College advice

Ridergraal · Aug 2020

Hi guys,
My parents really want me to go to college, therefore decided to go to a college in the US after dropping out in a college within the UK, I have decided to apply for gnomon, CalArts and USC, however I am a bit worried over the safety and situation in America at the moment I am just wondering if there any other good countries that offer good BSC degrees, I can’t seem to find many in Asia.

thanks

zachagreg · Aug 2020

Where are you located currently? Why do you want to go somewhere other than the UK for college? Is it art college? Why did you drop out in the first place?

Honestly, I don't know why you would come over to the US to spend a bunch of money at a college when you can do it cheaper in the UK. I'm not big on college in the first place but it sounds like you may need to have a conversation with your parents and yourself about your long terms goals. Going to an art college for game design to make your parents happy doesn't make for an awesome ending in my opinion.

You won't make it far if you don't like what you're doing and put the time in. College won't change that, it will just take your money, especially in the US.

Try taking some of the courses online first, the premium ones that cost under $100. See how those treat you first. Explore your options and by all means if you want to do game design/art do it but don't do it to make your parents happy. If it's a living situation thing then work something out with them but if they just want you to go to college because they've been told that's how you succeed then that is up to you. Answering some of those above questions though will give some more context on the matter.

Taylor Brown · Aug 2020

To tack on to what zachagreg said, there's plenty of good content online for a helluva lot cheaper.

Paid:

Gianpetro Fabre for texturing.

Simon Fuchs for advanced modeling and hard surface in maya and max/ zbrush as well as texturing in painter

CGShrimp hard surface modeling in blender

Artstation Learning: Joe Seabuhrs realistic hero prop lesson

Free content to check out:
Polycount wiki and the How the F Do I Model This megathread
Artuism for texturing techniques
Michael Pavlovich's zbrush series is the best if you want to get into that
Ayi Sanchez's texturing fundamentals blog on his artstation though its work in progress
Tim Simpson's youtube series on environment / trim creation
Malcolm341s youtube channel has alot of helpful tips... best video out there on texel density which is fundamental. if youre a maya user, his scripts are incredible
Any articles / tuts you can find by Clinton Crumpler
Taylor Brandenburger's youtube channel though he doesnt really create much content anymore

I'd highly recommend looking in to CGMA as well. Quality education in a modular way for 1/10th the price or less of a US college

Brian "Panda" Choi · Aug 2020

The US basically has gone online this year for their universities.

If you want the college experience in the US in 2020, I would highly recommend delaying yourself since you will NOT be on campus most likely to reap the in-person benefits. Take and commit to online courses as noted above.

I'm saying this as a USC grad. If you have questions about USC, feel free to email me.

Ridergraal · Aug 2020

zachagreg said:

Where are you located currently? Why do you want to go somewhere other than the UK for college? Is it art college? Why did you drop out in the first place?

Honestly, I don't know why you would come over to the US to spend a bunch of money at a college when you can do it cheaper in the UK. I'm not big on college in the first place but it sounds like you may need to have a conversation with your parents and yourself about your long terms goals. Going to an art college for game design to make your parents happy doesn't make for an awesome ending in my opinion.

You won't make it far if you don't like what you're doing and put the time in. College won't change that, it will just take your money, especially in the US.

Try taking some of the courses online first, the premium ones that cost under $100. See how those treat you first. Explore your options and by all means if you want to do game design/art do it but don't do it to make your parents happy. If it's a living situation thing then work something out with them but if they just want you to go to college because they've been told that's how you succeed then that is up to you. Answering some of those above questions though will give some more context on the matter.

Thanks for the reply, sorry if I wasn't clear on a couple of points, I have a massive passion for animation since I was a kid however I was never able to draw and since I have discovered 3D as an option I have spent a considerable amount of time on it and wanted to pursue it further, as a compromise with my parents they agreed I could go to college for it in 2021 after dropping out of a finance degree in the UK.

I am an international student so no matter where I decide to go I will have to pay extremely high entrance fees, I have been considering applying and deferring my college application a year and attending thinktank training center for a year (which I have been accepted to attend), and going to a traditional college after. However I am wary because I am getting older haha and don't want to be one of those people who spend their entire lives in college.

Any suggestions would be great, I am also currently taking a multitude of courses and side projects to improve.

Thanks,

CheeseOnToast · Aug 2020

Take a look at the University of Hertfordshire in the UK. They consistently put out quality graduates, unlike many other "games" courses. Almost certainly cheaper than the American schools, even as a foreign student. They have a thread here -

https://polycount.com/discussion/68766/university-of-hertfordshire-school-of-creative-arts-ba-ma-games-art-vfx-2d-3d-animation/p1

poopipe · Aug 2020

Herts is very good indeed. I'm a graduate (a long time ago) and I have hired many exceptional graduates from there over the years.

NUA have a very good course , it's more geared towards indie Dev than AAA grinding - the course leader is a very smart man and the lecturers are very solid (I trained one myself)

If you're determined to leave the uk then by far the best course in Europe is DAE at Howest in Belgium. It's a tie between there and Herts in terms of quality and volume of hires I've made over the years

Fwiw I don't give a shit about what course/run of tutorials you might have taken online,they mean nothing in terms of formal qualifications if they're not accredited.
I'll be looking at the quality of your work and if I decide to Skype you I'll be interested in your attitude and your personality as it pertains to the role im hiring for.

Ridergraal · Aug 2020

poopipe said:

Herts is very good indeed. I'm a graduate (a long time ago) and I have hired many exceptional graduates from there over the years.

NUA have a very good course , it's more geared towards indie Dev than AAA grinding - the course leader is a very smart man and the lecturers are very solid (I trained one myself)

If you're determined to leave the uk then by far the best course in Europe is DAE at Howest in Belgium. It's a tie between there and Herts in terms of quality and volume of hires I've made over the years

Fwiw I don't give a shit about what course/run of tutorials you might have taken online,they mean nothing in terms of formal qualifications if they're not accredited.
I'll be looking at the quality of your work and if I decide to Skype you I'll be interested in your attitude and your personality as it pertains to the role im hiring for.

Thanks for the reply, what do you think of think tank training centre? I would prefer to study outside of the UK and Europe but I am having difficulty finding any accredited places within asia?

sacboi · Aug 2020

I'm situated in Melbourne - Australia and uni's like Swinburne Institute Of Technology or Royal Melbourne Institute Of Technology University I'd put forward for possible consideration but we're currently experiencing a covid second wave here so things will be a little tricky short term, at least. Also RMIT, particularly has campuses located in both Singapore and Vietnam however unsure whether digital interactive courses are available there, as well.

Neox · Aug 2020

poopipe said:

Herts is very good indeed. I'm a graduate (a long time ago) and I have hired many exceptional graduates from there over the years.

NUA have a very good course , it's more geared towards indie Dev than AAA grinding - the course leader is a very smart man and the lecturers are very solid (I trained one myself)

If you're determined to leave the uk then by far the best course in Europe is DAE at Howest in Belgium. It's a tie between there and Herts in terms of quality and volume of hires I've made over the years

Fwiw I don't give a shit about what course/run of tutorials you might have taken online,they mean nothing in terms of formal qualifications if they're not accredited.
I'll be looking at the quality of your work and if I decide to Skype you I'll be interested in your attitude and your personality as it pertains to the role im hiring for.

i'd like to add New3dge to that list, candidates from those 3 schools are usually exceptionally good. far better than the applications we get from our local schools/unis

Zi0 · Aug 2020

If you want to study is a safe country: https://www.buas.nl/opleidingen/creative-media-and-game-technologies#tab-study-paths

College advice

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