Alright, calling UK students, I need a list of uni's deticated to CG!!!

[Jeepy]

Read the stickies!!

[HellBoy]

yea I've seen that stickie but you know some unis have better reputation than others

[stewartjones]

Top 5? With regards to who's opinion?!?! :D

To be honest, this is all down to how much work you put into it. I suggest looking for an institution that you will be happy at.

Sorry I can't help you out more, but they are all basically the same. Some are said to be better than others, but how can anyone really know unless they've been to all of them!?! :shrug:

[Benman]

Yeh im 15 and been looking around possible places for animation. One that stood out for me was bournmouth but as tim sed it is down to how much work u put in, no matter were u go if you work hard you will succeed. even if you cant afford uni you can self teach, if you got the dedication you can do anything :D

Oh by the way stu what qualifications are needed for teeside? and if i make a demo reel and send that in also cuz been animating for 3 years now so when im 18 shud have a vast selection of animations to put together, would it upper my chances?

cheers mate

[white dragon]

Just a small hint, if you want to study somewhere, make sure you can spell the name :D

[Blusoul]

I was looking a while back to do a MA in Animation. I looked into:

1. Bournemouth Uni
2. Teesside Uni
3. London Animation Studio
4. Bristol School of Animation
5. Animation Mentor.com

After really looking into what all of the schools on my short list had to offer and what I personally wanted to achieve from my studies. I went with Animation Mentor.
I have a BA(hons) in MultiMedia already. So I am very much a generalist, in some sense. But I wanted a course that was very much focused on Character Animation. And this is what aided my choice. You have to really research the schools and know what you want to gain from your education at the school.

I hope that helps some what:thumbsup:

Also check out DeMontfort Uni. Thats where I got my BA!:)

[Simon]

Hi guys

We all know Teeside University is one good uni for CG, I'm sure theres other unis which do animation and CG related, in fact most uni's have started to do atleast animation. I visited UCAS (http://www.ucas.com/search/index.html) for course search (CG), 97% of the result are outside London, which means I am more likely to go outside london. So heres the deal, can you make a top 5 or top 10 unis for CG.

I am going to do the ucas application in 2 weeks time

cheers all

I'm in the same boat as you. Where are you coming from? A levels? You done/considered getting a foundation degree first?

-Simon

[playmesumch00ns]

It depends on what you want out of it.

If you want a job, Bournemouth is the best. They mainly teach theory, not practice; so if you're after a "this is how you use Maya" course, or if you can't hack the maths and programming, you're better off somewhere else.

Read the course requirements and breakdowns carefully, then look on the threads here about the content of specific courses, then decide what you want out of the course, then make your choice.

[HellBoy]

I'm in the same boat as you. Where are you coming from? A levels? You done/considered getting a foundation degree first?

-Simon

Hi Simon

I'm doing A Levels now,
foundation degree is good path, everyone gave me that idea but I really aren't looking farward for that path plus I've been told 99% of the Teesside (spelling corrected)students came from foundation degree.

I want job after graduation but I'm not into programming anymore and slightly maths. But yea I am doing some research

[AlexC]

Escape Studios looks a very good CG School, which is in London. One person went on to work for Pixar.

http://www.escapestudios.co.uk/

[HellBoy]

Hi guys


You know you can choose up to 6 courses through UCAS, this is my top 4

1- Digital Animation with Video Production - TVU
2- Post-Production and Visual Effects - University of Teesside
3- Computer Game Art - University of Teesside
4- Computer Animation - London Metropolitan University

dunno what to make the other 2, I'm thinking Character Animation in teeside but dunno really gotta think hard, ...hate thinking

[McG]

Avoid short term courses such as above. They are too expensive and there main priority is to get your cash and move you out the door as soon as possible. (just like all courses though)
After completing a course that cost me over £6500, ive not heard a peep from them, asking what your up to.

The main problem with short term training courses is that they will only teach you the tech stuff of software. There is no way that you will come out of a short term course and be an animator, you will only be an operator.

im my experience (being to both art school & overpriced training schools)
I would go to art school with a clear focus on what you want to be, animator, modeller, or whatever. Take the 3/4 years and learn as much as possible with the focus of getting a job, not a fancy end of year film.
I made the mistake of going with the flow and seeing what happens after graduation.

Find out what jobs there are in the industry that interests you. Look up job sites and see what skills that they need.

If its animation you want to do, go do a tradition hand drawn animation course, it is easy to transfer animation skills onto a computer rather than vice-versa. And you will also learn the animation principles in more depth.

There is also many good art school courses that have a good cg dept.
Ask them where the students are now, aske them about the ones who failed and why the failed.

But the main point i want to make is, no matter how good the course is or the reputation, if you dont apply yourself and work hard you, then you'll end up wasting your time like i did for many a year.


good luck.

