Do you have an artistic teen who loves animation and wants to become a filmmaker, a YouTube celebrity, or an animator?
Animation courses can help prepare them for these unique careers by focusing on critically important topics that enhance their skills and make this process easier. Thankfully, there are many classes available that might appeal to your teen.
Learning Animation in School
Your high school student can easily learn animation, often as part of their art or technology courses. Modern computers are so high-powered that they can handle animation software and create strong and professional-level animations. In fact, many high schools offer introductory courses in digital arts or multimedia that include basic animation techniques. Here's what these classes often cover:
- Fundamentals of Animation: Students learn the basic principles such as timing, spacing, and squash and stretch in their first animation courses. Your teen may even make simple, but fun, animations using basic software after a few days in class.
- Software Training: Courses discussing industry-standard animation software like Adobe Animate, Blender, or Autodesk Maya can help your turn understand their work options and ensure that they know how to produce great work.
- Project-Based Learning: Students apply what they've learned by creating short animated sequences or web development pages, which helps to solidify their understanding and skill set. There’s a good chance this will be your teen’s favorite part of their class!
These courses provide a foundational understanding of animation, preparing students for more advanced studies or personal projects. Once your teen signs up for a class, they can often pick what subjects they want to learn to improve their knowledge even further.
Learning Animation Outside of School
Frankly, not every school has animation courses, which may limit your teen’s learning opportunities. That said, there are classes available that could help them learn, even if they have to study outside of class. For additional programs that can help your teen learn animation, they can try things like:
- After-School Programs: Available from colleges, universities, and private institutions, these programs can offer specialized training in animation, providing more focused instruction and access to advanced tools to make your teen a pro animator.
- Summer Animation Boot Camps: Intensive boot camps, such as those offered by NextGen Bootcamp, immerse teens in the world of animation, covering techniques and software that may not be available in web design classes in their school.
Why Learn Animation as a High School Student?
Learning animation offers a plethora of benefits for high school students. Even teens without a lot of artistic talent can surprisingly do well in animation. That said, if your child loves drawing and wants to be a filmmaker, these courses can enhance their:
- Artistic Skills: Animation courses develop a student's drawing and design skills, enhancing their overall artistic abilities. Even if your teen already knows how to draw, animation classes can help them produce better results in careers like web design.
- Creative Expression: Animation is a powerful medium for storytelling and expression, enabling students to bring their ideas to life. Naturally creative and ambitious students like your teen can use animation classes to tell new and amazing stories.
- Preparation for College: With a strong portfolio of animation projects, students can enhance their college applications, particularly for art and design programs. Coming into a school with a portfolio of work will give your teen a better chance of acceptance.
- Career Skills: Animation skills are applicable in various industries, including film, television, video games, and digital media. These growing markets need animation experts who can create strong and appealing work in a myriad of mediums.
- Entrepreneurial Opportunities: Knowledge of animation can help students start freelance careers or even create content for platforms like YouTube. If your teen already has a YouTube channel that isn’t taking off, animation classes can make their videos more professional.
Topics in Animation Education
Animation education covers many subjects to create an immersive experience that your teen will enjoy. From basic animation theory to storyboarding, character animation, and 3D modeling, these programs will get your teen on the right path to success in this field.
Beginner-Level Concepts
- Basic Principles: Learning core animation principles like anticipation, exaggeration, and follow-through can help your teen get started. They’ll learn how to use software to quickly and accurately animate characters and backgrounds.
- Simple Tools: The introduction of the basic tools and features available on animation software will get your teen hands-on experience producing art. Knowing how to create characters and place them properly is critical for animation and graphic design projects.
- Storyboarding: Creating simple storyboards to plan out animations is a critical part of all production. Knowing exactly what’s going to happen and when makes it easier for your student to complete their projects successfully.
More Challenging Concepts
- Character Animation: Taking advanced courses can help teens develop skills to animate characters by understanding body dynamics and facial expressions. With these abilities, your child can produce amazing models.
- 3D Modeling and Animation: Mastering using advanced software to create and animate 3D models can help a teen progress to more advanced careers, such as working on major Hollywood films or on massive video game projects.
- Visual Effects: Learning the techniques used to add effects like lighting, shadows, and textures can give your teen’s work more depth, produce a more attractive style, and make it easier for them to find great work after graduation.
NextGen Bootcamp Programs
NextGen Bootcamp offers specialized animation programs designed for high school students. Located in NYC, this training team also provides online courses for those outside The Big Apple.These programs use live professors, small class sizes, and in-depth hands-on activities that they can use to build their portfolio when applying for college or a job after graduation.
Animation Summer Bootcamp NYC
Animation Summer Bootcamp NYC covers 2D animation techniques, the history of animation, principles of design, and much more. In just a few weeks, your teen will learna animation and become confident working in a variety of formats, particularly digitally.
Video Editing & Motion Graphics Certificate NYC
Video Editing & Motion Graphics Certificate NYC teaches Adobe Premiere Pro, the industry standard editing software used by animators. Your teen will not only learn 3D layer animation but motion tracking, masking, and dynamic animation production for film, TV, and games.
Motion Graphics with After Effects NYC
Motion Graphics with After Effects NYC teaches teens how to navigate this powerful software. They’ll learn 3D layering, text animation, and motion tracking in a fun and tight-knit course. With real-world projects and expert instructors, it will get your teen ready to go!
AP Exams Related to Animation
While there is no specific AP exam for animation, AP Studio Art: 2-D Design and AP Studio Art: 3-D Design courses may work well for students interested in animation and tangential studies, like graphic design. These classes let students explore various aspects of design and visual storytelling that are fundamental to animation. Benefits include:
- College Credit: Successful portfolios can earn college credit, giving students a head start in their college courses. It can also help them skip boring classes…your teen may even miss out on morning programs!
- Enhanced College Applications: A strong performance in AP Studio Art showcases a student's commitment and skill, which can be advantageous in college admissions. They’re particularly useful for art-based schools
- Professional Preparation: These courses develop skills that are directly applicable to careers in animation web development, web design, and beyond by helping students build a solid foundation for professional work that they can use after they graduate.
Animation is a vibrant field that offers high school students the opportunity to develop their artistic and technical skills, prepare for further education, and explore a range of creative and career opportunities. Even if your teen never gets an animation job, knowing how to produce fun art could be a rewarding hobby (or a side hustel on YouTubea side hustle on YouTube).