) Sketching App
A SKETCHING APP FOR DRAWING, PAINTING, AND CONCEPTING IDEAS
The following apps will work for this purpose: Sketchbook app, Clip Studio Paint Pro or EX, Photoshop, ProCreate, or any of the following FREE apps: Krita, Ibis Paint, Medibang Paint, or Jump Paint.
5) Internet
A DIGITAL DEVICE WITH INTERNET ACCESS AND THE ZOOM APP installed to connect to and participate in our live online classes – it can be the same device used for #2 above, but it is often easier to follow along if these devices are separate.