Are you attending any animation school or self learn?
Hello Ladies & Gent
Is there any one here currently attending one off those Animation school that teach everything from modeling through animation or are you a self learn? If your in a school which one and what do you think of it? Also if you learning from an animation school online tell me what does it like to learn online?
Is there any one here currently attending one off those Animation school that teach everything from modeling through animation or are you a self learn? If your in a school which one and what do you think of it? Also if you learning from an animation school online tell me what does it like to learn online?
Replies
You can learn 3d applications in your spare time, theres plenty of resources and you're likely better off just doing tutorials on the internet than you would be in a class. Now of course this isnt the right way for everyone, some people really need that class environment and really thrive in it. At the end of the day its what you put into it, if you sign up for a game course and only put in the bare min to get your degree you'll be spending a couple years afterwards continuing your art on your own before you'll be good enough to actually get a job. Now if you really push yourself to the limit, spend all the time you possibly can working on your art in and outside of class you'll do much better. Like most things in life it comes down to what you put into it.
Now, as far degrees making it more likely to get you a job and things of that nature. Generally the most important thing is going to be your portfolio, if you've got a great portfolio and no degree you can still get a job pretty easily, and after that would be experience, even stuff like mod experience(if you have some decent work to show from it) is better than simply having a degree in my book. Because it shows you're a motivated person that can get things done on their own time, not just when they are paying to take classes. And then finally the degree comes into play, if you were up for a job with someone and had roughly the same talent, and same amount of experience, and neither of you were retards and had strange personality problems, the one with the better degree would likely be the one to get hired(or the one who will work for less! =P). Degrees can be very useful if you plan on trying to get work outside of your country, because with out a degree that is virtually impossible. So thats one last thing to keep in mind.
It was a great environment, even better when you make friends with classmate who are even more motivated by you. First real time I worked all day and enjoyed doing it most of the time.
It sure launched me forward from the 7 years of hobbyist modeling prior, learning by myself when I needed too.
Best Animation School for your buck. Certainly not a place that's just cashing in on game development schooling. Highly skilled, very well done. Check it out, if you're looking to go down the schooling path.
My girl is an Animation Mentor graduate. She found out about it halfway through her other college and ended up doing both at the same time. I was able to sit in on her classes, since our PCs were in the same room, and I have to say it's amazing. The things she learned, the resources she had available, and the credentials of every instructor blew my mind. I certainly recommend it, and I'm not even an animator! Good luck! :]
Yeah I have heard quite a lot off good thing about this I think I'm going to try it out too bad it only teach animation there are no modeling involve guess I can learn modeling by using app like Blender, Silo, 3D Max, Maya if I can afford it
I am disappointed that I never enrolled in a traditional art course (I still may take up a course part time in the near future), because I would have loved to have gotten a solid base which I could then work on on my own with time.
At the end of the day, any one can learn a 2D/3D package just from messing around in the menus and experimenting. There are tonnes of short courses out there that specialize in such things for a fraction of the cost, but you still need to know the art fundamentals otherwise you're left with a tool that's useless to you.
I've never really studied animation in particular because it was lightly covered in my games course (and by lightly, we were given a tute straight from the 3DSMAX pdf... I'm paying $9k a year for this?). So I wouldn't know what animation schools are out there, but I highly recommend a traditional animation course more than computer animation specific course. In the traditional course, you'll learn all the fundamentals for animation, and generally just the important things for animation which you can then port to any medium (be it digital or otherwise).
-caseyjones
University was no better, Like so many others here I was let down alott.
But dont let that stop you as I totally consider myself self taught and I made my dream happen! Now for the next.. ;P
If theres any advice I can offer is go to university but do an art course instead, and look bloody hard for a good 1.
It looks like the same old thing, where students learn a bit of everything without any depth of focus on one thing. I've tried to dissuade him from it, but he's quite keen on learning a bit of coding and scripting as well as the arty stuff since he wants to start his own indie company eventually.
It's in Belgium, so any natives know if it's up to scratch?
The hard work should be done in your spare time and looking through polycount for tips and tricks.
