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Feng Zhu School worth the investment risk?

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miguelnarayan polycounter lvl 8
Hey.
I didn't find my question answered through the forum... even though everyone knows about this school, sorry if it has already been answered.
I was talking to a teacher of 3D class and asking if he knew any good post graduation degree I could take on concept art, he asked: 'How serious are you?' and then told me that I should go to Feng Zhu Design School.
While I'm very open to the idea of traveling to the other side of earth, my financial status is not the best. I'd have to ask for a student loan, which I'd pay with a small added tax, still, the school is very expensive with or without the tax added to it.
Do you think I could easily get back the investment I was to make for the school? (around 25,000€ for the year) and then cover housing and costs of living there too, which would probably go for 50,000€?
Has anyone here who has done this course feels that I could easily get my money back? I think the market is always growing by the year, but I fear for not being able to pay this or get a job in the industry at all, everyone says it's a very competitive market... What's the cost (or lowest cost possible) of living in Singapore for one year?

Thanks in advance.
Miguel

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  • Moltar
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    Moltar polycounter lvl 7
    If I where you i'd stay clear of over priced degrees.  I don't know much about concept artist jobs in the industry but I'm sure you can get a job without a degree.
  • Kwramm
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    Kwramm interpolator
    why would you want to go to Singapore, when you could study for much less in the UK, or elsewhere in Europe? They got some great 3D programmes there. Also, their degrees are accredited. Besides, as Moltar said, you don't necessarily need a degree as artist - you need skill. Alternatives: look for art workshops and masterclasses, even traditional painting / drawing classes would be very useful for concept artists. There is absolutely no reason to do it entirely digital either.
  • Panupat
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    Panupat polycounter lvl 15
    Check out CGMA 2D. My favourite school atm. I also love Schoolism website , never take their class tho so I cant comment on that.
  • aesir
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    aesir polycounter lvl 18
    If you're worried about the cost, I'd opt out.  2 years after you graduate from anywhere on the planet, no one gives a fuck where you graduated from.  Well, except for the circle of friends you made there.
  • miguelnarayan
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    miguelnarayan polycounter lvl 8
    I agree with all of you, but it was never the point to take a degree and bail, I'm currently taking one bachelor in digital art, and I agree, I can watch Gnomon DVDs and other resources online and train myself into a portfolio. It's more about what we'd learn in Feng Zhu school and more importantly from the guru himself.

    http://fengzhudesign.com/tutorials.htm
  • Snowfly
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    Snowfly polycounter lvl 18
    FZD's program is pretty solid and they do have a consistent record of turning out quality grads. I can attest to that second part having worked alongside a lot of them...even as juniors, they tend to know how to hit the ground running.

    Don't expect a lot of lecture time with Feng, if that's one of your main reasons for going. He heavily relies on his two teachers/art directors (who he mentored himself...they're great instructors but it isn't quite the same.) Also, most students who come in with a half-hearted tend not to make it through the course as it's very rigorous and condensed.

    It is one of the pricier concept art schools out there, so only fly over if you're willing to take the financial hit. Cost of living in Singapore is a little steep, but can be managed. Keep in mind there's a lot of talented FZD grads who haven't landed the jobs they expected...that's just how the market is.
  • Panupat
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    Panupat polycounter lvl 15
    Don't get stuck in that mentality that your future relies on your instructor... 80% it's still all about the amount of time you spend practicing and only 20% or so mentor.

    And to be frank, I only consider Feng a "good" artist but no where "great".

  • miguelnarayan
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    miguelnarayan polycounter lvl 8
    Who do you consider better than Feng Zhu? I'm just curious.
    I heard Scott Robertson school, Art Center College of Design has the possibility of giving scholarships to EU students, unlike Feng Zhu Design School.
    My country has also good established relations with Japan, but I don't know of any school that I could really learn something from on there, it's all anime, right? I wouldn't go there just because I could, but rather to learn something. I found a site that claimed to be KONAMI School, but it's all on Kanji, I can't understand anything, I'll update this post later, for alternatives (affordable ones)  for people whom may be finding this post useful.
    Thanks everyone for your comments and Snowfly too for the added information about the teachers at FZD.

