Advanced Visual Storytelling
A 9-week mentorship to grow as a motion designer and director. The focus is the craft of visual storytelling. Creative and art direction as it relates to the stories we tell for brands, companies, and ourselves.
Tools you'll be using in this course:
We have decided to re-work Art Direction & Creative Execution and Advanced Visual Storytelling
and create new Learning Paths which include our full range of courses.
We are a small team of passionate artists actively working on new mentorship experiences and on-demand training to best serve our motion design community. We believe our new approach will help us better serve the diversity of styles and career paths that exist in our industry.
Our learning paths will start with our flagship mentorship class, “Introduction To Design & Animation”. This is our foundational mentorship class and is designed to teach you the fundamental principles you need to continue your growth into the industry. Instead of moving on to Art Direction & Creative Execution or Advanced Visual Storytelling, we encourage you to take one of our other, more specific workshops. Motion Design is a broad industry and we want students to pursue the portfolio that makes sense for them and their career goals.
We are also announcing new 9 week mentorships, including an intensive Cinema 4D introductory course.
As we make changes to our curriculum we will keep you in the loop!
Michael Jones – CEO at MoGraph Mentor
Highlighted Features
Curriculum Based Mentorship
Through video training, live mentorship, projects and community we want to push you for 9 weeks to master the process of Visual Storytelling. You'll also make industry connections and improve your portfolio with original projects.
Weekly Video Training
Original training that teaches you the concepts and terms you need to know to engage in visual storytelling at a high level. This means story, editing, visual metaphor and commercial considerations for your artwork.
Weekly Live Mentorship
A weekly 2-hour live session with training from our mentor team. Covering visual storytelling theory, production pipeline overviews and project case studies. Mentors alternate hosting the weekly live session.
Weekly Written Critique
Each week you’ll receive detailed, written critique via the Frame.io media review platform. This way you can store notes and catalog the process of creating your original works.
Human Powered Education
Your Summer Session Mentors
Each week our mentors rotate hosting a live session which includes a lecture, critique and Q&A time.
All sessions are recorded and are available for immediate download after the session.
Mentors alternate weekly live sessions.
Mentor
Nidia Dias
Art Director & 3D Artist
Nidia is an art director and 3D artist with expertise in abstract visual storytelling. She is currently located in Portugal where she lives with her husband and child. She is asked to speak at conferences all over the world because of her distinct style and incredible eye for beautiful imagery and filmmaking.
Nidia's sessions will be on
Tuesdays at 3 pm EST.
Mentor
Mathijs Luijten
Motion Designer & Director
Mathijs Luijten, is a freelance Motion Designer/Director from the Netherlands. In the 10 years of his animation career he’s worked fulltime at creative agencies and animation studios like Achtung, Woodwork and Buck. Learning the creative process from concept to realization.
Mathijs' sessions will be on
Tuesdays at 3 pm EST.
Weekly Syllabus
9 Week Mentorship Overview
A 9 week online motion design program will let you build your portfolio and improve your skills. Receive meaningful feedback from your mentor and share your ideas with your classmates.
- Week 1
- Week 2
- Week 3
- Week 4
- Week 5
- Week 6
- Week 7
- Week 8
- Week 9
- Abstract Vs Narrative
- Commercial Considerations
- AV Scripts & Thumbnails
- Abstract Creative Process
- Project Research
- Project Goals
Week 1
Introduction To Visual Storytelling
How do we most effectively tell stories with sight & sound?
We start this class with a distinction between narrative visual storytelling using traditional filmmaking techniques, and abstract visual storytelling using a different creative process. On the one hand, storyboarding, writing and editing, versus discovery, generative art and experimentation.
During week one you will:
- Watch Week 1 Videos
- Attend Livestream W/ Abstract Visual Storytelling Focus
- Turn In Your Assignment By End Of Thursday
- Receive Written Feedback By End Of Saturday
- AV Scripts
- Writing A Creative Direction Summary
- Getting Past First Idea
- Quick Concept Mock-Ups
- Project Case Study
- Frame.io Project Feedback
Week 2
Science Of Creative Filmmaking
Creative process meets a cloud-based collaboration framework.
We are interested in helping you become a working artist, so in this week we’ll focus on pipeline and film structure. Relying heavily on AV scripting for narrative work, and project boards for more abstract work.
