The two founders of the 11 Second Club, Aja and Mark Bogdanoff are long time AnimationMentor.com supporters. Aja was part of Animation Mentor’s first graduating class and has gone on to do amazing work as a professional animator. We know her passion and enthusiasm for animation is deep and it gives us great pleasure to know that the people behind this club are as excited and dedicated about animation as we are.
We believe in the club and think it is a great way for people to either get their start in animation and/or watch how other people approach the same “challenge” and get such a wide variety of results. It is Animation Mentor’s pleasure to be the official sponsor of such a unique and inspiring club.
We were big supporters of the 10 Second Club (from previous) and are now happy to see the legacy continue with the 11 Second Club. So enough from me, let’s hear what they have to say…
-Bobby Beck
Animation Mentor:
What is the 11 Second Club?
11 Second Club:
The 11 Second Club is a monthly character animation competition. Every month, members animate a character speaking a line of dialogue provided by the club. Lots of members post their work in progress for critique on the forums, and at the end of the month, everyone votes for the best entry. The idea is to give animators a chance to practice their skills in a fun, challenging environment.
Animation Mentor:
Who is behind the curtain?
11 Second Club:
We are! We're Mark and Aja Bogdanoff, a couple of good old-fashioned computer nerds living in the suburbs of New York City. Aja graduated from the first class at AnimationMentor.com and is currently animating on "Horton Hears a Who" at Blue Sky Studios, and Mark is working as a freelance web developer and automation consultant for various clients in the city.
Animation Mentor:
How did the club come to be?
11 Second Club:
There used to be a great animation site called the 10 Second Club, and Aja had been planning to continue to practice her dialogue animation skills there once she graduated from Animation Mentor. Unfortunately, the site went down the same month school ended, and it never returned. We thought there was still a need for a site for people to practice animation, so we put our heads together and came up with a reinvented competition site, which we named the 11 Second Club as an homage to the original club.
Animation Mentor:
How does it work and who is The 11 Second Club for?
11 Second Club:
Every month, we choose an audio file with one or more characters speaking a line of dialogue. Anyone who wants to enter the competition downloads the audio file, and uses the medium of their choice to animate characters speaking the line. The club is for anyone who wants a place to practice character animation in a challenging, fun environment, with support and feedback from their peers. It's been a lot of fun seeing everyone dive in and help each other out every month!
Animation Mentor:
What does it take to become a member?
11 Second Club:
Anyone can become a member. It's free, so just go to http://www.11secondclub.com/join/ to join!
Animation Mentor:
How does the voting process work and who votes?
11 Second Club:
Any member of the 11 Second Club can vote. Anyone can join, so really anyone can vote! We actually spent a lot of time on the voting system. We present all the animations one at a time in slideshow format and ask people to rate and critique each one. We're kinda crazy about fairness so we built the system to be anonymous and super fair. No entries get "left behind" and you can't prejudge animations based on thumbnails, or send a link to a bunch of random people to vote for you. If voters don't have time to go through all the entries, the voting system remembers their place so they can come back if they want before the end of voting to finish up. We're very happy with how well it's been working!
Animation Mentor:
How is Animation Mentor involved with the 11 Second Club?
11 Second Club:
We're very excited to welcome Animation Mentor as the club's official sponsor and generous provider of the new monthly prize: a free Animation Mentor eCritique™ of the winning entry! If there's anything an animator wants, it's to improve their animation skills, and a great way to do that is to have someone much better critique their work. eCritiques from their top-notch mentors are usually only available to students enrolled in the Animation Mentor online animation school, but starting with the October winner, each month's winning entry will be submitted for a free critique from one of Animation Mentor's professional studio animators!
Animation Mentor will be hosting a page where the winners eCritiques can be viewed. Previous winners will be archived, and this page will be available for anyone to view and soak up information from. It's a great chance to see what Animation Mentor is all about!
Animation Mentor:
What's next for the Club?
11 Second Club:
We're really excited about where the site is headed, especially now that Animation Mentor is sponsoring the club! We are planning to build up the "Resources" section to include more information about free character animation tools such as cool character rigs or useful scripts. We're looking to make it as user-driven as possible so that it stays current and relevant. We're also looking into incorporating pantomime or mechanics competitions.
In the end, the club is driven by our members, so keep the feedback coming so we can continue to make the 11 Second Club the best it can be!