    P.S. - I could also turn into a hermit and order a bunch of books and DVDs and train myself 12 to 18 hours a day, like they do on Feng Zhu, but I dread at becoming a social freak, still I'd get more than just signing up at some random course.
  • RyanB
    Feng Zhu is awesome but there are lots of alternatives.  For example: https://artrenewal.org/pages/ateliers.php
     
    Average price for a year at one of those ateliers is $8,000 or 4,000 euro.  Plus you don't have to move to Singapore. 
    With the 21,000 euros you would save you can buy all the DVDs/online courses/whatevers you want. 

    This one is 4,000 euro for a year : http://www.angelartschool.com/galleries.html



  • LRoy
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    LRoy polycounter lvl 10
    Do you think I could easily get back the investment I was to make for the school? (around 25,000€ for the year) and then cover housing and costs of living there too, which would probably go for 50,000€?

    no
  • miguelnarayan
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    miguelnarayan polycounter lvl 8
    I think it's around 40,000€ total investment.
    Again, it may be that I could pull it off, FZD has its students working/drawing for over 18 hours a day. 
  • AtticusMars
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    AtticusMars greentooth
    FZD has its students working/drawing for over 18 hours a day. 
    Can't understand why anyone would want to subject themselves to that but okay
  • pigart
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    pigart polycounter lvl 6
    FZD has its students working/drawing for over 18 hours a day. 
    Can't understand why anyone would want to subject themselves to that but okay
    Maybe because that student is very focused on their art and wants to progress in one year as much as most people progress in 3-4?
  • Panupat
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    Panupat polycounter lvl 15
    The more hour you spend doing something, the better you become. The phrase "get your 10,000 hour experience"  appliesbto art too.

    Not that hardcore but I was drawing at least 4 hours a day in collage too. Some self-taught artists  I know spend even more time on their own and of course they ended up better than me. If you're discipline enough you dont need anyone to tell you to draw :)
  • Technomancr
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    Technomancr polycounter lvl 5
    A very talented concept artist attended FZD after he left the game company we were working at. He felt that despite his already considerable skill, he could learn something from FZD. I can't speak for him directly, but he continues to work in the industry:

    http://www.artoffredram.com/

    It's my impression that FZD has a heavy focus on vehicle, prop, and environment design (they don't neglect character though, I just don't see much in the way of anatomy and life drawing studies in their curriculum) - so if your skills are weaker in these areas, then the school might be a good choice.

    I won't argue that you can't receive this training elsewhere, or more economically, but each individual may find that they hit their 'groove' with a particular school, mentor, or self-training regiment. For some people, the Feng Zhu Design School might be perfect, but it's not a perfect fit for all.
  • slosh
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    slosh hero character
    Seriously, have you seen the dudes teaching the CGMA2d courses?  Even the 3d courses...they are absolute beasts.  I've been fortunate to teach a course for them but honestly the other guys are just crazy, insane, talented folk.  You will get a lot of invaluable knowledge from CGMA...well worth it IMO and far less than most of those expensive "tech" school courses.  There are good ones out there and I'm sure Feng's is solid but you need to be cost effective if you don't have the money to spend on education to begin with...be smart with your funds.  Industry gigs can pay well but you will assuredly not make that kind of money straight out of school and that debt will weigh you down heavily.
  • AtticusMars
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    AtticusMars greentooth
    pigart said:
    FZD has its students working/drawing for over 18 hours a day. 
    Can't understand why anyone would want to subject themselves to that but okay
    Maybe because that student is very focused on their art and wants to progress in one year as much as most people progress in 3-4?
    I seriously doubt that you'll be any better after a year if you work 18 hours a day vs. if you had only worked 12 or even 10. I would credit the success of FZD students to the quality of the curriculum/instruction/feedback and self selection bias, with little if any weight to the aggressive work schedule.

    But really if you're going to go that route why stop at 18 hours a day? May as well go all the way to 24. Skip sleep, that's just wasted time you could have spent gittin gud. Rest is for filthy art casuls.