[nickepstein]

after going through the hiring process myself and interviews etc - i have to say bournemouth is really ahead of the others - of course if you have a great showreel it probably doesnt matter.

as someone said - if you are thinking about employment then definitely bournemouth.

now i know less about some of the shorter term courses, and the private ones such as escape, but i have seen good people come out of them, but they have usually already completed a degree in a related field, if not animation itself.

bournemouth does have a less technical course too - they do a ba (mix of both), and ma (post graduate, less technical) and an msc (technical) - if ive missed anything i apologise its been a while since i looked at their curriculum, but all the good students from there dont have a problem getting a job - they have very close links with framestore, mpc, cinesite etc...

hope that helps

[nickepstein]

after going through the hiring process myself and interviews etc - i have to say bournemouth is really ahead of the others - of course if you have a great showreel it probably doesnt matter.

as someone said - if you are thinking about employment then definitely bournemouth.

now i know less about some of the shorter term courses, and the private ones such as escape, but i have seen good people come out of them, but they have usually already completed a degree in a related field, if not animation itself.

bournemouth does have a less technical course too - they do a ba (mix of both), and ma (post graduate, less technical) and an msc (technical) - if ive missed anything i apologise its been a while since i looked at their curriculum, but all the good students from there dont have a problem getting a job - they have very close links with framestore, mpc, cinesite etc...

hope that helps

[HellBoy]

thank you guys

I am going to look at bournemouth. But they ask too much, I mean they want 300 Teriff points. I hope you mean Computer Visualisation and Animation.

300 Teriff points, that is something like 4 A-levels on C+. Man, I wonder why its a favourite. I am doing 2 A levels and an AS later which would add up max. of 200 points, plus they want 5 GCSEs and I only have 3 :buttrock:

[white dragon]

I hear where you're coming from, it does seem daughting. Personally I'd say apply anyway, most likely you'll get an interview and they'll judge if they want you on the basis of that, not just your grades. I actually didn't do *amazingly* well with my A-levels but still got offered a place there but ended up at Teesside anyway, still not sure that was the wise thing to do, but wouldn't change it now :)

[Simon]

Im daunted by the maths side of it all.

I can get 300 points easy with AAB. But.. I'm almost completely numerically dislexic. :(

[Headless]

K, I just finished this year at Teesside doing Games Design (a course which has now split into seperate Games Art and Games Design degrees, but was mostly Games Art before), so here's some first hand opinions...

Bournemouth is considered the top place in the UK for CG. At Teesside the two main CG courses while I were there, were the aforementioned Games Design course, and Computer Animation, which was slightly more focussed on CG for film and tv. Pretty much everyone I knew on Computer Animation had applied to Bournemouth as their first choice, but didn't get in so had to go with Teesside. Bournemouth has a reputation for being slightly more technical and maths orientated, where Teesside is slightly more art orientated. Bournemouth graduates also seem to find work without too much trouble. Bournemouth the town is also quite nice, something you don't get with Teesside.

On the downside, Bournemouth is a very tough uni to get into.

Some of the plus points about Teesside...

1. The facilities are excellent: the lecture theatres are nice, the labs are nice, they update the computer hardware and software pretty regularly, there's always computers avaliable for you, and there's a ton of CG stuff in the uni library (which is itself a really nice building).
2. The lecturers generally know what they're talking about. The main Games Art lecturers in particular are very good.
3. Teesside is the biggest games dev uni in the UK by far, so if you're into games there's a good sense of community surrounding that, with societies, LAN sessions, small amature dev teams, etc. It's the kind of thing you might not get at other uni's where CG or games doesn't have such a big influence.
4. The general course structure is fairly well thought out. It's not perfect but it does start you out with a focus on traditional skills before they go on to using 3D apps, which is the best way to go about it (imo)
5. Visits from guest speakers don't happen too often, but they do happen and they're always excellent. The Animex (http://www.animex.net/) festival in particular is fantastic, and besides the great guest talks, is a great place to make industry contacts.
6. Rent in Middlesbrough is very cheap.

Ok, now the downsides of Teesside...

1. It seems like about 85-95% of the stuff you learn while you're there, you teach yourself through doing the work. Lecturers will teach you in lectures, but quite a few will teach stuff that only the most uninitiated won't already know. Almost all tutorial sessions (which make up two thirds of your timetable), are set up as time for you to use the computers while a tutor is present, rather than teaching sessions. A few tutors do teach, but most consider themselves a resource; someone who is there to answer any questions and solve any issues, but nothing more.
2. While the course structure is generally good, the content of some modules can occassionally be irrelevant, badly taught, or covers topics that you already looked at in another module. This all depends on the individual tutors though, as some are better than others.
3. They don't teach Maya. To be clear, personally i'm a Max user so this isn't a fanboy complaint, this is something I see as a genuine issue. Some modules allow students to use whatever they want, but the majority of game orientated modules require that you use Max, and the majority of high poly/film orientated modules require that you use XSI, and no modules actually teach Maya. Considering it's so dominant an app in the VFX industry and with animation, as I say, I see this as a genuine issue.
4. No offence to anyone who lives there, but Middlesbrough is a hole. While the uni campus itself is nice enough, it happens to be in the center of town, so most residential areas close to the campus (ie, where you're likely to live), are really rough.
5. The courses are advertised as offering placements yet the truth is that very very few people actually get them. It must be about 2% of students. This isn't so much the uni's fault as it is the state of the industry and the fact that most companies don't want placement students, but it is the uni's fault that they keep advertising the courses as offering placements.

Anyway, i've gone on long enough about this. Basically if you want to stay in the UK and do CG then you probably want to go to either Bournemouth or Teesside. Beyond that it seems like every uni has it's token CG course, so it's kind of tough to pick out a third, fourth and fifth uni for a top 5 for you.

Of course if you want to do animation then there's always Animation Mentor, which will probably teach you more than any UK uni will about animation. It would just mean that you would miss out on that whole 'going off to uni' experience.

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