Masterclass.com anyone?

[Rodney]

I've been hesitant to post a link to this site but the reasons for doing so get more compelling every day.
There are a lot of these masterclasses now online and as with most things certain themes and areas pique my interest.

The most compelling masterclass at this exact moment for me personally is Ron Howard's Directing masterclass.
Of the many others Steve Martin's masterclass intrigues me as I'm very interested in comedic timing and the setup, pacing and payoff of jokes.
Hans Zimmer's masterclass on film scoring surely must touch on some areas I feel a need to explore.
And on and on and on.

It seems to me the primary business model behind masterclass.com is one of volume.
By keeping the courses reasonably priced more people are apt to sign on to a class.

One could argue that most if not all the material in these course could be discovered for free online and through research.
A benefit to these courses would be that the information is collected for you.
And of course the 'master' that is teaching the class is the primary draw.

Taking the courses individually is reasonably priced ($90 or so).
What is more interesting is the annual pass ($180) that grants access to ALL of the courses.

In a world where most masterclasses might cost $1000 I find this model very compelling.
Not having taken one of the courses I don't know the extent of how deep each master class goes.

I'd love to gift an annual pass to someone but I'm currently job hunting so... maybe in 2018.
I'm tempted to gift this to myself and make studying these courses my primary job going forward.
Focus is important so I can see where targeting one course exclusively might be best but this isn't as financially if one plans to take several of the other course to feed that fund of mental knowledge required by kitchen table animators.


If anyone takes one of these courses (or signs up for the annual pass) please let us know more.


From the site:

All-Access Pass $180
Give all classes for a single year. Includes 20+ classes, plus early access to all new classes.

One Class $90
Give the gift of a single class, or let them choose which class to take.

 

If gift giving, incremental amounts (gift card-like) can be given as well.

Choose an Amount
Give a gift that can be used towards any class or the All-Access Pass.

https://www.masterclass.com/gift

[fae_alba]

I gifted the movie scoring (music) to my day daughter Nicole for Christmas last year. Don't know what she thinks of it but I'll ask her and give you some feedback.

[Rodney]

I gifted the movie scoring (music) to my day daughter Nicole for Christmas last year. Don't know what she thinks of it but I'll ask her and give you some feedback.

 

Please do. I'm leaning heavily toward a purchase but if I do purchase that will be a big distraction* in the coming year.

 

My biggest concern would be the assignments (which I assume may be some form of the same educational/safety courses where the primary goal is to track whether the student has exposed themselves to the material... not necessarily understood or put it into practice. It's important to put these things into practice or else... why take the course?

.

RE: Scoring

I tend to be the opposite of musically inclined but Scoring... I see that as so important to what we do in animation.

I've been circling the thing for years but never dived into it nor put it practice.

 

 

*a good distraction as distractions go but also one that to gain any benefit requires a level of commitment beyond just taking the masterclasses. The masterclasses (to me) represent a starting point.

 

 

Added: I've been thinking of taking some classes at the local college but my experience there the last time left me a bit out in the cold. It wasn't worthless but the primary thing I was learning is that we can (to a large degree) teach ourselves a lot of the same material. The college is the gatekeeper that puts an official stamp on the students exposure. Interacting with other students was certainly a plus but often can be discouraging when the majority just wants the grade so they can get the diploma. I'm there (spending money) because I want to understand the material presented in the course!

[Rodney]

The advertisements for these classes is appearing all over youtube and other places.

That may be mostly just for me because of targeted advertising but... I can imagine more than a few people will be taking these courses.

[fae_alba]

so Nicole was a bit ambivalent about the class. I suspect that that is her autism speaking and not the class itself. I will, however, provide some of my observations. First off, the idea sounds great. Get a near virtual one on one lecture series from on of the greats. I bought into it, and got Nicole as a christmas gift the course on movie scoring. Easy enough process to do, they even offered to send a gift card. It never came. The course itself was scheduled to begin in January. It wasn't available until March, and I only found out about that because I badgered them via email almost on a weekly basis. I'm sure that could be chalked up to growing pains, but still.