    But that's a stupid suggestion right? Because people need sleep. Everybody knows that. Which means everyone intuitively understands that every consecuitive hour worked is not necessarily worth the same amount as the last and at some point the benefits of your time invested are worth nothing. So there's absolutely no reason to think that 18 hours a day is better than 12 unless you operate under the completely baseless assumption that 18 hours a day is the magic number where fatigue and burnout sets in significantly enough to justify doing something else instead.


  • Zocky
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    Zocky greentooth
    Hm, not that i want to sound like a dick, but i do wonder about those 18 hours.....When i do learning, be it coding or art, sure for short period of time i can squeeze a lot of hours per day, but generally, my brains will just not allow it. 18 hours? When i try to pull even much less than that, i usually find out i'm actually hurting myself, since brains just get tired, and after like 10 hour or more, i just simply can't learn or focus on anything and actually do hurt my works more.

    Usually i would find out if i make smaller break, you can't imagen how much that helps, rather then just trying to pull as many hours per day as humanly possible.
    I do admire people who can actually pull off 18 hours per day for like a year, but i just wonder if that's really better than say, 12 hours, as the guy above me said, and in the long run, even if true, one does wonder if that's really the way industry should go.....
  • miguelnarayan
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    miguelnarayan polycounter lvl 8
    A very talented concept artist attended FZD after he left the game company we were working at. He felt that despite his already considerable skill, he could learn something from FZD. I can't speak for him directly, but he continues to work in the industry:

    http://www.artoffredram.com/

    It's my impression that FZD has a heavy focus on vehicle, prop, and environment design (they don't neglect character though, I just don't see much in the way of anatomy and life drawing studies in their curriculum) - so if your skills are weaker in these areas, then the school might be a good choice.

    I won't argue that you can't receive this training elsewhere, or more economically, but each individual may find that they hit their 'groove' with a particular school, mentor, or self-training regiment. For some people, the Feng Zhu Design School might be perfect, but it's not a perfect fit for all.
    Indeed, he's a beast. Just as saying clothes don't make the man, I think the course won't make the artist, it's all left to how dedicated we are. Honestly I think 12/18 hours a day is counter-productive, but I won't question this methodology until I try it from Feng' perspective.
    I've seen portfolios from graduates from FZD whom are not as good as that one. I've also seen self-taught artists who are pretty solid. I'm going to the bank this Monday, to see if I can get a scholarship, otherwise I think I may just make my own plan and study at home, as tempting as it may be to just dive into the mass grinding adventure.

    By the way, I think, honestly, 12 or 18 hours may not be that much, I'm not sure about you guys but when I was younger, I used to play MMOs for that many hours, just to grind my character up to high levels... I don't do that anymore but what I think is, as long as you like what you're doing, you won't feel the hours. (?)
  • Panupat
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    Panupat polycounter lvl 15
    Grinding game is different. You can do it half-asleep without thinking too much. While learning you want to be fully aware of what you're doing and also think about your art. You cant just mindlessly click buttons and expect to learn anything.
  • skankerzero
    Wasn't his school involved in a recent scandal? 

    I thought they were using student work to get contracts or something like that. 
  • miguelnarayan
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    miguelnarayan polycounter lvl 8
    Panupat said:
    Grinding game is different. You can do it half-asleep without thinking too much. While learning you want to be fully aware of what you're doing and also think about your art. You cant just mindlessly click buttons and expect to learn anything.
    Touché.

    Wasn't his school involved in a recent scandal? 

    I thought they were using student work to get contracts or something like that. 

    I haven't heard about it, but they do showcase a lot of student work on their FZD School page (which all look breathtaking btw.)
    I don't think they need to use the student work for that end... FZ has a very big portfolio already...
  • miguelnarayan
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    miguelnarayan polycounter lvl 8
    So apparently this guy was a tax worker, went to FZD and turned into the concept artist superman in 1 year... Check the journal entry, if you're as curious as I was, he talks about FZD. http://alexjjessup.deviantart.com/ - I have to say, it's tempting to work 20 or so hours a day to get to be the concept art king in only 1 year... but at the cost of my brains, memory and health? no thank you.


