is Academy of Arts a good school to go to

[jeremybirn]

this may be a little outa place seeing we are talkin about AAC, but i saw ACCD in this post so I am goin for it. I was wondering if Gnomon was a desent school, its only two years and a cert. i was wondering how it was compared to AAC and ACCD and what companies thought of it as a private school, where u only get a cert and not a degree?
There are other threads on whether degrees matter (general view: they don't matter much to employers, they matter if you need a skilled worker visa to work in another country or a few other specific cases.) If you've already been to college and don't need general education, Gnomon's certificate program looks like a great source of art instruction as well as computer graphics training, they have some good professional teachers there. Unlike AAU, Gnomon's certificate program has competetive admisssions, since it is a smaller school. Gnomon is in Hollywood, and has courses that are compatible with working in the LA area and also studying, although that can take longer than cranking 24/7 on your CG courses.

ACCD (Art Center College of Design) in Pasadena is a completely different animal from AAU (Academy of Art University) in San Francisco. ACCD is a non-profit institution, AAU is a for profit business, and much larger. ACCD has highly competetive admissions, only letting in people with good portfolios, AAU does lots of advertising and recruits as many students as it can. If you request a catalog from both places you'll see the students do different kinds of work and the areas of study are different. At ACCD, computer graphics is considered a medium, not a subject unto itself, so students in different departments such as industrial design, film, entertainment design, illustration, fine art, photography, etc. all use computer graphics in their courses, but they are majoring in an art field, not majoring in the computer training itself. ACCD's main campus is a bit out of town in Pasadena, a big black building on a hill overlooking the Rose Bowl, although they now have a new building in downtown Pasadena as well. AAU has many buildings scattered throughout downtown San Francisco, which offers all the benefits of access to a great city, and of course gives you the gritty downside of an urban environment as well.

-jeremy

[SpiralFace]

this may be a little outa place seeing we are talkin about AAC, but i saw ACCD in this post so I am goin for it. I was wondering if Gnomon was a desent school, its only two years and a cert. i was wondering how it was compared to AAC and ACCD and what companies thought of it as a private school, where u only get a cert and not a degree?
I whould be VERY cautios about pressuing a Cirtificate instead of a BFA unless you already have one through another school. I can't speek for movie industry positions. But alot of companys in the game industry are looking for BFA with a STRONG education in Traditional arts. My friend in the industry got turned down for a few jobs solely becuase he did'nt have a degree. And other companys made him take extensive tests to see that he was at the level. Despite the fact that he's worked in the game industry for more then 10 years, and is currently a lead level designer at his current job. Gnomon seems like a rediculously amazing school, but from talking to a few guys up at ILM and Dream works at one of the CG talk gathering things, from what I gather, Gnomon seems to be more of a venue for seriously experianced CG workers Iether trying to get further training, or presueing an actual degree.

Although a Cirtificate is do-able in the industry right now. Theres no telling what the shape of the industry will be like in 2 years when you get out. Who knows, Maya might be replaced by Modo and zbrush, or mabe some other program will come out that will dwarf all the others ablilities. A strong foundation in traditional art, with heavy training in any form of 3D program seems to get you ALOT farther then any kind of Maya specilist training. And personaly I cannot posibly see how anyone can aquire BOTH of those things on a two year program.

Just be VERY cautious while concidering to iether pressue a degree or a cirtificate. Just becuase I found a cirtificate too risky of a thing to invest in does'nt mean its not an option that others will want to presue.

[lazynok]

my friend went to gnomon and quit cause he didnt like it... guess it wasnt his cup of tea....


...oh? yes yes oh :D

[jjcoolio]

hi,y'all
could anyone recommend any (fineart)headsculpting or figure drawing classes?(instructors)
or any character rigging or setup for beginners?
I have to take maya2(graduate) though I don't have any serious skills for setup or rigging stuff. could it be possible to rig without any knowledge or rigging, when I take maya 2? just curious. thanks in advance.

[Morganism]

hi,y'all
could anyone recommend any or any character rigging or setup for beginners?
Check out Tom Meade's Character Design and Setup class.

[jjcoolio]

Check out Tom Meade's Character Design and Setup class.
thanks morganism, I will sure check it out. more recommendations? :p

[SpiralFace]

as far as figure drawing classes are concerned I would recomend Henry Yan. He's amazing at quick sketches, and I'm not sure about good sculpting classes, but the stuff I see come out of that Maquette making class is simply breath taking. And its under the Animation department instead of the fine art department so I assume that they make it more for the computer and animation guys.

[darktding]

thanks morganism, I will sure check it out. more recommendations? :p check out cgtalk! yes! if you really want to do indepth rigging learning it from one person is not sufficient.... as a hint check out Jason Schleifer's work here... his rigs are pretty cool, but also there are others...
Cheers

[jjcoolio]

check out cgtalk! yes! if you really want to do indepth rigging learning it from one person is not sufficient.... as a hint check out Jason Schleifer's work here... his rigs are pretty cool, but also there are others...
CheersThanks guys for the info. I really appreciate it.

[hamu73]

what do you exactly mean by learning the traditional things first, what do you call traditional??

[danteort]

what do you exactly mean by learning the traditional things first, what do you call traditional??Drawing, Figure Drawing, Figure Modeling (with clay), etc. I'm only in my first semester at the AAU, but I'd like to set it up so that I take more drawing/illustration classes than computer classes. Don't want to get too dependant on the software, since the principles behind it are what is more important. What good is Maya knowledge if I can't even communicate with a pencil the idea of weight and balance.

[SpiralFace]

Drawing, Figure Drawing, Figure Modeling (with clay), etc. I'm only in my first semester at the AAU, but I'd like to set it up so that I take more drawing/illustration classes than computer classes. Don't want to get too dependant on the software, since the principles behind it are what is more important. What good is Maya knowledge if I can't even communicate with a pencil the idea of weight and balance.
Good to hear someone like you come around Danteort. Most freshmen I meet just want to jump right on the Computer and start making stuff. Thinking that technical knowledge can easily make up for lack of practical skill. But a Sugesstion I might have is take anatomy and all your figure classes first to get a decent foundation, then take some early Maya classes, go back and fill out all the Illustration fine art classes you want to take, and then hop back on the computer in your final semesters. This way you won't be totaly blindsided by just the sheer amount of information you must absorb when it comes to learning about 3D. And although I whole heartedly agree with you that building a reliance on the Software is definatly not something you want to do. But there are basic principles that you have to learn in addition to the software that will help you out no matter what software you decide to use. Things like Edgeloops, blend shapes, UV layout, and texuture painting are all principals that go hand in hand with what ever program you use. So you might want to concider doing some Computer classes after you get done with your foundations so you can get a feel for the basics before you completely get swamped with info.

[danteort]

Yeah, Shadow Slayer, that's about what I had in mind. I'll sit down with some people next semester and work out a basic plan of action.

[lazynok]

i just have to say.. i finalyl watched that dvd... .its been sitting here for about a month. but AHHHH its making me want to go more and more. only 8 more months =[


hopefully this starts up more AAU discussion.. i miss going into cgtalk and seeing this thread is another page bigger =[

[danteort]

Anyone have any teacher recommendations (or ones to stay away from) for the following?

Intro to Anatomy
Intro to Animation
Figure Modeling

[jjcoolio]

Marc z?..hmm i don't remember his last name but he's the man for figure modeling
and also life size sculpture. He's tallented, humorous, very generous and honest to the students. highly recommended. I don't know any students who didn't like his class.

[Laindelta]

Hi guys. I am kinda new hear, but as you can see I spent most of my time reading the threads(52 pages!). I know that this is a AAU thread, but I was wondering if anyone heard of DMAC(Digital Media Arts College)? I have applied there my Junior year in highschool and subminted all of the requierments. A few months later I got accepted to the school. The college is new to the Computer Arts(5 years to be extact). They offer a 3 year BFA in computer animation and 1/2 year in Special Effects which is the BFA. They also offer Graphic Desiging too. Tuition is 17.000.00 but now its 18.000.00. For the masters its 18.000.00 which is now 19.000.00. If anyone had when to DMAC or planning to go to DMAC, peaces respond to this... thanks everyone!

[SpiralFace]

where is this college? Is it close to any of the big studios? Do they have any professors that have actualy worked in the industry? Whats the Ratio of students that get work out of that school? Where do the ones that get work end up? So many questions that you should ask yourself when your concidering a school that will ultimatly teach you how to work in your specific carrer field.

From what I've learned about this industry, half of getting a good job in it is what you know, and the other half is who you know. AAU is good at that becuase all of your teachers are wroking professionals, and so its benificial to you becuase you pretty much are having an entire semester with them analizing your work habbits under the microscope, so if you want a job at their company, you already have them spreading good words about you based on what you have done, (Or how hard you make an effort to lear the material). I know that there are alot of schools out there that are good, But unless your in an area that has studios around, its very hard to push for internships at a company that is potentialy a few states away. And it is always more impressive for those hireing to have an employee speak highly of you. And $18,000.00 Tuition? Is that per semester, or per 3 year program? Because that kind of tuition cost is alittle more then what I pay over here for a 12 unit schedual. And also make sure that the School is accredited by the state if you want your BFA to even mean anything.

I personaly have never heard of this college. So I'm not going to speak highly or poorly about it. Generaly those colleges that just start up are pretty good. But be carefull with that amount of money. Like I said, that tuition cost is up their with the AAU if its on a per-semester basis. And a 3 year program just in general seems kinda sketchy to me, concidering I've never heard of an accredited 3-year BFA program. 4 years is the absolute minimum I've heard for an accredited BFA, and if your spending that much money you should concider investing it in a school with a good reputation for putting out good students and is favored by employers in your feild of study. In that respect, I'm not promoting the AAU becuase like any school, the AAU is highly respected for some things, but is not all that great at others. (Just like any school out their.) Do your reserch. Thats what it comes down to in the end. If anything, in the general discussion forum, put down something like (Good New Media colleges?) tell them what you want to try to get into, and then some working professionals might pass you a list of schools with good reputations in your field of study.

[Kimotion]

Marc z?..hmm i don't remember his last name but he's the man for figure modeling
and also life size sculpture. He's tallented, humorous, very generous and honest to the students. highly recommended. I don't know any students who didn't like his class.
His name I think is Marc Zjiawinski, a Polish guy, very nice and funny (although he recycles his own jokes). I had him for figure modeling in Fall 2003. Highly recomended. He is less anal about grades and more interested in actually helping you and having you LEARN.

[Laindelta]

Just check out this website, its the DMAC websitehttp://www.dmac-edu.org/

Thanks for your reply and please tell me what you think about this college.

[SpiralFace]

Just check out this website, its the DMAC websitehttp://www.dmac-edu.org/

Thanks for your reply and please tell me what you think about this college.I personaly, am not impressed.
(Note, the following has nothing to do with the AAU. I am critiquing the DMAC website.)
Just the fact that its in florida is a reason to worry. The only big studio I know about in Florida is EA. And that particuler branch of EA deals with alot of their sports line like the Madden series and the like. But once again. I'm not familiar with the studios in that area becuase I'm trying to get into games not movies or visual effects, so I'm not entirely sure what else is over their.

The schools Idea of "location, location, location" is....one-half mile from the beach! This area offers 47 miles of pristine beaches and water sports, superb parks, an average temperature of 78º F, one-of-a-kind attractions, exquisite cultural venues and world famous shopping. not even a mention of nearby studios that whould potentialy be hireing interns or providing work experiance positions. Or near any high tech places that whould have anything to do with you getting a job.

"Accelerated Bachelor and Master of Fine Arts Degrees" With not a mention of a single type of accredidation from the state. Wich means that you'll get the training needed to do the work, but the BFA probably will mean jack squat to potential employers.

The student Gallary is anything but impressive. The charchol work looks ok. But the water color portraits, and other paintings look HORRIBLE. I personaly feel like I have a better painting in my portfolio that beats out every painting piece put on that site after taking only one oil painting class over here.

The computer Animation stuff is anything but impressive iether. for one, there does'nt seem to be ANY good examples of character animation. All of it is realy lackluster and unimpressive, and worst of all, it seems to be made by MASTERS students. That and the modeling stuff is ok, but nothing neer as impressive as some of the stuff that comes out of other schools.

There are many other reasons I can tell you why I don't like what I see here. But I think you get the general Idea. If you want to ask for more info PM me. One thing I will say is that the tution cost here is about half as much as the AAU. But in the end, spending half the money, to get a half the quality education, does not get you jobs. Your going to want the best education possible, and the cost should'nt matter that much in the end. Just make sure you REALY want to do this before you get into it. Just look at the people that go to stanford or other Ivy league colledges or universities. More then half their student population is on some kind of student loan program. My advice is look at the CGtalk CG schools and Demo Reels Thread. And compare any of the schools student works that you see on the website to sights like CGtalk or Concept Art.org's Gallery pages. Remember the end all be all of school is that you want to graduate with a Professional looking Portfolio. And although a Schools gallery page won't tell you the quality of teachings found at one of these schools, it will give you a yard stick of the Students work. Which is a good way of seeing what some of your peers will be able to do. So even if you can't do that level initialy, you will at least have about one or two friends that can help you try to push you to improve.

Remember. In this industry, there is no second place. You iether get a job or you get left behind in the dust. Its super competative here. So if your serious about getting into this industry, you want to provide yourself with the best education you posibly can get. Money should'nt be a factor becuase there are ALWAYS loan programs available for you if you are serious about pressueing a career in this industry. Hope this has helped and if you want to ask me anymore questions, feel free to PM me about it.

Now granted, this school "Could" be good. But based off the impression the web site left with me, I highly doubt it. But you might want to see if there is any way to contact some of the schools graduates to see how they realy felt about their education there.

[lordmachuca]

I'm glad to say that I graduated this fall, finally out of there. good luck to all the new folks....
make the best of it.
a couple of tips,

-take online classes for the bullshit classes, you know like, all of your foundation classes
-If you your fist day of class starts off with, this is my first time teaching, get the **** out, like right way.
-the alvacado and bacon sandwich at lee's rocks
-dont listen to your advisers, research the classes on your own, asK teachers what you should take
-3D modeling texture artist students, TAKE AS MANY 2D ILLUSTRATION CLASSES AS POSSIBLE
-make firends with all the badass artist in your class, you can learn alot from them.
-get your self a computer,(if you can afford to go to AAU you can buy a computer)
-If you get some french lady for color and design, get the **** out.
-find out what you can transfer over, and take those classes at a Jr. college.
-house of sheilds has awesome drinks and its a block and a half from 79 building.
-don't get food from the little truck in front of 180
-learn as much anatomy as possible
-dont carry lots of change in you pockets, the bums can here it.

thats pretty much it. good luck.....

[SpiralFace]

I'm glad to say that I graduated this fall, finally out of there. good luck to all the new folks....
make the best of it.
Congrats on your graduation. I agree with everything you said exept the first time teachers thing and the sandwich at lee's.

Give first time teachers a chance. sometimes their the best ones you get. I was in the first class that Tom Meade taught and I was more then happy that I stuck with him. But if they don't impress you within the first few classes, then get the **** out of there. Also my room mate had a guy teaching Maya for animators and it was his first time teaching and he loved him. He just wished he did'nt have to move down to LA next semester so he could continue teaching.

That and in general Lees has the Greesyest, most disgusting sandwiches I've ever seen. I was willing to stand them untill Working Girls came by 79 and 180 and let me say they are a much better sandwich place. Too bad they are'nt open as late as lee's

But thats just my 2 cents. Congrats on graduating and good luck in the actual work place

[-Vormav-]

Small question for you guys: How easy is it to switch from one class to another once the semester is going, if you find all of those warning bells going off?

[lordmachuca]

its just a matter of talking to your advisor, or any advisor. I think they give you 2 weeks, after that they charge you.

[SpiralFace]

They only charge you if you are switching between 2 different classes. Like if your switching Maya 2 for Figure Painting. But if your switching Maya 2 monday night with Maya 2 Wendsday afternoon, then they tend not to charge you simply becuase its the same class. My advice though is to go to the class your trying to get into and ask the teacher for an add form and get added into his class BEFORE you drop the other class, and just go over all the advisors heads till you straighten it out and they TRY to charge you money.

You'll get too much resistence from them like "You can't do that the class is too full" and stuff like that. Although with this you totaly are at the liberty of the teacher teaching the class. So don't rely on this to get into classes that you could'nt get into becuase they where full at registration.

[-Vormav-]

Yay. I'm going for sure now. Just now finishing up with all the admissions stuff. I'll be in a bit of debt for a long time, but it's worth it just to get out of this town. ;)

Did any of you AAU guys go for the portfolio grant when you got there? I'd love to start at AAU this summer, but that depends entirely upon whether or not I can get that (otherwise I'll be waiting for the spring semester). Could use tips on that, if any of you have any.

[jbo]

I'm glad to say that I graduated this fall, finally out of there. good luck to all the new folks....
make the best of it.
a couple of tips,

-take online classes for the bullshit classes, you know like, all of your foundation classes
-If you your fist day of class starts off with, this is my first time teaching, get the **** out, like right way.
-the alvacado and bacon sandwich at lee's rocks
-dont listen to your advisers, research the classes on your own, asK teachers what you should take
-3D modeling texture artist students, TAKE AS MANY 2D ILLUSTRATION CLASSES AS POSSIBLE
-make firends with all the badass artist in your class, you can learn alot from them.
-get your self a computer,(if you can afford to go to AAU you can buy a computer)
-If you get some french lady for color and design, get the **** out.
-find out what you can transfer over, and take those classes at a Jr. college.
-house of sheilds has awesome drinks and its a block and a half from 79 building.
-don't get food from the little truck in front of 180
-learn as much anatomy as possible
-dont carry lots of change in you pockets, the bums can here it.

thats pretty much it. good luck.....
i agree totally, except why not food from the little truck?
-jesse

[ArtisticVisions]

Recently revieved the AAU DVD in the mail, so I put it in my DVD player to check out the Animation department: honestly..... not that impressive. (the concept artwork and sculptures were great, but the actual animation clips weren't :shrug: )

The Illustration and Graphic Design departments, on the other hand, was rather interesting and insightful (then again, maybe thats because I'm going into Graphic Design and am always interested in what students from other colleges are doing).