 

For the price of two of the classes, getting a years access to all of them seems like a good deal though. Hopefully they are passed the growing pains and have wrinkled out their admin issues.

[Rodney]

Thanks for the review (and cautionary notes).

Ron Howard's course is still slated to arrive in the future and as the primary one of interest to me personally is my excuse to hold off for now.

It would be cool to be in the first wave to take the course as a tagline does state he will be responding to a few select questions.

I would imagine most of the masterclasses have minimal real time interaction with the masters, if any.

 

I agree that opting for the annual pass would be the economical path.

Conversely, I suppose it could be argued that someone laser focused on only one course will put more time and energy into that course.

 

I did run through almost all of the preview material and outlines for all of the course... even those that didn't immediately catch my attention. Not all of the course... especially those not yet released... have course outlines but most do.

 

The masterclass concept is a good one and it makes me pause for a moment to consider somewhat related thoughts.

It wasn't that many years ago where people were scratching their heads wondering how they could monetize the internet.

Broadly speaking, we've come a long way in that regard.

[fae_alba]

 

 

The masterclass concept is a good one and it makes me pause for a moment to consider somewhat related thoughts.

It wasn't that many years ago where people were scratching their heads wondering how they could monetize the internet.

Broadly speaking, we've come a long way in that regard.

 

Now we just need to find the formula to reliably monetize our content made in A:M!

[Rodney]

Now we just need to find the formula to reliably monetize our content made in A:M!

 

A fun subject to be sure.

I thought about starting a topic related to just that thing although from a slightly different vantage point than many.

 

My take on that is the question of reliably monetizing content made in A:M, very generally speaking, is that content made in A:M can be monetized in the same way another other content is monetized. That may seem to be something of a question dodge but I think it rings true. A:M is the all important conduit through which we, as A:M users, create that content. Specifically speaking to the software, there is a certain efficiency gained through use of A:M just as there would be with other software. A:M's strengths are well pretty well known and those should fact into the 'reliabilty+monetization' equation. Spline patch modeling can't be done anyplace else like it can in A:M and that is why we all hang out here.

 

I can't speak too deeply from experience with regard to monetizing creative content so... reliably doing that is even more of a stretch.

My questions related to that relate mostly to supply and demand elements such as:

 

If I needed a model created and rigged from a set of drawing...

 

1. Where would I contact a modeler/rigger in order to get that process started?

2. How much (on average) would a basic (humanoid) model cost to model and rig?

 

I'm talking of modeling and rigging with A:M of course.

Having the model converted for use in Blender or Maya is another consideration and one that others would reasonably pay money for in derivative product.

 

And a bit back on topic...

 

When Is Robert scheduled to release his Animation:Master Masterclass?

[fae_alba]

 

Now we just need to find the formula to reliably monetize our content made in A:M!

 

A fun subject to be sure.

I thought about starting a topic related to just that thing although from a slightly different vantage point than many.

 

My take on that is the question of reliably monetizing content made in A:M, very generally speaking, is that content made in A:M can be monetized in the same way another other content is monetized. That may seem to be something of a question dodge but I think it rings true. A:M is the all important conduit through which we, as A:M users, create that content. Specifically speaking to the software, there is a certain efficiency gained through use of A:M just as there would be with other software. A:M's strengths are well pretty well known and those should fact into the 'reliabilty+monetization' equation. Spline patch modeling can't be done anyplace else like it can in A:M and that is why we all hang out here.

 

I can't speak too deeply from experience with regard to monetizing creative content so... reliably doing that is even more of a stretch.

My questions related to that relate mostly to supply and demand elements such as:

 

If I needed a model created and rigged from a set of drawing...

 

1. Where would I contact a modeler/rigger in order to get that process started?

2. How much (on average) would a basic (humanoid) model cost to model and rig?

 

I'm talking of modeling and rigging with A:M of course.

Having the model converted for use in Blender or Maya is another consideration and one that others would reasonably pay money for in derivative product.

 

And a bit back on topic...