  • RyanB
    So apparently this guy was a tax worker, went to FZD and turned into the concept artist superman in 1 year... Check the journal entry, if you're as curious as I was, he talks about FZD. http://alexjjessup.deviantart.com/ - I have to say, it's tempting to work 20 or so hours a day to get to be the concept art king in only 1 year... but at the cost of my brains, memory and health? no thank you.


    Strange considering Feng Zhu talks about the importance of expanding your visual library by doing things outside of work.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnflBERf2zM

    He emphasizes the importance of reading, nature, travel, etc. for a concept artist.  Kind of hard to come up with original ideas when your head is full of videogames and work you've already done.

  • miguelnarayan
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    miguelnarayan polycounter lvl 8
    My thoughts, exactly dude! What you said here, I had in my brain but didn't quite put into words... I agree we get inspiration on great movies, videogames, travelling, and all the things, but how can we do that if we only paint the whole day and night? I mean, we can learn a lot of great pillars and foundations to build a great piece, but if the inspiration isn't there, or is being bullied by lack of mental and physical health by sleepless nights, the story telling, narrative, creativity of the piece will be rubbish. Kind of a pretty woman who is dumb as a box of rocks.
  • battlecow
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    battlecow polycounter lvl 12
    Please don't take this the wrong way but before you spend all that money into an advanced design course you should really work on your drawing skills (not photo montages in photoshop) if you are not good at sketching, painting you really will have a hard time keeping up and may have to work twice as hard as others to achieve barely acceptable results. I watched some of their online courses and they go fast if you don't have solid basic knowledge of design, anatomy and composition you just won't be able to keep up. If i were you I'd buy some online courses on gumroad, watch some of the big names on youtube and draw like a motherfucker non stop for a year.
  • miguelnarayan
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    miguelnarayan polycounter lvl 8
    battlecow said:
    Please don't take this the wrong way but before you spend all that money into an advanced design course you should really work on your drawing skills (not photo montages in photoshop) if you are not good at sketching, painting you really will have a hard time keeping up and may have to work twice as hard as others to achieve barely acceptable results. I watched tome of their online courses and they go fast if you don't have solid basic knowledge of design, anatomy and composition you just won't be able to keep up. If i were you I'd buy some online courses on gumroad, watch some of the big names on youtube and draw like a motherfucker non stop for a year.
    The guy I posted above had no real drawing skills, look at him now after taking the course.
    I don't take it the wrong way, I know my stuff is out of perspective. :) I'm working on it.
  • skankerzero
    to be fair, a tax worker can still have artistic skills. 
  • miguelnarayan
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    miguelnarayan polycounter lvl 8
    anyone can have talent, knowing how to use a pen or pencil is another thing, dont you agree?
  • skankerzero
    Yes of course. I was just getting the feeling that because he was a tax worker, his transformation was that much more amazing.
    His career before is irrelevant to his growth in talent.

    Either way, I think going into a school program is good if that is how you learn. If you have the self discipline then you can grow just from practicing every day and going to local college classes on the side.
  • Bletzkarn
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    Bletzkarn polycounter lvl 6
    I visited Fheng Zhu School of Design earlier this year as part of a study tour and met some of the students working there. Here are a few things I learnt about the school:

    1) It's extremely hard & competitive

    The guys there say they work on their skills 20 hours a day 7 days a week. Take a moment to take that in. For a whole year, you will be averaging 4 hours of sleep a night, the classrooms aren't that flash so you will be in a small grey room for most of your day. One guy I spoke to said it took him 6 months to get used to the routine. You need to be in class by 10 am every weekday, and most people will not go home until 4am. It's called a "military school" for this reason.

    Every day your work will be compared to others in your class, which is why people spend so many hours working on projects everyday. You essentially have to complete an assignment every single day.

    2) Singapore is a hard place to live

    Singapore is a pretty expensive place to live and you will probably need $40, 000 on top of the course fees to pay living expenses. You wont have time to work during this time and you will receive no benefits. The humidity and heat in Singapore can not be overstated. Even though your classes are air conditioned, the school itself is no exactly in a convenient location.

    Students there said that the 15 - 30 minutes they spent in the heat each day was enough to completely deplete their energy. Despite working 20 hour days, they said the heat and humidity in singapore is the worse part. If you come from a northern country like england or something, you've never experienced anything like it.