[SheepFactory]

For animation i'd go with animation mentor. Most of the mentors there used to teach at academy lise Shawn Kelly , Dave Burgess , Bobby Beck and Delio Tramontozzi. They were the best this school has to offer (and the pixar classes) but most good instructors I know left over the years.

The academy has some kick ass student animation work but you wont see them in the dvd since not many turn their work in for school use unlike the other departments.

[SpiralFace]

that and as I've said earlyer in this post, the student work is all individual based work. Not team based work. So of coarse its not going to be up to par with things you see in the movies today becuase that kind of work takes TONS of people to make it look that nice. And as far as Animation Mentor goes. From what I've heard, its more of Extended education. Its not something I whould concider REPLACING an actual college education with. It seems more of a place to go for extended learning classes. Not something that you whould go to exclusively to get a degree concidering to my knowledge, they don't even offer degrees.

[SheepFactory]

Well they are in the process of offering degrees.

besides what i tried to say is you can go be a illustration or some other major and take animation classes from animation mentor instead of from the academy. Who gives a crap about a art school degree anyway? It only means anything to us international students for work visa reasons. All my American friends from school dropped off before graduation because they already found jobs. Face it , Academy is a money trap.

And yes my advice stands , go with animation mentor if you want to be a animator , or go with academy of art and take a bunch of useless classes and lose 2 years and a sackload of money by the time you get to take a single animation class.

[darktding]

You know what... its very rare to see some really good team based projects EVER startup here at the academy and it sucks.
I dont want to sound rude or harsh but WTH... here goes...
I have been going to the AAU labs since I 1st joined... last year. And everyone is huddled over their computers doing their own thing and no one ever bothers to say "Wait a min.. if I group up with some talented people I can make my demo reel TWICE as better than I have right now." You wont beleive the amount of talent and majors in our school. We have Movie Majors, Advertising Majors, New Media Majors, and off course 3d Majors all in one wonderfull city called San Francisco.
It amazes me as to how people can be ... well selfish. Let me be the first to admit... I AM.
The reason? well the school does not take any initiative what so ever to generate some really good work with a colaboration. Also its difficult for a student like me to meet with EVERYONE going to this school and find the right group for me.
Back to out 3d department... Take for example Animators... all they do is animate those Hogan, Bob, and those other free models they have on the AAU server... and when they graduate all of them have the same models doing some action on their demo reels. Very few have I seen students (mostly in MFA programs) doing a short on a completely different model.
Now that doesnt go to say collaborations are good... most of them FAIL... the reason; people loose interest even before the project has even started. If only there was a way where I could atleast have the luck to meet a group of like minded-self motivated cg artists in the AAU would be a blessing in disguise....
BTW I am in particle effects and stuff... so if anyone needs my help do pm me :) cheers!

[SpiralFace]

You know what... its very rare to see some really good team based projects EVER startup here at the academy and it sucks.
I dont want to sound rude or harsh but WTH... here goes...
I have been going to the AAU labs since I 1st joined... last year. And everyone is huddled over their computers doing their own thing and no one ever bothers to say "Wait a min.. if I group up with some talented people I can make my demo reel TWICE as better than I have right now." You wont beleive the amount of talent and majors in our school. We have Movie Majors, Advertising Majors, New Media Majors, and off course 3d Majors all in one wonderfull city called San Francisco.
It amazes me as to how people can be ... well selfish. Let me be the first to admit... I AM.
The reason? well the school does not take any initiative what so ever to generate some really good work with a colaboration. Also its difficult for a student like me to meet with EVERYONE going to this school and find the right group for me.
Back to out 3d department... Take for example Animators... all they do is animate those Hogan, Bob, and those other free models they have on the AAU server... and when they graduate all of them have the same models doing some action on their demo reels. Very few have I seen students (mostly in MFA programs) doing a short on a completely different model.
Now that doesnt go to say collaborations are good... most of them FAIL... the reason; people loose interest even before the project has even started. If only there was a way where I could atleast have the luck to meet a group of like minded-self motivated cg artists in the AAU would be a blessing in disguise....
BTW I am in particle effects and stuff... so if anyone needs my help do pm me :) cheers!
Untrue.

Its called "The senior Collaberative" And there are many clubs that do group projects like Game mods ect.

The problem with group projects is'nt entirely that people are selfish. But its that many people who WANT to do group projects don't neccessarily have the experiance to work on one. And frankly, the more experianced people don't want to spend half of their time babysitting the less experianced people and cleaning up their models, rigs, etc. The less experianced expect it to be a giant study hall where people will help them pick up the slack for their lack of experiance. But the thing that you have to understand is that group projects on a student level have a VERY tight deadline becuase they want to usualy finish stuff within a year, but also have classes to deal with as well. So when group projects DO get started up, they usualy require portfolio reviews (Like the senior colabrative) in order to make sure that you know your stuff and that no one else has to baby sit you. Becuase most of the time, theres only one or two modelers, animators, riggers, etc. So theres no room for people to sit their and baby sit people who don't know what there doing becuase when you go onto a group project, your expected to be able to hold your own weight.

The group projects are around. Just make sure that in the end you have the portfolio to get into one when it comes around.

[Morganism]

Well, I'll agree that a lot of group projects don't make it off the ground. I think a lot of students don't really realize how much work a collaborative project needs to come together. In some ways it's more work than just doing it all on your own. It's hard to rely on other people, and most of the students who work hard enough to make something like that happen are too busy working hard on their assignments. That isn't to say that it can't be done, though.


By the way,we're going to kick ass in the senior collaborative next semester. Keep your eyes open next fall, there may be a position for a particle junky.

[GrahamHRoss]

A week before I move. A friend of my girlfriends is going to let em sleep on his couch until I find a place. It's gonna be pretty nerve-racking! I'm a little nervous about the traditional animation class I have to take as a prereq., but I think it will definetly help em undersand animation better in the long run.

I have a question for people who are already enrolled. Should I be worried that all my classes say TBD for the instructor and the room/building number? A my old school those things would have been determined by now!

[darktding]

u mean TBA = To be announced ? if so dont worry becuase you will know your teacher before 1-2 weeks the classes start. I reccomend to either calling the school up and inquiring about the tbas and classes numbers a week before the classes start.

[GrahamHRoss]

Yah I ment To Be Announced.

Can anyone give me any reccomendations on supplies I should get for my drawing classes?

Here are my classes again, in case u don't wanna go searching back in this thread ;)

FND 131: Figure Modeling
ILL 221: Intermediate Figure Drawing
ILL2D 495: Character Development in Animation
FND 116: Perspective.

[DigitalConfushun]

I think that if you apply yourself, any school is going to help you reach your dreams. Get the catalogs, and make sure to ask a thousand questions. Remeber you are the one spending almost 80,000 for the knowledge. Seems a waste if you just coast. I have known a lot of great talents that have gone to waste because of immaturity or lack of drive.

If you don't do any of that stuff, San Fran is the Meca for animation in the western U.S. I've done the research, and I'm headding out to San Fran in about 6 months. Good Luck! See ya around.

Josh

[jbo]

it's also a rad place to live

[puppetmastah]

How about the MFA course in animation? Any comments?

[jmBoekestein]

Well they are in the process of offering degrees.

besides what i tried to say is you can go be a illustration or some other major and take animation classes from animation mentor instead of from the academy. Who gives a crap about a art school degree anyway? It only means anything to us international students for work visa reasons. All my American friends from school dropped off before graduation because they already found jobs. Face it , Academy is a money trap.

And yes my advice stands , go with animation mentor if you want to be a animator , or go with academy of art and take a bunch of useless classes and lose 2 years and a sackload of money by the time you get to take a single animation class.
I've been slaving my ass of going to school everyday, I travel 5 goddamn hours everyday! I don't even have decent time to practice. My latest work modelling a character has a sum total of 3 hours on the design. That's just rotten! And I haven't learnt a single thing yet. Except for movie stuff in general, but that's basically what you can wing on intuition. Maybe it's time to way the odds and start landing freelance jobs. I don't have degrees, do I need at least one? Does anybody know? Or should I just offend somebody and see if they pull out their papers and degrees.

[darktding]

How about the MFA course in animation? Any comments? this question has been asked before many times... refer the history of this thread....

[danteort]

Regarding the quality of student work, my experience after one semester there has been that, for the most part, the student work chosen by the school makes you say, "Hmm, not bad." But, when the good teachers show examples from their past classes, you say, "Ah! That's good."
Also, since the school doesn't have any competetive admissions whatsoever, you have to set your standards a little higher. Instead of just trying to get through the classes, aim for being the top student in every class you take. You really can't settle for less.

[Kimotion]

I don't have degrees, do I need at least one? Does anybody know? Or should I just offend somebody and see if they pull out their papers and degrees.
I strongly encourage anyone to go for the degree IF they don't have one already. I have a BA in English and one of those who went through a mid-twenties crisis, decided on another artistic direction and ended up at AAU. My intention is to not finish the degree and to jet when I feel my demo reel is acceptable.

In retrospect, I am glad that I at least have a degree, since a degree stays with you for the rest of your life and it can never be taken away. A degree signals that one can learn and stick with it to the end. Also, if your art doesn't lead you to a job right away, a degree can open windows for higher paying jobs, like office jobs. Yes, it sucks, but it's better to be paid $17/hr doing office work than $9/hr working in retail while you're doing CG art on the side.

[Kimotion]

Regarding the quality of student work, my experience after one semester there has been that, for the most part, the student work chosen by the school makes you say, "Hmm, not bad." But, when the good teachers show examples from their past classes, you say, "Ah! That's good."
Also, since the school doesn't have any competetive admissions whatsoever, you have to set your standards a little higher. Instead of just trying to get through the classes, aim for being the top student in every class you take. You really can't settle for less.I couldn't have said it better myself. The teachers are contracted to cater to the lowest common denominator. The administration does not want the teacher to be honest; if so, the student with no real ability will be discouraged, leave the school, and AAU will not get his/her money. It's frustrating to be in an "advanced" level animation class, and hear the teacher teach the student that in a bipedal walk, the hips shift, elbows bend, etc...and seeing how that student doesn't get it. My time is wasted.

So if the teacher has to cater to the mediocre student, then it is unfair the the rest of us who actually do understand and want to push our animation even further. I had a candid conversation with one instructor and this person bluntly said some studnts should change their majors after seeing some final projects, how horrible they are, etc. I was kind of shocked, but also pleasantly surprised at the candor and the intructor's humaness.

I am by no means a good animator for industry standards. But I know, and others know that we have potential, and it's frustrating to see that the Academy is quickly running out of resources for those who actually want to do really well. The administration cares more about money that creating true artists.

Pixar classes are available, but in the past 2 years they've been extremely hard to get into. 15 out of approx. 200 apply. What happens to the roughly 50 (or so) good animators who don't get in? They are stuck with the lowest common denominator.

That is why I am seriously considering animationmentor.com because AAU is running out of good instructors. Very quickly.

Yes, it is a business, but there is such a thing as business ethics as well.

[Laindelta]

Well, I decided to change my mind now. I going to The academy of arts in ATL Gerogia instead of DMAC(Too expensive). I would like to major in Game Art & Design, but I need input from all you guys if its a good major to take. If I do plan to take up the Major, I am going to SCAD in ATL to major in Computer Animation after my 4 years in The academy of arts. Do you think this is a good idea. Thanks guys!

My Majors in order...
Game Art & Design
Computer Animation BFA & MFA
Music Eduation BFA, MFA, & Ph.D
Japanese History and Literature BFA, MFA, & Ph.D
Computer Techology BFA & MFA

Student For Life!( My brain hurts)

[Laindelta]

Well, I decided to change my mind now. I going to The academy of arts in ATL Gerogia instead of DMAC(Too expensive). I would like to major in Game Art & Design, but I need input from all you guys if its a good major to take. If I do plan to take up the Major, I am going to SCAD in ATL to major in Computer Animation after my 4 years in The academy of arts. Do you think this is a good idea. Thanks guys!

My Majors in order...
Game Art & Design
Computer Animation BFA & MFA
Music Eduation BFA, MFA, & Ph.D
Japanese History and Literature BFA, MFA, & Ph.D
Computer Techology BFA & MFA

Student For Life!( My brain hurts) Sometimes I think to myself, Will I be 40 years old when I complete all of my dream majors!

[Scott Harris]

yeah it's pricy to live here
I'm paying 1550$/month for a 1 bedroom loft in emeryville
ha, I'll trade you.
Try renting in NYC... I envy you and your beaches.

[SpiralFace]

Well, I decided to change my mind now. I going to The academy of arts in ATL Gerogia instead of DMAC(Too expensive). I would like to major in Game Art & Design, but I need input from all you guys if its a good major to take. If I do plan to take up the Major, I am going to SCAD in ATL to major in Computer Animation after my 4 years in The academy of arts. Do you think this is a good idea. Thanks guys!

My Majors in order...
Game Art & Design
Computer Animation BFA & MFA
Music Eduation BFA, MFA, & Ph.D
Japanese History and Literature BFA, MFA, & Ph.D
Computer Techology BFA & MFA

Student For Life!( My brain hurts)
Hey Laindelta.

Sorry to do this to you, but this is a thread for the San Francisco Academy of Art. They are different schools with no association to eachother. As for The Game Arts and Design Major. After talking to all my friends in the industry, you probably realy don't want to take that route. Based on the cariculum given by the schools that I've looked into regarding that Degree, that major tends to make you a jack of all trades master of jack squat approch. Wich puts you at a severe dissadvantage if your trying to push for an actual creative job. If you want to get into games. Pick out one thing you like in the design process and really push that major in order to break into the industry. Yes there are "Game Design" entry level positions. But many of them from what I hear are things in the actual Design process of things like controller layout and Menu navagation. Of coarse many of them depend of the company you are applying to. If you want to put yoursef in a possition to become a Director or a game concept designer, get into the industry in iether an artistic or a programming possition and then WORK YOUR @$$ OFF! From many of the game designers and project leads I've spoken too, your passion for games has to be just as high as your professional, comunication, Organizational, and Artistic / Engeneering (Depending if youbroke in as an Artist or a programer.) skills. In a nut shell it means that just because you have a game design major, does'nt mean people are going to hand over multimillion dollar projects like Final Fantasy for you to control. Get profesional experiance and if you have the right skills you'll be promoted into those kinds of possitions. But as far as breaking into the industry, focus on one thing you like to do, and make damn well sure you are the best at what you do for your school. Get into the industry, THEN worry about how you are going to advance yourself.

[Blip]

Did anyone here apply for this semester's Pixar classes? Has anyone heard if they've made their picks?

[Kimotion]

Did anyone here apply for this semester's Pixar classes? Has anyone heard if they've made their picks?

nope. still waitin...

[SpiralFace]

Did anyone here apply for this semester's Pixar classes? Has anyone heard if they've made their picks?

I'm so glad I'm not an animator. I heard that there where almost 150 applicants for the Pixar 1 level class. And only 15-20 are going to get in. Makes me glad I'm trying to get into texture art. And now there starting up a Z-brush, a photoshop painting class and Advanced looks and Rendering (Which from what I hear we deal with a bit of renderman, but I'm not positive on that one.) Well good luck to all you animators that applyed.

[Morganism]

Did anyone here apply for this semester's Pixar classes? Has anyone heard if they've made their picks?

I just got an e-mail today.

[darktding]

Advanced looks and direction isnt Renderman heavy, (though I wish it was.) I was fortunate to sit in Jeremy's class once and he was more teaching about the concepts of camera and lighting in the physical world and how one can use the same ideas to transfer to digital. I am so waiting for a hardcore Renderman class to come up.
From what I hear from his students he does touch on the Slim pallete, but thats all.
Also I hear that Tareq is using the Pixar classes as an inspiration for this zbrush class he is going to start. Aparently one has to submit of some really good models and he will pick those "worthy" to sit in his zbrush class.
Also a small info. he will also be teaching lightwave too and then students transfer models to zbrush. So if you have never touched lightwave, be ready to.
As for vfx, *sigh* I wish they had a teacher for the Houdini 3 class. *sigh* :(
but a good thing to note that there will be vfx particle effects 2, and I think Doug will be teaching that class. Not sure though so do confirm it.

[SpiralFace]

Advanced looks and direction isnt Renderman heavy, (though I wish it was.) I was fortunate to sit in Jeremy's class once and he was more teaching about the concepts of camera and lighting in the physical world and how one can use the same ideas to transfer to digital. I am so waiting for a hardcore Renderman class to come up.
From what I hear from his students he does touch on the Slim pallete, but thats all.


Good to hear. I have'nt even taken Texturing and lighting yet, but I do know alot of the basic stuff about textureing through my own studys. So only diving into a little bit of renderman is probably to my advantage anyways. Concidering I'm going into games many of the rendering stuff kinda does'nt apply for me, but I whould love to work on some game cinamatics at some point in time in my carrer. So it whould be not only stupid but completely arogant of me to think that just becuase I don't imediatley know how to render, I might need to learn it in the future.

[WiSe]

Hey everybody,

I am going to apply for the summer intersession as a transfer student and I got some questions if you guys don't mind me asking.

1. I'm going to be living an hour or so away from San fran. The city that i'm going to be living in is in modesto with my cousin. I was wondering if the rush hour is bad like in L.A. or is it alright, not that heavy.
2. Should I register in person or register online?
3. Well there be a plan on how to pay for the school when you meet your counslor?

I guess that's it and if anyone answers these questions, I thank you in advance.

[-Vormav-]

150 are applying for the pixar class? Wow, quite a few more than I had expected.
I'm still trying to narrow down exactly what I want my emphasis to be. Being an animator would be ideal I suppose, but the industry seems so flooded with animators right now.
I like texturing, but I loathe dealing with UVW mapping.
Right now I'm partial to compositing, though I'd really prefer more of an emphasis with actual 3D work.

BTW, where exactly would something like Z Brush2 fit into the pipeline? Would that be handled by the modeler or the texturer?

[Kimotion]

Oh well, just got the pixar 1 results and didn't get in again (how embarrasing). Congrats to those who did. For me, I will guess that getting A's in all my animation classes don't count for shit; the lesson is that grades really do not matter.

