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"We get you career-ready, helping you future-proof your creative career and broaden your mind, as well as build your portfolio."
8 Bloomsbury Street, WC1B 3SR, London, United Kingdom
Was a waste of time. I thought I'd be learning animation theories, animation softwares etc. They rather thought how to pitch for the giant clients and all that. I'm still in debt from the course I did. 5K!
I finished the Motion Design Foundation course in April 2021 and would like to share my experience to help others make informed decisions since Created wasn't particularly transparent about the course syllabus or the specifics on offer in this course. I don't regret taking the course as it helped demystify the craft of motion design, but I'm disappointed with the fact that I got significantly less value from it than I expected, particularly given the price range.
OVERVIEW:
The course is centred around an assignment that's given to all students in the cohort. Everyone's given the same brief. There are 3 modules over 12 weeks with a submission expected at the end of each module, which is then reviewed by a motion designer using a standardised format. You're offered access to an online learning platform and a Slack channel where you can interact with your cohort and the wider Created community.
PROS:
- Friendly staff and a nice sense of community in the online platforms (even though everyone works individually).
- Cinema 4D license included for the duration of the course.
- Access to motion designers to ask questions and get ad-hoc help when you get stuck.
CONS:
- Limited opportunity to explore your own interests; everyone in the cohort gets the same brief so don't expect to necessarily work on whatever tickles your fancy; my assignment was brand identity, which I wasn't particularly interested in but was stuck with for the duration of the course.
- You need to submit a full pitch deck with storyboards at the end of the first module, which means you're committing to a concept/design before you've actually learned anything about After Effects or Cinema 4D; I personally find this inexcusable as it's difficult to gauge the difficulty of what you're proposing and you only get advice after you've submitted your pitch deck.
- There's only about 1 to 2 hours of video content per module (i.e. per 5 weeks) so don't expect to gain any in-depth knowledge on any of the topics; you only scratch the surface then the rest is up to you, so don't be surprised if you end up learning from other courses as you work on your assignment; 95% of the time will be spent figuring things out with 5% watching video content, so make sure that works for you.
- You lose access to all course contents once the course has ended, so unlike other platforms, you can't go back and rewatch your videos if you ever need to.
My advice would be to ask yourself if you're interested in learning motion design or After Effects/Cinema 4D more generally. There's a subtle but important difference and this course is definitely focused on the former, not so much the latter. If you're curious about motion design for self-expression (i.e. you're a videographer looking to improve your videos, or a visual artist looking to create visuals for multimedia) you can almost definitely find more suitable courses out there, particularly at this price range.
Reply from Created
Hi Andre, thank you for taking the time to write a balanced review. As you say, it will always come down to what the student needs. Many of our learners find this more rounded approach to learning motion design helpful, as there is so much to understand beyond the software. So comprehending creative process and industry formalities for example, people find integral to boosting their confidence and therefore find Created's approach beneficial professionally speaking. Thank you for the insightful feedback, it helps us grow.
Very disappointing experience from the start.
Given a hard sell on being the last few places on the course and how this would change my life.
It's not a motion design course, you need to know motion before you start and definitely not for a beginner. As far as I could see they were making this up as they went along, by the time we got to month 3 most of us were looking to leave the course.
Reply from Created
Thank you for taking the time to write a review. We are disappointed to hear you did not find the experience impactful. So many of our graduates not only enjoy our courses as beginners, but go on to secure new roles in the industry with our ongoing assistance. Your feedback matters to us and we would love to hear from you directly. Please write to hello@created.academy to tell us more so we may support you and make the necessary improvements.
I signed up for the Professional Motion Design Course at Created Academy believing it would provide professional technical Instruction in Cinema 4d and After Effects. The teachers, mentors and support staff are all amazing and hard working. I was very impressed and they can’t be faulted. However the structure of the course itself contains very little technical instruction. By month 3 there will have only been about 10 to 12 hours of technical videos, and month 4 has no technical instruction. You will have to learn these outside of the course, which is strange since the title is ‘professional motion design.’ That means it is only 3.5 hours per month In the first 3 months of a 60 hour a month course.
Making you learn extra outside of the course by searching around for the right videos makes it harder if you also have a full time job. The guidance for finding technical instruction outside was also rather haphazard and given as an afterthought in live zoom sessions. It felt as if the zoom teachers weren’t too familiar with what we knew and didn’t know from the course material. I feel as if we are an add on to their normal day job so that’s not their fault since they are great at what they do. Even though students are at different levels when they begin, we are measured not taking that into account.