    3) The industry is extremely competitive

    FZD is producing some of the best concept artists we've ever seen, and here lies the problem. Every year 100 industry-ready concept artists flood the market. 100 doesn't seem like a lot, but how many game developers do you think are out there? Even GTA V which had a development team of 1000 people probably only had a handful of concept artists.

    Not only are you competing for a job with everyone in your class, you are competing for a job with the people who graduated last year, and the year before that, and so on. Since the schools induction it's released about 600 concept artists into the market. Concept art is such a niche market and such a small part of the large game development pipeline. You could be a texture artist, an environment artist, 3D prop artist or a generalist, as a bonus there isn't a school pumping 100's of them into the market every year.

    4) It's a business

    They call themselves a school, but they are not government funded or endorsed. They are essentially a business and the CEO (fheng zhu) pulls in about 4 million a year. This very fact will constantly nag at the back of your mind, are you being plat-formed to an amazing career or are you just a mule in someone else's business plan? Obviously you get out what you put in, and both parts of the previous sentence probably apply.

    5) All that effort, but for what?

    The average salary of a concept artist is not that high, and the amount of effort required is highly disproportionate to the salary. For the same amount of money and effort you could just become a petroleum engineer and earn 130K a year in 4 years after graduating. Instead you will be earning closer to 50K. You can increase your income by becoming an art director, but there are better ways to enter the field.

    Conclusion:

    All that being said, going to FZD is the ONLY WAY of becoming a concept artist. There skill level and proffeciency would take the average person 8 YEARS to achieve. If you where really dedicated and managed to practise 6 hours a day, then it would take 4 years to be that good. I'd only recommend doing this course if you BORN TO DRAW, only do it if it's in your every waking fibre. Do you draw for fun? given the option to play a video game would you start painting instead? Are you constantly thinking of awesome concept ideas? If you answered no to any of these, you need to seriously reconsider this career choice.

    Or if you have rich parents, go for it. For most people, it wont be worth it.
  • AtticusMars
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    AtticusMars greentooth
    Bletzkarn said:
    All that being said, going to FZD is the ONLY WAY of becoming a concept artist. 
    Seems legit.
  • Bletzkarn
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    Bletzkarn polycounter lvl 6
    Bletzkarn said:
    All that being said, going to FZD is the ONLY WAY of becoming a concept artist. 
    Seems legit.
    You will never be able to compete with the graduates for that school, at least in the same time frame. You can finish a 4 year art degree and you wont be as good as them. In 1 year they over 5000 hours of solid work, half way to becoming a certified "expert".

    Any normal person will spend 6-8 years of solid effort to reach the same level they do in 12 months.
  • AtticusMars
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    AtticusMars greentooth
    The 10,000 hour rule has gone through the scientific woodchipper and yet people still preach it like it's gospel.
  • MagicSugar
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    MagicSugar polycounter lvl 10
    Bletzkarn said:
    Bletzkarn said:
    All that being said, going to FZD is the ONLY WAY of becoming a concept artist. 
    Seems legit.
    You will never be able to compete with the graduates for that school, at least in the same time frame. You can finish a 4 year art degree and you wont be as good as them. In 1 year they over 5000 hours of solid work, half way to becoming a certified "expert".

    Any normal person will spend 6-8 years of solid effort to reach the same level they do in 12 months.
    This guy in his mid twenties, for example, lives in war torn Ukraine, makes concept art using the latest techniques and includes in his contract client list American companies like Cliff Bleszinski's Bosskey studio.

    https://www.artstation.com/artist/min

    In my book....this guy's the concept art "beast".

  • Panupat
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    Panupat polycounter lvl 15
    battlecow said:
    Please don't take this the wrong way but before you spend all that money into an advanced design course you should really work on your drawing skills (not photo montages in photoshop) if you are not good at sketching, painting you really will have a hard time keeping up and may have to work twice as hard as others to achieve barely acceptable results. I watched tome of their online courses and they go fast if you don't have solid basic knowledge of design, anatomy and composition you just won't be able to keep up. If i were you I'd buy some online courses on gumroad, watch some of the big names on youtube and draw like a motherfucker non stop for a year.
    The guy I posted above had no real drawing skills, look at him now after taking the course.
    I don't take it the wrong way, I know my stuff is out of perspective. :) I'm working on it.
    I think you're well aware of this, you said it yourself "You're out of perspective".

