Communigate Pro AE-List@media-motion.tv Message 53803

Thanks Rick and Steve,

It’s interesting to hear different AE experts stories and experiences. It sounds like private training may have been pretty good business at least back in 99-03!

Interestingly I had a guy who is a Ph.D recently in England wanting training in either Max or Maya I can’t remember now and I had to tell him I felt too rusty to provide training for him in that area, especially as it was for 3D character animation that I have not had that much experience of in the 1st place. He just contacted me out of the blue.

Thanks

Anders

From: Steve Oakley

Sent: Monday, May 05, 2014 9:37 PM

To: After Effects Mail List

Subject: Re: [AE] Private training questions

classes never made much money most of the time. what did make money was one on one or groups of 2-4 people private training. I made about 50% of my income from doing that for several years, circa 99-03 or so. well before there was a flood of internet content that ranges from very good to really bad. the internet killed a lot of that... or to the point of where instead of being booked for 2-3 days, you get booked for an afternoon.

Steve Oakley

920 544 2230c

steveoakley.net

DP • Sound • Colorist • Editor

NY/LA/WI/ Where ever you fly me

On May 5, 2014, at 3:31 PM, Rick Gerard <ae@mstrg.com> wrote:

I have been using AE for more than 20 years (from version 1) and started producing tutorials for Creative Cow in 1996. I have taught small groups of 10 or less in classroom situations in 3 day intensive sessions on various techniques. I also have given lectures and demos to audiences up to 500 participants. Occasionally I have been brought in to various production studios and corporate video production facilities to provide one on one mentoring to help them with specific projects or to institute a better production workflow.

Subjects have ranged from getting started to advanced keying and compositing, to camera tracking and background replacement and everything in between. The fees depend on the size of the audience, the subject matter covered, and the materials provided to the students. Occasionally teaching AE and production techniques has given me a little supplemental income, but the real money made in training only happens when you have some really good credentials and some corporate backing. Take for example, Vincent Laforet's Directing Motion Tour. See the trailer here:

https://vimeo.com/90867151

$295 per person, 30 to 60 participants per city / 32 cities Plus DVD sales and other materials and sponsorships. There’s good money to be made giving lectures and demos if you have the credentials and reputation to go with it.

When you are just starting out you will be lucky to find much work that pays much more than your expenses getting to the venue. The key to making a living, or supplementing your living with training in any field is to be enough of an expert that your classes are in demand. Just knowing how do do something and having a decent reel on YouTube isn’t going to do much.