Another lesson is that this reflects the real world...only a handful get jobs. "oh no Kimotion, not more 'gloom and doom from you" but it's apparent. The size of that e-mail list was almost jawdropping....so many wannabe animators, so little positions.

Well now that this school ran out of resources for me, I'll just pack up go learn elsewhere. AAU is now my own personal shinking ship...the only sensible thing to do is to jump off before spending any more money.

I hear Beck's "Loser" song playing in the background, LOL...If you see a psychotic Asian guy walking around New Montgomery with a black Kato mask on, that's me...

[silicate]

I just applied via the web a couple of days ago. Target semester: Fall 2005. Haven't heard from them at all though they have charged my credit card already :-\... I need to get my transcripts from my local community college and send them in. I'm worried about the financial aid, but I haven't spoken to anybody from AAU yet. How long does it take to get the application processed?

What is the best time to go up there to get a Tour of the Facilities? I am going to call them anyway, but I'd like to know what you guys have to say about the tours, what your experiences are?

[darktding]

I love tours, whenever I am working in the labs and when the tour comes along I just want to stand up and scream and tell the visitors to run away as fast as they can and spend their money elsewhere.HEHEHE :evil: . The funny thing about tours it is like people visitng a zoo. They oo and ahh at student's monitors and frankly its more of a distraction really.
Tours are a waste of time frankly, but if u want to check out the academy and all its facilities then its a good idea. But wth that u get a free ride around the city so it kinda turns out to be like a city tour.
As for your tution the best advice is to call their toll free number (1800-544-ARTS).
Hope it helps

[omni]

It’s really funny that almost everyone that are at the Academy say so many negative things about the university. Why are those people still there?

[danteort]

It’s really funny that almost everyone that are at the Academy say so many negative things about the university. Why are those people still there?
The school as a whole is a little screwy to say the least, but that doesn't mean you can't learn a lot while you're there. Basically, that's one of the reasons it's highly recommended that you attend some college before transferring to the Academy.

There are teachers there that genuinely care about whether or not you are truly prepared for the challenges you'll face after school. Then there are the teachers that don't really know a whole lot.

Two of my teachers last semester were absolutely fantastic, and they couldn't have said it any plainer: "Your performance in this class doesn't mean a whole lot if you don't produce good work. ALL that matters when you leave here is the portfolio." My other teachers were just fine, but not quite as good.

[SpiralFace]

It’s really funny that almost everyone that are at the Academy say so many negative things about the university. Why are those people still there?

To put it bluntly, people like to complain about our school becuse there are alot of people who don't have the Disiplin to be here. Just because its a good school, does'nt make it an easy school. To balance off the fact that you don't need a portfolio submition, the school makes you run the gauntlet the first year and a half. And I won't lie, most people don't make it. There is a 50% Drop out failure ratio on the freshmen's behalf. And although I do agree that there are some teachers for the lower end classes that are'nt that great, Its mainly becuase the great teachers are saved for the higher end classes when your learning more then just stuff from the first chapters of any Learning "insert 3D software package here" book. Every semester my teachers get better and better, also you hear from friends about what ones to avoid. Also some people expect that its the teachers fault if they did'nt learn anything here. But I have a news flash for everyone. College is about learning, but most of the learning you have to do on your own time. The professors are just there to help. This is the basis for WHATEVER college you go to. (Also a reason I recomend getting some comunity college experiance before comming here.) There are alot of people that feel they are getting ripped off becuase they are'nt learning everything and that the only people who seem to be learning are the ones with previous experiance. Here is a news flash. Those people who know Maya or Max already don't suceeed becuase they already know the program, they suceed becuase they are already disiplented enough to study on their own time. I came to this school not knowing a thing about CG. And it was'nt easy to start out with, but I had to sit down with my Savy Maya 4.5 book and just go at it to learn, working on many tutorials and finding out the hard way what works and what does'nt. I went from 0 knowlege to haveing some of my stuff featured in the upcomming student catalog, in a year and a half of learning Maya. I just had to work my @$$ off to get their.

People always complain about the negative, becuase lets face it. With the total annonimity of the internet, people can be little whiney b****** all they want and still not have to deal with being looked at as an Idiot in real life. Also not many people feel like they should waste their time smacking down these people becuase they just keep on poping up. So unfortunatly, that will be the state of this forum once I get sick of repeating myself to everyone with a complaint about this school that I've heard 10 times over. Thank goodness this site is possibly the best I've seen as far as keeping the random b******g down to a minimum, and that is why I don't mind writing down lenghthy posts like this, becuase I actualy feel like someone is taking the time to read it.

Also Omni, Black text on a grey background is REALY hard to read without highlighting it. You might want to change your options becuase if you do write a lenghty post its next to impossibe to read.

[darktding]

The reason I love to talk about the bad things in stuff is because people can avoid the pit falls and realize what they are getting into. Just simply telling people that AAU is the GREATEST AWESOME SUPER DUPER COOL CG CAREER GARUNTEED UNIVERSITY (which I laugh at people who think so) is all Jazz.
AAU costs a lot of money to get into, and the one thing there is a huge drop off rate is because not only people think AAU is such a great school (which is not IMHO) but also when students realize they are spending a lot of money and they are getting no where.
This thread is not about singing the AAU's praises, it’s about talking about the bad things it has and warning people about it.
When I first joined AAU I was innocent and didn’t know shit, it took a lot of research and asking around and fighting with my advisors that got me to realize the following about the AAU, it is not all black and white as one would think and it takes a lot of courage and spirit and dedication to get the classes you want and fighting for stuffs you need. AAU wont help you at all in getting your dream on the road, you, as a student must take that initiative.
I remebered when I talked to my CAPs teacher Rob Gibson and just said hi to him once in his office and I inquired how his caps students are doing, his reply was simply
"Many students come to the AAU thinking they will get a job easily off the bat and I can tell you that most of my students will not get one"
It is this mentality of the stupid tours they have that make students think AAU is the hub for getting a job at Pixar or ILM because their teachers are from those companies which is just false.
I complain for a reason: I am spending shit loads of money to a private institute and I demand equally, if not better services from them. Many people disagree with me and that is the reason nothing gets changed in the Academy. Many people forget that AAU is BUISSNESS not a SCHOOL. Many students have asked me, if I am complaining then change your school! that’s like saying if one of the tyre of a car is bust get a new car!

[LiquidMetal]

Hi.I am planning to get a AA in 3d Modeling in AAU.Is this ill-advised and should I get a Ba in 3D Modeling?

EDIT:Also,how does the Finincial Aid work?I am 16 but I am graduating high school next year(2006).I am planning to get a loan to go to College.Do I get the loan before or after I go to AAU?Sorry if this question is kind of stupid.

[jeremybirn]

To put it bluntly, people like to complain about our school becuse there are alot of people who don't have the Disiplin to be here. Just because its a good school, does'nt make it an easy school. To balance off the fact that you don't need a portfolio submition, the school makes you run the gauntlet the first year and a half. And I won't lie, most people don't make it. There is a 50% Drop out failure ratio on the freshmen's behalf. And although I do agree that there are some teachers for the lower end classes that are'nt that great, Its mainly becuase the great teachers are saved for the higher end classes when your learning more then just stuff from the first chapters of any Learning "insert 3D software package here" book. Every semester my teachers get better and better, also you hear from friends about what ones to avoid. Also some people expect that its the teachers fault if they did'nt learn anything here.

Consider AAU as a training option, not an education.

I recomend getting some comunity college experiance before comming here.) There are alot of people that feel they are getting ripped off becuase they are'nt learning everything and that the only people who seem to be learning are the ones with previous experiance. Here is a news flash. Those people who know Maya or Max already don't suceeed becuase they already know the program, they suceed becuase they are already disiplented enough to study on their own time. I came to this school not knowing a thing about CG. And it was'nt easy to start out with, but I had to sit down with my Savy Maya 4.5 book and just go at it to learn, working on many tutorials and finding out the hard way what works and what does'nt. I went from 0 knowlege to haveing some of my stuff featured in the upcomming student catalog, in a year and a half of learning Maya. I just had to work my @$$ off to get their.

Agreed. At least an associate's degree from a community college should be a minimum step after high school that you'd want to take before AAU.

-jeremy

[darktding]

Hi.I am planning to get a AA in 3d Modeling in AAU.Is this ill-advised and should I get a Ba in 3D Modeling?
It depends LiquidMetal,
Here is a suggestion,
I say stick with your AA course, and if you feel that you want to learn more then you can easily switch your program to a BA. As you know the differences BA is 4 years and AA is only 2 years. Please also note that the years they say the course is depends on your speed. It is very intensive if you want to finish in the target 2 years.
The cool thing with AA is that you have the freedom of your classes BA you are stuck with the syllabus. The downside AA means nothing to industries and BA sounds nice on a resume incase you get a job getting a raise from the studio will sound strong as opposed to an AA degree. This is based off from what I heard but I maybe wrong here.
Also another way at looking at it is, if you are really really good at modeling and you want to go back to your traditional form then AA is a good decision otherwise if you have never even taken a modeling class or drawing classes then a BA will give you a full well deserved education.
Also please be aware of the teachers, check this thread out there are many people who posted who are good modeling teachers. You will be sad to hear this Jeff Unay used to teach at the AAU, now he is working at Weta on the King Kong movie. He was an awesome modeling teacher from what I heard from my friends. He also made a good alias dvd of realistic modeling, which if you have the cash a must have in your collection of modeling dvds. Hope this helps.

[LiquidMetal]

Wow that would have been great to have Jeff Unay as a teacher.I took a look at his dvd on the Alias site and It looks amazing.As sson as I scorounge up $70 I am gonna buy it LoL.Thanks for the info.

[silicate]

Ha, didn't mean to start any trouble in here ;). I already have the "you get out of it what you put into it" mentality engrained into me from reading the whole thread from post #1. I just want to see what the facilities are going to look like before I am locked into going there. I'm pretty dedicated when it comes to learning and studying on my own. Especialy when it's something I love like art. However my decision to go to AAU was based on the fact that I was having a hard time learning animation on my own. I always did well in school though and I got good study skills. I'm just worried about where I'm going to live while I'm there.

[WiSe]

What major is everyone and what degree?

[crossbones]

www.artcenter.edu (http://www.artcenter.edu)
its where I am going to school. Its expensive, but worth it depending if you want to go product/trans/entertainment design

[omni]

[QUOTE=Also Omni, Black text on a grey background is REALY hard to read without highlighting it. You might want to change your options becuase if you do write a lenghty post its next to impossibe to read.[/QUOTE]

Sorry for the black text =) My fault.

[amphibiac]

"Is the Academy of Art a good school?"

In a nutshell, no.

I also live in the Bay Area, and attend the San Francisco Art Institute. (www.sfai.edu (http://www.sfai.edu)) and compared to us or CCA, the Academy is an assembly line factory. It is true, the school is growing like a virus, there are new campus buildings sprouting up all around the city, the ubiquitous Academy of Art buses seem to outnumber MUNI, and from what I have experienced, both from grads, those that have left to attend SFAI, or dropped out altogether, it is a scam of a sort.

The main thing to be aware of is they are not accredited, so you cannot transfer credit in, nor out. Once you are in the program, you must complete it to get a degree. I have a few acquaintances that have had to grit their teeth to finish knowing that all of the hard work is wasted in the event the school is not for them.

If you are serious about Technical/Applied Arts, Graphic Arts, Illustration, try Art Center, RISD, or Pratt, even CCA is getting better, but be warned, the general consensus here in SF is that the Academy of Art is a real estate business disguised as a school.

[rhodeder]

i think i might go to the academy of arts but i heard it costs about 140k a year.

[jbo]

i think i might go to the academy of arts but i heard it costs about 140k a year.

you heard wrong. it costs about 6500 a semester(4 classes) plus labs. if you take 2 semesters a year, it will take you 5 years to graduate. so that's 65k total+ labs. labs are 400 for pc and less for mac (used to be 100, but i'm not sure if that's still true). so even if you took all pc classes it would only cost about 16k a year.

[SpiralFace]

"Is the Academy of Art a good school?"

In a nutshell, no.

I also live in the Bay Area, and attend the San Francisco Art Institute. (www.sfai.edu (http://www.sfai.edu/)) and compared to us or CCA, the Academy is an assembly line factory. It is true, the school is growing like a virus, there are new campus buildings sprouting up all around the city, the ubiquitous Academy of Art buses seem to outnumber MUNI, and from what I have experienced, both from grads, those that have left to attend SFAI, or dropped out altogether, it is a scam of a sort.

The main thing to be aware of is they are not accredited, so you cannot transfer credit in, nor out. Once you are in the program, you must complete it to get a degree. I have a few acquaintances that have had to grit their teeth to finish knowing that all of the hard work is wasted in the event the school is not for them.

If you are serious about Technical/Applied Arts, Graphic Arts, Illustration, try Art Center, RISD, or Pratt, even CCA is getting better, but be warned, the general consensus here in SF is that the Academy of Art is a real estate business disguised as a school.

The Academy is accredited, but not under the same Accredidation that state and UC schools are under. So yeah, that means that your transfers are limited, but Liberal arts that qualify for UC accredidation usaualy will transfer over. Its the same accredidation that many Privately owned schools are under. (Such as Cornell and Stanford.) My friend was in comunity college for 3 years, got into Cornell up in Ithica New York, and could'nt transfer jack squat. So yeah, it sucks if you want to jump ship in the middle of your education, but its the reality of the situation, and its not just limited to the AAU. Also, in the end employers look at the BA and the school name, not if its accredited or not. And many of the studios I have visited have a helthy handfull of Academy students. So although by going to the Academy won't guarantee you a job in the end, employers won't care if the school is not under a state and UC accredidation in the end.

Also, why do people keep on thinking this school is a cookie cutter school? Yeah there is a schedual that they will try to push on you when they first come here. But I know of no one that actualy keeps to that schedual. After about a year, you know what you want to realy do, and as long as you know what path you want to take, you can go to your Department Director and sit there and talk about what you want to do and what you want to take, he'll even sign off some pre-reqs if you present them with a portfolio.

So amphibiac, if you can be so kind, please DON'T spread propaganda about a school that you don't even attend. You don't see me going around blabbing about negative things I've heard about the AI. Mainly becuase I KNOW that I have no grounds to stand on when it comes to the AI. Just as you have no grounds for baseing an opinion of a school that you don't even attend, off of rumors you've probably heard from friends and AAU dropouts. Lets face it, the AI and the Academy are rival schools in SF. So lets not get into the AI, AAU propaganda that floats around our schools in much the same way CAL and Berkley have their rivaly propaganda floating around their schools. And just to shoot down the last thing you said about AAU real estate, your AI should talk. All and all you AI guys own ALOT more property then we do. Your's is just scattered around through multiple states and Campus' where we are just cluped together. And yes your school is Privatley owned as well. And thats all I'll say on that matter.

And contrary to popular belief, this forum is for students interested in the AAU. NOT an AAU student b******** forum. If any of you AAU students want to keep up with your b*******, please take it to the AAU student forums at (http://www.myacademyart.com.) So lets keep it to trying to help interested students with their questions. Not tell personal stories about how much this school sucks. Yeah I know there are alot of negative things to be said about the school, and including personal stories to support someone is a viable thing to do. But just preaching to the chior about how this school took all your money and its totaly not worth it, not only just gets old, but it makes you look like whiney little freshman babies. I don't mind negative critisism about the school, but please do it in a tastefull way that will help others come to a decision about attending or not attending this school. Don't turn it into a selfish attempt to have people pitty you and all the academy has wronged you with. Because beleave me, we don't care. This forum is'nt about you, its about the school lets please keep it that way.

[Unled]

That's funny because the students I've talked to from AI say that it is an okay school but they basically are a 'diploma mill' just as much as the academy would be considered one.

You seem to not really know that much about the Academy and are speaking through ignorance, a 'Real Estate Business' ? Please. I'm not sure which Campus Buildings have been sprouting up, but we don't seem to have any more buildings then we did when I first got here.
No doubt about it, the school has it's flaws and it's certainly not perfect but I've been there for almost a year and a half and I feel the level of instruction I've received is good.
Also The Academy recently became Accredited when they became a 'university' so that argument is now null.
I'd suggest actually going to some of the Academy Galleries and seeing the incredible work coming from the student body (we have some amazing illustrators here) before you claim it to be a 'scam'. There are some great teachers and classes available, and as always any school is what you make of it.

So I'd say in a nutshell the Academy is a great school to go to if you have the drive and the $$ to make it happen. I looked into the Art Institute in Portland Oregon and found it to be more expensive per year and offer less foundations courses.

It seems to be popular for bay area residents to bag on the Academy and yet know nothing about it.

Just my two cents.


"Is the Academy of Art a good school?"

In a nutshell, no.

I also live in the Bay Area, and attend the San Francisco Art Institute. (www.sfai.edu (http://www.sfai.edu)) and compared to us or CCA, the Academy is an assembly line factory. It is true, the school is growing like a virus, there are new campus buildings sprouting up all around the city, the ubiquitous Academy of Art buses seem to outnumber MUNI, and from what I have experienced, both from grads, those that have left to attend SFAI, or dropped out altogether, it is a scam of a sort.

The main thing to be aware of is they are not accredited, so you cannot transfer credit in, nor out. Once you are in the program, you must complete it to get a degree. I have a few acquaintances that have had to grit their teeth to finish knowing that all of the hard work is wasted in the event the school is not for them.

If you are serious about Technical/Applied Arts, Graphic Arts, Illustration, try Art Center, RISD, or Pratt, even CCA is getting better, but be warned, the general consensus here in SF is that the Academy of Art is a real estate business disguised as a school.

[SpiralFace]

That's funny because the students I've talked to from AI say that it is an okay school but they basically are a 'diploma mill' just as much as the academy would be considered one.

You seem to not really know that much about the Academy and are speaking through ignorance, a 'Real Estate Business' ? Please. I'm not sure which Campus Buildings have been sprouting up, but we don't seem to have any more buildings then we did when I first got here.
No doubt about it, the school has it's flaws and it's certainly not perfect but I've been there for almost a year and a half and I feel the level of instruction I've received is good.
Also The Academy recently became Accredited when they became a 'university' so that argument is now null.
I'd suggest actually going to some of the Academy Galleries and seeing the incredible work coming from the student body (we have some amazing illustrators here) before you claim it to be a 'scam'. There are some great teachers and classes available, and as always any school is what you make of it.

