Universities UK
polycounter lvl 13
I'll be applying for a University within the next month or so to do game design, my favorite so far is Bournemouth I also like the look of Teesside for a second choice. Is there any where else you would recommend?
Replies
bournemouth seems like the best choice though.
I've been to teeside..place is very run-down - but apparently a good course.
Escape Studios also looked good a couple of years when i was looking into this stuff. Although they offer online training now aswell, it does look pretty basic.
I've learned more on these forums combined with a couple of books than it looks like i would have learned spending 3 years at uni and saved a hell of a lot of cash.
I suppose thats an option, but not for everyone?
I went to Bournemouth open day in October and there equipment was top notch really liked the place, to be honest I really want to go there but just need to have a back up plan also I'm applying this year but I'm going to have a gap year to study a fine art foundation course to get my drawing up to scratch.
If you do go for a game design course make sure the lecturers are still in work somewhere in the industry. It makes a big difference when you can speak to somebody on the inside now, as compared to one lecturer I had who only worked on PS1 games and still sees the industry from that era.
I guess you just need to make sure you know what you're in for.
I graduated from Portsmouth in 2007 with a first in BA Computer Animation. The only reason i mention this is because i soon came to realise regardless of the good grade i wasn't prepared technically for the industry due to much of my skillset being self taught and not production ready. This is a problem you will most likely suffer with whatever route you take with the exception of escape. You will learn more in your first month on the job than you will in 3 years of uni. Luckily for me a i got a job at a games company through some contacts and im now working in London at a VFX company. This is not to say Portsmouth didn't have its pluses but i will get onto that.
I have worked with guys who have graduated from the Animation course at Bournemouth and also lots of the guys i work with now have gone through Escape. Hopefully this means i can address some of the points raised so far:
"Escape Studios also looked good a couple of years when i was looking into this stuff. Although they offer online training now aswell, it does look pretty basic."
Out of your options Escape will most definately be the best one. You are taught by current industry proffessionals to industry standards and you get all their placement benefits after you graduate. They will teach you everything you need to know and more to get a gig in VFX or games. You will learn more in the time at escape than you will in 3 years uni and i garauntee that. Bare in mind though you only get out of these courses what you put in. Ask questions all the time and annoy the hell out of your lecturers to squeeze as much out of them as possible.
"pick a traditional art course"
This is very good advice. Traditional art will be the foundation for everything you do so get as good at it as you possibly can. Most unis will insist on a portfolio or foundation degree. If you choose escape it would be best to do this first before attending as i dont think they offer this.
Be careful of unis who piggy back off the success of past students, its misleading as it has nothing to do with the current industry purely because it changes so fast. Ask as many questions as possible and get a look at the most current work from the Uni. Unis will often pimp work of students who have got into a big company three years after leaving Uni, this is super annoying for potential candidates and very misleading.
Also this "make sure the lecturers are still in work somewhere in the industry" is vital for your education. Its no good having lecturers who are out of touch with a fast paced industry. It wont help you.
Damning insight into uni education over, with the benefit of heinsite i would do this:
- Do a tradtional art course and build up a good portfolio of traditional work
- Save the money for escape and in the time you are doing your tradtional folio gain as much 3d knowledge from forums like this as you possibly can in preperation for the course.
- After a course sit down, hone your showreel with your knew super 3d powers and go out and fight for a job.
/end essay
Take all i have said with a pinch of salt. There are definately good things about uni which you will discover yourself
Best three bits of advice would be:
- do the traditional art course
- make sure the lecturers are current industry
- check the most current past work of students to see what they are producing
edit - GNOMON dvds! they are a must.
When I went to Bournemouth and looked at some students work (current 3rd year students) I played a game that they made as a team and I was really impressed so Bournemouth is the right choice for me. My tutor said if he were to do it again, he would also do a foundation arts course and then do Animation and Visualistation at Bournemouth. He himself is a an ex-student and he got offered a job at Codemasters while in his last year at uni.