    Drawing/sketching skill is a skill gained by spending time and practice. If your passion is really in art, you should be sketching on your own and become better everyday already. If you're not doing that, really ask yourself if this is what you want to do your entire life...

    Most of the people here keeps practicing and keeps learning new things on our own time, after work. And we're able to do that because it's our passion. That's what important: the drive to improve yourself on your own. Learning doesn't end after only a few years in collage/school.
  • Chris Krüger
    Seems like a good way to kill yourself, or atleast get burned out.
  • Bletzkarn
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    Bletzkarn polycounter lvl 6
    Bletzkarn said:
    Bletzkarn said:
    All that being said, going to FZD is the ONLY WAY of becoming a concept artist. 
    Seems legit.
    You will never be able to compete with the graduates for that school, at least in the same time frame. You can finish a 4 year art degree and you wont be as good as them. In 1 year they over 5000 hours of solid work, half way to becoming a certified "expert".

    Any normal person will spend 6-8 years of solid effort to reach the same level they do in 12 months.
    This guy in his mid twenties, for example, lives in war torn Ukraine, makes concept art using the latest techniques and includes in his contract client list American companies like Cliff Bleszinski's Bosskey studio.

    https://www.artstation.com/artist/min

    In my book....this guy's the concept art "beast".

    Jesus fuck he is amazing. All right you've convinced me I was wrong. Just goes to show there's even more talent out there than I realised.
  • zetheros
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    zetheros interpolator
    Bletzkarn said:
    Bletzkarn said:
    Bletzkarn said:
    All that being said, going to FZD is the ONLY WAY of becoming a concept artist. 
    Seems legit.
    You will never be able to compete with the graduates for that school, at least in the same time frame. You can finish a 4 year art degree and you wont be as good as them. In 1 year they over 5000 hours of solid work, half way to becoming a certified "expert".

    Any normal person will spend 6-8 years of solid effort to reach the same level they do in 12 months.
    This guy in his mid twenties, for example, lives in war torn Ukraine, makes concept art using the latest techniques and includes in his contract client list American companies like Cliff Bleszinski's Bosskey studio.

    https://www.artstation.com/artist/min

    In my book....this guy's the concept art "beast".

    Jesus fuck he is amazing. All right you've convinced me I was wrong. Just goes to show there's even more talent out there than I realised.
    Just had to add onto this. I think I felt my pupils orgasm.
  • lefix
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    lefix polycounter lvl 11
    Is this 18-20hr per day actually true or just people enjoying to exaggerate things? I find this hard to believe and it sounds like alot of wasted time. You can't possibly efficiently learn for such long periods of time. These kind of hours may work for a couple days, but long term all that'll happen is that your 8-10 hours of productivity are being strechted out over 18-20 hours a day, wasting 10 hours of time every day, which you should be using to shut down and relax. You have no free time at all, become possibly depressed and live a very unhealthy lifestyle.
  • miguelnarayan
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    miguelnarayan polycounter lvl 8
    Syd Mead didn't have FZD, and did just fine without it.
  • Technomancr
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    Technomancr polycounter lvl 5
    Syd Mead didn't have FZD, and did just fine without it.
    To add to that. Feng Zhu didn't have FZD :)


  • artquest
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    artquest polycounter lvl 13
    Syd Mead didn't have FZD, and did just fine without it.
    To add to that. Feng Zhu didn't have FZD :)


    lol but Feng Zhu did go to an insanely good industrial design focused school. I think it's important to realize that there are many great schools out there. Pick the one that fits your situation best and work your ass off!

    As for the 18 hours a day thing... there will be some days you hit that number but probably not all the time. I went to full sail and our class kinda had a sense of whoever could work the most days on little to no sleep was the most badass. Looking back that seems pretty dumb lol. (I wouldn't reccomend working over 12 hrs a day unless it's for short sprints.) But the mentality of working hard and focusing on improving will absolutely pay off. I've been in the industry 5 years now and still work just as hard as I did back in school.

