UK Universities
Hey, I've searched around but I figured I'd create a new thread to get a more up to date opinion.
I was wondering what people thought of Teeside and Solent University? And if people could suggest any others in the UK they think are good for a 3d Game Art.
Atm I'm pretty much set on University so I don't want this to turn into a Higher Education vs Do it on your own discussion plox.
Thanks
I was wondering what people thought of Teeside and Solent University? And if people could suggest any others in the UK they think are good for a 3d Game Art.
Atm I'm pretty much set on University so I don't want this to turn into a Higher Education vs Do it on your own discussion plox.
Thanks
Replies
Really can't say I learned much from the course, there were only really two modules I found useful: the one with life drawing and one that actually involved doing some rigging and animation, the rest was pretty much crap that wasn't of use to an industry job that just got in the way. Which seemed to be similar to my housemates doing game courses.
But I'm pretty sure this is the case pretty much everywhere for all game art type courses. The usual advice you'll probably find from people like polycount is to do a fine arts type degree and learn 3D in your own time.
Or just get the annual subscription to Gnomon and all of it's tutorials, lock yourself in a room and go nuts.
It might help to check out the university's forums instead, that is, if they have one. Staffordshire uni have one, go sign up there and see what they think (or just browse their forums); http://www.staffsgamesdesign.co.uk/
Also you could checkout these forums, not specifically games art only, but theres bound to be someone posting something about the game design courses there
http://forums.unofficial-guides.com/forumdisplay.php?f=124
By the way I really hate "plox"... its like a incorrect way of spelling a incorrect way of spelling a lazily-abbreviated form of a word. God damn internet slang
But aside from that I don't know much else. the campus is fantastic but the town is a shithole.
What I can say from experience is give Huddersfield a miss. And Bradford.
Why exactly do you want to go to university to study game art?
Just take a look at 99% of studio websites and you'll see that most specifically state their interest in quality of work over any academic qualification. Experience is even more valuable.
On top of this, a lot of the UKs game based courses are crap. There is simply no other way to describe them. This may well change in the coming years but for now, the skill level of some graduates is honestly shameful.
You don't have to search hard to find questions asked by people that are on courses and the questions are real /facepalm moments.
Teaching yourself, or rather learning from Polycount is a genuinely viable route. You've got some of the best talent in the industry at the other end of a forum and you think college tutors costing you thousands of pounds are worth more?
You could do work placements while learning, or even an unrelated job to keep the income flowing.
If you're dead set on uni then it looks like no argument will change your mind but when you state no reason for dismissing self teaching, one has to ask your reasons for being against it.
Save yourself £12000+ and 3 years and graduate Polycount style. I would say an employer may look upon a personal drive to self learn quite favourably as oppose to Mr. 'I haz degree, now gizza job plx'
Also you only get from it what you put in, you really have to push yourself so so far, if your lazy you wont progress some of my classmates have slipped behind where they are not dedicated enough, the units are all relevant to industry requirements for instance my unit at the moment i have to go away and research industry jobs and then create portfolio work towards the area i want to work in.
@Creation: I agree with many of your arguments for the self taught route. Sometime in the future I'd like to work abroad. As far as I know it's made alot more difficult without a degree. Secondly I like the direction it would give me (I know alot of it is independent) but I still think I'd really benefit from it. Also it sounds slightly superficial but it's University. You only really get one chance in your life for the experience of a lifetime.
Theres a few other reasons like the fact I wouldn't want to get a minimum wage job whilst I work on my portfolio on the side, and that student debt is under a great infrastructure in the UK so that you only pay it back when you're earning quite a bit and even then the payments are small and manageable. (God I sound like an Advert)
@Proximity: Yeah Solent seemed really great, I've probaly heard the best things from that course. Whats the area like?
@Mongrel thanks for the advice.
@Fearian Yeah I hear it's improving quite a bit lately. I'll check out an open day.
I still have quite a while till I go to Uni (I'm still a first year) so it may well be I change my mind but thanks for the input everyone. Keep it coming.
Don't waste your time - take a fine art, product design or illustration course and learn the specifics of game art in your spare time. You'll end up a much better artist for it in the end.
