Have you ever had the feeling that you're stuck at a crossroads -- torn between two decisions? Should I or shouldn't I? What if it doesn't turn out the way I hope? What if I go down this path, and end up wishing I chose another?

Sound familiar?

All of those questions are far too familiar to Bobby, Carlos, and I. But you know what? Those questions...that fear...the unknown -- that's really where creativity lives.

When we decided that we wanted to teach animation in a way that it's never been taught online before, and to teach it the way we wish we were taught, we were so excited. We'd have these marathon brainstorming sessions, coming up with tons of ideas. What we found when we would try to implement some of the ideas, they could sometimes turn out completely different than what we thought.

Before AnimationMentor.com became what it is today, it went through quite a few iterations. The original idea was more of a telephone coaching program. We thought students could send us their assignments, and then we would talk to each one over the phone about their work. Then we realized that there wasn't enough time in the day to work with the amount of students we hoped to have. So we decided we'd take it online, but at the time our big idea was to video tape ourselves teaching using a white board and a television we could play reference and examples on.

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The 2 hour commute to Animation Mentor is nothing to boast about. Driving to the BART station, taking BART, then a bus ride and finally skateboarding the rest of the way to work is very exhausting. Once I hop off my skateboard and enter the realm of the AnimationMentor.com headquarters everything seems to be ok. My energy is revived as I am greeted by my fellow employees, Becky, Dan, Rosie, Francis, Luis and Lleslle. As I work my way up to the video editing suite I realize its quiet and calm.

The quietness can be unsettling. What I need is my morning fix of BOOM energy. I pop my head into his office and hear Bobby shout out, "There he is! What's up my man?!"

"Hey Bobby, morning!" I respond with equal energy. I got my morning fix, now I'm ready to work.

There are three of us in the editing suite: Rachel, Rich and myself. Rachel is the ringleader keeping us motivated but also preventing us from getting overly excited and making too much noise. With the subtle hum of multiple iMacs and 500gig harddrives and a gentle breeze blowing in from the outside, the setting is perfect for focusing on our work.

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Upon completion of our application process, 243 of you were accepted into the very first class of AnimationMentor.com on March 28, 2005. It has now been exactly 7 weeks since that historic day, and not a single one of you, I REPEAT, NOT A SINGLE ONE, has dropped out of our program. One word: amazing.

As your student and technical support representatives, we've gotten to know many of you very well and have seen first hand the crazy amount of progress you make from each week to the next. We've seen plenty of "bouncing" ball assignments, barely definable as bouncing, go on to quickly become some of the most lively and convincing bouncing balls we've ever seen, of course with a little help from those ninjas we call your mentors. But your improvement goes beyond your mentors, beyond the lectures and live Q & A sessions. They extend to your fellow student body.

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