Degree's and Internships
polycounter lvl 5
I know threads like this pop up alot but I couldn't really find an applicable one to my question. So I'm most likely gonna go to a 4 year college and apply for something like chemistry for my major and maybe graphic design for my minor. I want to apply to chemistry because I want to have something as backup in case I cant get into the 3d field. Now I was wondering if I was to apply to a internship would they care what field I was majoring in or would they still look at mainly your portfolio. Thanks for your time.
Replies
Personally I wouldn't really major in Chemistry though. Not only is it completely unrelated to 3D and game development in general (if that's what you're going for), but it is a ton of work and so you'll likely be limited in the free time you can allocate to 3D.
If you enjoy Chemistry then go ahead and do it, but if you just randomly picked it then you might want to try for something else. I'm not sure what university you plan to attend, but the Chemistry department in my university is an absolute joke.
They overwork students for the sake of making the Chemistry program look more difficult (most of the work they assign is pointless busy-work that does nothing other than waste your time), the lectures are god awful and so you have to self-teach yourself everything, the professors grade on attendance, so you can't just skip lecture and self-teach yourself unless you want to lose 10 points off your final average, and finally, the tests are so incredibly unfair to the point where some of the professors get put on probation because the class average every semester hovers around the 20% - 30% area. EDIT: Forgot to mention, chemistry lab will likely also be required. I'm not sure how it'll work at your university, but at mine you have to attend a 3 hour lab every weekend for the entire semester, this lab has a separate grade, separate assignments, and separate projects which all take a long time to complete as well.
I would suggest putting your focus on the subject you major in before anything else as you are paying money for that. It takes many years to become a great artist and so don't worry if you can't break into the industry out of university.
Regardless, whatever you decide to major in, good luck!
It's great you're thinking ahead and all, but you're looking into spending 10's of thousands of dollars on something just to have as a "backup". Chemistry is something (as mentioned above) that will consume your time, probably the same as engineering, nursing and all that. It's your money and if you're really into that go for it, but I'm not sure if you'd have time to improve yourself with all that going on. IMO if you're a good artist you don't really "need" a backup, you'll almost always find work if something bad happens.
@AAJohnny I get free tuition to all state school in California
Also I know Berkeley and Santa Cruz have game programming focused degrees, I do not know if they are CSU school though...
I guess I could see how an internship might prefer a certain major, since part of its purpose is to further your education about a particular field.
Actual art jobs, though, almost never care if you even have a degree, much less what it's in. A BFA or MFA might be a plus since it indicates time spent studying foundation skills. Portfolio and work experience are king though.
regarding the underlined part - the only kind of degree that will give you some extra points would be an art school one, provided that your portfolio actually lives up to the employer's expectations from the new hire;
a degree in chemistry would be a very unreasonable waste of time and money for you, and I might be having a bit biased view of this myself, but your prospective employer might see it as you're failing to get employed in a scientific kind of job and are actually seeing a game development job as a temporary/back up option. in this case, you'll be fine with a portfolio of strong work, but a weak one will only make the matters worse imo.
if you're so keen on going the chemistry route, don't even bother with a graphic design minor - finish your degree first, get a few years of experience in the field that's relevant to your studies, save some money and either enroll into a shorter private school course, or start learning on weekends/evenings, if you can balance work/studies/life ratio out.
idk production design maybe, if you have that option available?
a good traditional art school + some extra cg schooling will top everything else tbh
I may apply to school with a major in Art-Studio with a focus in ceramics, I already do and I'm interested in ceramics so I think it would be an applicable enough degree.
if you can find work and learn how to do art in the spare time while bringing some income home so your parents wouldn't be bothering you with the money thing, you'll get closer to getting an art job much faster compared to the chemistry/whatever else degree route.
you won't be simply wasting so much time as well.
you might have to re-evaluate your priorities. if you're going into school for the free tuition, spare yourself some time and study at home, there's no shortage of inexpensive educational material right now compared to just a couple years ago. which also means there's no shortage of competition when it will come to looking for jobs, and your chemistry degree won't really help at all, you'll be competing with art school kids and self taught talent that worked elsewhere else before aiming for an art position.
cal state seems to have an art department:
http://www.csuchico.edu/art/
http://www.fullerton.edu/arts/art/programs/ba_arthistory.html
or are you talking about a different university?
Most people here will suggest learning on your own since you can't go to art school. If you really want to be a 3D Artist then you have to commit to it. But as for your original question, I can't speak for every studio out there but I know Blizzard doesn't explicitly state you have to be studying for an applicable degree. You just have to be enrolled and plan on returning to school following the internship.
You have an opportunity to get a four year degree in something for free, DO IT! A few alternatives have been mentioned in this thread by you and others...
Computer science: Fantastic idea! It can overlap 3D, is more versatile, in high demand, has better job security and pays more.
Graphic design: I strongly suggest either web design or interactive design. Both are in demand, pay as much as 3D (maybe a tad more since hours are less insane), and have better job security. Overlap with 3D exists, but nowhere near as much as computer science. No one's looking for straight up "graphic designers" anymore though.