So I'd say in a nutshell the Academy is a great school to go to if you have the drive and the $$ to make it happen. I looked into the Art Institute in Portland Oregon and found it to be more expensive per year and offer less foundations courses.

It seems to be popular for bay area residents to bag on the Academy and yet know nothing about it.

Just my two cents.

Thanks Unled. Nice to know that I'm not the only one who has this opinion. :)

[silicate]

"Is the Academy of Art a good school?"
The main thing to be aware of is they are not accredited, so you cannot transfer credit in, nor out. Once you are in the program, you must complete it to get a degree. I have a few acquaintances that have had to grit their teeth to finish knowing that all of the hard work is wasted in the event the school is not for them.

"The Academy is accredited by the national Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS) and the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD)."

That is straight from their website.

Here is their info on transfering credit in. It refers to general / liberal art transer credits. If you are talking about art classes then I think you are correct, the only wave art classes and you have to make up the credits or so gather having read through this thread.

http://www.academyart.edu/admis/transfer.asp?M=3

[darktding]

what amphibiac meant was transferring credit out to other school. AAU's credits dont get transferred easily.

Yes shadow slayer is right, I have given up telling the pitfalls, those insterested in finding what they are please read the history of this thread.
Good luck to those students joining and dont say I didnt warn you.

[Morganism]

School is fun! :)

[amphibiac]

"That's funny because the students I've talked to from AI say that it is an okay school but they basically are a 'diploma mill' just as much as the academy would be considered one."

Okay, for the record: There are four major art schools in Bay Area:

The San Francisco Art Institute: www.sfai.edu (http://www.sfai.edu)
This is fine art ONLY. Art in the context that MoMa holds art, not ILM. Very little foundation classes, no design program, nothing to base a corporate career off of, except perhaps a rediculous amount of theory, which is supposed to teach one how to critically think. The kind of school where one goes to be exposed to the Art World, it is anti-assignment, and requires you to be very self-motivated as there is no one telling you to do anything. Some thrive, some need more guidance. Two campuses, one in North Beach, one on 3rd Street.

The Academy of Art University: http://www.academyart.edu (http://www.academyart.edu)
From what I gather, primarily a Design school, with fine art as well. See previous post for not so subtle criticism.

The Art Institute of California- San Francisco www.aisf.artinstitutes.edu (http://www.aisf.artinstitutes.edu)
This is the city bottom feeder, and is often confused with the first school listed, which is painful for those of us who attend SFAI, because it is largely crap (one of those schools that you send away for a pamphlet "can you draw Winston the Turtle, if you can, art school might be for you...")

California College of the Arts (formerly California College of Arts and Crafts) www.cca.edu (http://www.cca.edu)
This is a hybrid school, a cross between the Academy, though more theoretical, and the SFAI, but more design-minded. They have everything from Illustration to Textiles Design, with Graduate degrees in Architecture. Good school, seems well represented, with two campuses, 1 in Oakland, 1 in SF.

That being said, I believe the confusion about rivalry was meant for the AIC-SF, as they seem more applied arts not fine arts. And if I were an Academy student, I would indeed take offense at someone criticizing my school if they attended this place.
However, if you are in fact talking about SFAI, Unled, than there really is nothing to compare. You have illustrators that can render well, spend ungodly amounts of time in front of Maya, and painters that do commercial art for HP, we have painters, video artists and sculpters that get into the Venice Biennale, the New York Museum of Modern Art, and SFMOMA, not as visitors, but as collected artists.

My previous criticism was directed at those that buy the AAU rhetoric. In my estimation it is not an art school, but a design school, and if I was going to attend design school, I would rather go to Cooper Union, or at least Art Center in Pasedena.

I hope that clears up some confusion.

[jbo]

also, you apparantly have snobs as well.

I'm sure it's a great school, but the attitude that it's better because it's "fine art" is crap. seeing as this is cgtalk and not finearttalk, your criticisms of AAU are irrelevant. Yes it's a commercial art school, and people going there know this. the courses focus more on technique than on how to think, and IMO that's what's important to learn in school anyway. nobody can teach you how to think. If you need someone to teach you how to think, i probably don't want to see art by you in the first place. Anyway, the academy is certainly not a diploma mill... (don't you think it's strange that you heard it was a diploma mill from dropouts?) the fact is the courses are hard and you have a ton of homework. most people drop out the first year. as other's mentionedthe school is accredited. you're claim about it being a real estate company is valid. the academy does make a ton of money off of ridiculously high priced dorms, but it in no way affects the quality of the school. It certainly has its share of problems, but most of what you said is untrue and your attitude sucks.

[Kimotion]

you're claim about it being a real estate company is valid. the academy does make a ton of money off of ridiculously high priced dorms, but it in no way affects the quality of the school. It certainly has its share of problems, but most of what you said is untrue and your attitude sucks.


Good point. I personally believe that there is nothing wrong with making as much money as you can if you have the customers. Isn't being rich what a lot of us aspire to? And when someone becomes rich (ehem...Elisa Stephens) we knock them down. Money is wierd.

I don't know a single student here who hasn't criticized the school in some way. But it's the same with every school in the US. It's very natural to feel "cheated," especially if you spent so much money and seem to have failed at a class or whatever. It's human nature. But bashing an institution based on rumor or heresay is just ignorance. I was working as a temp at the Moscone Center at some trade show and one co-worker responded, "Oh so you go theeeeeeere...isn't it more of a real-estate business?" This person is a lifelong data-entry temp so her perspective is all she knows. AAU is not the only school that has property all over a city. New York University is another. Cornell University covers 1/3 of Ithaca. Any major university has its student buses driving everywhere. You know some buses that are totally covered in artwork/advertisments? For those AAU buses, I think they should replace the black paint and paint some funky pictures on them...now THAT would get the San Francisco locals riled up. "Oh the audacity of that art school!"

[SpiralFace]

That being said, I believe the confusion about rivalry was meant for the AIC-SF, as they seem more applied arts not fine arts. And if I were an Academy student, I would indeed take offense at someone criticizing my school if they attended this place.
However, if you are in fact talking about SFAI, Unled, than there really is nothing to compare. You have illustrators that can render well, spend ungodly amounts of time in front of Maya, and painters that do commercial art for HP, we have painters, video artists and sculpters that get into the Venice Biennale, the New York Museum of Modern Art, and SFMOMA, not as visitors, but as collected artists.

My previous criticism was directed at those that buy the AAU rhetoric. In my estimation it is not an art school, but a design school, and if I was going to attend design school, I would rather go to Cooper Union, or at least Art Center in Pasedena.

I hope that clears up some confusion.



Oops, sorry. I at first did think you where talking about the California AI. My bad.

As for the design school thing, yes it is a Artistic Design school. We all know that going into this. Yeah their is a Fine Arts major here, but many of my friends that started here in Fine Arts have moved over to Illustration, BECAUSE of the design factor. You make it seem like we should be ashamed to be going to a school that is more "comercial" art oriented then it is fine art oriented. Well if that truely is the case, let me say that not everyone wants to be Picasso, or Van Goug. What if they whould like to be like Frank Ferzetta, or Jason Manley instead? Is it wrong to want to aspire to do comercial art for comic books, game and movie concept design. In the end your still drawing or painting, so who cares what dicipline you go down as long as your happy with that decision.

Your Harsh critisim from before, to me, has even less ground to stand on becuase you seem to be harshly critisizing the school more for being more of a commercial art school then for any reason as far as learning, or suceeding in the feilds that we are trying to get into. The forum name here is CG talk. So even you should assume that a majoraty of us here are CG artists that are aspireing to get into production artwork for movies, games or any other, what you might concider, commercial venue. Or did I sleep through a century and miss some Digital Painter or Photoshop paintings getting hung at the SFMOMA or at some gallery in Paris? I'm not saying that your way is wrong. Its what you are trying to get into. But just becuase thats your view, does'nt mean that we all unanimously share it. So you should'nt critisize something just becuase its not what you whould think of as "Art." Becuase beleave it or not, all that stuff posted in the Gallery pages to us is art. And the academy is great for getting you on the right track to becomeing like the artists in the gallery forum.

[Kimotion]

Hey, you know those two new sculptures outside the Post Auditorium? Were those done by a student? I saw some tourists take photos of them.

[amphibiac]

"(don't you think it's strange that you heard it was a diploma mill from dropouts?)"
Actually, this was not my original statement, I was quoting it.

In regards to my bashing the AAU on the grounds that it is a commercial art school, I want to say that I am not opposed to whatever one chooses to pursue in art, in fact, anything can be art in my view given the artist's intention, we all know this. What I was saying with my initial criticism, is that there are going to be disparate opinions about AAU in San Francisco, largely because of how much and how fast it has grown. Now, consider this for a moment. You attend AAU, but it is a small (650 students, grad and undergrad) school, somewhat prestigious, and you are proud of the work you did to get in. Now imagine that every time you say you are in Art School in San Francisco, both to natives, and transplants, they think you are talking about that behemoth of a school, with billboards everywhere, and TV advertisements that run during primetime, and buses that cart their droves of students around the city: AIC-SF. "Oh," they say, "you go to that school on market street?" And every time you wince, correct them and try to remained poised all along. That is what the SFAI deals with in relation to AAU. It is frustrating that under the under the guise of art education, they really just want to make money. I have discussed this with faculty who teach there, designers that have completed the program AND dropouts.

I think one dissenting opinion is good as a warning to those who are interested.

[omni]

Well all I can say is that I am happy with the Academy at the moment. Have had some great classes and I have got stronger skills now so...

[darktding]

amphibiac one thing I think you must have not quite grasped and that this AAU is a private organisation. It is not funded by the community and neither the governement (although if u r not talking about grants).
Secondly America is not a public economy but a private economy. So what AAU is doing, evil or not, is all legit under the eyes of the gov. Sure they are taking up real estate spaces and actually turining San Francisco into an AAU fest but it is nothing the people of san francisco can complain about becuase they never funded or helped or own shares of the AAU.
It is a very selfish concept but once you begin to accept that things will come to perspective about the AAU. What makes the America, America is knowing the law and how to turn it to your advantage.
Elisa Stephens is a law graduate and she was wise enuf to see the potential in the AAU and used it to make her more rich. In human perpective there is no limit to richness only the realization of how poor you was the other day.

[SpiralFace]

Now imagine that every time you say you are in Art School in San Francisco, both to natives, and transplants, they think you are talking about that behemoth of a school, with billboards everywhere, and TV advertisements that run during primetime, and buses that cart their droves of students around the city: AIC-SF. "Oh," they say, "you go to that school on market street?" And every time you wince, correct them and try to remained poised all along. That is what the SFAI deals with in relation to AAU. It is frustrating that under the under the guise of art education, they really just want to make money. I have discussed this with faculty who teach there, designers that have completed the program AND dropouts.

I think one dissenting opinion is good as a warning to those who are interested.

This is total BS. Who cares what the general Public thinks about your school or our school. What matters in the end is what the employers think. Concidering (At least for me) the main reason you go to college in general is to get an education in order to secure yourself a job in the end. So if the employers have a good view of the Academy and the education provides, who cares what the natives or "transplants" think. Half of them are too ignorant about the arts to know the differance between an acrilic or oil painting. Heck, every time I tell someone I'm a computer artist, they instantly say "So you work at Pixar???" or "So what character did you animate?" ARGGG that makes me want to wring their necks. And don't even get me started about what they say when I tell them "I'm getting into textureing, not animation." The general populace does'nt have a clue about the arts. So why the heck should you care if they get your schools confused.

[Unled]

The San Francisco Art Institute: www.sfai.edu (http://www.sfai.edu)
This is fine art ONLY. Art in the context that MoMa holds art, not ILM. Very little foundation classes, no design program, nothing to base a corporate career off of, except perhaps a rediculous amount of theory, which is supposed to teach one how to critically think. The kind of school where one goes to be exposed to the Art World, it is anti-assignment, and requires you to be very self-motivated as there is no one telling you to do anything. Some thrive, some need more guidance. Two campuses, one in North Beach, one on 3rd Street.


The Art Institute of California- San Francisco www.aisf.artinstitutes.edu (http://www.aisf.artinstitutes.edu)
This is the city bottom feeder, and is often confused with the first school listed, which is painful for those of us who attend SFAI, because it is largely crap (one of those schools that you send away for a pamphlet "can you draw Winston the Turtle, if you can, art school might be for you...")


However, if you are in fact talking about SFAI, Unled, than there really is nothing to compare. You have illustrators that can render well, spend ungodly amounts of time in front of Maya, and painters that do commercial art for HP, we have painters, video artists and sculpters that get into the Venice Biennale, the New York Museum of Modern Art, and SFMOMA, not as visitors, but as collected artists.




Nope you're right, I did indeed get the two confused. I actually had no idea the other school even existed. I'll have to look further into the school but it sounds like you guys have a very talented student body.
However, I still think you're selling the Academy short. We do have illustrators that can render well, and people who spend ungodly amounts of time infront of Maya (me included) however, we also have students who moved on to work in almost every top effects house in the Bay Area. Most of the students going to AAU would be more thrilled to work at Pixar than be in the New York Museum of Modern Art, myself included.
So really it's just a matter of perspective. I appreciate fine art but it isn't where I want to be and that's why I picked the school I picked. So far I'm happy with the level of instruction (for the most part). I've had some great teachers and some not so great teachers, but I've always worked my hardest on all my projects, and that's all that matters to me.
If AAU is a diploma mill so be it, I want to get in, learn as much as possible as quickly as possible and get out, and get a job in the industry. Those are my goals.

Your criticism of AAU is coming across as just plain snobbery now.

[SheepFactory]

Amphibiac ,

If i want to get into moma i'll go get a haz-mat suit , a gasmask , 20 chilli hotdogs and one vacuum cleaner and nail them all to a wooden cross. Thats the kind of "art" in there and i have zero respect for it. If you are talking fine arts academy of art has some of the best fine artists in the bay area both teaching and learning , I am sure your school is great too i have friends from there also who are excellent artists. But please lets not write off the illustration department of AAU because thats one department where the school really shines. (well they do dumb mistakes like letting carol nunnely go , but thats more insiders talk)

[Jim]

I agree with you amphibiac. The Academy of Art is not an art school per se. It's a trade school. But for what it teaches, it really has no peer. I can't speak for the other departments, but the computer and illustration departments are very rigorous. Composition, color and draftsmanship with a lot of scrutiny, with constant exercises and explanation of how and why. not to mention maya. There's no accounting for taste, and I don't want to veer to far into discussing the definition of art, but personally I think relevance is arbitrary. Meaning requires investment, and some people just can't be bothered to learn about Josef Beuys, just like some people dismiss academic painting principles . The Academy definitely has particular things to offer, not fine art, but other fine things.

[Kimotion]

Half of them are too ignorant about the arts to know the differance between an acrilic or oil painting. Heck, every time I tell someone I'm a computer artist, they instantly say "So you work at Pixar???" or "So what character did you animate?" ARGGG that makes me want to wring their necks. And don't even get me started about what they say when I tell them "I'm getting into textureing, not animation." The general populace does'nt have a clue about the arts. So why the heck should you care if they get your schools confused.

HA! I know exactly what you mean. Here's a recent conversation I had with my co-worker:

Obnoxious Co-Worker: Wait, Kimotion, you never told me what you be studying at that school of yours
KIMOTION: Oh, I'm studying Animation
Obnoxious Co-Worker: Oh really!? With computers?
KIMOTION: Uh...yeah
Obnoxious Co-Worker: Dat's good, dat's goooood...dat's where the MONEY is at these days
KIMOTION: (trying really hard not to roll eyes)...I guess..
Obnoxious Co-Worker: So you be working for PIXAR! I loved Shrek 2!

[amphibiac]

I am the first to admit (well maybe not the first...) that I am snob, and it has, once again reared its ugly head here. I do apologize, because I do have tremendous respect for the amount of work that one must put in to be a successful illustrator, designer, or CG designer. As well, I want to say, that what the AAU offers is but a small sampling of what is available in digital art, or "new media."

Time and again, I am advised by counselors, professionals, artists, etcetera, that what is truly important is not learning the software, or the tools, but to continue to be creative regardless. Knowing how to use Maya will only work for a short time. Software changes, platforms dissolve, new devices crop up that require whole new ways to think about content (PDA vs. PC) and the people who can make decisions about this are people like us, creative professionals.

If your end goal is to get a job as an operator, I would imagine that AAU is a great place to be, likely the best place in California (though Art Center kicks serious I.D. a$$!) but if you eventually want to produce, write, and direct, not to mention imagineer the future of digital content, be it games, movies, animation or what have you, only learning how to master the software will not, despite the rhetoric, sustain a life long career in the Entertainment Industry.

I do not know what kind of historical texts are required, but the main criticism I have with schools that place such a large emphasis on the here and now, is that they do not give credit to the work done in past generations.
The most apt quote (forgot who said it):
To be a master, you cannot start where other masters have stopped, you must start where they did: at the beginning.

I do appreciate this forum, the work in the gallery I DO consider ART, and Sheep Factory, I agree, that might just work to get you in the MoMA, it is more creative than a lot of the crap I see daily.

Not every $hit you take is soft sculpture.

[SheepFactory]

I do not disagree with you , indeed tools will only get you so far. But academy had some of the best instructors in the field (emphasis on had because most left , though new equally qualified instructors are coming in.

i dont know if you consider taking animation classes from top animators working at pixar , ilm and other major studios "maya training" , in fact none of those instructors know or use maya. To be frank i didnt even take any software class in this school since I joined , waiwed out of all of them , a gnomon dvd on maya teaches you all you can learn from the maya 1,2,3 classes imo and that money and time can be better spend on classes that actually matter.

Bottomline is no school is perfect , you just have to work with what you have and aspire to be better in whatever you persue.

[Kimotion]

If your end goal is to get a job as an operator, I would imagine that AAU is a great place to be, likely the best place in California (though Art Center kicks serious I.D. a$$!) but if you eventually want to produce, write, and direct, not to mention imagineer the future of digital content, be it games, movies, animation or what have you, only learning how to master the software will not, despite the rhetoric, sustain a life long career in the Entertainment Industry.

