Bournemouth University

samgriffiths

Hello,

I am looking for information regarding how good Bournemouth university is for 3D Modeling and Animation. Specifically in regards to two courses,

http://courses.bournemouth.ac.uk/Course.aspx?course=238
http://courses.bournemouth.ac.uk/Course.aspx?course=275


I'm 17 and have been doing Modeling and Animation for around 1 and 1/2 years in my own time now. I aspire to become an environment artist/character artist.

I hope to attend in 2011 if you give appropriate feedback.

Thankyou.

MoP

I haven't been there, but I've heard good things about those courses. I applied there back when I had just finished my A-levels, but ended up going to Abertay instead because at the time Bournemouth wanted a pretty high grade in Maths in order for me to get accepted, and I dropped Maths after AS-level, so that was out

I'm pretty sure there are one or two people on these boards who have been or currently study there, hopefully they can shed some light on it.

Adam Curtis

I went to southampton solent university just up the road - Computer and Videogames is the course. I found it really good, especially as they really focus on things like life drawing and 2d work before stepping into 3d. Anyway it helped me and many others get jobs in the industry, so check it out

Dont have much info on bournemouth, but I have worked with a few people who graduated from there.

samgriffiths

Tried to check out Southampton's course,

http://www.soton.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/2009/index.html

I couldn't find it in the list, would it be 'graphic arts'?

EDIT

I didn't check this 'solent' university, my mistake I'll probably find it now.

Adam Curtis

http://www.solent.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/computer_and_video_games_ba/course_details.aspx

theres 2 unis in southampton

Farfarer

I've heard decent things about Bournemouth.

You might also want to check out what Dundee has to offer, I've heard very good things about the courses up there.

FAT_CAP

Yeah Bournemouth has a great reputation and some solid graduates come out of there

From what I understand they tend to focus quite a bit on the technical side of things (maths and programming). I ended up going to Teeside University but the technical portions of the courses were really iterated when I went for my interview there way back when. The lecturer giving the welcom introduction speech was saying that not many people are able to excel at both the art and maths/ programming needed for their computer graphics courses.

Along with the interview and look at your portfolio there was a maths and "cognitive ability" test (think MENSA type logic puzzles) so the course may not be suited to people who think that computer graphics is just pressing the "make art" button.

nome_sane

You need to check out the BA in Computer Visualisation & Animation. I don't know what those other two are like but they are at the collage and don't look like they are the real deal / part of the ncca.
I would defiantly recommend the course you should get very good value as you get worked really hard and expect a hardcore schedule of lectures/deadlines but your paying all that money so why not get the most out of it?

I would say the coarse (at least when I did it) was more geared for films but this may have changed and you get the freedom to do projects in whatever area you want.
Also you learn a hell of a lot of theory/maths and programming, which seems excessive at the time as you may just want to do artwork but it worth it and will make you better at your job.
Don't expect to get taught "This is the way to model x" or "This is how to animate a walk" Because there was bugger all like that.
You can learn all that type of thing on your own but all the theory and problem solving is much more valuable.

As mentioned before Teeside's games course is supposed to be really good and Abertay Uni in Dundee.

Also to consider Bournemouth is quite fun in the summer but the rest of the time it reeeeeks!!!

nome_sane

Sorry, just looked at those courses they could be what you were after. I thought that they did more product design specific stuff at the college not games/film.

Farfarer

nome_sane wrote: »

As mentioned before Teeside's games course is supposed to be really good

As someone who quit the course, take it from me, it's not.

t4paN

Talon wrote: »

As someone who quit the course, take it from me, it's not.

As someone who got the degree, I don't think it's that bad.

Granted I suck at this and my grades were abysmal, plus I flunked the drawing and composition (life art and stuff) module, which was pretty stupid of me, but the course in itself isn't that bad as long as you work hard and do your own work plus the university stuff.

samgriffiths

I got a private message from someone who attended the university perhaps on the specific course I stated, It was very informative and cleared alot up. He/She refered me to : http://courses.bournemouth.ac.uk/Course.aspx?course=636&page=course_information

Though this does seem a little more technically oriented I notice that the entry requirements are MUCH higher and I will need DDD on my current course.

Farfarer

t4paN wrote: »

As someone who got the degree, I don't think it's that bad.

Granted I suck at this and my grades were abysmal, plus I flunked the drawing and composition (life art and stuff) module, which was pretty stupid of me, but the course in itself isn't that bad as long as you work hard and do your own work plus the university stuff.

2 years from scratch being self taught and dicking around with HL2 mods in my spare time and I learned more than the entire course would've taught me.

Even if I'd have finished the degree (I quit after the work placement year) it would have been my own work and not the university stuff that taught me anything and got me anywhere in the industry.

Anyway, there's a list as long as my arm of reasons I didn't like it and don't think it's great but I won't get into them again.

t4paN

Talon wrote: »

2 years from scratch being self taught and dicking around with HL2 mods in my spare time and I learned more than the entire course would've taught me.

Even if I'd have finished the degree (I quit after the work placement year) it would have been my own work and not the university stuff that taught me anything and got me anywhere in the industry.

Anyway, there's a list as long as my arm of reasons I didn't like it and don't think it's great but I won't get into them again.

Well granted, you can't really go anywhere unless you do personal work. But I still think the university can provide you with some good basis. Also, working on a team to make our own game during the last year was a very good learning experience. Except for the fact that I wanted to kill two of our programmers who did fuck all for the game.