Advice on what 3D course to choose?
Hi, I am planning to get into 3D. What do companies/people hiring prefer when an employee applies?
Here are my choices:
Bachelor in Fine Arts (Traditional Art)
Bachelor of Media Arts (Techinical Art)
6month-1year Diploma/Certificate (Focused on just learning the programs, I think)
Traditional Art degree from an art university
I understand that a good portfolio is a must, but I am sure it matters what education you had.
My art teacher keeps emphasizing that an art degree is the best thing, absolutely neccessary and whatnot.
And I would think that they wouldn't hire someone with a 6 month course.
So what are the general opinions on each of thse?
Here are my choices:
Bachelor in Fine Arts (Traditional Art)
Bachelor of Media Arts (Techinical Art)
6month-1year Diploma/Certificate (Focused on just learning the programs, I think)
Traditional Art degree from an art university
I understand that a good portfolio is a must, but I am sure it matters what education you had.
My art teacher keeps emphasizing that an art degree is the best thing, absolutely neccessary and whatnot.
And I would think that they wouldn't hire someone with a 6 month course.
So what are the general opinions on each of thse?
Replies
And which school is this?
If you have a degree, that's just peachy, but it's not going to land you a job if you don't have a portfolio of solid work to back it up.
If you're absolutely dead set on getting a degree, my advice would be to pursue a fine art degree and do 3D on the side. That will help you build your skills as an artist while you learn how 3D programs work. Study drawing and painting, and do lots of figure drawing if you want to make characters. If you want to make props, vehicles, or environments, study industrial design.
I am in Canada and I do need my Student Visa. I am only 17 and my family expects me to go to uni.
"When you say you want to get into 3D, what do you speciically mean? What product do you want to be making with others or are on your own?
And which school is this?"
I want to get into compositing, with something like Nuke. Product I am not sure of yet, but here is the order of what I might want to do right now.
Movies
TV Shows
Generalist for game design
On my own, I want to be able to comp a full scene with 3D models, live footage, images, special effects, and color grading.
This school is SFU for the BA-Media arts. The diploma is from BCIT. and the traditional art stuff is from Emily Carr.
@Swizzle
I know they care about portfolio and attitude above all else, but I am pretty sure your education holds some importance. What I was asking was: 4 students Same portfolio. Different educations. Which one?
To answer your question though I would go the traditional arts route
When two artists have similar portfolios, it's gonna come down to the result of the art test and finally the interview. So no, education doesn't matter.
I recommend majoring with a traditional art focus (painting, sculpting, industrial design) with a minor in programming. Tools and process change all the time. The versions and type of software used today will change in months (substance tools is what, 2 years old or less).
You ensure a longer and lasting career as an artist if you master the art fundamentals first versus keeping pace with tool and engine upgrades WHILE you learn anatomy, color theory, environment theory (lighting, texturing, etc.) You'll have a hard time building a portfolio that'll get you jobs if you're pressured to cram a lot of separate but necessary skills in a short period of time (before tools and process move to the next standard) and have to produce quality portfolio materials.
On the flip side, if you're not interested being an artist and just being okay as a technician some vfx companies don't even require a solid portfolio or degree. You just need to be able to do shift work (very late nights) and have patience to do dull vfx work. And the pay is so so.
Going to a real university also makes you eligible to internship programs in many studios as well as student discounts to conferences and workshops.
Whichever school you short list, I suggest checking out if they have a lot of alumni (grads) working in the industry and/or the instructors are active in the biz or have credible work experience (so, not just a recent grad from the same school teaching you what he just learned months ago).
in general every job outside of game art & movies tends to have more people still looking at degrees, at least in germany.
so if you have the chance to study for free, take it and work as much in your free time as you can. you will never ever have this much time for it when you are working full time later on.
if you have to pay this stuff for yourself..well i wouldnt want to be 80k$ in debt for an art degree...
P.S. I think school people have a huge advantage in that they have more time. I can only put in 4 hours a day during the week days and 10 hours a day during the week end. So that is only 40 hours a week. Where as someone who is in school is spending all day on 3D art.
Quit your job and you'll still come out ahead of the curve debt wise!
Actually, this part depends.
A lot of 3D programs I have done or researched are heavily segmented. While there are classes on 3D art, there are also many other mandatory courses that don't have a focus on 3D. Examples include; an English class, life drawing, and even programming.
Classes themselves also aren't very long to begin with. A 3D class could only be 2 hours long. 1 hour being a lecture, and another hour doing an in-class assignment on said lecture. When you throw in other factors such as homework from all the other classes, there isn't actually a lot of time spent on 3D art.