School of Motion Reviews 348

I've taken two courses with SOM - in 2020 and 2021 - Animation Bootcamp and Illustration for Motion. The courses are pricey but paying in 3 installations helped with that. And they're worth it - at least the GUIDED courses. Being in the online classroom environment, even if it was just in my head, was useful for pushing myself, unlike the Self-paced courses. The peer pressure was real. :D And wanting to be spotlighted in the Wednesday sessions gave me an extra sense of achievement. Doing the weekly homework is a great way to get confident and feel more competent at motion design. Definitely recommended.

I completed the Advanced Motion Methods course in June 2024. It was totally worth it! It completely transformed my understanding of motion design. There are many things to consider when starting a project, and Sanders shares all his secrets and tips. You literally see him making an animation from the first stage to the last one! Amazing! I also appreciated the support from all the TAs and the people on the SQR whenever I had a doubt.

I love their website and the courses soun like exactly what I want to do BUT their response is terrible. There is no clear way to get in touch with a person and to ask many questions before forking out a £1000 on a course. Fot this kind of money I would expect to be able to set a call up with someone to have my questions answered before making the payment. There is an option to fill in the contact form, but most times no one responds, or other times they respond coupple of times but never follow up til the end. Very disappointed as was planning to take three of their courses in the next 1,5 years.

I have taken the Illustration for Motion Course and I couldn't be happier to have done it. Fun, interesting, a great teacher and with exercises.
Don't be fooled by bitter people like A.Y, who believe that by taking a course they are guaranteed a job. They are nothing more than crybabies who don't try hard enough.

I took Animation Bootcamp and while the classes were fairly straight forward, the TA who was assigned to me was terrible. I had various questions that I'd post to the message board so other students could help, but when I didn't get responses, I'd ask my TA. She would be condescending and sometimes never respond.

As her job was to help students, I feel I wasted a lot of money on this course as I couldn't get questions answered and as a result lacked an understanding of course material. Her attitude towards me as a beginner made me question if I should even pursue this. SOM needs to better vet TA's, teachers/assistants have a huge impact on the outcome of a student's experience.

I took 4 Motion design courses and I didn't end up getting any jobs from it. Scam. I wasted my money and my precious youth of time. Stay the F away from this online course.

I have written several times in the last few weeks but aside from one answer, no one ever followed up. I registered for the After Effects course as part of my government work here in Canada and my team lead recommended you.

We have two options at this point: you either refund me the sum from the course or I follow up with BBB. Due to prior car accidents, the harsh winter here in Ottawa had me in severe pains and I had to pursue chiro/massage and osteo appointments. I wrote to explain this situation but I never received confirmation of enrollment. At this point in time, I am very displeased with the lack of professionalism and I no longer wish to pursue this course with you. I tried four times to discuss with you but since you do not seem to care to respond, then I simply want a refund of my payment. Due to your lack of professionalism, I am also sad to say that I do not feel comfortable recommending you to anyone else. I received an email about upcoming registration but absolutely no one wrote back for an entire month now.

Please respond or refund within 48 hours, if not, I will put in a complaint with BBB to receive my refund that way.

I had a teacher with school of motion that was not very encouraging to my creative journey. My teacher offered a lot of critique with very little positive notes. Obviously, I want to be challenged and critiqued in a course to become a better artist, but he certainly could have done a better job of highlighting my strong points and effective and compelling parts of my animations. As well as being more sensitive and thoughtful about how he was communicating feedback.

The course content was very excellent, as well as the additional add-ons such as podcasts with big industry professionals. I loved the lessons with the insights they provided on excelling in animation.

All in all, this receives a middle of the road review, because the information was superb and very solid, but the person I was working with was unfortunately very poor.

Great experience getting real time feedback!

Animation Bootcamp is of course exhaustive (and exhausting!). It's a great foundational jumpstart and really forced me to practice the principals I was being taught. Aside from that fact that it doesn't seem they've updated the course for almost a decade (AE has a lot of new features, yet you're learning older more inefficient workflows, like dealing with track mattes), my main problem is the inconsistency in quality of the TAs. You can clearly see the feedback every student gets from their TA; some of them give very pointed specific feedback. Mine almost exclusively gave me generic positive feedback rather than prodding me toward better improvements. In short, I wanted to be challenged by my TA, but I wasn't. And other students appeared to be getting that challenge. AB: please update this wonderful and challenging course (references to "recent updates in the 2014 version of AE") so that your students can be prepared for a modern career in motion graphics. Thanks!

The School of Motion is the best school to teach you basics but also advanced techniques used in animation. Constant support from teachers and the community is great! What is very important from my personal standpoint is that I feel more confident in using the software (After Effect) right, as everything was quite clear and friendly presented during all the classes and exercises. I would highly recommend taking any class with the SOM.

This was an intense but jam-packed course. Highly recommend. Not for the casual student.

I really enjoyed the class curriculum SOM provided. Granted I have a background in motion graphics, I still learned quite a bit and gained a bunch of skills to take with me in my career. The online experience was seamless, despite not being in class in-person, didn’t seem to affect the learning experience. Melissa was a top notch teacher aid who provided the right amount of support, nurturing, and criticism required for growth. In the future I would really enjoy taking more courses. Thanks so much to Mark and all responsible for making this a rewarding experience.

The method of teaching and pacing is really good and the types of project will really immerse the student to the basics of After Effects.

When I joined, I had a drawing tablet and no experience. I wanted my ass to be kicked every step to the way so I can make the content I want. What I got was all that and more, with a large helping of ubiquitous empowerment. It was rigorous, challenging, frustrating and packed to the brim with genuinely helpful content. I still need to spend time jotting down the names of the students so I can further stay in touch with them. A lot of them are clearly going far, and this course will certainly help them. I don’t know where exactly I’ll be returning, but I absolutely will.

Very hard and confusing to talk with support staff.
You took me out twice from the coursewithout any single advice, 2nd time course was fully paid and someone kicked me out and revoke my badges without asking anything.

A course as helpful as the implication you put in it. Don't expect to be pushed to your limite. You will need to be disciplined by yourself. Whith this mindset they gave you the tools to really step up.

I have wanted to learn Ps & Ai for years but thought it was too far out of my comfort zone. I’m so glad I signed up for this class. I have a solid grasp of these programs now and am proud of the work I made for class. I feel like a whole new world of making art is opening to me. I’m looking forward to my next course!

Mindblowing learnings.
Superb support and motivation.
Sadness remains over the fact that it is over for now..

Really enjoyed the lessons, they were in depth and detailed without feeling too overloading. The homework was challenging but fun to complete and the instructor gave me useful feedback throughout. I managed to complete it within the allocated time, but had to make use of the catch up week and extended critique time at the end as it just takes a long time to animate!
I came into the course knowing the basics of After effects, but feel now that I understand how to animate, not just use AE. Overall it was a great experience and would highly recommend!
If you are willing to put in the time you will get a lot out of it.