What makes you assume that AAU does not teach the art behind the software/techniques? A lot of students complain that they have to take too many fundamentals, storyboarding, editing, preproduction, etc. before they even touch the computer. I am greatful to have exposure to these things because it only makes your CG so much stronger and more meaningful. It's been drilled into our heads that Maya (or whatever software) is just a tool. Because you know all the functions of Microsoft Word does not make you a great writer. Because you know how a certain paintbrush is made, or what chemicals are in the acrylic paint does not make you a great painter. Same with CG.

As for SFAI: I know one graduate and he told me of a "performance art" piece he attended. This guy was whipping this other guy with a cane and then he defecated on him. This may be art to some people, but not for someone who is studying computer animation. This is just my personal view. I just choose to not spend tuition on watching or learning how to create sculptures out of chopsticks and tin foil. Sure, traditional art is very important, but my decision is to focus on a career path. Traditional art takes lifetime(s) to learn.

[amphibiac]

As for SFAI: I know one graduate and he told me of a "performance art" piece he attended. This guy was whipping this other guy with a cane and then he defecated on him. This may be art to some people, but not for someone who is studying computer animation.

Yeah, this is one of the more recent (2000 I believe) incidents that really mar the surface of art here is a link about the story: http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a38c3cb1560f4.htm

The thing is, I am at a fine arts school, and I try to bring up critical topics about World of Warcraft, CG and its implications on painting, etc and I am scoffed at. I believe that CG IS the future, quite franky for a lot of us, it is the present. I do appreciate this forum, (I got a Wacom 12X9 Intuos3 for christmas, and am working through trying to get Sketchbook Pro, and PS 7, to feel like "regular" drawing...it is not coming as quickly as I'd like...) and REALLY admire some of the work on here, for their technical execution, imagination and what have you.
(Jason Chan for one, seems to make Painter do things I did not think possible...)

As far as the AAU, well, I am glad to hear that it is more well-rounded than I previously thought. Thanks for the insights.

[silicate]

HA! I know exactly what you mean. Here's a recent conversation I had with my co-worker:

Obnoxious Co-Worker: Wait, Kimotion, you never told me what you be studying at that school of yours
KIMOTION: Oh, I'm studying Animation
Obnoxious Co-Worker: Oh really!? With computers?
KIMOTION: Uh...yeah
Obnoxious Co-Worker: Dat's good, dat's goooood...dat's where the MONEY is at these days
KIMOTION: (trying really hard not to roll eyes)...I guess..
Obnoxious Co-Worker: So you be working for PIXAR! I loved Shrek 2!

I know how you feel. I tell people that I want to study CG Animation and later they come to me and say "so... how is your cartooning going?" or I explain that I'm talking about COMPUTER GENERATED ANIMATION and they respond with "oh.. I'm not into those kind of movies, I like the old stuff like looney toons, but I'm not really into new cartoons, except maybe the Simpsons." Or people just look at me like I"m a freak, I'm use to it though because I use to have long hair when I was younger.. then I started shaving parts of it... anyway. I can't talk about anything I'm really into with anyone. Nobody gets it, I'm hoping I meet some students into Samurai flicks, anime, World of Warcraft, and Sci-Fi. If not I'm already use to sitting in the dark by myself with headphones on
:D. I'm planning on working my ass off once I get there though, it will be like now, but instead of working I will be at school/studying... that is if the financial planning goes... er uh, well "as planned".

[Unled]

Time and again, I am advised by counselors, professionals, artists, etcetera, that what is truly important is not learning the software, or the tools, but to continue to be creative regardless. Knowing how to use Maya will only work for a short time. Software changes, platforms dissolve, new devices crop up that require whole new ways to think about content (PDA vs. PC) and the people who can make decisions about this are people like us, creative professionals.



Well actually that's one of the reasons I chose to go to AAU instead of AI Portland. I was drawn by the emphasis on traditional art training over actual computer work. And so far the bulk of my classes have been figure drawing, color theory, figure modeling and anatomy.
During a semester I seem to spend more time with charcoal than Maya. But I'm okay with that because like you say, it's not the program that's important, it's the theory and knowledge you apply while using that program.
I actually think AAU has a very decent foundations program that goes a long way towards the quality of work coming out of the school.

[ORB2L.com]

I am going to AAU this september and i have the following classes so far from the Community College here in Phoenix, AZ:

English 101
English 102
College Algebra
US History
Art History through 16th century
Introduction to Phsychology
Introduction to Computers
Life Drawing 1

and all those classes pretty much match 99% from what the site said. You guys think i should not have any trouble?

BTW anyone from Arizona planning to go to that school in September :) posibly meet up or something. Dont know anyone from here that actualy wants to go to that school due to huge change. :)

[danteort]

What's funny about the AAU is the number of slackers that attend. Obviously, this is due to the open admissions policy. But still, I took some art classes last year at a community college in St. Louis, and 95% of the students in my classes were hard workers. It just strikes me as odd that THAT many people would have that much money to throw around that spending $30k a year (tuition and living) and accomplishing nothing is no big deal. Seriously, in my figure drawing class three students failed and two got Ds. Others simply dropped out. The last day of class, six people showed up.

It does keep things interesting, I guess, to just step back and marvel at the unbelievably enormous gap in quality between those that slack off and those that work hard. There are students that draw like 7 year olds ... 7 year olds who can't draw. Then there are students who produce professional quality work.

If you're interested in a small sample of what some of the students can do (with traditional media)...

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=22768

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=36196

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=23984

Edit: There are also students there who seem to work hard but just don't "get it." There was one guy in my class who was a really nice guy and seemed to try hard enough, but his stuff looked like elementary school art projects.

[SpiralFace]

I am going to AAU this september and i have the following classes so far from the Community College here in Phoenix, AZ:

English 101
English 102
College Algebra
US History
Art History through 16th century
Introduction to Phsychology
Introduction to Computers
Life Drawing 1

and all those classes pretty much match 99% from what the site said. You guys think i should not have any trouble?

BTW anyone from Arizona planning to go to that school in September :) posibly meet up or something. Dont know anyone from here that actualy wants to go to that school due to huge change. :)

your English, Algebra, and US history should transfer over with no problems. Your art history MIGHT run into problems. I know at my comunity colledge I needed to take 2 or 3 semesters worth of Art history to have it count for 1 semesters worth at the academy, The same thing might apply for your Intro to Phsychology. And your Life Drawing class most likely will be transfered over as an elective.

But double check with the office about all of this.

[SpiralFace]

What's funny about the AAU is the number of slackers that attend. Obviously, this is due to the open admissions policy. But still, I took some art classes last year at a community college in St. Louis, and 95% of the students in my classes were hard workers. It just strikes me as odd that THAT many people would have that much money to throw around that spending $30k a year (tuition and living) and accomplishing nothing is no big deal. Seriously, in my figure drawing class three students failed and two got Ds. Others simply dropped out. The last day of class, six people showed up.

It does keep things interesting, I guess, to just step back and marvel at the unbelievably enormous gap in quality between those that slack off and those that work hard. There are students that draw like 7 year olds ... 7 year olds who can't draw. Then there are students who produce professional quality work.


Edit: There are also students there who seem to work hard but just don't "get it." There was one guy in my class who was a really nice guy and seemed to try hard enough, but his stuff looked like elementary school art projects.

Yeah, its like that in your freshman year. This school might have an open admition policy, but that does'nt mean that everyone will make it through the gauntlet of freshman year.

Your in you second semester now right Danteort? You have another semester or two to get through your foundations and all your intro to classes. Beleave me. It gets easier after that becuase the classes become less of weeding out the people who don't belong here, to realy pushing your own personal skills. And after you make it out of it you'll see alot less people droping out. Becuase all of the people who are too lazy or too cocky to survive out in the real profesional world get weeded out. There are always one or two that make it through for some reason. But don't worry about them. If they are lazy and don't do anything, they're only screwing themselves over. Keep it up and good luck.

[WillJohn]

No, It isn't.

[jjcoolio]

I heard from some fellow students that Its true that some students are wasting their time but this happens in ALL ART schools.

For animation or modeling vfx..Only the top 10 percent makes it to the industry.(20 or 30 if lucky) seems harsh but this is the same to all the animation schools across the nation
I didn't take any drawing classes but the classes I'm taking in grad school, every student was working hard. Can't imagine what the students were thinking if it was true.

[Empath]

Alright, I started reading this thread three days ago and after finishing it and talking with numerous students I am feeling much more confidant about controlling my education. My thanks to everyone who provided information.
Anywho, there are only a few things I am still trying to clear up:
After you begin taking courses at the Academy, can you earn credit towards your degree from another college? One very helpful and informative person told me that you can't, I just want to be sure about this.
And secondly:
How exactly does one go about waiving courses? I am look into skipping at least Intro to Graphics and CAPS and hopefully Maya 1 as well. I've heard three different stories on this subject concerning how one actually proves their ability and have been refferred to four different people to ask about it. I have sent emails to two of them and hopefully will get an informative answer at some point, but if anyone here has any words of wisdom I'd be glad to hear them.

By the way, for any curious, my name is Aaron Smith, I'm recently turned seventeen, have some experience with a wide variety of computer graphics and will be pursuing a degree in 3D Modeling.

[MadDash]

im planning on visiting San Fran and AAU the last week in february and im kinda looking to see if theres any aau student that wouldnt mind taking some time out of their day to show me around the school and the area?

[darktding]

I think we must have like a meetup again...

[silicate]

im planning on visiting San Fran and AAU the last week in february and im kinda looking to see if theres any aau student that wouldnt mind taking some time out of their day to show me around the school and the area?

Is that because you are going to be an MFA student? I just RSVPed for the first Saturday in March, March 5th. I hope I can still get a tour of some kind while I'm there. I should have all my paperwork in order by then and really just want to go check things out, have a look-see.

[SpiralFace]

Alright, I started reading this thread three days ago and after finishing it and talking with numerous students I am feeling much more confidant about controlling my education. My thanks to everyone who provided information.
Anywho, there are only a few things I am still trying to clear up:
After you begin taking courses at the Academy, can you earn credit towards your degree from another college? One very helpful and informative person told me that you can't, I just want to be sure about this.
And secondly:
How exactly does one go about waiving courses? I am look into skipping at least Intro to Graphics and CAPS and hopefully Maya 1 as well. I've heard three different stories on this subject concerning how one actually proves their ability and have been refferred to four different people to ask about it. I have sent emails to two of them and hopefully will get an informative answer at some point, but if anyone here has any words of wisdom I'd be glad to hear them.

By the way, for any curious, my name is Aaron Smith, I'm recently turned seventeen, have some experience with a wide variety of computer graphics and will be pursuing a degree in 3D Modeling.

Hey Aaron. I think the reason your getting different opinions from different people is simply becuase there are many differant ways that people have waivered classes here at this school. I beleave that your getting different responses on what to do becuase if it worked for us once, many of us DON'T want to try any other way in fear that it might not work again. But the one thing that rings true in ANY situation is that you have to present your work to the right people in order to prove what you can do. (Be it the teacher, the Director, or a MA student) But understand that in the end, a department DIRECTOR has to sign off on the paper that you must submit to admitions. So I find it best to just go through him simply becuase eventualy he'll be the one getting it anyways. But thats not to say that other ways work. People always try to put down the academy as being a cookie cutter school that everyone pops out the same schedual and everything, but in reality its pretty easy to get up to where you need to be.

But your an online student so it might be a bit difficult. If you can, you might want to try to e-mail a director and set up an appointment with him for an afternoon, and just fly out here to show him the stuff yourself. I've found that the best way of getting ANYTHING done is to do it in person. Treat this like a job interview, whould you want to send your real in person and talk about it right there? or mail it to him, have it sit on his desk, and then he'll call you when its more convinient for him. (Which is not soon. They keep the Directors at this school VERY busy.)


Good luck and don't worry about it too much, you have a semester to get this done now.

[Kimotion]

Has anyone here taken ILL2d_180: Experimental Animation? Did it help with your overall animation skills? Are you glad you took it? Was it worth it?

I am always tempted to register for this class, but for some reason I always back out. I guess I'm looking for some feedback if this class was worth it.

I do have an interest in stop-motion, and of course, any animation experience is great. However, as the industry gets more and more specialized, I am not sure if it's worth the time away from using Maya or other 3d packages.

[Empath]

Thanks for the information Shadow, I've got a pretty clear image of things now.
Does anyone know where I could get a roundtrip plane ticket to San Fran for forty bucks?
If not, there's no chance of me getting there in person. And as of yet I don't have anything I could mail them as I don't know what they want to see. I know they're busy, and I know that being an online student I'm not a priority. I am fairly certain I do know who the right person to talk to is, Grace Johnson, at least that's what Adrian Herbez told me. I was also referred to three other people, but as he's a teacher I'm taking his advice.
I already sent an email her way asking if she could get back to me, it's been a week but I'll keep waiting.
I just don't want to start on anything until I can get a straight story on what will get me past those classes, but I do indeed have a full semester so I'm not worried yet.
Thanks again!

[comrad]

anyone attend the saturday art experience in this school?

[darktding]

r u talking about the summer art experience? I dont know of anything about a saturday art experience....

[Morganism]

Has anyone here taken ILL2d_180: Experimental Animation? Did it help with your overall animation skills? Are you glad you took it? Was it worth it?

Experimental animation is awesome! It seems that a lot of people didn't like it, but it really gives you a chance to just experiment, and I found that to be quite fun.

[comrad]

The saturday art experience is on saturdays for six weeks and the summer art experience is in the summer.

[GrahamHRoss]

So, far, it's my first week in and my first class is tomorrow, but I just wanted to tell you all what my first impressions are of the school and the city.

San Fran itself is very pretty. Well, let me put it another way. PARTS of it are pretty. Back in CHicago there were always homeless people, but I've never seen it like it is in San Fran. In general, a simple "No" works...but if you've never lived in an urban environment, be warned. I lived in CHicago for most my life and San Fran kinda threw me for a loop! Rent is high, but so's the cost of living. Haven't found a aprt time gig yet, but from what I can see the rate of pay pretty much reflects the high cost of rent, so no big deal there.

WHat's up with people not apoligizing either? I had about five or six people this past two weeks bump into me...or I held the door open for them or let them go ahead of em in line or something...and they don't say sorry or thank you? Is that a midwest thing or what? *puts boot on post, thumbs in overalls, and chews on the end of a piece of wheat*. Dang!

As for the school, orientation down on Post street was pretty much an orgy of flyers and handouts. My undergrad was at University of Iowa, so I was prepared for this kind of thing. Lots of young people, bright eyed and thinking that this was "it". Sigh...being 26 and a grad student that stuff kinda dosen't work anymore...I'm here to learn, not be wowed...

The introductory presentation for the grad students was suprisingly forcefull. THey welcomed us all and everything, but were very quick to remind us that we were grad students, and that involved a lot of work on our part. They also reminded us many times that just because we went through all the paces, that didn't mean they were going to give us a degree. Unless out portfolio and our final project was up to snuff, no degree.

I actually expected there to be less grad students than there were (I think there was almost 200 for the whole school) and they did say they only excepted 200 out of 500 aplicants to the school. Someone had told me the grad program was operating on an open admission policy, but I guess they do have some kind of admissions in place somewhere to deny 300 people from attending...

The dept meeting went pretty well too. I think in total there are around 40 to 50 grad students in the 2d/3d animation dept, which seemed lika a good number. Both the 2d and 3d dept heads seemed like nice people. I'm sure I'll get a chance to talk to them one on one in the future. THe VFX guy, whose name I think is Shawn Mitchel, seemed genuinely interested in really being there for us. He empasized that the school was there to help us with our portfolios and get us out there in the industry, not just give us a degree. Overall I found what he said throughout the meeting to be pretty sound and it made me curious to take some of his classes, even though they're kinda outside my tract. (For those interested, I think he's teaching VFX 1 this semester).

Overall, I'm pretty excited about tomorrow. It's quite a change to go from a university that empasizes programming to a school that focuses on tradiontal art. I've always loved drawing too, so taking a whole semester of it is gonna be fun and pretty rough. Is it wrong to be more excited about taking the traditional classes than the 3d animation classes later? Eh, maybe...I can still animate on my laptop though. RIght now, I wanna learn how to draw dammit!

More later...;)

[crossbones]

If I can be frank with everyone that's posted....

I want to know to know why people throw thousands away to learn Maya or try and learn visual fx is beyond my comprehension.

The real deal here is understanding the fundamentals of design and not necessarily how these programs like Maya,XSI etc function. The CG is the end result of this, meaning the cg is what can be learned later or even on your own time anywhere. Just going to the source on what you want to know can do wonders for your own growth. If you see someone do something really killer on these forums ask them how they go about doing something.

If you go to school at some place like Art Center, where the focus is on the aspects of design and getting you how to see as a designer then your much better off in the long term. In fact if you look at who is doing the animation, modeling, lighting, design and direction of visual FX or work in games, these are people with very different backgrounds from VFX that have applied their knowledge to the field. I.e David Lombardi at CafeFX was an industrial designer long before he stepped in to CG. Ryan Church was a transportation(car) design major and just applied what he knew about visual communication and story telling to the field. Animators are usually traditional animators as well.Lighters are usually photographers or cinematographers. The end result is the media.

[jbo]

what makes you think we only learn 3d apps? read the thread and you'll see that's not true. i was at the academy for over a year before i even touched maya. and even in the 3d classes, a strong emphasis is placed on the art and not on button pushing. example: the organic modeling class i recently took was basically a sculpting class that happened to use maya. we spent much more time on anatomy and form than on how to use maya.

[darktding]

crossbones, I realize what ur saying but one has to understand the industry.
The job industry for 3d students is becoming saturated. There are lots of talented kids out there that can model, texture, animate and composite.
In this day and age, 3d packages have become more easier to use and so studios demand that the projects be completed on ever short notices.
As this said, do u think a vfx studio is going to waste its time and money to teach someone with foundation background or hire someone who knows how to do some 3d in brand x or y. That is the 1st reason as to y I joined.
2nd Many students start by doing an internship. It is very rare to see a student get a job right off graduation and the only way one can get an internship is to get some contacts and people in the industry to help one get the job. Like u said anyone can learn 3d, it is those who have good contacts get it. So that said AAU is a good place to start to meet with people and make connections
Art Center can be the BEST school in the whole wide world. Doesn’t mean it will get u the job! Ah this comes to my 3rd point – Dedication. Any school is good if one has the drive, motivation and skill, doesn’t matter if u come from AAU, or Art Center, Gnomon or even any other good ones out there.
Gone are the days where vfx/animation studios hire students with only foundation background; there are cleaver dedicated students who do both and it shows in their resume and I do not think a studio wants to waste its time and money to teach a person how to use brand x or y software... offcourse this is wrong if and only if ur super talented and u have the portfolio to proove it like those artists names u mentioned.