From what i've read, a degree is required in most cases if you plan to relocate to another country, certainly the US. The above suggestions are great though, consider a degree in another field. Personally I'm studying a part time degree in Architecture and working in Arch-Viz, this allows me to develop aspects of my 3D, and work on game art in my free time. Also, I'm certainly not on a 'minimum wage'.
I know a few people on game courses and they pretty much say the same as above, it's too generalised and to the point where you don't even learn enough in each specific specialisation.
Another big problem with curriculum courses is the lack of flexibility. There was a guy on here posting a character he was working on for a course, and he said something like 'i can't sculpt a high poly because ZBrush isn't part of this module'.
When you have people saying they attended a good portion of a course and dropped out, that really doesn't say good things about the situation. I definitely think it will improve as the industry is recognised more, especially here in the UK there's recently been mention of it in parliament. It's still very early days and I wouldn't expect to see too much change in the next 5 years or so.
One more thing. You say you want to go to University partly for the 'experience'. Keep in mind that few people can successfully work on a course and enjoy the uni 'experience' (partying). It's usually one or the other. Many of my friends went to do the whole 'wooo flatmates, drinking, parties' etc and ended up either having to resit a year or just failing altogether and dropping out.
I know what it's like when you have your ideas set on something but this really is a situation where looking at the reality of things and listening to others who have been in your position will really pay off.
2 years ago I went to a fairly average uk uni, tried to move university in second year because it was just not good value for money at all(7 hours of lecture a week and most of it is irrelevant if you know what you want to do as a career) but couldnt move university without starting over from scratch so I endured all 3 years while working on my 3d on the side.
Any other suggestions?
I am taking on board what you are saying, it's just finishing college and spending a few years with another job developing the skills enough to apply for a 3d Job with no guarantee I'd be good enough just isn't an option I want to consider.
Staffords game concept art course is awesome, well from what i saw and was told, its broad though as im not to sure what field i would like to go to, but everything seemed top notch.
I reckon uni itself is good for the basic experience, as for the experience in industry that is required, that one year placement improves the odds of them maybe taking you on (although probably rarely).
as well as that they each offer life drawing classes and fine art classes alongside and what not, so you can always pick things up.
this is true, half way through second year of university I looked at my opportunities and skills and realised that just doing enough to get a good mark at uni is not going to get me close to getting a job and theres no such thing as being hired based on "potential/talent/passion". Its sad but graduate jobs where you can learn on the job are almost mythical they are so rare. People want to see that you can do the job without assistance and if you cant prove that then its highly unlikely you will be employable.
http://www.futureworks.co.uk/
previously mentioned..checked it out
anyone got experience with this? thanks.
We have a guy named Dave Wilson leading the course (worked for Evolution Studios on Motorstorm), when he took over the course he revamped it and directed it at 3D modelling for games with a bit of animation added in during the 2nd year (course is being revamped again this summer with better constructed assignments).
The course takes advantage of the UDK, and we have top of the range systems running Maya, Max, Zbrush, Photoshop, Crazybump, Xnormal with more software being added over summer.
The course has 2 dedicated games development labs with several extra rooms with all the software on the machines.
During the 2nd year the students are grouped up with Computer Games programers and are required to create a playable game using gamebryo, this assignment will have industry pro's coming in to see the final demo version of the game so its great feedback from them (when I was doing this assignment we had "Frontier" come in and check out the work)
Dave also has several Clinic sessions set up every week with industry pro's so students can get feedback on their work and take the time to chat with them about the industry (currently we have an Environment artist coming in everyweek and one of the main character artists from the new AvP game dropping in every week)
The course also includes some life drawing and from what I hear they will be expanding on this next semester.
The course also has students creating characters (which requires a full on pipe line of work from milestones, concept art/story, modelling/texturing and then rigging and animation), another assignment is creating levels in Unreal (deathmatch), and another assignment is creating a scene from a movie and rendering it inside the unreal editor 3 or UDK.
They cover alot more on the course and from what they are planning for next semester I can see it getting alot better (yes, they listen to student feedback lol.. this is my 2nd degree and I can say clearly that they listen.. on my first degree any feedback was ignored heheh)
So yeah, the course isn't focused around creating shiney renders in a modelling package, its games modelling/animation and working with game engines along with building up a portfolio as you go. It doesn't stop at modelling/animation as its also teaching you industry work flow/planning etc
hope this helps in some way