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Cleric860
11-02-2009, 04:28 AM
Hello all,

This is my 1st post on this website Thus far I have stood in aw in most of the members here. I tend to hold my work up to a very high level of scrutiny.

At any rate I am a Full Sail alumni (Unfortunately) and seek to better my skills through a better school. I have a associates in computer animation and would like to receive a bachelors. SO that I can pierce the catch 22 of either 3 years work experience or a bachelors degree in animation.

I currently have applied to the Art Institute of Decatur Georgia. I will also be applying to Ringling and SCAD. I would much appreciate any and all opinions on this matter.

I do not want to have what I call the bait and switch rutein pulled again. You see when I attended my prior school I was told the reason they teach everything in 14 months is so they can get you into your feild asap. And they also said the reason they are so expensive is that they hold agreements with buisnesses in the area to so that they can have high placement rates. They did not follow through with what they preach. Yes they taught maya, photoshop, shake, after effects, and final cut, but my 1st JOB OFFER through career placement was as a web designer and as we all know this is a very vary bad insult to a animator or 3d modeler. (we know diffrent software, Not web design) .

After this I thought I would work on my demo and take it from there as mabye an intern or something small and climb the said ladder. this did not work due to the catch 22 I mentioned earlier so I am once again in search of a proper school.

SO ANYONE WHO HAS HAD GREAT TEACHING ANYWHERE. PLEASE DONT BE SHY FILL ME IN.

Thank you
wwswimming
11-02-2009, 06:23 PM
i asked this same question of one of the top guys in pre-vis when i started studying animation tools in 2005.

he basically said ... degrees don't mean a lot. what matters is your ability to produce results, and that comes from knowing the tools (inside out left right upside down & backwards) and being motivated.

my first degree was in engineering from a junior university near Palo Alto.

the good teachers i have had for animation, besides that pre-vis guy, are -
* George Maestri, who teaches for Lynda.com, Max & Maya classes.
* Louis Marcoux, his Max tutorials at Area Autodesk.
* Clark Thames, who has a Blender website with a focux on Blender Game Engine.
* 3D Buzz, who has Max & Maya classes. namely Zak, Jason Busby, and their guest instructors.
* Bobo/ Borislav Petrov, his scripting tutorials at CG Academy.
* Joe Gunn, his tutorials at JoeGunn3D.

Also, as an inspiration, Carl Rosendahl, who started Pacific Data Images, the company that became Dreamworks Animation. He started it in the early 1980's and they developed many tools similar to what we now buy off the shelf (video interface hardware like Avid makes, animation software like Max Maya etc.).

Mostly, my work experience has been as an engineer. I started using engineering modelling tools in 1988, for solid modelling & finite element analysis.

I guess it's natural when you work in industry, you develop a "top 10" list of the most talented people you ever worked with. In my case, one of those guys is a physicist who got me started with finite element analysis (which I later adapted to use in animation because those were the tools I had to work with.)

My guess is, your skills are good. I met a woman who went to Full Sail, we both take classes at a local JC. She moved to California and has had trouble getting started; I think she graduated about 2006.

I started in Silicon Valley in 1980. The industry (high-tech in general) has changed a LOT, and the economy has changed even more.

I would say, don't be discouraged & don't question your skills. The economy & the world are going through some historic changes. I bought this morning's local paper because it was so classic in terms of the bad economic news.

As it turns out, you got a degree for animation and entered the work force right when experienced people are being laid off. Now they are looking for jobs, and along you come with good skills and a good attitude and it is a situation where people are competing for jobs.

As far as the web designer job, I wouldn't knock it. That might be your ticket to animation, if you find a way to integrate your animation skills into your work work. That obviously depends on what kind of web design you are being asked to do.

But if you are "the web designer who is adding all those cool 3D effects" to the websites you work on, well, that's good.
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