[GrahamHRoss]

I second that...second...point there. CONTACTS are what land you jobs. Not skills. PERIOD! If you get nothing else from reading this monstrous post...cause I think it's over sixty pages or so...it's your CONTACT that land you the gig. That dosen't mean you should be a shallow hand shaker. Just that you should always be talking to people and just...well, being friendly. Just cause u like computers dosen't mean u can sit forever...sneding out e-mails....scanning web boards for silly topics.....and...hey, hold on.....eh...um.....

[rockyj123]

How do you expect students to make contacts while still at school...spending14-15 hrs a day in front of the computer..even on weekends.. with no social life at all???....

[crossbones]

You bring up good points, but it doesn't have anything to do with what I am specifically aiming at. I will address 3 points.

You should expect to get a job right out of the gates, if you are optimistic for it. That first job is equivalent to that of an internship. You are hired less on what you can do now (no matter how good you are) but rather your potential for the future. They actually hire you on how much they like you, and no school can teach you that.


"Gone are the days where vfx/animation studios hire students with only foundation background;"

I am a product of this industry, knowing not even the design/art basics, but having worked on 2 feature films, 10 games and 4 web pages. I went back to school to better my skills and understand the Art and Design aspect, it expanded my abilities and my mind. There are alot of professionals in school believe it or not. I was trained in from the ground up by some of the best and am very thankful for those opportunities. Although I would have never excelled beyond that without my education (which is in its 5th term at AC).

You can even slam my work( I am kidding of course) :)
http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=205108&goto=newpost (http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=205108&goto=newpost)



I would suggest if you are going to spend the kind of money you are going to AAC then look at schools like RISD, OCC and Ringling.

[crossbones]

I agree contacts are what get you jobs. I just think that developing your potential for money isn't always the smartest thing( okay I am a hippocrit)

[darktding]

Crossbones, you do have a great portfolio before u even began school...
ok I am not worried about this but more importantly I want to make an announcement.

I really REALLY want to have a renderman class going at the AAU. I have talked to Chris Armstrong and he is willing to get someone from the industry to teach MTOR (Maya to Renderman), if he can get a couple of students willing to signup for it so that there is enough money for the AAU to give the ok signal. If you are really interested, please PLEASE make it a point to meet with Chris and just inform him that you want to take it and also do pm me so that I can make a list and send it to Chris.
As most VFX majors know that making particles wizzing around is not enuf, one has know how to make procedural shaders to reduce rendering time and also make an efficient render. We all have seen the work renderman in capable on in movies like Incredibles and ESPECIALLY Finding Nemo.
Secondly I just want to confirm that the AAU does have a new class called Particle Effects 2 and the teacher like Particle Effects 1 is from Pixar too. So just letting u all know that such a class does exist. So one can imagine if we are lucky the renderman class can be taught by a pro from Pixar. So if ur interested please just tell Chris about it.
Cheers...

[Kimotion]

Experimental animation is awesome! It seems that a lot of people didn't like it, but it really gives you a chance to just experiment, and I found that to be quite fun.

Thanks Morganism. I checked out some of your stuff and especially liked the DudeMan robber stealing the safe. That was yours right?

[jjcoolio]

How do you expect students to make contacts while still at school...spending14-15 hrs a day in front of the computer..even on weekends.. with no social life at all???....

Yeah, you have a point. It's really hard to get to know people since there's a lot of work.
Btw, I heard that there was a huge competition to get into the PIXAR class.
Did anyone succeeded getting in?

[DoctorMonkeyFist]

Hey guys,

I'm in my second year at the Academy and I still can't find a Maya club. I would have thought there would undoubtably be one there.Is it just that no one has time?

[swadepgh]

Kung fu hamster thanks for your post it was very helpful. I am going to try to visit AAU end of February/March and am planning to apply to the MFA program there. I personally love San Francisco, despite the large numbers of homeless people.

I hope that your studies are going well so far. Please post more, as I would love to hear about your experience with the grad program, and I am sure others would too.

[SpiralFace]

Hey guys,

I'm in my second year at the Academy and I still can't find a Maya club. I would have thought there would undoubtably be one there.Is it just that no one has time?

Maya club? Your kidding right?

Anyone that is devoted to getting through the CG program at this school is going to be working their butts off in maya for all of their class work, why in gods name whould we want to spend our free time doing the same thing we do in our professional life. There are games clubs and movie clubs, and a few clubs that do colabarative works if you are seriously into Maya that hard core that you want to devote your life to it. But seriously, we might love working with Maya as a professional carrer, but everyone should still have a hobby or two on the side that we can enjoy every now and then. Don't go too head long into Maya in your free time otherwise your running the risk of getting seriously burned out. Maya is important, but we are'nt revolving our lives around it. Always remember that it is just a tool of the trade, not the life your trying to get into. Unless of coarse you want to work for Alias in the future.

[DoctorMonkeyFist]

I dunno shadow.We may go to different schools because, in my classes, no one really seems to adopt Maya as a lifestyle or treat anything more than just a homework assignment. I just wish there was a club, because that way people at all different levels could see what other people were doing and ask questions and such. I just think it would be a good thing to have.I'm not saying I have time to start one but if there was one,I'd show up occassionally and I've spoken to alot of other students who would like a club.

[Kimotion]

I dunno shadow.We may go to different schools because, in my classes, no one really seems to adopt Maya as a lifestyle or treat anything more than just a homework assignment. I just wish there was a club, because that way people at all different levels could see what other people were doing and ask questions and such. I just think it would be a good thing to have.I'm not saying I have time to start one but if there was one,I'd show up occassionally and I've spoken to alot of other students who would like a club.

There are quite a few clubs around, but very little when it comes to CG it seems. I know there are anime clubs and I think there is a modeling club. I think there is also a SIGGRAPH club but they don't seem to be too active.

Anyone know of an animation club, 2d/3d or both? Because you join a club does not mean your life needs to revolve around it. I personally see too many students who don't take it seriously (like hazzadus said, thse who just treat the software like a class) and if there is a club for whatever your specialization, then you would likely get serious students to join and critique eachother's work.

I know of one 3D Animation club but it's for Korean students. But my Korean is very limited so it's really not so great for me.

[DoctorMonkeyFist]

Like Kimotion said, just because you join a club it doesn't mean you have to delegate all your free time to it.I just feel like it's a club that the Academy is sadly lacking.After all , there are a bunch of bilingual clubs. A maya club just seems obvious.

[Morganism]

We have a Maya club! The labs is the Maya club!
If you want to see what people are working on, or ask questions or share, just hang out in the labs.

Oh, and about contacts being the only thing that land you jobs, you still have to be able to do the work. You could be my best friend, but I can't really reccomend you for an animation position if you can't animate. And people still get hired solely based on their reels, as well. A good friend of mine has an interveiw at Blizzard next week not because he knows people there, but because he dropped off a sick reel. So unfortunately you can't get out of work just by making lots of friends. Oh well.

[mangual]

Maya as a Lifestyle?

I see a book coming!

Learn all about the seedy underworld inhabited by Mayaphiles. This secret cult of ambitious CG DESPERADOS struggles for power and recognition in the shadows of San Francisco.

Can I have the movie rights?

[SpiralFace]

they used to have an Iorn monkey animation club, but I have'nt seen them around for awhile so I'm not sure what happened to them, supposedly they did a bunch of 3D animaiton.

That and I agree with morganism, stay in the labs and ask more expirianced student if you need help with Maya, many are very friendly and will help you when they can. And the good thing about that is that you can go and get their help any day of the week!!!

The low amount of clubs in my opinion does'nt bother me all that much simply becuase of the sheer amount of awsome school trips the academy hooks you up with. Take advantage of those.

[DoctorMonkeyFist]

It's not so much about asking for help. I can do that on these forums or ask my teacher. I guess it's more about getting a sense of what everyone is doing and shooting the Maya breeze and meeting other students who are passionate about Maya. Plus,I don't think the serious users are in the labs anyways. What sort of "trips" shadow? If there was a club, I would know these things.

[Morganism]

Plus,I don't think the serious users are in the labs anyways.
Well, it's a mixed bag of course, but there's a fair share of awesome artists that use the labs on a daily basis.

[darktding]

the good use of clubs; to be frank here, is FOOD, free TICKETS, and meeting with people who u just wish were not there so u could have all the food to urself :D
When midterms and finals come things get rough and club meetings are tough to get to. But the cool thing is that u meet with people are it is nice to goto a meeting....
as for the labs yes the labs is a nice place to hang and chill. There are some really loud students and sometimes u will see some huddleded together talking in a foreign language, and sometimes I think if they are planning to take over the world... :shrug:
but all jokes asides the lab is a good place to go to get ur renders done quickly and chat with other students.

[SpiralFace]

What sort of "trips" shadow? If there was a club, I would know these things.

Man your realy club obsessed are'nt you? The trips are usualy handled through CASE, there are alot of things that happen every year, all you realy have to do to find out about them is take the time to read the bulliten board infront of the elevators at 180 to get what all the up comming events are. They are not limited to any inparticualr club, but I do know that ciratan clubs do take additional trips, but you don't need to be part of the club to go on them. All clubs work through CASE, so if you just want to cut out the Middleman, then go to their offices in the basement of 180 to find out whats going on. Here are a list of trips that I always see from semester to semester.

Tahoo ski trip (Last week this febuary)
Academy Boat party (Happens at the beginning of fall semester and the end of Spring semester while the weather is warm.)
Yosemitie hiking/ camping trips
Napa valley wine tour
Academy Happy Hour (Every First friday of the month.)
Paint ball trip

And many more that depending on whats comming around. I know that there are plans to get some Games majors down to E3 and the GDC this year, but nothing final about it. There are things available, check the student e-mail the academy hooks you up with, they always send flyers on whats happening every month.

[DoctorMonkeyFist]

Shadow.Thanks for the info about the trips.I'd definitely be interested in any 3dcentric ones. I don't think I'm obsessed with having a Maya club. If I were I'd probably start one. I just don't feel that having an additional resource for the students who would take advantage would be such a bad thing, but I promise not to mention it on this forum again....Thanks again.

[Morganism]

Hey Hazz, no hard feelings. I'm sure Mr. Slayer didn't mean to demoralize anyone. The idea of a Maya club is certainly legitimate. Seriously, though, check out the labs a little later in the semester when people are working away on their projects. Most people I know are more than happy to talk about what they're working on if someone were to ask, myself included. (I know Shadow Slayer would also)

[SpiralFace]

Hey Hazz, no hard feelings. I'm sure Mr. Slayer didn't mean to demoralize anyone. The idea of a Maya club is certainly legitimate. Seriously, though, check out the labs a little later in the semester when people are working away on their projects. Most people I know are more than happy to talk about what they're working on if someone were to ask, myself included. (I know Shadow Slayer would also)

Yeah sorry bout that hazzadus, I was'nt trying to offend anyone. Alittle info for you if you want to start a Maya club, talk to Chris Armstrong about it, if you can convince the Department Directors, and then CASE to start up a club, then you get $400 bucks to start the club up, put twards club trips or workshops and the like. So go to the student forums for the AAU students and see if there is enough demand to start one up. And yeah, Morganism's right, the labs will be alot more populated in the comming weeks, heck I'm already there almost everyday working on personal stuff. I'll be the guy working extensively in Deep paint.

[Shajor]

I check out there web site, I see they have online courses too.

[-Vormav-]

Hey. I'm trying to decide on which dorm to try and get into for the summer, assuming they give you a choice I suppose (not staying in the dorms isn't an option for me).
Someone mentioned earlier that the international house is pretty good. But apparently, it's overrun with highschools in the summer time. So I'm kinda cut off from that option over summer.
So it pretty much comes down to the Frank Lloyd Wright building, and the Auguste Rodin building. I think I visited the Auguste Rodin dormitory while I was there. And it was...welll...quite possibly the worst dorm I've ever been in. 0_o
Anyone spent much time in either of those?
For that matter, anyone staying in the Mary Cassatt dorm? That'll be in option to me in July (turn 21). I'd kinda prefer co-ed myself, since I've had better experiences with co-ed dorms than with single-sex dorms. Those can be interesting...

[SpiralFace]

It realy depends on what kinda crowd you want to stick with. I lived at the Pine dorms with no complaints. Yeah it was an all guys dorm with no chicks in it past midnight, but compared to the co-ed dorms, we didin't have any kinda drama or crazy stuff going down. The all guy dorms usualy has some pretty chill guys while the Co-ed dorms seem to absorb all the party hounds, and they always have crazy stuff going on that I don't see as an attractive perk to living with some girls. Basicaly its eather nice and chill people with no drama, but also no girls in the same building, or girls in the same building, but alot more crazy **** going down such as more theft, more screaming, and about a year ago, someone threatened another dorm mate with a gun. (Naturaly that guy was expeled, and he is definatly in the minoraty.)

So if you like to live the life of the party, go for one of the co-ed dorms. If you just want to meet some nice chill people, then go to one of the all guy or girl dorms.

As for the buildings, Try for Vaness if you want the best building, try for Bush if you want a good all guys dorm, Pine has a cafeteria, but the rest of the building is kinda hit and miss depending on what room you get. As far as the appartments, they're all realy nice if your over 21 to get them. In all honesty, don't think much into it, as you'll get sick of the dorms after a semester and just find it worth your while to go out and get your own appartment with your buddies after a semester.

[-Vormav-]

Heh, strange. All of the co-ed dorms that I've been in have been the quiet, easy-going places, and all of the single-sex dorms have been more like the stereotypical frats.
Guess I can see how it would end up that way, though. I'm not really into partying, so maybe I'll stay away from those.

Thanks for the info, Shadow.

[SpiralFace]

Well also keep in mind that I have'nt been in the dorms for a good 2 years now, so for all I know things could have done a complete 180 since the last time I was there, but I hope it was helpfull.
Heh, strange. All of the co-ed dorms that I've been in have been the quiet, easy-going places, and all of the single-sex dorms have been more like the stereotypical frats.
Guess I can see how it would end up that way, though. I'm not really into partying, so maybe I'll stay away from those.

Thanks for the info, Shadow.

[ORB2L.com]

I know this is kinda not realated to CG, but for all you guys that are going to AAU... anyone know how good their Advertising department is. I looked all over the web and cant find anything on their advertising program... if its good or bad etc... only the AAU home page they have some basic info about the program.

So any info or opininons would be nice... or some post simular to this on the web about the advertising dep would be nice too :)

[SpiralFace]

A few of my good friends here at the AAU are Advertising students. And they all love it here. I'm not sure how much the school stands up compared to other Advertiseing schools, but my friends in the program have no complaints.

[uncon]

Isn't it a bad sign when it's hard to find advertising or information for the advertising program?

[darktding]

Isnt it true that AAU's adverstising parties are one of the really good parties to attend? not too sure so dont quote me on this.

[Morganism]

According to the people I know at the school, the advertising departments is one of the best in the country. I know that they win lots of awards at least.

[ORB2L.com]

Well AAU suposetly started as an Advertising school in 1929 i belive.. correct me if i am wrong.. so i would think the program is pretty good. Just wanted to know some opininons from students that go there :)

[SpiralFace]

I don't think many Ad students browse these forums. So I'm not sure if we can be that much of a help. Yeah I do hear that the Ad parties are some of the best parties in the school. Just wish I had time to go to them.

[Kimotion]

OK, who's going to the Blizzard Demo Reel Seminar on Post St. Tuesday night at 7?

[silicate]

In other news: There's a Blizzard Demo Real Seminar on Post St. Tuesday night at 7pm.

UH-WHAAA?

Damn, wish I was up there right now. Do they do this every year? I would definetly love to go to any seminar from Blizzard, especialy this one having read their lengthy decription/tips on what to put on a demo real on their site.

I love the art coming out of Blizz though, man I hope they do this when I'm up there.

[coffeefery]

From what I know from AAU (AAC when I was there a few years ago) is that its 2D department was way better than its 3D department. AAU tries to find instructors who are industry orientated people, thus their knowledge really helps. As 3D is really still evolving a lot, there's so much room for expansion that a few years could make a big difference in the way they teach, and the products that the students can make. But for 2D, it was one of the best programs you can find in most of the schools and they have really good instructors there.

My advice is to spend some time going around researching what are the good schools/programs, drop down and visit the school yourself, bringing with you a friend/relative who knows something about the field that you want to study with and bombard the school guide withas many questions as you can about what you need to know during the school tour. That's the least you can do to make a decision which school/course to take.

However, the most important aspect is that you have to really push yourself in the course of your study, making use of the time that you have there to apply what you know and learnt towards your demo reel and your personal knowledge. Without that, even the best school won't make good graduates. Plus, the tuition fees in AAU isn't cheap. So make the best out of your time there if any one you intend to go there . Cheers :)

[SpiralFace]

Wish I could make it to the Blizzard Demo reel thing. But I promised a friend that I whould go out to dinner with her family that just flew into town. I went to it last year, and it was hillarious. I'm sure that you guys that are going to go will see just how bad some people realy are. Also I have Alex Munn as a teacher here, so I'm not all too worried about meeting him. To those that are going, have fun.

[darktding]

Yup I am going for that event, just curious to know what he has to say.
See you all there..

[danteort]

Yup I am going for that event, just curious to know what he has to say.
See you all there..
So, how was the seminar? I had anatomy class downstairs at the same time, so I couldn't make it.

On a different note, to those who are wondering about whether or not to take Experimental Animation, I'm in that class right now and I'd highly recommend it (based on how things are shaping up so far). Essentially, if there's anything you've just been dying to try out, this is the class to try it in. My teacher's new to the AAU this semester, but he seems to be a pretty enthusiastic animation buff (along with having been a professional animator for 25 years).

