cbamber85
03-26-2009, 04:28 PM
I will be graduating in a couple of months from Swansea Metropolitan University, and I have to say, it was huge disappointment and a great financial cost.
Although it didn't say on their info the first year is treated like a foundation year, you see there is a BSc and a BA course, and they're advertised as separate courses. So I applied for the BSc course, however what really happens is that the BA's and BSc's are lumped together in a super class, they're reasoning is sound for this though: few people in the past have known much about CG so offer them both sides and allow them pick in the second year (it's a three year course). Unfortunately the lecturers at the time were only really trained in traditional animation techniques and knew nothing of modelling, FX, coding, etc. So the course was in effect BA (a bad BA at that).
I had a real problem with this, what if you know what you want to do and have been dabbling in 3D for years? As many of you will know, if you show enough skill in any course you can skip a year. So I asked if I could move directly into year 2 (real BSc), I got told I needed an Art qualification, I was gobsmacked by this - you needed an A-level in Art to get onto the course! I even showed that work I had done years before surpassed their 3rd year work, no avail, why? Something to do with the £3K for that year perhaps...
Unfortunately though, nothing improved. The school didn't hire anyone from a BSc style background, and we were effectively left alone, BA lecturers would try to teach us but obviously couldn't answer any questions. So I complained about some lecturers - a few left, but no one decent replaced them. Now, halfway through the final year they finally have a couple of really good BSc lecturers with (gasp!) industry experience and a real passion for the work.
My parting opinion then is this: If you want to do character animation, the school is damn decent. If you want to do technical work: show a little coding skill and some nice renders, and then demand to move into the second year, at the interview stage would be best.
Although it didn't say on their info the first year is treated like a foundation year, you see there is a BSc and a BA course, and they're advertised as separate courses. So I applied for the BSc course, however what really happens is that the BA's and BSc's are lumped together in a super class, they're reasoning is sound for this though: few people in the past have known much about CG so offer them both sides and allow them pick in the second year (it's a three year course). Unfortunately the lecturers at the time were only really trained in traditional animation techniques and knew nothing of modelling, FX, coding, etc. So the course was in effect BA (a bad BA at that).
I had a real problem with this, what if you know what you want to do and have been dabbling in 3D for years? As many of you will know, if you show enough skill in any course you can skip a year. So I asked if I could move directly into year 2 (real BSc), I got told I needed an Art qualification, I was gobsmacked by this - you needed an A-level in Art to get onto the course! I even showed that work I had done years before surpassed their 3rd year work, no avail, why? Something to do with the £3K for that year perhaps...
Unfortunately though, nothing improved. The school didn't hire anyone from a BSc style background, and we were effectively left alone, BA lecturers would try to teach us but obviously couldn't answer any questions. So I complained about some lecturers - a few left, but no one decent replaced them. Now, halfway through the final year they finally have a couple of really good BSc lecturers with (gasp!) industry experience and a real passion for the work.
My parting opinion then is this: If you want to do character animation, the school is damn decent. If you want to do technical work: show a little coding skill and some nice renders, and then demand to move into the second year, at the interview stage would be best.