Anime Art Academy FAQs
Q: How much do your one-off payment courses cost?
The price varies between the level of the course, so please see the course information page here.
Q: How much does the subscription course cost?
A: The subscription course costs $47 per month
Q: What is the difference between the subscription and one-off payment courses?
First, let us point out that the course content is exactly the same, so please do not join both at the same time! The difference comes in the course pricing and pacing - the subscription course charges a smaller monthly fee in return for 4 lectures every month, whereas the one-off payment option gives permanent access to many lectures at once, with no further monthly charges.
Q: How many lectures does the monthly subscription include?
A: Each month students can view four new lectures, which make up one "session".
Q: I can't see the next lectures yet. When will the next session be available?
A: To view the next four lessons, students will need to wait until the next month of their subscription. Four new lectures will be made available every month.
Q: How long should I spend on each lecture?
A: Students should spend around one week watching and practicing each lecture's content. This may seem like a long time, but we have found that thorough study makes for steady and efficient progress.
Q: I want some help with my work. Where can I get personal feedback?
A: One of the things that makes our course unique and great value for money is that it includes unlimited feedback from our professional Japanese lecturers, fully translated into English! Students can post their work, ask for personal feedback and advice from their teachers in the comments section of each lecture.
Comments/feedback rule: Please wait to receive a reply from your teacher before posting a new comment. We need to respond to all students fairly, so please avoid flooding the comment section.
Q: Do students get certificates upon graduation?
Students are free to stay with us for as long as they want to keep learning, and there is no set "graduation" date. For this reason, certificates are not automatically handed out to students.
However, any students who have been with us for a year or more can apply for a personal progress check and assessment from our teachers. We will issue a certificate to show the results of this assessment.
We are also currently working on new "belt" system, (similar to karate!) as a way of testing and levelling our students.
Q: How does the payment cycle for the subscription course work?
A: The payment cycle starts from the day you joined, not the first day of the month you joined. So if you joined on 20th June, your next payment would be on 20th July, not 1st July.
Q: After trying out the subscription course, I've found it's not for me. What should I do?
A: If you wish to leave the Academy, please cancel your subscription within one month of the day you joined, to avoid being charged for the next month.
Q: How can I unsubscribe from the subscription course?
A: You are free to unsubscribe at any time from your profile page.
Simply log in to our site and click on your profile icon at the top right of the page to open a pull-down menu. From there you can select "manage subscriptions", and head to your personal subscription page. From that page, you can click "cancel subscription" next to the course you wish to cancel.
Q: What happens after unsubscribing? Can I still view previous course content?
A: After unsubscribing, starting one month from your last payment date, you will be unable to view previously unlocked course content.
Please be absolutely sure you have learnt everything you need to know from the available lessons before unsubscribing!
Note: the one-off payment courses give permanent access to the lessons, so you will always be able to see them with no further payments.
Q: Is there any way to pause the subscription course, and re-join later?
A: Unfortunately, our host site Teachable currently offers no option to pause the course.
However, if you do wish to take a break from the course, you may unsubscribe for a time and then subscribe to the course again later.
When you unsubscribe, be sure to keep your account active. Please do not delete your account. If you delete your account, you will be unable to re-join the course from the same point as you left, and will need to start unlocking the course again from Session One.
Also, please note that you will not be able to view lessons during the time you are unsubscribed from the course - lessons are only available to students paying the monthly subscription fee. You will only be able to access the lessons after re-joining.
Q: I accidentally cancelled my subscription but I want to stay on the course. Can you reverse this for me?
We’re really pleased to hear you want to stay with us on the course!
Unfortunately there's no way to reverse a cancellation on our end, but what you can do is just re-join the subscription course by repurchasing from the relevant course page. You will be returned to the point where you left off, with all the content that you have previously unlocked available to view.
Please make sure you use the same account, so that the system will know to return your progress to you!
Q: I'm a complete beginner! Is Anime Art Academy suitable for me?