So, take the class. It's a great way to learn the principles of animation while having a little fun on the side.

[SheepFactory]

The Blizzard thing is cancelled because they couldnt get the projector to work. *sigh...

[Morganism]

I've decided to pursue a degree in Animation and VFX as opposed to political science.

Good call :)

[digdenton]

I was recently accepted in the 2005 MFA program for character animation at AAU and was wondering if you guys have any advice for me. I am graduating from a small liberal arts school back east in May with a major in Studio Art. During my 4 years here I was only allowed to take 4 cg courses and so want to further my knowledge in the field. I was wondering mostly if you guys feel AAU is worth it. I was also accepted to RIT and SCAD and am waiting on a few other schools still. As far as RIT I heard it is an ok program but is in Rochester which sucks, and SCAD is in Savannah and they have a horrible administration. I've visited AAU last summer and really liked the facilities and I love San Francisco, I'm just wondering what you guys think of the program. Any advice would be much appreciated.

[SpiralFace]

Many of us here are Undergrad students. And the MFA program opperates alittle bit differantly then the Undergrad program. I know that while we undergrads do individual and group assignments to further our education in CG or whatever our feild of study is, while the MFA guys and gals pretty much do a big thesis project and further your portfolio. For animators it comes down to makeing a short film, while your teachers and "Directed study mentors" look over your work on a weekly basis to see how you are progressing. You also take some classes here at the school, many of them are geared twards the MFA students, but every now and then you can take an undergrad class that is'nt offered on a MFA level. As far as if the program is worth it, I honestly can't tell you. I'm an Undergrad, but the people I have talked in the MFA program seem to like it.

[GrahamHRoss]

The Blizzard thing is cancelled because they couldnt get the projector to work. *sigh...

Didn't that suck? I wanna put ina request to see snail boy now though...as a reward for rescheduling...

[silicate]

ok, I fly into SF March 5th and I'm going to the open house and check the places out. Anything I should see do while I'm at the school? I'm already going to ask tones of questions, I hope I get to see some dorms, I only got one day though, I fly out around 6pm or so.

[SheepFactory]

Didn't that suck? I wanna put ina request to see snail boy now though...as a reward for rescheduling...


hahaha absolutely , that was hilarious :D

[LiquidMetal]

Hi.I know the industry is getting saturated with alot of people trying to enter the industry.Since I am really interested in going to AAU,how are the people's attitudes towards their studies?Before finding AAU,I looked at Full Sail.I found out that there are a lot of people there that just go to the school and slack off.I realize that there are still students that do there work and end up getting great jobs after graduation.But in AAU,are there many students that slack off and just party?Also,what would be cheaper,renting a dorm, or renting an apartment splitting the rent with other people?
PS.How are the jobs there?I am planning on getting a job working towards ASE certification.

[Kimotion]

ok, I fly into SF March 5th and I'm going to the open house and check the places out. Anything I should see do while I'm at the school? I'm already going to ask tones of questions, I hope I get to see some dorms, I only got one day though, I fly out around 6pm or so.

Make every effort to ask questions to the STUDENTS that are there....if you take a tour of the computer labs, make sure to ask some...don't be intimidated by the guide to wisk you away to the next location...they won't leave you behind.

You may find that a lot of students will be eager to tell you and you will get honest positives and negatives: but most importantly you will get advice.

[linen_umbrella]

Since I am really interested in going to AAU,how are the people's attitudes towards their studies?

Sometimes you can tell how serious a student is about their studies by the amount of money the actual college tuition is but that's not always the case. If you're looking for somewhere that people never party and sit in their rooms like an episode of Felicity, than I can't help you there. You'll get as much out of as you put into your education.

Also,what would be cheaper,renting a dorm, or renting an apartment splitting the rent with other people?

I'm a firm believer in people staying in a campus dorm for at least the first semester, you really get the student body vibe and also good security guards, which are hard to come by when renting on your own. I can't tell you how many times my cousin who rents a 2-bedroom (for $2,500 a month) has had her car broken into. Iit was even parked in a locked underground lot which the "security guard" is supposed to patrol, but doesn't because oftentimes he's the one letting his friends steal them.

[jbo]

I'm a firm believer in people staying in a campus dorm for at least the first semester, you really get the student body vibe and also good security guards, which are hard to come by when renting on your own. I can't tell you how many times my cousin who rents a 2-bedroom (for $2,500 a month) has had her car broken into. Iit was even parked in a locked underground lot which the "security guard" is supposed to patrol, but doesn't because oftentimes he's the one letting his friends steal them.

I'd have to strongly disagree. If you have the option of not staying in dorms, and you chose to stay in dorms... well, i just don't know what to say. just put it this way, AAU generally charges about 3 times market value for the dorms. The only reason they are able to do this is because dorms do not fall under the normal tenant/landlord laws. so yeah, if you wanna share a 2 bedroom with 4 people and pay 1500 each go ahead. Some of us don't enjoy being raped though.

So yeah, which is cheaper? dorms, or sharing an apartment? well, i'd say an apartment all to yourself and lots of eating out is still way cheaper than dorms.

[strick9]

To the poster who asked about the MFA program, I am in it, and I love it. If you have any specific programs PM me I'd be happy to answer.

Jay

[SpiralFace]

I'm a firm believer in people staying in a campus dorm for at least the first semester, you really get the student body vibe and also good security guards, which are hard to come by when renting on your own. I can't tell you how many times my cousin who rents a 2-bedroom (for $2,500 a month) has had her car broken into. Iit was even parked in a locked underground lot which the "security guard" is supposed to patrol, but doesn't because oftentimes he's the one letting his friends steal them.

I agree with you, but for different reasons. I beleave you should stay in the dorms your first semester simply to make friends and contacts. I stayed in the dorms just a single semester, but all of my close friends here at the academy are old pine dorm buddies of mine. Also, after attending Massive Black and listening in on Jason Manly, Jason Chang, and many other fantastic artists talk, many of them are old art school friends. So I beleave makeing good friends and contacts in the industry is ESSENTIAL. That is always recomend staying in the dorms your first semester, but then get the **** out of there once you make friends and find a cheaper place.

But if your on a budget, then by all means, just get your own appartment, Its much cheaper. but hang out in the Labs every day so you can meet some good friends and contacts.

Also, if your going to take a tour, be sure to talk to some of the students in the labs. Although, I'm sure their just going to tell you everything we've been telling all of you Academy hopefulls on this site.

[SpiralFace]

Hi.I know the industry is getting saturated with alot of people trying to enter the industry.Since I am really interested in going to AAU,how are the people's attitudes towards their studies?Before finding AAU,I looked at Full Sail.I found out that there are a lot of people there that just go to the school and slack off.I realize that there are still students that do there work and end up getting great jobs after graduation.But in AAU,are there many students that slack off and just party?Also,what would be cheaper,renting a dorm, or renting an apartment splitting the rent with other people?
PS.How are the jobs there?I am planning on getting a job working towards ASE certification.

Hey Liquid. This school I beleave does a good job of prepareing you for the realities of the industry, there are still a few slackers here, but in all honesy don't worry about them, because if you work hard enough THEY are the ones that will be scrounging for a job and not you. But even the slackers have some skill, becuase all freshmen must run what I like to call, "THE GAUNTLET!" Also known as Foundation classes. Many of these are long and very work intensive, but imensly help you get to where you need to be. Sadly, you'll see many freshmen dropping, or failing out of the school becuase of this barrage of realy work intensive classes. I won't lie to you about this, there is a 50% drop out failure ratio among freshmen. Mainly becuase this is NOT a school you slack off in. If your dead weight in a class, most teachers have no problem leaving you behind in a class, and you are going to have to be the one to go to the workshops to make up for it. The dorm question I awnsered above, but as far as the ASE cirtificate, I whould honestly be very carefull about presueing one of those. Yeah its faster, but if you want to be an Animator or a Modeler, your going to need alot more skills then just Maya, your going to need to learn how to draw, and animate within your own right. I'm not saying that its the wrong way to go, just keep in mind that when you get out with a cirtificate degree, your going to be competeing with people that have BFA's AND people who have been working in the industry for many years. So just be sure to work your ass off becuase your stuff is going to have to look like a BFA quality reel if you expect to find work assides from small freelance gig's in this industry.

[SpiralFace]

AH!

Sorry, this is a double post, I edited it so you guys whould'nt have to read it again, A moderator can delete this if they want to.

[SpiralFace]

jez.... A TRIPRLE post?

Sorry guys, I guess my Fire fox is giving me some trouble with this site. a moderator can take this down if they want.

[Kimotion]

Hey Liquid. This school I beleave does a good job of prepareing you for the realities of the industry, there are still a few slackers here, but in all honesy don't worry about them, because if you work hard enough THEY are the ones that will be scrounging for a job and not you. But even the slackers have some skill, becuase all freshmen must run what I like to call, "THE GAUNTLET!" Also known as Foundation classes. Many of these are long and very work intensive, but imensly help you get to where you need to be. Sadly, you'll see many freshmen dropping, or failing out of the school becuase of this barrage of realy work intensive classes. I won't lie to you about this, there is a 50% drop out failure ratio among freshmen. Mainly becuase this is NOT a school you slack off in. If your dead weight in a class, most teachers have no problem leaving you behind in a class, and you are going to have to be the one to go to the workshops to make up for it. The dorm question I awnsered above, but as far as the ASE cirtificate, I whould honestly be very carefull about presueing one of those. Yeah its faster, but if you want to be an Animator or a Modeler, your going to need alot more skills then just Maya, your going to need to learn how to draw, and animate within your own right. I'm not saying that its the wrong way to go, just keep in mind that when you get out with a cirtificate degree, your going to be competeing with people that have BFA's AND people who have been working in the industry for many years. So just be sure to work your ass off becuase your stuff is going to have to look like a BFA quality reel if you expect to find work assides from small freelance gig's in this industry.

I'd like to second that. I'd like to add that it is important to befriend those who are good. You will get to see other people's work in class, so try to befriend those who are good at what they do....or even better, seek those who are better than you! When you first go to school, chances are you will not know anyone, and this would be on of the rare times when you can actually choose your friends. Choose wisely! Now this isn't easy to do...I tried to do this 2 years ago when I first came here and it's easy to just hang out with those who are "fun." But consequently, those people are the one's who I never saw again after 1st or 2nd semester. So forget about making industry contacts with them!

In foundation classes you'll meet people from other majors (ie graphic design, illustration, fine art). Because you are VFX, Animation, etc. does not mean you should shun those who aren't in you field. My best friend is an illustration major and I met the dude in Figure Drawing 1. A lot of the stuff we go through parallels with my situation: you'd be surprised how the journey of an art student is smilar no matter what field.

So yes, choose your friends wisely. Choose those whose works inspire and wil push you to do better.

And this does not stop at first semester, but will continue throughout.

However, regarding the "dead weights" all dropping out...I have to disagree with Shadow Slayer. There are some "dead weight" who manage to not fall through the cracks and still end up in advanced level classes (animation classes in my case) who seem to hold the rest of the class up, and the teacher tends to cater to them. This is one of my complaints about the Academy. In that case there's nothing you can do but secretly but a hit on them.

[glitch02]

strick9,
I'll be contacting you soon. I've got 1.5 years left before I graduate with a BFA and I’m serious about attending a masters program.

Scott
§

[Blip]

I was recently accepted in the 2005 MFA program for character animation at AAU and was wondering if you guys have any advice for me. I am graduating from a small liberal arts school back east in May with a major in Studio Art. During my 4 years here I was only allowed to take 4 cg courses and so want to further my knowledge in the field. I was wondering mostly if you guys feel AAU is worth it. I was also accepted to RIT and SCAD and am waiting on a few other schools still. As far as RIT I heard it is an ok program but is in Rochester which sucks, and SCAD is in Savannah and they have a horrible administration. I've visited AAU last summer and really liked the facilities and I love San Francisco, I'm just wondering what you guys think of the program. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Sorry this reply comes so late, I saw your post yesterday but was too exhausted to be coherent. Also I was looking into RIT's program and student work since I didn't know about it before. I still think your real choice comes down to AAU vs SCAD. I cam here from a small liberal arts college back east as well, and a year ago I was making the same decision. I had close friends that had gone through SCAD's Animation MFA program so I got a good sense of what that program is like from talking with them. I am now in my second semester in the MFA 3D Char Anim program at AAU and I can tell you that so far it's been worth it.

Now SCAD's program has been shaping up recently, so it's become a worthy rival. I think SCAD's tuition is actually higher than AAU, but it evens out since it costs more to live out here. And here the MFA program lasts 6 SEMESTERS, which adds up to 2.5-3 years (of SF-priced rent!) whereas SCAD's program lasts 6 QUARTERS, which becomes only 1.5 years (if things haven't changed). I think the two strongest advantages AAU has is having industry professionals as instructors and location, location, location. The school's proximity to the industry means more opportunities for exposure to it (guest lectures, recruiters, field trips, internship possibilities, etc).

There's been many good bits of info about the program throughout this thread, so be sure to browse through it when you have the time. I'll link you to a couple things I said about it before:

When I realized things were not as I expected:
http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?p=1650406#post1650406

My sad discovery of what is typical in the MFA program (middle paragraph):
http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?p=1692288#post1692288

And let me know if you have any more questions, I'm always up for talking about the MFA program here.

[-KDX-]

I got a question for anyone who is getting their MFA there:

Do they have good graduate financial aid programs? Preferably an assistantship or scholarship, but anything will do really. Please let me know, this would help a brokeass like me out quite a bit!

Thanks in advance!!

-KDX-

[LiquidMetal]

Hey Shadow,thanks for the info.I am alittle confused though.Are you talking about Automotive Service Excellence(ASE) certification?I plan on getting a job as a mechanic with ASE certification(have to been working as a mechanic for 2 years and taken tests to become ASE certified) while going to school.Also,I am still 16 and have been modeling for a few years now.I am trying to get back to 2d figure drawing because I dont think I have a great foundation when I am modeling.I just bought Jack Hamm's book about Head and Figure Drawing.Does anyone have any other good books to reccommend?Hopefully see some of you there if your still there in 2 years :)
Hey Liquid. This school I beleave does a good job of prepareing you for the realities of the industry, there are still a few slackers here, but in all honesy don't worry about them, because if you work hard enough THEY are the ones that will be scrounging for a job and not you. But even the slackers have some skill, becuase all freshmen must run what I like to call, "THE GAUNTLET!" Also known as Foundation classes. Many of these are long and very work intensive, but imensly help you get to where you need to be. Sadly, you'll see many freshmen dropping, or failing out of the school becuase of this barrage of realy work intensive classes. I won't lie to you about this, there is a 50% drop out failure ratio among freshmen. Mainly becuase this is NOT a school you slack off in. If your dead weight in a class, most teachers have no problem leaving you behind in a class, and you are going to have to be the one to go to the workshops to make up for it. The dorm question I awnsered above, but as far as the ASE cirtificate, I whould honestly be very carefull about presueing one of those. Yeah its faster, but if you want to be an Animator or a Modeler, your going to need alot more skills then just Maya, your going to need to learn how to draw, and animate within your own right. I'm not saying that its the wrong way to go, just keep in mind that when you get out with a cirtificate degree, your going to be competeing with people that have BFA's AND people who have been working in the industry for many years. So just be sure to work your ass off becuase your stuff is going to have to look like a BFA quality reel if you expect to find work assides from small freelance gig's in this industry.

[Unled]

Hey Shadow,thanks for the info.I am alittle confused though.Are you talking about Automotive Service Excellence(ASE) certification?I plan on getting a job as a mechanic with ASE certification(have to been working as a mechanic for 2 years and taken tests to become ASE certified) while going to school.Also,I am still 16 and have been modeling for a few years now.I am trying to get back to 2d figure drawing because I dont think I have a great foundation when I am modeling.I just bought Jack Hamm's book about Head and Figure Drawing.Does anyone have any other good books to reccommend?Hopefully see some of you there if your still there in 2 years :)

hehe I don't think he was talking about an automotive cert, you can take a certificate course at the academy that is a little faster and lets you mostly skip over all the liberal arts classes, I was considering going for it for awhile, but figured since I'm here I might as well go whole hog.
I've always been a fan of Burne Hogarth's books (dynamic anatomy, dynamic this dynamic that...ect..) but some people feel he overworks his drawings a little bit.

As far as the dorms thing, they are a rip off, but they are also a great way to meet people, I didn't stay in one but my friend did and he made friends for both of us! Also labs and student events are a good way to meet people.

[glitch02]

Strick9 and Blip,



Since both of you are the two most recent people I saw posting about being in the MFA program I’m in a similar boat like cg-joe. I'm from the mid-west and have a year and a half left in my BFA program. At my school now we've got a 3d animation program that is growing by the day but the teaching direction is a bit lacking at the moment. We are pretty much told to go out and find our own tutorials and learn from them. I don't mind, but I’m not getting a professional education that I’m looking for in that area. What I’m getting out of my education now is some of the foundation classes that AAU would probably ask for. I’m looking for education in #1 matte painting and #2 modeling. I’d be thrilled to get some opinionated direction from someone at the school.



Thanks

[digdenton]

Thanks for replying about my inquiry to the MFA program. It appears as of right now I will be attending AAU in Fall of 2005. In terms of passing out of the remedial classes, I was told to contact the head of the department with a demo real. Is this something I should go ahead and do now or wait till I get there? Thanks once again for your information, it gave me a much better feel of the program.
Also does anyone know if its too late to apply to be a student voluteer at Siggraph this year?

[SpiralFace]

hehe I don't think he was talking about an automotive cert, you can take a certificate course at the academy that is a little faster and lets you mostly skip over all the liberal arts classes, I was considering going for it for awhile, but figured since I'm here I might as well go whole hog.
I've always been a fan of Burne Hogarth's books (dynamic anatomy, dynamic this dynamic that...ect..) but some people feel he overworks his drawings a little bit.



oops.

Yeah I was'nt talking bout an automotive cert. Sorry bout that. A word of advice about working while your at art school. Do it as much as you can handle the first few years while your learning the basics, but the second that you feel you have the skills but need the portfolio, then drop the jobs, take out some loans, and get your reel looking as nice as you can before you graduate. Becuase in the end, your trying to get the computer job. And if your going to compete with everyone else in the work force and in your class, you better make sure that your stuff is the best it can be. Becuase when it comes to getting jobs, there is no consolidation prize for second place.

