Yeah, I did my last character there. The biggest difference between that and a regular character art course is that you get 2-3 teachers instead of one, with 2-3 classes per week instead of one. But besides the price there is another downside - 2-3 teachers need far more coordination to be as effective.
The teachers are motivated and helpful and easy to reach. So that is a big plus. You also get access to interviews with other artists, though that is mainly of worth for people who are new to the industry, after a while you simply know the basic stories behind most careers - in the sense of what made people really successful - guess what - its practice.
Personally I did learn more teachniques with Adam Skutt's class. Now he is teaching at the CGMA. But since he is on his own he has a clearly structured approach to what he teaches. His critique is also a bit 'harder' in the sense of he will always, really always, point out what you have to tackle next to get your next level. Biggest downside compared to the bootcamp - its just once a week, so you might be iterating faster with the bootcamp.
Generally speaking I would suggest those classes only once you have a firm grip of Maya/Max, ZBRush, Marvelous, Substance and basic to intermediate knowledge of workflows. If not you will be paying a lot of money to hear basics that can be learned for free. The biggest advantage of these classes is that someone spends time with your work to help you reach the next level, not you learning how to save/open a file in Maya. I've seen far too many beginners doing these courses and they are stuck chasing the lectures and never finish their characters and also don't really get anything portfolioworthy out of it, nor do they get feedback that is worth several hundred dollars, since every beginner could have told them as much.
The GAi also offers Adam's previous classes. It would be a great starting point as you learn about all his techniques with extensive amount of videos (at least as far as I know, I got my access to those by doing his course at the GAi). After that I would tackle one of the courses with feedback to just get your finetuning.
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The teachers are motivated and helpful and easy to reach. So that is a big plus. You also get access to interviews with other artists, though that is mainly of worth for people who are new to the industry, after a while you simply know the basic stories behind most careers - in the sense of what made people really successful - guess what - its practice.
Personally I did learn more teachniques with Adam Skutt's class. Now he is teaching at the CGMA. But since he is on his own he has a clearly structured approach to what he teaches. His critique is also a bit 'harder' in the sense of he will always, really always, point out what you have to tackle next to get your next level. Biggest downside compared to the bootcamp - its just once a week, so you might be iterating faster with the bootcamp.
Generally speaking I would suggest those classes only once you have a firm grip of Maya/Max, ZBRush, Marvelous, Substance and basic to intermediate knowledge of workflows. If not you will be paying a lot of money to hear basics that can be learned for free. The biggest advantage of these classes is that someone spends time with your work to help you reach the next level, not you learning how to save/open a file in Maya. I've seen far too many beginners doing these courses and they are stuck chasing the lectures and never finish their characters and also don't really get anything portfolioworthy out of it, nor do they get feedback that is worth several hundred dollars, since every beginner could have told them as much.
The GAi also offers Adam's previous classes. It would be a great starting point as you learn about all his techniques with extensive amount of videos (at least as far as I know, I got my access to those by doing his course at the GAi). After that I would tackle one of the courses with feedback to just get your finetuning.