What can I get from community college programs?
polycounter lvl 6
The VA denied the tuition for Gnomon. Instead they will only support a community college program.
I am supposed to take CG animation certificate program from Mt. San Antonio College. They do have some modeling classes. (basic, intermediate, and advanced) And yes, they teach Maya.
But I am not sure what kind of career I can get out of the certificate program from a community college. My goal was to take Modeling and Texturing course at Gnomon. With Mt. SAC, I will have to learn a ton of stuff by myself outside the classes. I am overwhelmed.
Anyone can give me some insight on how community college are helpful?
I am supposed to take CG animation certificate program from Mt. San Antonio College. They do have some modeling classes. (basic, intermediate, and advanced) And yes, they teach Maya.
But I am not sure what kind of career I can get out of the certificate program from a community college. My goal was to take Modeling and Texturing course at Gnomon. With Mt. SAC, I will have to learn a ton of stuff by myself outside the classes. I am overwhelmed.
Anyone can give me some insight on how community college are helpful?
Replies
The good thing was that we had a good variety of software like Blender, 3ds Max, ZBrush, and Photoshop. However, the lectures were underwhelming and we weren't taught the subtle, yet grossly important, 3D modeling and texturing nuances. We didn't have in-depth explanations of 3D modeling best practices, UV unwrapping tricks, different texture maps, etc.
My instructors didn't even explain things such as, off the top of my head, the difference between tangent-space and world-space normal maps. I'm pretty sure this is what led to so many of their students, including myself, experiencing problems with their meshes and textures. Meanwhile, most of this info can be found on the Polycount wiki and forum threads, albeit with a lot of searching and reading. I assumed this lack of detailed instruction was due to my instructors either not being paid enough, not having the experience, not having the drive to keep themselves updated on bleeding-edge techniques, or just having low standards for grading.
From what I see, your experience will likely be better than mine because your program's classes are split nicely into specific focuses. By comparison, my classes were fast-paced and time-constrained. One of my classes was 2D texturing + 2D animation, while another was 3D modeling + 2D texturing + 3D animation. Simply not enough time to learn about these different game development stages in detail. Granted, I don't know how well your instructors will teach nor how experienced or passionate they are. I assume that supplemental learning is inevitable, though, even if you were to attend a prestigious art school like Gnomon and you paid attention to everything their instructors taught.
Do fundamentals homework to the best of your ability
When you're not doing homework you teach yourself the software.
Looks like I will have to use the school just for learning the basic approach on learning the tool.s
I went for a Fine Arts AA which included life drawing, design, and art history classes. focus on getting all you can out of those classes while working on your 3d skills in your own time. I remember one semester my school tried adding a 3d modeling class to the curriculum. It was really a waste of time. the professor barely even came to class, most of the time it would just be an open lab with little to no instruction.
I don't think you're going to get the up to date information that you can find here or in most online communities, but you will get a good art background and it will help you in your career.
one of the main bonuses I've seen since leaving school is that if you can get into the industry without a huge burden of debt, your options are less limited. you may be able to take a pay cut for a spot that has better growth opportunities or leave a position that is not what you want to be doing in order to focus on getting a job in your specialty. However, networking will be your main disadvantage compared to regular schools, that will be something that you have to seek out through local meetups, and online, rather than having a built-in peer network that you get at a school
Now I decided to go back to Modo for now, since I will be learning the basic of Maya at the community college this Fall anyway. And I think starting with the simpler tool is more beneficial to learn something really complex. I believe there are people who use both Maya and Modo just for modeling, and are happy with their choice.