Looking for schools in Europe
polycounter lvl 11
Hey everybody,
I recently graduated with my BA in 3D animation and VFX in the US and am now probably moving back to Europe, Germany in particular. I was wondering if any of you had any insights on what schools to go for and which ones to avoid.
I'm particularly interested in animation, modeling and rigging for games, but I wouldn't mind a more board education in the 3D arts. After finishing my BA, I just felt like I've barely touched the surface of this amazing industry.
Looking forward to your responses and don't forget to be awesome!
I recently graduated with my BA in 3D animation and VFX in the US and am now probably moving back to Europe, Germany in particular. I was wondering if any of you had any insights on what schools to go for and which ones to avoid.
I'm particularly interested in animation, modeling and rigging for games, but I wouldn't mind a more board education in the 3D arts. After finishing my BA, I just felt like I've barely touched the surface of this amazing industry.
Looking forward to your responses and don't forget to be awesome!
Replies
I would definitely stay away from the Games Academy in Germany though. I had the chance to talk to some students from there at GDC Europe and they told me that they all regretted going there. Their lectures are way too general to actually help you out. And for paying more than 20k euros it's not worth it. Plus there was a time (don't know if they still do it), where they would actually guarantee you a job, if you studied there. Which is a VERY empty promise. Nobody can guarantee you a job. And alone the fact that they said these kind of things made me not think much of that college.
Also Games College in Austria is from what I heard from people not really worth the money.
The SAE Institute might work, but IMO it doesn't deliver what one would expect for over 25 k Euros for two years. But you could still look into it and decide for yourself, since apparently they have improved (according to some students there).
So bottomline, I'd go for FH Hagenberg. There are top notch professionals lecturing there, that really know what they are doing.
BUT! If you want to focus on Animation only, which you said you didn't, but just in case:
Invest the money into iAnimate or Animation Mentor! These are incredible online colleges that help you improve as an animator and as a professional. The community is huge and you have many opportunities to network with professionals from the industry as well as with aspiring ones. I'd look into it, but that's only if you want to focus solely on animation.
Usually when you go the game-art class there you get a basic 3d-art education then I guess you specialize in what you want to do.
http://www.thegameassembly.com/
I mean...why choose an expensive for-profit school over a free/cheap state runs school offering the same or better quality? Not to mention, some of those for-profit places aren't even accredited. Although I heard Hagenberg is quite popular and there's lots of people from all over Austria and Germany studying there and it's getting more difficult to get in. Pretty sure they have a folio review and an interview before they accept a student.
Well, I must admit, from my experience there, it certainly looks that way.
But still there are of course always exceptions on why someone chose SAE & Co. Take me for instance. When I started searching, I didn't find another school in Austria. I didn't know about, for instance, FH Hagenberg until about a year ago. So at that time when I was searching, SAE was my only good choice, or it seemed to be, so I decided to go there. Maybe because of my bad googling skills, or whatever, but I only found the SAE Institute and the Games Academy. That was about three years ago, by the way. I still don't know how i missed FH Hagenberg.
The same or similar thing also happened to some people I studied with, they simply didn't know of any other school.
All in all though I agree with you. I've seen a lot of game students (from the current course) there playing pokemon instead of working on their skills, yapping about how rigging and animation is boring and way too easy and boasting how they managed to get a good grade by cheating in exams. That still makes me frown.
The reason why I bring the above example up is that IMO the SAE Institute is faaar too tolerant in letting anyone in. I mean they do that for obvious reasons.
With schools like FH Hagenberg, that have portfolio reviews and interviews with potential students, where slackers are filtered out or simply not accepted, you get to work with people that really want to be there.
And thats a huuge plus. Because you can motivate each other, make collaborative projects, get help if you need it, create or join study groups etc.
If half the class doesn't really want to be there and is bored and/or just goes there because it likes games and think they'll play games all day, a lot of potential is lost.
You learn important things when you work with other people and if you miss out because half the class consists of slackers, well then the school is really not worth the money.
My experience is, that there only a few "good" schools in Germany/Europe..
(Games Academy.. SAE/Quantn.. - very very expensive)
Keep in Mind that you buying time as a student.
You have to work on your folio anyway.. if you really want a job in the industry,
you can "buy" time and graduate much cheaper way..
Like I said, I didn't get to see much of the "guts" of the average school day but the whole complex is pretty damn modern, all of the students and teachers seem motivated and friendly, so I think it should be pretty nice there.
Time will tell, looking forward to hearing back from them sometime next month. Thanks for the suggestion guys and girls!