Ceramics: Definitely not. There's no practical overlap with 3D and no way to get a job with it. The most employable studio art is probably illustration, and that's also very tough.
edit: Another suggestion would be Industrial Design. There's a lot of overlap with modeling there but I don't know what the job market is like for it right now. Definitely worth researching however.
Are you a senior citizen? Over 60?
Just checking
@sukkoto I would love to self train myself but for a couple of reasons I cant really. First reason is the fact that I want to go through college, I want to be able to say I'm a college grad and go through the whole sysetm and also get visa's and stuff like that alot easier. Second reason is my parents are not willing to provide for me just to not go to college, they are paying for room and board and everything else so Ill accutly have a place to accutly practice 3d Moddeling.
@Equanim Honestly that suggestion for computer science doesnt sound half bad, I was wondering if for computer science it involves alot of coding or not? What exactly does a degree in computer science cover.
@MagicSugar My Step-Mom is a disabled veteran so VA provides free tuition for all State schools you reside in.
Thank you everyone for taking the time to answer these questions.
Wait so you want to spend 4 years just to say you went to college and graduated? Do you plan on ever leaving the country? I highly doubt your parents would kick you to the curb for pursuing your dreams... I'm sure they'd still put a roof over your head, I'd be a bit worried if they wouldn't lol. I'm not trying to sound harsh or anything but I'm trying to be honest. You certainly can train yourself, how exactly can't you? In my case I didn't graduate college and I had a "free ride" but I was offered a job at a great studio... it's possible! you just have to work hard and deal with the troubles that come your way. I was in your situation. I would seriously major in something your interested in that won't consume your time (chemistry) and work your tail off on 3d and get better in every aspect, pick up some freelance gigs and save some money and work your way up to an opportunity...If you can't get a full-time studio job by the time you graduate then you have school under your belt, but if you have a great opportunity come up take it. Don't let school be an excuse not to work hard... where are your priorities?
Most of the people who major in Chemistry just use it to go down a pre-med path (same goes for the people who major in Biology or other related fields).
If you plan on going down the pre-med/doctor path, then I am going to flat out tell you right now, you'll either have to choose between that or becoming an artist because there is no way you'll have time to do both efficiently.
You said you worked with UDK before, have you ever done any coding? Computer Science would be one of the best majors to pick however it is also something you have to be really dedicated to, especially once you get past the easy introductory course and take on problems in Data Structures.
If you've got any experience with coding and you know you enjoy it, then I'd say go ahead and do CS because you can specialize in the 3D track. While it won't exactly help you create art, you'll understand more about how 3D apps are created and you'll have excellent job security with a backup career.
If you aren't interested in CS, then I can't help you there haha. I can understand your worries though. I was in a slightly worse off position than you because I started 3D after giving up on school as a junior in highschool. Due to my non-existent self-confidence I kept giving up and after visiting polycount for the first time I completely lost all motivation to even try modeling again, however I eventually kept trying and while I'm still shit compared to everybody here, I have learned quite a bit about the art side of thing.
Of course I'm also trying to learn more about the programming side of game development. I'm currently a CS major and while we don't really do anything game development related, I have found it easier to self-teach myself more about game development.
EDIT: Oh and as johnny said, going to college to say you graduated is pointless. Nobody gives a shit what college you went to or what you majored in because college really means nothing. I went to high ranking vocational high school which also means my entire class had roughly 50-60 students in it. As a result, many of the people I graduated with got into schools like Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, but that doesn't change the fact that they're still asswipes and half of them are majoring in stupid shit like English or god forbid, Religious Studies.
Plebs.
The only thing to keep in mind though is, you should do A LOT of coding outside of class. It'll seem really boring at first but once you code enough to the point where you actually understand what you're doing, then it'll become a lot more enjoyable.
Additionally, the second class on the CS track (Data Structures) is the weed out course. My Data Structures classroom was packed the first week with like 300 students, by the middle of the semester more than half of those guys were gone and never came back lol.
It's an unforgiving class, but if you learn CS111 and Data Structures really well, then you'll be set for a while. I know a guy who failed Data Structures 3 times, when he finally passed, he knew everything so well to the point where he could have taught the class. He also now works at Google which is pretty cool.
Hehehe, that statement made me spill my coffee, yes it will work out this way. :poly114b:
Now I acuttly feel a responsibility to clean up that coffee!
I originally thought I could paint and sculpt outside of class, but that didn't turn out to be the case. You do end up writing a ton of code because CS by nature is a craft and practice makes you better just like art. I was pretty bummed in the beginning with how little free time I had for sculpting, but it's not too big of a deal anymore because now I enjoy coding almost as much as sculpting.
My only advice is to keep an open mind and most importantly remember that a degree isn't the only avenue to success. Talk to people and make yourself known, network, or join a club. Actually, chances are there is a game development club on campus. Just don't let studies suffer.