    To to sum it all up: Pick what you want to do (in this case art...), figure out what you can do to make it happen and then commit all your willpower to doing that. Like others have said, research the teachers and find people you want to learn from.

    There's a great podcast on this very subject:

    http://chrisoatley.com/concept-artist-internship/


  • Bletzkarn
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    Bletzkarn polycounter lvl 6
    Syd Mead didn't have FZD, and did just fine without it.
    To add to that. Feng Zhu didn't have FZD :)


    That goes back to my point.. Fheng Zhu had been painting for 8 years before he touched a wacom tablet, same with sid meid. You can get to that skill level without FZD, it just will take you a longer time.

    I mean again they paint about 15 hours a day, I don't know any person who has the discipline and dedication to that without the help of a school.
  • AtticusMars
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    AtticusMars greentooth
    Bletzkarn said:
    That goes back to my point.. Fheng Zhu had been painting for 8 years before he touched a wacom tablet, same with sid meid. You can get to that skill level without FZD, it just will take you a longer time.
    Do you have any actual data to support this assertion or is your entire argument constructed on flimsy anecdotes and pop science?
  • MagicSugar
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    MagicSugar polycounter lvl 10
    So apparently this guy was a tax worker, went to FZD and turned into the concept artist superman in 1 year... Check the journal entry, if you're as curious as I was, he talks about FZD. http://alexjjessup.deviantart.com/ - I have to say, it's tempting to work 20 or so hours a day to get to be the concept art king in only 1 year... but at the cost of my brains, memory and health? no thank you.


    Actually...if you read his deviantart journal closely, he said he took another year of "advance studies" on top of the regular FZD 1 year course.  So, it cost him twice the amount (totalling approx. $90,000 +) and twice the hardcore work hours effort to reach a level where he can just compete and land art jobs.

    1 year of 18-20+ hours of studying aint enough.
  • miguelnarayan
  • happybell
    FZD is great. I've seen the work they produce. But it's very costly and best to reconsider if you think attending the school will let you repay your debts. No matter how good a school is, end of the of day it comes down to the artist because these schools are driven by money. They aren't obliged to make you pass with flying colours. Maybe you can sit down and weigh out the best and worst case scenarios here before you decide whether the fees are worth it. Are you sure you will find a job once you graduate? Will you be able to start paying off straightaway? How long would you need to clear the debt?

    Have you considered alternatives like online learning? Make no doubt Feng Zhu is a master (and I haven't done enough research elsewhere) but surely there are other masters who are closer to home. Were you to attend art school in your area, would you have government subsidies for locals? How will the cost of living impact your finances? Of course do some background research to see if other schools can provide decent courses.

    Everyone wants to learn from the best, but don't forget to be realistic and weigh out the pros and cons carefully. To me being able to attend FZD is more of a luxury than a need. If you think you can afford FZD, I'd say why not. If you can't, you don't have to feel discouraged. That's my 2 cents.
  • miguelnarayan
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    miguelnarayan polycounter lvl 8
    I've been thinking and re-thinking, and it ain't happening. It's a luxury, and Feng is great, his teachers there are great too, not sure if they are great teachers, they are great artists, but if other people can get into the industry by learning online by Gnomon workshops, CGMA and other tutorials, so can I. I have seen this happening before, and it'll be alright, as long as I have the will power to push myself everyday, draw everyday and not try too hard, I'll get there. :) Thanks for the 2cents.
    I only think of attending FZD nowadays, when I get to an obstacle in the way, that I feel FZD teachers would clear it for me, but I have been finding work arounds. :)
  • MagicSugar
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    MagicSugar polycounter lvl 10
    I've been thinking and re-thinking, and it ain't happening....his teachers there are great too, 
    Consider hiring FZD grads to tutor or mentor you (via skype, google hangouts, facebook, email correspondence)?  

    If they're not busy or tied up in projects they might be able to "school" you for a reasonable fee.

    Like, give you the same assignments and classwork projects that they did at FZD.
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