Online college suggestions for student interested in 3D Modeling.

charlie_mandu

Hello! I'm a young student who studied for animation school but had a change of heart to modeling for film/game.

I've been researching into schools in Ontario but I'm hesitant to apply since many of them either aren't taught by industry working professionals, too far away, are post-diploma courses or/and are quite expensive. I've since discovered online schools like CGMA and CG Spectrum and they seem good for what they offer with their online classrooms and teachers currently working in the industry. There's also ThinkTank Online, but I believe that's for more advanced artists?

Usually I wouldn't consider online college but I know getting a job is more reliant on your hard skills than diploma/degree, so I've considered working part time to pay and study these courses for a few years until I'm ready to apply. I understand it will be really hard (less networking options, among other downsides), but not impossible. Would really appreciate some more input here. Is this too risky? 

Hope everyone is and will stay safe and healthy. 
Cheers!

sacboi

I assume, "...modeling for film/game" is char biased? (characters)

If so, Scott Eaton's "Anatomy for Artists" workshop, imho would be advisable to also think about, due to the highly competitive nature the discipline encapsulates these days for those seeking entry and the two tiered tuition stream is fairly reasonably priced however it's entirely your choice, either edu online hub among those you'd listed will suffice.

"Is this too risky?"

hmm...not sure what this means, can you expand a bit?

charlie_mandu

I'm fairly new to this, so I'm open to try out hard surface, organic modeling, environment or props to see where I can later fit in best. 

Right now I'm following a blender tutorial by FlippedNormals which is fun, and will try out sculpting on my own to see where I need to improve. I've looked into Scott Eaton's Anatomy for Artists and am planning on taking his courses too; they seem super interesting and helpful. 

"Is this too risky?" - I guess it's because I've been taught at a young age that you need a degree/diploma at a public college/university to have a 'safe' pathway into a career. So the idea of taking full responsibility of my education by taking online courses and doing self study seemed risky. A small part of me thinks if I don't make it into the industry, I don't have a degree/diploma to ease my way into another field of work. 
Though the more I think about it, there isn't really a guaranteed way to get a job in any field regardless of what school you came out of. 

sacboi

I'm fairly new to this, so I'm open to try out hard surface, organic modeling, environment or props to see where I can later fit in best. 

Right now I'm following a blender tutorial by FlippedNormals which is fun, and will try out sculpting on my own to see where I need to improve. I've looked into Scott Eaton's Anatomy for Artists and am planning on taking his courses too; they seem super interesting and helpful.

Ah, all good, also worth mentioning posting work for peer review will often be a useful strategy to exploit when stuff goes sideways or gets a little bumpy.

"Is this too risky?" - I guess it's because I've been taught at a young age that you need a degree/diploma at a public college/university to have a 'safe' pathway into a career. So the idea of taking full responsibility of my education by taking online courses and doing self study seemed risky. A small part of me thinks if I don't make it into the industry, I don't have a degree/diploma to ease my way into another field of work. 
Though the more I think about it, there isn't really a guaranteed way to get a job in any field regardless of what school you came out of.

In general terms, I'd agree. To always have either a 'trade' or 'degree' behind you as a backup contingency was likewise instilled, throughout my late teens waay back when. However nowadays 'gamification' has attained increased overlap in terms of applied cross disciplinary skillset beyond the entertainment industry, which certainly wasn't as widespread when I first started out.

Because if for example entry level games or film career prospects ultimately proves unsuccessful, then other options remain available to pursue be it arch/product viz, medical, mining, military sim, heavy industry, manufacturing, transport infrastructure, engineering, plus either industrial, aeronautic, marine or automotive design etc, alongside continued growth year on year.

So being 'self taught' is not necessarily seen as a connotative barrier it once was.  

charlie_mandu

I'll definitely see if I can get some peer reviews here or on other forums like discord once I make some stuff. Thank you for the advice, it's been really helpful and reassuring.

Larry

@charlie_mandu

try subscribing to pluralsight, for very few money you can view all their training videos for learning programs, and techniques. It's really good for beginner/intermediate level, it has some really good anatomy courses for characters and good techniques to speed up your workflow. It also has some learning paths that give you assignments. It's what i used and it gave me a really good foundation to keep learning on my own. This combined with polycount discussions and youtube tutorials will get you wherever you want. Cheers

charlie_mandu

Pluralsight seems really good as well. Do they provide you with the software to learn the courses or do you have to buy them separately? I can't seem to find out when I looked through their website, unless I missed it somewhere...

Larry

charlie_mandu said:

Pluralsight seems really good as well. Do they provide you with the software to learn the courses or do you have to buy them separately? I can't seem to find out when I looked through their website, unless I missed it somewhere...

You can get trial versions of them, some have student licenses, some have a monthly subscription... And some are free, like blender. In blender you can do many things and then substance painter/designer offer their products at a relatively low subscription

charlie_mandu

Thank you so much!