The "good" students would probably have just as good of a portfolio regardless of which uni they went to, or if they never even went uni at all.
Thats not to say that all game design courses are a complete waste of time, because they're not. You can meet friends and other contacts who you may work with in the future, and you get plenty of time to do whatever you want. 3-4 years of complete freedom without worrying about income (assuming you take a loan
But forcing myself into this course inspired me to become a game artist in the final year so it was definitely worth it for me
Looking back at it, it didnt really teach me much and most lectures were just variations of the tutorials that come with the software. 90% of the modelling tasks were not games-related so we didnt really get taught about the limitations of modelling for game engines until the final year.
The level design lectures were even worse though because the lecturer took existing, working tutorials and reworded them so badly that they were just outright wrong and wouldnt work if you followed them step by step. So the best thing to do when he hands you a tutorial is to look up the original source that he copied it from and use that one instead.
But I do know that things have been improving since my time there, theres now actually a forum for the games design students and more regular competitions and events for the students. Might be worth asking an existing student to give you his review instead since mine is outdated and hopefully irrelevant now
For someone who is interested in game art already, I'd advise against doing a games design course because I know you can learn everything you need by yourself (well, with lots of help from the internet and polycount!) - but for clueless people who don't know what they wanna do then a game design (or any topic really) course may just be the push they need to inspire them to do something productive with their lives.
If you want the uni experience and meeting friends with similar interests then I'd pick a traditional arts course instead.
I found my uni had a - you want to learn it, you go learn it and we will sit here getting paid approach. They didnt even have anyone that knew how to do 3D. Hence my rediculous post counts on community sites like this.
work in your free time
Currently in my 4th year at abertay and yea you learn what you want to learn, if you don't put the time in at home you get nothing out.
Remember Uni is academic, its a lot about essay writing and learning about the fields you want to work in not just about "this is how you make something". Uni helped me alot on deciding what I actually wanted to do in life, finishing high school at 17 and being like "id like to work in games somewhere..." just wasnt enough. Its also about the life experience, learning to cook for yourself, making friends and increasing your alcohol tollerance.
I do wish I had done something such as traditional art but it didnt excite me that much thinking about going to just do art at uni, now i justt have the dedication to teach myself in my spare time and improve my drawing skills etc.
Ditto; I've worked with guys from Bournemouth and they were a talented bunch.
Teesides is great, as is Abertey Dundee in Dundee, Scotland.
Just wanted to post a quick bit about Staffs University since it was brought up above.
We have around 500 students doing variations of Games, 3D, CGI backed up by a team with industry, academic experience and the RARE Motion Capture Studio. I'd hope that we have moved on and made massive steps in recent years, do feel free to visit our student forums @ www.staffsgamesdesign.co.uk You can grab student feedback straight from the get go. If you subscribe to 3D Artist magazine we had some work featured in there on issue 3 I think.
@ The Classroom VS DVD issue. We expect students to do a massive amount of learning from other sources as well as class time. Degrees in any institutions are not training courses and that brings the wonderful world of essays / academia fun bus. We have made steps to collaborate with Industry to help make better assessment to focus academia towards student demand and now many modules are accessed via demonstrations, videos, critiques, industry feedback etc...
I fully understand where people come from in terms of how much a course is worth VS how much a DVD is worth. But you can teach yourself anything in principal, you can read all the history books you want and strive to become an historian without University. We aim to offer so much more than just a DVD, for example one of the elements would be good support and feedback. I believe our student forum will back me up on that should you ask them :-D.
Here some information on the University of Hertfordshire Animation courses
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=68766&highlight=hertfordshire
The University of Hertfordshire has a BA & MA Games Art course, here is our showreel.
Click here to see The University of Hertfordshire Website
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Also you are welcome to talk to our student on this forum and here from them. www.3dhit.co.uk
Best Wishes,
Neil
This thread is 3 years old............
We can live in hope