Are you a member of Don’s Club? Apparently, not a lot of people are, and a lot more don’t even know what it is.  Don as in Don Bluth. Oh, I’ve got your attention now?

Robert Welsh wrote in to inform me about Don’s video chat seminars, which are just one part of your membership fee (a very affordable $5/month) to Don’s Club. He’s a member, and wasn’t shy about sharing what the experience is like. Here’s what he had to say:

The seminar is incredible.  You have access to a life-time of animation experience and can ask any question you want that relates to animation technique.  What’s so great about the live video seminars is that they are more personal than a forum seminar and you get very thorough answers to your questions.  Don will also give you a little bit of animation history and how it relates to the animation techniques that have been developed over the years.  The seminars are geared more towards traditional animation but many of those questions apply to 3D as well.  You can also post links to your artwork as well and Don will take a look at them at a later date and respond.  It surprises me that more animation students and professionals haven’t taken advantage of this amazing opportunity.

Some technical info about the seminar:
The video seminars are live and last one hour every Wednesday.  Don Bluth resides in Arizona so the seminar starts pm Arizona time.  As of now, the seminars are small usually consisting of about 12-15 members asking questions.  Whats great about that is you can ask as many questions as you want in the 1 hour time frame.   Also because people haven’t caught on to the site yet, he will spend more time answer your questions.  Even if you have questions that run over, he always responds to it later. Along side the live video feed you can also chat live, via an IRC chat room.  You can chat with other members before the seminar starts, and post your questions while the seminar is going on.  It’s highly entertaining.

That sounds pretty exciting to me. I don’t where the future of my education is at yet, but this is something worth considering. One of the hardest things to find in an animation education these days is a good instructor. If they’re really any good, they’d be doing what they do best and not teaching right? Unless they’re doing both. Another thing is getting good one on one time with your instructor, or at least small classroom sizes. It sounds like this program, while driven by the student’s will, is the best bang for your buck at $5 a month. Stop by and see if it’s right for you.