During week two you will:
- Watch Week 2 Videos
- Attend Livestream W/ Creative Production Focus
- Turn In Your Assignment By End Of Thursday
- Receive Written Feedback By End Of Saturday
- CG Development Pipeline
- Experimentation & Process
- Project Rules & Constraints
- Abstract Still Contains Character
- Energy Defines Tone
- Frame.io Project Feedback
Week 3
Look Development For Abstract Storytelling
A look at using generative art and CG to tell stories for clients.
This is the avant-garde of commercial work in our time. Non-traditional, non-narrative visuals that still accomplish effective communication arts. Artists like Nidia Dias help shed light on how this creative process plays out in practice when real world commercial considerations exist for the work.
During week three you will:
- Watch Week 3 Videos
- Attend Livestream W/ 3D Look Development Focus
- Turn In Your Assignment By End Of Thursday
- Receive Written Feedback By End Of Saturday
- Compositions As Shapes
- Dynamic Framing
- Visual Metaphor Overview
- Art Direction Case Study
- Great Communication Art In History
- Frame.io Project Feedback
Week 4
Visual Metaphor & Composition
Doing both well is the key to effective communication art.
This week students will be designing their artwork. Whether 2D or 3D, the principles of visual storytelling apply equally. We’re looking for strong compositions with high visual polish, but also insightful use of visual metaphor to tell the story. No text, no icons. Original communication art.
During week four you will:
- Watch Week 4 Videos
- Attend Livestream W/ Design & Communication Focus
- Turn In Your Assignment By End Of Thursday
- Receive Written Feedback By End Of Saturday
- Broadcast Constraints
- Motion Graphics For Sports
- Working With A Team
- 2D & 3D Case Study
- Color, Codecs & Resolution
- Frame.io Project Feedback
Week 5
Motion Design Pipeline For Broadcast Media
An overview of how 2D & 3D work is made for broadcast.
As you continue your thesis film, we want you to be exposed to information about the motion graphics pipeline for broadcast use. While not wildly different, the project constraints are often a bit different, so these project case studies will shed light on how this work gets made.
During week five you will:
- Watch Week 5 Videos
- Attend Livestream W/ Production Pipeline Focus
- Turn In Your Assignment By End Of Thursday
- Receive Written Feedback By End Of Saturday
- 2D Illustration Look Development
- Composition & Story
- Audio Score Case Study
- Advanced Storyboarding
- Portfolio Review
- Freelance Q&A
Week 6
Handmade Art & Visual Storytelling
A look at making 2D work that feels hand crafted.
As you continue your thesis film, we want you to be exposed to information about the motion graphics pipeline for 2d illustrative styles. Even if you’re a 3D artist it’s good to consider the unique quality that illustrative films can deliver.
During week six you will:
- Watch Week 6 Videos
- Attend Livestream W/ 2D Storytelling Focus
- Turn In Your Assignment By End Of Thursday
- Receive Written Feedback By End Of Saturday
- Audio & Visual Together
- Coming Back To Project Goals
- Polishing Design
- Color & Emotion
- Viewer Experience
- Frame.io Project Feedback
Week 7
Achieving A Unified Film
Sight. Sound. Viewer experience.
As you continue your thesis film, we want you to consider the overall presentation of your film. Given the sights and sounds viewers see, how do we feel your film is shaping up, in the context of the project goals we set earlier on.
During week seven you will:
- Watch Week 7 Videos
- Attend Livestream W/ Filmmaking Focus
- Turn In Your Assignment By End Of Thursday
- Receive Written Feedback By End Of Saturday
- Director's Vision
- Why Good Work Is Hard
- Realistic Production Goals
- Film Case Studies
- Portfolio Review
- Career Q&A
Week 8
Focus & Directing
Bringing a directors vision to life on screen.
As you’ve seen by this point, directing original work is hard. Bringing a director’s vision to life on screen gets complicated by time constraints, technology issues, artistic in-ability, and a host of other reasons. This course is about mastering the process of bringing your vision to life on screen.
During week eight you will:
- Watch Week 8 Videos
- Attend Livestream W/ Directing Focus
- Turn In Your Assignment By End Of Thursday
- Receive Written Feedback By End Of Saturday
- Animation For A Cause
- Work For Free, But Not Cheap
- Power To Communicate
- Class Wrap-Up
- Portfolio Audit
- Career & Networking Next Steps
Week 9
Contributing Your Art In The World
The world is messy, artists can help make a difference.