I was told there would only be a little further technical instruction in month 6, so I stopped there. Most of the things you will want to create in practice to actualise your vision, haven’t really been dealt with in the technical videos.
Also you are trained very much to fit into the corporate world rather than for personal artistic expression and I feel the balance between the two was not right for me. They’ve gone too far into training for corporate, for me.
There is not a great deal of personal time with any of the teachers, although you can ask technical questions. Still it’s pretty hard to learn by a couple of questions a month as opposed to a structured introduction so you know what you are asking about. I don’t need more lessons in figuring things out for myself since I do that a lot anyway. The students are all great, and they do figure it out themselves, so I would credit all their technical results more to their own talent and drive rather than how they were technically taught at created academy. It’s my personal opinion that this is not how it should be in a school.
I personally felt I was misled into thinking this course was something else when it was sold to me. Additionally, you only know what is coming up in detail on the course after they slowly reveal it over time. You aren’t able to foresee it beforehand - if I had been able to see before, I would have withdrawn earlier and stopped paying. Due to this, I requested a partial refund believing the product was something else to what I was sold. I was told at first, that their contract didn’t allow me to withdraw or do this. This would be against consumer rights law in the UK, just as it is against the law to make a contract which contradicts UK consumer rights law. While I gave them value because they used my feedback to create a new zoom session, they did not bring me much personal value In return (since I’m already familiar with the marketing world). They agreed to let me withdraw but only after signing and filling out an odd form which I didn’t want to do, (and also don’t think I should have to do) without also discussing a refund. I asked for a partial refund and they have not responded to my request for this for weeks hence I think it’s fair to write this review at this point.
Reply from Created
Hi Camilla,
First of all thank you for your kind words about our Community - your fellow students, mentors and the Created team.
We understand Motion Design Professional may not have been the right course for you.
We would like to respond to some of the points you raised to share some context.
Motion Design Professional is about helping students grow from a practical, professional and personal standpoint. It’s a learning experience that nurtures all three aspects and not the technical one alone. This is at the core of our learning philosophy, as mentioned on our website and in the course content.
Our courses are crafted in close collaboration with industry experts. They help develop the learning objectives, as well as contribute to all of our course content. Our courses are periodically reviewed and updated to keep the content fresh and to industry-standard. This is why Blocks 1-3 are released at the beginning of the course, while Blocks 4-7 are released one at a time.
The software tutorials in Blocks 1-3 are designed to provide students with the fundamental skills in After Effects and Cinema 4D. There is also a multitude of learning content (articles, podcasts and videos) infused with industry best practices on research, ideation and storytelling techniques, which are all important components of motion design.
Our courses help our students execute a creative brief from pre-production to delivery, and assist them with design thinking. They also help students develop a commercial appreciation of motion design, so they are well-versed in industry practices. We ensure that our students have the opportunity to develop their creative voice with an array of projects, from open briefs to briefs requiring an understanding of a client’s brand identity. All of our industry partners are companies, studios and agencies that operate in the creative industry. We currently don’t partner with any corporate businesses.
The support available to students consists of group mentoring sessions with dedicated motion design professionals, in small groups, which take place usually every 2-3 weeks. In Blocks 4-7, students also have 1-2-1 sessions with a dedicated motion design mentor, and a professional coach. Additional support includes a forum accessible at all times, where a Motion Design Consultant answers technical questions and provides personalised demos with assets. Students are also encouraged to engage with their peers to exchange advice and feedback. There is no measuring or grading, only industry feedback: at the end of each block, work is reviewed by a senior motion design professional who writes an individual feedback card to help identify next steps.
Students are informed about the course structure and content before enrolment via the course syllabus, our website and during one or more calls with our Admissions team. There is a dedicated onboarding process at the beginning of each course which goes through every detail.
We are immensely proud of our Alumni and their achievements, and we let their testimonials about their experience on our courses speak for themselves.
Our course terms follow consumer rights law in the UK. They are sent to all students before they enrol onto the course and they are also available on our website. After you raised your concerns, we listened to your feedback and offered more support, but understanding that you were unhappy with the course, we offered to waive your outstanding balance in good faith. Our intention was not to make you uncomfortable. We sent you an email with a document stating the amount that was waived and that you were officially withdrawing from the course.
We’re always open to student feedback and constantly improving our courses. We will always strive to offer the best and most valuable experience possible to our students and our entire Community.
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