I would love your opinion! [Second education]

sltrOlsson

Okey, so I'm graduating from a vocational school (2 year intense game development education) in Sweden in a month or something.

Cause of bad planing, underestimating what the industry looks like and POOR choice of final projects for my portfolio (didn't even have time to finish them properly) I didn't get the kinda internship i would've wanted [Read: do something actually forth talking about/some kinda contribution to a project].

Cause of this I've found myself very unmotivated to work with proper projects on my spare time and I'm pretty much feeling like I'm loosing "it".

I really love what i do (wants to do) and i know this is what i want to work with. I'm young and I'm fresh out of school. This should be a time of pink sparkling inspiration, but well, it's not.

Okey, so why did I wrote all that crap. The thing is that I'm thinking of going to an other school, very similar to the one I'm graduating from. I know how inspiring it was when I was in school, and i want that back.
If I'm not going there I'l most likely move back to Stockholm, get a incredible boring job selling coffee or something and keeping up the 3D art on the side. I know my self, and I can pretty easily loose focus if not 100% dedicated.

So, i would want to know. What would you do in my situation? To keep this in perspective, since i know most of you are Americans. Both these schools are funded by the government - so the "only" economic influence this would have is the loan I'm getting. Which would be around 18.000$ for the two years.

What do you guys say? Stupid idea or the most incredible brilliant thing ever thought of? :poly122:

Oniram

i had a friend encounter this same situation. he graduated with a bachelors and did not get a job right away, so he decided to go to school 6 months later to get his masters. now i guess his incentive was that if he had his masters, at least he could apply to teach at some universities.. if he didnt get a job at a nice big company. personally i dont see anything wrong with going to school again.. im still in school and ill admit that the only reason im here is motivation.. i couldve saved myself the $80,000 of tuition of bullshit classes and waste of time teachers who didnt know their ass from their elbows.. but i stuck through with it because.. what the hell.

id say go for it. itll definitely keep you motivated and there's always room for more knowledge.. but generally, make it a habit to do more than is required from school.

Saman

What kind of degree will you be getting from this new education? What degree will you be getting now?
I had the same dilemma when the first course I studied ended. I felt that it was too early for me to start working as I figured that a job would dampen my interest for cg(I was 21 back then). I kept studying and my university days were the most fun period I've ever had in my life.
At the end it's really what you want that matters. To me working at some place unrelated to game art would be a total waste of time, career-wise. If you're in great need of money then it's ok I guess but it doesn't sound fun really. If you prefer studying again then do it! You can improve your art there so why not.
I haven't seen your art so my conclusion is hypothetical; If your portfolio is poor the chance of you getting a job at a company where you get to do great art(for your portfolio) is little. The last place I worked at wasn't bad but we didn't have enough time to do really good assets. I worked on projects on my free time in order to get a better portfolio but eventually I couldn't handle both a job and my projects(I worked hard on both). I quit my job to focus on my free-time art and I haven't regretted that choice since.

sltrOlsson

Oniram wrote: »

i had a friend encounter this same situation. he graduated with a bachelors and did not get a job right away, so he decided to go to school 6 months later to get his masters. now i guess his incentive was that if he had his masters, at least he could apply to teach at some universities.. if he didnt get a job at a nice big company. personally i dont see anything wrong with going to school again.. im still in school and ill admit that the only reason im here is motivation.. i couldve saved myself the $80,000 of tuition of bullshit classes and waste of time teachers who didnt know their ass from their elbows.. but i stuck through with it because.. what the hell.

id say go for it. itll definitely keep you motivated and there's always room for more knowledge.. but generally, make it a habit to do more than is required from school.

Goraaz wrote: »

What kind of degree will you be getting from this new education? What degree will you be getting now?
I had the same dilemma when the first course I studied ended. I felt that it was too early for me to start working as I figured that a job would dampen my interest for cg(I was 21 back then). I kept studying and my university days were the most fun period I've ever had in my life.
At the end it's really what you want that matters. To me working at some place unrelated to game art would be a total waste of time, career-wise. If you're in great need of money then it's ok I guess but it doesn't sound fun really. If you prefer studying again then do it! You can improve your art there so why not.
I haven't seen your art so my conclusion is hypothetical; If your portfolio is poor the chance of you getting a job at a company where you get to do great art(for your portfolio) is little. The last place I worked at wasn't bad but we didn't have enough time to do really good assets. I worked on projects on my free time in order to get a better portfolio but eventually I couldn't handle both a job and my projects(I worked hard on both). I quit my job to focus on my free-time art and I haven't regretted that choice since.

Yeah, other then getting a shitty money job i guess I could try to do some freelance. But the risk for that to be boring crap feels kinda big And the thing is that i really love studying. Thought of going to art school, but all the application dates is past for them.

I know that i have the skill for getting a job, but i also know my portfolio doesn't show that AT ALL. Which mean that i don't have the skill. The skill of getting shit done when i need to.

I know were i need to go, it's just matter of finding the way.

Anyhow, i'm gonna apply cause there intake is in July or something. Doesn't hurt to get in..

And yeah, the "only" thing you end up with after both of these educations is a diploma. I've been told that it's doesn't really matter for the jobs in Sweden anyhow. And both of the educations is two of the best in Scandinavia..

Thanks for your thoughts!

r13

short answer: if you have a degree now... i always suggest a degree as a starting choice for this path, then i'd not spend more money and sit and work on your portfolio.

long answer: however, if that alone sounds like something you might not be able to do and by do i mean do fucking really well, then you better go back to school and try again. You might do better with a structured learning environment.

right now you have little experience and no ability to show off what you can do. [school projects should not land in your portfolio unless they are awesome] you need to be able to show an art director that you can produce work that he needs done just the same as the rest of them. Not necessarily veteran artists, but you will have to produce good art on a time table. This requires practice practice practice. So if you don't have the motivation to do this on your own for your own benefit, you probably aren't going to do well in the industry.