As we close out this session we look at how our art can make a difference in the world. No matter the style or production technique, there is a place for art that helps further the common good.
During week nine you will:
- Watch Week 9 Videos
- Attend Livestream W/ Career & Networking Focus
- Turn In Your Assignment By End Of Thursday
- Receive Written Feedback By End Of Saturday
We encourage all beginners to start with Introduction To Design & Animation mentorship before taking this course, unless you are more experienced.
Testimonials
What students say about the program
This program has helped hundreds of motion designers launch their careers and improve as artists. We’ve got years worth of happy students who found this program to be the breakthrough they were looking for.
Class Project
Beautiful stories built from creative constraints
The Brief Book is available to students of this mentorship. This provides a directory of briefs to use as a starting point.
Become a more polished filmmaker and visual storyteller through this 9 week intensive mentorship. Make your own original film while learning from some of the best in our industry.
Through video training, live mentorship, projects and community we want to push you for 9 weeks to master the art of filmmaking.
Tools
Stay engaged while you learn
Through these 9 weeks, you'll interact with a set of tools that will help you stay engaged and keep in contact with your mentors and fellow students.
Community
Join a supportive community
When the live session ends, the conversation continues on our Discord Server. This platform allows us to engage with you while you’re working throughout the week.
Tuition
Advanced Visual Storytelling
Personalized mentorship, structured around training.
Caring Mentors
Clean and concise training
In-depth lectures
Supportive Community
Lifetime access to the Discord forum
Ask your questions to students and mentors
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Get mentored
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Create original work
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Unlock your career
OR
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Get mentored
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Create original work
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Unlock your career
F.A.Q
Have Questions?
By the end of each class, you’ll have well though, reviewed portfolio pieces and the best process and techniques learned through these works. Each class comes with assignments to help you create your portfolio and develop your motion design skills. The weekly mentorship session is the occasion to receive feedback from your mentor and classmates. The goal of each class is to teach you the best process and techniques to create great motion design work.
Yes! Each group of students assigned to a mentor will get access to a dedicated channel to communicate, share and receive feedback from their mentor and classmates.
You’ll also get the opportunity to be a part of the larger community of MoGraph Mentor’s alumni and students of our workshops.
We use Discord to help us set up this forum.
We close our open enrollment one week before the start of a session. Be sure to subscribe to our mailing list to get updates throughout each enrollment period.
Your weekly live session will run approximately 2-3 hours. Your weekly time commitment for assignments can be anywhere from 7-20 hours. This program is project based, so you will ultimately decide how many hours to pour into each weeks deliverable. But plan on a minimum of 10 hours per week to see concrete results.
Yes! Many of our students have full time jobs and we work around business hours (see time commitment question above). We only ask that you make your course work a priority.
Our goal is to help our students in the best way that we can.
You have 2 weeks after the session has started to request a refund if the class isn’t a good fit for you.
Simply reach out to a support team member via email at [email protected] or on Discord @support.
Mentor’s availability varies for each session and will be announced on each dedicated class pages. Our mentors are among the best artists in the industry and dedicated to dispense the best learning experience to their students.
Our students are spread all around the world. We always try to accommodate mentors availability with the timezone of our students.
Your exact class time will be determined at the start of each session, based on your mentor assignment.
We love our international student body and make every effort to accomodate across time zones. We realize that the time change issue is hard for many outside the US. We run class times on US Eastern Time Zone. We attempt to make every accommodation to our international students, but sometimes it means late nights or early mornings for those outside the US. We take this on a case by case basis and do our best to make it work.
We have designed these classes in a specific order, to cover the most essential concepts first, and then to build on those. If you have previously studied motion media at an accredited institution, we will consider moving you directly into class 2 or 3. We strongly suggest taking the classes in order. Please contact us at [email protected] to review your portfolio.
We use a platform called Zoom for the live sessions. You will be on camera and will see a video feed of your peers and mentor. You will present your progress for the week and receive critique from your mentor and peers. Live sessions also contain organic Q&A where you can discuss specific workflow techniques or concepts with your mentor and classmates. Sessions typically run about 2-3 hours, so bring a drink, a snack and a sketchbook to doodle and take notes.
We include demos and tutorials to support your learning experience. However, this program is project-based and focus on your interactions with your mentor and classmates. It is more about creating original portfolio pieces and learning the concepts, processes, and workflows of a professional motion designer.