I really can't see the point of doing a ridiculously expensive course to learn the same stuff you could learn by getting involved in a mod or small indie game.
I suppose if you need to learn game design or scripting type stuff is may be a good idea, but for arty stuff I reckon practice is the key.
Its sad though that uni courses don't really teach you the stuff you need to know to survive in the industry.
I looked through a bunch of demo reels at the london game festival last year and there seems to be not much in the way of texturing or modelling skills on show.
Learn the basics with pencil and paper or clay or whatever real mediums there are in fine or traditional arts, 3d software is just a layer of knowledge that sits on top of all of that, the better you know the basics, the better your 3d will look since you will understand the nuance better. It's all software after the basics anyways.
But then again the younger generations already have wicked perception of 3d space in their minds... I can't play 3d platformers at all and I'm not that old o_o
Lol its what i did. I had lots of fun and barely graduated. 2 years of schooling to learn basic 3DS max GUI. The rest i did for myself.
But hey having an 18k edbt for school was good motivation for me not to give up in those tough years while i was struggling to break in. I figure if i owed that much mone i would be damned if i got nothing out of it.
my uni years were spent getting hammered in the student bar and in camden I am afraid to say.
I only got a 2:2 in the end , but from the start they hated my work anyway, so I figured just make the best of it.
That being said, animation, for the most part, cannot be lumped into Polycount's normal "go to a traditional art school and learn the technical stuff on the side" take on schooling. I've known big name animators who still say they suck, simply because they haven't been doing for 40+ years yet. It's definitely in a different ballpark, when it comes to needing training.
I would say you would have a very hard time landing any kind of work as an animator, without some sort of proper training in it. It really isn't something you can pickup from some tutorials here and there...like some may lead you to believe. Then again....I'm no animator.
I then switched to an art university and I am currently majoring in sculpture. I will say my figure sculpting classes have bettered my sense of anatomy as well as design. Yeah, a good deal of my classes deal with conceptual design, which I won't get into because that's totally irrelevant, but I also take a good deal of classes that are just interesting. Yeah, a big reason going to school is for the experience, but I also think the opportunity to learn in a very creative environment really helps. Also there is nothing better than getting piss drunk with your classmates after a big critique.
I think one can teach themselves animation, just like one can teach themselves how to do character art. As long as you can familiarize yourself with the technology and have a good sense of how things move it should be no problem. Just like with character and environment art is all about having a good eye for design. Yeah, people can learn this sort of stuff, but I think it really takes more than just knowledge of a subject when it comes to art.
Interestingly enough, the animation majors at my school are recommended to take fine art classes like figure drawing, figure sculpting and anatomy, just so they can get a better understanding how the body moves.
I think it's possible to be a really good animator and not be able to draw very well, but learning the basics from experienced instructors I'd argue is crucial to becoming really good at it. You can read about some of the basics on your own, but having an instructor explain and show you what is really important to portray movement I think is the best way to learn animation.
--Just my thoughts. :P At the end of the day, it's all still up to you.
And I use the term "get you in" very lightly.
In no order of any kind:-
Bourmeworth (england)
Teeside (scotland)
GlenMoran (wales)
God my spelling sucks. Those seem to be the only unversities that arent out particurly too raise funds.
And to answer another question there are quite a few brilliant animators out there who cant draw for shi..
a good one.
Cheers. Look into the drawing dvds of Scott Robertson
here is the link...
http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/dvds/groups/instructors/2d/robertson_g.html
If you like doing that then art school might be for you.
Look into this as well
http://www.poopinmymouth.com/tutorial/formal_art_training.html
http://www.artrenewal.org
The basic problem with most art school is that they just approach teaching fine arts as a form of self expression and not a trade. You know how to express yourself, you just did, didn't you. You don't need to spend 4 years learning to do something you already know how to do, what you need is to learn how to do what you do better. So you need to learn technique, and there is proper techniques that have been past down for hundreds of years that go far beyond draw what you see and draw from reality and then there are things you develop which can help or hurt you on your own. So find a school that will grill you until you learn or fail you because you can't do it.
Alex