Explainer Camp
Accelerate Your Freelance Career
Do you have what it takes to work as a freelance motion designer? This project-based course throws you into the deep-end, giving you the training and tools to create a fully-realized piece from bid to final render. At the end of this 12 week course, you'll have a piece that's created entirely by you and ready for your portfolio.
Cohort-based learning
Exercises & Project Files for Every Lesson
Technical & Creative Support Along the Way
Verified Credential Upon Course Completion
Course Overview
What does it actually take to work as a freelance motion designer? How do you interpret a brief, negotiate with a client, and deliver powerful work? Wouldn’t be great if there was a way to practice all the steps before stepping out into the real world? Welcome to Explainer Camp, a course that delivers the experience of direct-to-client freelance motion design work and prepares you for your career. By the end of your class, you’ll have tackled a project from start to finish.
You're passionate about your art, but making it as a freelancer takes practice. In this 12 week course, you'll learn to master one of the staples of the design and animation Industry: the Explainer Video, AKA a visual essay. You'll learn about creating bids and project schedules, coming up with concepts, doing pre-production, animatics, design and art direction, and finally putting it all together into a polished Motion Graphics piece. At the end of this course you'll have a piece that's created entirely by you and ready for your portfolio.
What You'll Learn
Each week is jam-packed with intense learning. While you have some flexibility in how you tackle your workload, the course is curated in a specific order. We build up foundations that support more and more advanced techniques with lessons to practice your new skills along the way.
It’s time to leap into your freelance career. Gain a foundation in building good taste and recognizing what makes a piece of motion design good. Then you’ll receive your first assignment meant to get you thinking about the use of different visual metaphors to tell a story.
What happens when a client actually has a project for you? This week, get comfortable getting your project organized, creating a bid and schedule that is ready for the client, and then choose your client brief. We’ll also share some tips on finding inspiration.
You generally don’t want to just hop into After Effects and start keyframing. You need to build a strong foundation for your work. We’ll teach you how to sketch out a storyboard to ensure that you are on the right track with your project before you’re in too deep to turn back. You will also learn about the importance of cutting an animatic, and how to assemble one to help visualize what your project will look like before you start animation.
This week gives you a breather to let you really finesse your concept and animatics, but the learning won’t stop. You'll take a deep dive into breaking down client briefs, and learn why it's important to start a project out with a solid foundation.
It’s time to bust out those Design skills! You’ll create Style Frames and Design Boards to show the client a solid concept and what the visuals of the final piece will be. Jake has a few color tips to help you out in this area. We’re also diving into client notes, including how to handle a difficult situation when a client asks for the impossible (or just the undesirable) on a project.
It's time to start animating. You will gain a solid understanding of how to tackle a longer :30 piece when it comes time to animate. This can be a bit daunting, because there are many moving parts and pieces, but with some good organization and some additional tips you should be well on your way. Don’t dawdle, though, because you’re expected to have your first pass of the animation done by the end of the week.
This week is another light one meant to give you time to focus on animating your final piece. We'll give you a bit of bonus content with some insights and techniques to be more persuasive in your work.
Animating a full thirty second spot takes time, and this week is another opportunity for you to keep animating. You’ll also learn how to navigate client comments, how to best present your work to ensure that your project goes smoothly, and how to direct VO talent. Throughout the week, Jake will provide you with tips on polishing your animation, handling client feedback this late in the process, and adding little extras that help your piece shine.
During this final week, you will get a crash course in adding VO and sound design to bring your piece together. You will also see how to present your work in a way that will get extra attention, adding breakdowns and process information to show off your skills to prospective clients and studios through a case study.
You’ve got an additional 3 weeks to finish your project and to get target feedback from your Teaching Assistant. This piece should be a great one for your reel, so take advantage of the resources available to you in Explainer Camp!
What You'll Get
School of Motion courses are custom-built to provide you with an unmatched learning experience. We want you to actually enjoy logging into your classes, and we’ve designed our programs to be the most effective form of online education out there. In every course, you’ll get:
Join artists from around the world on our custom learning platform. Never learn alone, as you’ll have immediate access to a forum of fellow students to share work, ask questions, and improve together.
Each course comes packed with free project files, assets, and additional material to keep you learning and growing long after the course ends. Our exercises are designed from real world briefs, so you’re learning the skills you need to excel on your next project or venture.
You’ll be assigned a Teaching Assistant with years of experience in your chosen course. They’ll provide technical and creative feedback to guide you through new skills, improve your techniques, and provide encouragement along your journey.