A: Our courses are tailored to suit the needs of anyone from beginner to pro. We recommend starting off with our subscription course, or our first lesson pack if you are a complete beginner.
However, we also understand that nobody wants to be thrown in at the deep end when learning something brand new!
We suggest you try our free taster course to see if our lessons seem right for you.
Q: My child is interested in joining Anime Art Academy. Are the courses suitable for children?
A: Our course is suitable for students of any age. In fact, we often find that our younger students pick up techniques fastest, and respond very well to feedback. One of our teachers here at Anime Art Academy won an award for his work at a famous manga magazine when he was just 17 years old, so there's no problem starting young and aiming high!
Our lectures are all video-based and involve a certain amount of self-study, so for very young children, we do suggest a responsible adult supervises and helps them out with the lessons and homework assignments.
If you aren't sure, have your child try our free taster course and see if it seems suitable.
Q: What equipment will I need to join Anime Art Academy?
A: All our students need to follow the course content is a pencil, paper and a passion for art!
However, if you would prefer to use digital media, you will need either a compatible smart device like an iPad and iPencil, or a tablet and drawing software on a computer. This is by no means a compulsory requirement of our course, but many of our students do prefer to go digital.
There are all kinds of free drawing software available online, and if you shop around, tablets can be relatively inexpensive too. For drawing software, we'd recommend SAI by SYSTEMAX - a great, affordable drawing software used by a lot of Japanese illustrators. There's a full English version available, and also a free 31 day trial version here at their home page.
If you want to go for a totally free option, Krita is a very popular choice. It's 100% free and open source.
As for tablets, most of our illustrators use WACOM tablets. For the most professional results, you will need a tablet that reacts to pen pressure so that the pen will react like a real pen or pencil, giving you a variety of thickness in your strokes. The more expensive WACOM tablets can cost upward of $500 dollars, but there are plenty of more reasonably priced ones out there too.
Q: Who responds to the comments in the lecture comment sections?
A: The comment sections are run by our teaching staff and translation team. The translation process can sometimes take a day or so, and comments posted on the weekend will be returned the following Monday. We thank you for your patience.
Occasionally, one of our teachers will respond directly to a comment in English, but because they do not speak native English, you may notice a difference in the level of communication.
If you have any trouble understanding such comments, please do not hesitate to ask for the comment to be re-written by the translation team. Fully understanding the guidance is important for your learning, after all!
Q: Can I contact the lecturers directly by email?
A: Our email account is run by our student support team, so if you would like feedback from lecturers on your artwork, please use the comments section on our lectures rather than emailing us directly.
Any questions relating to your account, or to the course in general, can be directed to our email account, where our English-speaking staff will happy to help you.
Q: Where can I find out more about the Anime Art Academy teachers?
You can read more about our teachers on our About Us page!
Q: Do you offer a personal tutoring service?
A: Unfortunately we do not offer personal tutoring, only our online anime/manga drawing courses.
Our course is made up of video lessons, and involves a lot of self-study, but we also offer professional advice and feedback in the comments section of each lecture, so it might be a good alternative option if you can't find a suitable tutor.
Q: Can I get a refund for the course?
A: To request a refund, please get in touch via email within 14 days of purchase, and inform us of the reason for your refund request. We will assess your account and get back to you. Because our digital content and services are non-returnable, please note that we cannot grant refunds to students who have watched a total of over 1 lesson's worth of content, or to students who have received personal feedback in the lecture comments section.
Moreover, please note that we cannot provide refunds for reasons that are not attributable to Anime Art Academy, such as individual or family matters.
We offer free sample lessons for each of our courses, and the title and contents of each lesson in the course are also available to view before purchase, so please take a look and be sure our lesson content and course style is right for you before joining, to avoid any misunderstandings.
[Refund policy updated 13th May 2021]
Q: Does Anime Art Academy have an Affiliate program? If so, how can I join?
A: We do! Becoming an Anime Art Academy Affiliate is easy - just follow the steps on our Affiliate page here for 40% commission from every affiliate purchase.