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View Full Version : School? Opinions please...

LFT
04-13-2009, 04:57 AM
Ok so I am currently trying to decide what I will be doing for next school year and I am looking for some advice. I am finishing my AA at the local CC, it is just a general AA and not really related to cg/animation which I am interested in. The two options I am looking at for next Sept. are:

1) Complete a second AA in Animation and Graphics at the CC, this is a pretty general program with a bit of quite a few things related to animation and graphics

2) I have been admitted to Animation Mentor which seems to be very focused on just character animation

My original plan had been to complete the degree at the CC first and then move on to AM afterward, originally I had been thinking that it would be a good idea to get some general experience with the cg/animation stuff as I really don't have much related experience at this point.

Recently I have gotten a little bit of feedback from a couple different students of the CC program who had very mixed reviews.

So my question is do you think it would be best to go ahead and do both getting the general experience at the CC first or should I possibly do just the AM program and see where that gets me go from there?

I was originally thinking that the CC program would still be worth it because as with all thing it really depends how much you put into something as far as how much you will get back but after speaking with others further I am unsure...

What do you think?

(sorry for the long post)
taxguy
04-13-2009, 02:15 PM
I am NOT an animator, although my daughter is interested in 3d animation. Thus, please take this advice with that in mind.

In my opinion, go to a four year school and get your degree? Why?

You never know where you will end up in life. Having a college degree has got to be more useful than attending your CC for some more animation courses.

You can go to a college and specialize in animation such as Ringling, Calarts, RIT, Pratt , SVA , Academy of art university,etc.There is a fairly complete list of animation schools provided in "North and South American colleges" in the sticky school thread above this one,which was posted by Mr. Positive. Check out those schools, especially those that give a four year degree.

You can then take animation mentor's program and be much better equiped for their program. This means that you will probably have a much better demo reel than you would have had.

Just my two cents.
LFT
04-13-2009, 02:47 PM
Taxguy- Thank you very much for the response. I had be thinking about completing my degree because not only do I have the AA credits I have quite a few more from attending one of the state universities before changing my mind on what it was I wanted to study. The biggest issue for me with one of the four year programs at this point would be money. I will definitely look at the links you suggested to see if I could find another program that would work. I do think I am close enough to my B.S. (Aprox 1.5yrs) that I could always go back and finish if I did not end up doing well in the field of animation...