 

When Is Robert scheduled to release his Animation:Master Masterclass?

 

 

 

Rodney, i think you and talked about this very subject when I was working in springfield. Yes A:M merely creates the content to be monetized, but we as a community should be able to find a way to improve on, automate, facilitate the workflow of projects so that a) the cost of producing content goes down and more quality content can be produced faster. I think all of the pieces of that puzzle are currently available to us, we simply need to put them together.

 

I had a wild idea the other day when going to the local movie theater. It is a local privately owned second run theater. Popular, showing movies every night. Why not create G,PG, PG-13 grade shorts and distribute to these sort of venues? Charge on a subscription basis, and provide content that can be shown to any audience a la Disney in the golden age of animation. Currently our local theater runs locally produced commercials and regional "color" shorts of local history etc. so I'd think the door would be open, even if by a small crack, to such an idea. The trick is to have a relatively large volume of shorts (say of no more than 3-5 minutes in length) that would support several months of content. The production of new content would have to be shortened so that new shorts are always in the pipeline.

[Rodney]

I'm with you... your first paragraph is key... now we need the door.

Here are the difficult areas:

Charge on a subscription basis

This element is the riskiest part for all involved and to the one purchasing the subscription a potential deal breaker.

You hit on why in the next element:

 

The trick is to have a relatively large volume of shorts

 

 

This inventory of products is what takes time and commitment.

 

This is doable and commercials are a viable product.

It may be that the first sale(s) would have to be a one off.

The idea being to approach the companies that advertise in these theaters (or wherever) and sell them on a product.

Note that I'm not talking the big guys here... although that would tend toward higher return on investment.

I'm talking about the small mom and pop shops that would never dream they could have a high quality commercial because of the cost.

The cost is already problematic though because time on the screen may very well cost more than the production of the commercial.

I'm not privy to current prices in advertisement spots on television, in theaters, etc.

[fae_alba]

The problem of courting local advertisers is that you need to be local yourself. And yes building up an inventory of content is the toughest but to crack. For,this to be a viable business model you couldn't restrict to just am users. This would have to be an independent filmmakers distribution channel to get enough content.

 

Or, go it alone and spend the next two years producing a dozen shorts and keep it all in house. Take the long view.

[Rodney]

This would have to be an independent filmmakers distribution channel to get enough content.

 

Which given the constraints involved makes the success of such a scheme by the little guys rather unlikely.

 

This is a bit like a new A:M user arriving on scene with great passion, energy and enthusiasm but the desire to create the next 'Star Wars' in a few months.

It's hard to convince them to refactor and refocus on a one minute commercial but the success of that shorter endeavor is considerably more likely.

Building up an inventory of shorts is a near equivalent to targeting 'Star Wars' as the content without acknowledging that well over one thousand highly creative (and often well paid) people's creativity touched that product.

 

How long is one of those (local) theater advertisements?

30 seconds? Less?

The ads I saw ahead of the last movie I attended included one for the local college... and a couple really lame ones for major automotive companies... what is wrong with THOSE guys!!!

The basic (local) ads consisted of still images set to music.

No CG or animation.

A simple animation of a young girls walking screen left to screen right... stopping... sitting at a desk... doing something interesting... moving on.. receiving a diploma.

This could be a still image but it could also be animated.

Such a thing would convey the experience of successfully getting a degree at that college.

Vary the character.. the activity... and then strengthen the message through repetition.

Get the audience to say... 'heck, I can do that' or 'hey I really want to do that!

Sell the ad to the client by tailoring their message to engage their core audience... all while entertaining those who are not.

How much might a small studio reasonably charge for a 15 second animation?

Usually, the answer to that will depend a lot on a projection of the size of the (potential) audience.

But before the digital ink has dried the local studio with their ability to rapidly produce animation and imagery with A:M is already putting the finishing touches on the next project.

 

Eventually, this may produce an inventory but in advertisement looking back should be reserved for reference and nostalgia.

The focus of effort needs to be on a timely turn around of personalized content with a keen eye for what is relevant in the current market.