Completing a course isn’t just about bragging rights. Once you’ve completed at least 70% of your work in a given course, you’ll earn a verified credential that can show current and future employers exactly what you’ve accomplished.
We all need a refresher now and again, which is why you’ll keep access to your course—and all the assets and project files—for the rest of your life. Come back to listen to exclusive interviews, review old lessons, and try out new techniques using your old assets.
You’ll gain instant access to our alumni platform, The Square. Here you can network with professional artists at every stage of their career. You’ll get access to new job opportunities and exclusive alumni events, such as meetups, virtual hangouts and reel reviews.
Upcoming Course Dates
Enroll Now
Our cohort-based leaning program runs on a designated schedule, so you’ll always have a group of like-minded artists working alongside you for support and encouragement. We offer multiple sessions each year, so choose the best start date for you and get ready to go!
Pay the full amount all at once. The simplest, lowest-cost option.
Pay the full amount all at once. The simplest, lowest-cost option.
One payment now, two more 30 and 60 days from now = $1044.
Pay the full amount all at once. The simplest, lowest-cost option.
Pay the full amount all at once. The simplest, lowest-cost option.
One payment now, two more 30 and 60 days from now = $1044.
Pay the full amount all at once. The simplest, lowest-cost option.
Pay the full amount all at once. The simplest, lowest-cost option.
One payment now, two more 30 and 60 days from now = $1044.
Course Instructor
Jake Bartlett is a motion designer and online instructor based in Denver Colorado. After working at a production company in Los Angeles for nearly five years he decided to quit his day job to pursue the freelancer’s life, teaching animation online. His creativity runs on coffee, lego bricks and “Weird Al” Yankovic. Throughout his career he’s had the opportunity to work for clients like Coca-Cola, Twitter, Skype, Evernote, HGTV, NatGeo Wild and Norah Jones.
Our alumni are hired by companies like
FAQs
How do I know if this course is right for me?
Explainer Camp is for students who have solid animation and design foundations. If you have a strong understanding of Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and After Effects, this project-based course will be a great fit for you. In this course, you'll learn about creating bids and schedules, concepting, pre-production, animatics, design and art direction, and finally putting it all together into a polished project. At the end of this course you'll have a piece that's created entirely by you and ready for your portfolio
What are the prerequisites?
This course brings you from Script to Final Render of a motion design project and assumes that you have a strong foundation in animation and design skills, and a very strong grasp on Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and After Effects. If you do not meet this criteria, we strongly suggest that you take Animation Bootcamp and Design Bootcamp before enrolling in Explainer Camp. Although it is not required, taking Advanced Motion Methods may be beneficial before taking this course.
What is the required software?
Adobe Photoshop CC 2017.1.1 (18.1.1 or Higher)
Adobe Illustrator CC 2017.1 (21.1.0 or Higher)
Adobe After Effects CC 2017 (14.2.1 or Higher)
What is the course format?
Explainer Camp is a 12-week course. Lessons become available at a specific time each week but you can watch them and do your work whenever it is convenient for you. The lessons include pre-recorded videos, podcasts, PDFs and assignments with working files.
All student work is critiqued by our highly trained Teaching Assistants. School of Motion TA's are professional Animators with real life experience in the industry.
During the course you will be invited to a private classroom that contains all of the students and Teaching Assistants in your session. This is a great tool for connecting, asking or answering questions, sharing thoughts or insights, and winning cool contests!
How much time do I need to commit?
Explainer Camp is a 12-week course. You'll have the flexibility to watch the course content and complete your course work on your schedule. However, you can expect to commit at least 15 - 20 hours per week on course material. The video lessons are 1-2 hours in length. There are 10 assignments total. Assignments are typically assigned on Mondays and Thursdays with soft deadlines the next day. We have designated catch-up weeks built into the schedule so students have extra time to complete their assignments if needed. There is also an extended critique add-on for those that want more time with a Teaching Assistant after the 12-week course or need more time to complete assignments towards earning a credential.
Do I get a certificate at the end of the course?
Yes, if you complete, submit, and have 70% of your course assignments approved by your Teaching Assistant you will be eligible for a Course Credential through Credly. With your Credly Course Credential, you can share your accomplishments across your social networks, the blockchain, or to print out yourself.
Can I access my course content after the course ends?
Yes! Once you complete Explainer Camp, you’ll have lifetime access to all the course lessons and materials, so you can revisit them whenever you like. Also, if we make any changes to Explainer Camp following your session, you’ll automatically receive access to the latest version.
Please note: Video critiques change each session, so you’ll only have access to the video critiques during the session you're enrolled in. The written critiques you receive in your homework locker as well as the classroom content will also remain available to you forever!