[m2cool]

Hey guys for quite some time i have been deciding to do a masters in Visual effects from AAC but i do get very confused and hesitate to go for it. as far as i have read its a 3.5 year programme right... point me out if im wrong. me being an international student have read that per unit its 600$ and thats like 72 units which comes to $43200 the total course fee. above that for a VFX course i would need quite a lot of studio time right and plus living and stuff so how much am i lookig at here.

I have also read up on Savannah college of art and design and their masters program is for 2 years.. so what is it so different in the program that its an additional 1.5 years.

I know max and aftereffects stuff but dont know maya , combustion and stuff so will they be teaching the softwares form scratch or do they expect us to know the siftware from before.

Guys please help me out with this am really confused and am loosing time.

[SpiralFace]

In terms of passing out of the remedial classes, I was told to contact the head of the department with a demo real. Is this something I should go ahead and do now or wait till I get there?


I whould say wait till you get here. It will give you a chance to have alittle one on one with your director, start a conversation with where you want to go in your career, and then have both of you nail out a specialy tailored ciriculum for YOUR needs. The ciriculums that the school gives out is just a generalized one for people who don't know any better, but if you know specificaly where you want to go, as long as you talk to your director, you can nail out a schedual that tailors to the goals that you are trying to acheve.

[Blip]

I got a question for anyone who is getting their MFA there:

Do they have good graduate financial aid programs? Preferably an assistantship or scholarship, but anything will do really. Please let me know, this would help a brokeass like me out quite a bit!

Thanks in advance!!

-KDX-

As far as I know, the school does not help MFA students with any type of scholarships or grants. I am living on government loans at the moment to be able to come here. I expect you can still get federal grants/scholarships if you fill out your FAFSA and qualify... (you need to do the FAFSA anyway to even get loans) but the school itself does not offer aid.


Strick9 and Blip,

At my school now we've got a 3d animation program that is growing by the day but the teaching direction is a bit lacking at the moment ... What I’m getting out of my education now is some of the foundation classes that AAU would probably ask for. I’m looking for education in #1 matte painting and #2 modeling. I’d be thrilled to get some opinionated direction from someone at the school.

Thanks

That is similar to my situation before in undergrad, and why I chose to come here for more education/experience. Off the top of my head, I know you can do MFA in modeling, but I think they only offer BFA for matte painting. I don't know much about these program tracks, but PM or IM me if you want to talk further about the school/MFA program in general.


Thanks for replying about my inquiry to the MFA program. It appears as of right now I will be attending AAU in Fall of 2005. In terms of passing out of the remedial classes, I was told to contact the head of the department with a demo real. Is this something I should go ahead and do now or wait till I get there? Thanks once again for your information, it gave me a much better feel of the program.
Also does anyone know if its too late to apply to be a student voluteer at Siggraph this year?

You should have to submit a reel when you apply and it will be reviewed by the head of the department, so that will happen before your enrollment. You will get accepted in any case, but your portfolio and reel will determine full or conditional acceptance (conditional involving having to take the 'remedial' classes I think you were referring to, mostly basic drawing classes). Basically by default the only feedback you'll get on your reel is the results - whether or not you have to take the extra classes. I was lucky a year ago and had a cool admissions advisor who sent me a copy of the review sheet of my work even though he wasn't supposed to, so I got to see the department head's notes about my stuff. I'm sure if you wanted you could just contact them and ask them what they thought of your work.

And yes, I think Feb 25 was the deadline for submitting the student volunteer form for Siggraph.

[digdenton]

Thats cool that they let you see your review sheet. I have already been fully accepted for the 63 unit track as opposed to the 72 unit track. I might have to contact my admissions advisor about seeing if I could get a copy of my review sheet. And may I say once again to everyone on this board thanks for helping us confused souls.

[silicate]

I just got back from the Academy Day in San Francisco, I JUST GOT BACK right now. I almost wanted to stay and just start in summer. The whole area where 79 New Mont is and 180 New Mont is very cozy, I went to a few other buildings and the one dorm they were showing off Pine st. Ran into some very nice girls when I wondered into the student lounge to get some food too ;), you guys were right the students are really nice and helpfull... at least the ladies were. I took a ton of pictures (of the school, not the ladies... though now I regret that) and I'll have to put them up tomorrow when I get some sleep and my feet stop hurting. I didn't realize they had so many school shuttles/busses.

Also the Industrial design department was amazing. The presentation/tour was just really really cool. They had examples from students from the begining and the ending of their first semester... I wish the Animation tour had been more like that. But I'm already sold on the school, there was a TV playing examples of animation and there was a 2D pencil test where the reaper visits this guy in the hospital... best thing I've seen in a long time!

ah ok I need sleep... I'll come back with the pics tomorrow.

[-Vormav-]

The animation department didn't seem to have a whole lot to show for academy day when I was there... Not compared to the kind of stuff you see going through any of the other departments. I didn't stop by the industrial design department when I was there, but the New Media display was very impressive.
Can't wait to make the move...http://cgtalk.com/images/smilies/bouncy.gif

[geo5sf]

I am planning to begin my MFA program in Visual Effects Summer 2005. I come from an advertising background, and I did a lot of After Effects compositing. Prior to that I worked in the video game field doing 3d texturing and visual effects... (this was a long long time ago!. I would like to get some more info about the Visual Effects MFA program, specifically what kind of thesis projects do you work on, and what will your portfolio consist of. This forum has been real helpful, especially the MFA posts.. thanks everyone! Any other advice or hints is much appreciated.

I am also looking into Expression, but it's hard to find info on the school. Their site is impressive, especially the mentoring and job placement aspect of the school. I'm attracted to their two year program, as opposed to the 2.5/3 year AAU program. Any comments?

[silicate]

I didn't realize that I took so few pictures. And also I have forgotten how to take good ones.
Here are some pictures I took while I was there. (http://shadinger.com/acad_day05/)

[Empath]

Thank you for posting those Silicate! When I get around to San Fran it is definately going to be a culture shock. I'm sitting ten feet away from a hill that leads down to a river and straight on out up a mountain, living about ten miles away from the nearest village in this bit of rural oblivion....

[darktding]

I didn't realize that I took so few pictures. And also I have forgotten how to take good ones.
Here are some pictures I took while I was there. (http://shadinger.com/acad_day05/)
Looks like u had a great time silicate...

[silicate]

Looks like u had a great time silicate...

Yeah, I didn't want to come back, felt like I was home. I love the city, it's going to be great to live there. Everyone at the school was really nice and the students were realy cool also. I had a bunch of pictures of the Fine art building but I had the wrong light setting so they all came out yellow, and also blurry because I had the flash off, that building was cool though.

[Unled]

Yeah, I didn't want to come back, felt like I was home. I love the city, it's going to be great to live there. Everyone at the school was really nice and the students were realy cool also. I had a bunch of pictures of the Fine art building but I had the wrong light setting so they all came out yellow, and also blurry because I had the flash off, that building was cool though.

You missed out on the Illustration building, possibly my favorite of them all. There is some really increadible student art and maquettes in that building. Unfortunately I haven't had a class in there yet, but have dropped in on occasion just to see what people are up to.

[silicate]

You missed out on the Illustration building, possibly my favorite of them all. There is some really increadible student art and maquettes in that building. Unfortunately I haven't had a class in there yet, but have dropped in on occasion just to see what people are up to.

No, I went there, but the few pictures that I took didn't come out very well. Mainly because I had the wrong light setting on my camera because I forgot to change it from outside to inside and I turned off the flash because I didn't want to disturb any classesThat building is very cool and it feels like a fine art building. I can't stop thinking about my trip there, it was such a beautiful day too.

[darktding]

I am hearing news that AAU has acquired a new building near the SBC park. It is also beleived that they are going to move the finearts dept over there and some arrangement will be made of some sort...

[AGU-ART]

Hi, I am new here in CG talk. I have been looking for a long time for schools in 3D animation. I visited a few schools and I have many broshures in my heands. I think that Sheridan college in Canada, The univerity of southern California, Savannah college of art, the film school in canada and The Academy of Art university are Very good one, the problem is the cost of the tuitions. I have been thinking about online learning because is cheaper. My question is: Do you think that online learning will give me the resources to complete a good demoreal and show it in the industry, or it will be a waste of money?

I thank you in advance for all your help.

[jbo]

Hi, I am new here in CG talk. I have been looking for a long time for schools in 3D animation. I visited a few schools and I have many broshures in my heands. I think that Sheridan college in Canada, The univerity of southern California, Savannah college of art, the film school in canada and The Academy of Art university are Very good one, the problem is the cost of the tuitions. I have been thinking about online learning because is cheaper. My question is: Do you think that online learning will give me the resources to complete a good demoreal and show it in the industry, or it will be a waste of money?

I thank you in advance for all your help.

I've never taken any CG classes online, but the few liberal arts classes that i took were a joke. also, i don't think online is any cheaper than attending in person at the Academy of Art(unless they changed some things.) After my experience taking an art history and a US history class online, i would not take any classes online that were important to me.

[AGU-ART]

Thanks a lot jbo. That is good to know. I already applay for a personal attending for a second degree in 3D animation at the Academy of Art university, but I was counting on a scholarships and it is for one term only so I do not think I can copmplete all the money. But I am more interested in Sheridan college and Savannah college. I apply too to Savannah college and I am still waiting. What I am thinking now is that If I go to any of those schools I will be expending all my savings and in Venezuela is a lot of money. Thus, if I don't find any job in the industry, I will have to return to Venezuela and start again.

So it is not an easy dessition.


By the way, thank you very much...

[digdenton]

To Agu-Art
Online classes generally don't have course fees which can save you some money but from what I hear it's better to take the classes in person. It gives you more of a chance to meet other students, potential contacts, also San Francisco is filled with artists so you have a higher chance of getting internships and the all important "foot in the door."

[GrahamHRoss]

Well it's about midterm time and I'm about up to my neck in homework. What better way to spend my time than posting a message to y'all!

First off, the classwork here is pretty intense. Expect to do a lot fo work outside of class. Fortunetly, the classes all have corrosponding workshops on different days of the week. They're kinda like study halls, where there's an instructor there to help you if you're having problems. Really helpful and worth going to as many as you can. The student body is awesome too. Lots of really determined and talented people...and friendly too! I've never felt like I couldn't go up to someone and ask them a question about what they were working on. I don't know if my work is improving, but I certainly feel like it is. I'd be willing to start a thread showing the progression of my work if people wanted it, but until then I started a yahoo group where I put a lot of my pics of the school, city and my work...so if you're interested drop me a line.

Now the bad. The financial aid dept here is a f-n' joke. They're really vicious about you paying on time and will even go so far as to yank you out fo classes. As a matter of fact, I had an incident with them where they claimed I owed them more money. Needless to say it was a big ta do...and I ended up having to borrow money from my parents to pay off the bill for something that was THEIR MISTAKE! Make sure if you're getting loans that you triple check everything with them, becuase they're a bunch of morons.

Second, the career center at the school has really given me a bad impression as well. I went there looking for a job just today, and I figured they'd at least have a list of places to go look for part time work or some bulliten board or something. The woman there actually told me that I should go look at the online search engine for the career center...then she told me to look at hotjobs, then she told me to go walk around the area and ask in shops...then she told me I should go get a workstudy job! I mean, COME ON! I'm not a friggin idiot! The whole job of the career center is to help students find jobs. So, I'm basically back to being unemployed and living off student loans.

On the plus side though, I have met a lot of people very quickly at the school. So the networking aspect of the academy is like I predicted. I think that will help me find a job...and friends by golly! Friends are nice!

Oh...btw..they grade HARD here too. It's pretty tough to get an A. I finally got a few B's now and I"m extatic, but I had to work my ass off for them. And watch the skipping an dmissing of classes. Some teachers grade very harshy for missing class...and for good reason. THey really show u a lot of stuff during class time and if you're not there you're really missing a lot.

End of line

[AGU-ART]

Thank you very much to all. I can see that my doubts are not ficticius. I understand that the fact of been personaly in the class room is very important. Specialy because the school will be your first and most important contact finding interships or jobs. So I think the online posibility is out. Maibe the right thing is to wait until I can enter into the best school I could pay and at the same time, improve my artistic, drawing skills and 3D knowledges.

Thank you very much.

[Kimotion]

Oh...btw..they grade HARD here too. It's pretty tough to get an A. I finally got a few B's now and I"m extatic, but I had to work my ass off for them. And watch the skipping an dmissing of classes. Some teachers grade very harshy for missing class...and for good reason. THey really show u a lot of stuff during class time and if you're not there you're really missing a lot.

End of line

I have to disagree here. In the animation department they grade very leniently. I got A's in all 5 of my animations classes (both 2d and 3d) and I feel my work is not nearly good enough to put on a demo reel.

[jbo]

I have to disagree here. In the animation department they grade very leniently. I got A's in all 5 of my animations classes (both 2d and 3d) and I feel my work is not nearly good enough to put on a demo reel.

yeah, i think the grading gets easier once you get out of the foundation classes. I remember getting C's in some drawing classes i worked my ass off in... now i'm getting pretty much straight A's though.

[stylEmon]

For those looking into the academy of art, just as i am. I've been encouraged to study somewhere affordable, doing your basic course work and then transfer in. That can save you thousands or tens of thousands of dollars.
I went to the Art Institute of Houston and did an Associate in Computer Animation. * also had some gen ed credits from a community college* I transfered 48 hours to AAC. That saves about a year and a half.




I went to a community college, got a bunh of credits, then a smaller animation school for my associates, I am finishing my BA at the Art Institute of Phoenix in a couple months. Not only have I recieved a strong education for subjects other than art, I had a blast doing it. All in all, I may have spent a little more time in school, but I saved 10s of thousands of $$.

The AAC is sending me their info, along with a catalog. Looks very impressive. They are assuring me that I can get my Masters there. I may try to get some of my debts paid off before I got back to school tho.

The most valuable advise I can offer is to get as many cheap credits as you can!

[stylEmon]

For those looking into the academy of art, just as i am. I've been encouraged to study somewhere affordable, doing your basic course work and then transfer in. That can save you thousands or tens of thousands of dollars.
I went to the Art Institute of Houston and did an Associate in Computer Animation. * also had some gen ed credits from a community college* I transfered 48 hours to AAC. That saves about a year and a half.




I went to a community college, got a bunh of credits, then a smaller animation school for my associates, I am finishing my BA at the Art Institute of Phoenix in a couple months. Not only have I recieved a strong education for subjects other than art, I had a blast doing it. All in all, I may have spent a little more time in school, but I saved 10s of thousands of $$.

The AAC is sending me their info, along with a catalog. Looks very impressive. They are assuring me that I can get my Masters there. I may try to get some of my debts paid off before I got back to school tho.

The most valuable advise I can offer is to get as many cheap credits as you can!

[danteort]

yeah, i think the grading gets easier once you get out of the foundation classes. I remember getting C's in some drawing classes i worked my ass off in... now i'm getting pretty much straight A's though.
That's a little disappointing to read, since I don't find the foundations classes to be that hard. It's just a matter of how much time and effort you're willing to put into improving your abilities. Also, following instructions plays a big part in that. A lot of people seem to have trouble listening to the teacher and actually applying what was said.

One would hope that the higher level you go, the more difficult it gets.

This semester it's taken me a bit to get back into the swing of things. My first few assignments have been kind of mediocre. Granted, I also didn't put in the kind of time that I should have. But, I'm getting back into focus.

[GrahamHRoss]

THat is a little discouraging...I actually like how challengine the foundations classes are...I'm also finding all of my teachers to be excellent...except for my figure modeling teacher. She's a turd.

[AGU-ART]

Hi every one. I want to ask you a few questions. I already saw the forum for SCAD and The Academy of Art. I see that the Academy Art is closer to the industry so it is easier to find job. My problem is that I already apply for SCAD and they accepted me for the Master of Fine Arts program in 3D animation and with a felowship. But I applied too to Academy of Art second degree in 3D animation. I do not know the AA answer. But the great doubt is, SHould I take the SCAD offer or wait until AA answer. How expensive do you think is one from the other including the living expences?

And finally a carrere question. I am an Architect and my focus is to get into a digital production designer carrere. I already have the Architecture fundations so I think I have the design part. I have been painting as my passion so I can think that I can improove my drawing skills myself. I chose 3D animation because I like it a lot and it is the real, economic living suport and final product of your mind, and, because I think it will be easier to enter into the industry knowing a lot of digital sofwares and animation than be compiting with so many talents in digital painting.
Do you think I am right? or do you think I should swith to Industrial design?

Thanks a lot in advance for your answers.

[AGU-ART]

This is me again. I forgot to ask you people something. My original objective about what university to take was Sheridan. I visited it and it is increadible. They have an increadible level of quality. It is less expensive and I can pay it myself without any shcolarship, the problem is that it is very difficul to be accepted and my toefl score is not enuff. Sheridan does not have something that AA and SCAD have, AN INTERSHIP and they are a full Master acredited certificate and it is not cuted in two different levels. What do you think I should do, Whait for AA, take SCAD or try Sheridan?

Thank you all in advance for your help.

I will appreciate any help or comentary you can give me.

[danteort]

Edit: Nevermind, it wasn't quite how I wanted to put it.

[jeremybirn]

the problem is that it is very difficul to be accepted and my toefl score is not enuff.

If the thing that's holding you back is just your English skills, why not take a course and practice English and do better on the TOEFL next time? To really get your money's worth out of any of these schools, you should study English well enough to do well on that test anyway.

-jeremy

[GrahamHRoss]

THis is my third university I've been to. There are always good teachers and bad ones. There is always the possibility that you could make it on your own and not go to school. What I would reccomend is looking for work while u attend school. If you find that dream job, take it and drop out. You can learn more at a job that at school, I can guarantee u that. Well, maybe not more, but you definetly learn quicker when your ass is on the line.

If you're not enjoying your classes, do something about it. Complain, find a new teacher, go to the dept head...man, I do that stuff all the time. Once I get in the 3d classes...those guys better watch out...

*Insert "Top Gun" music here*

[Kimotion]

THis is my third university I've been to. There are always good teachers and bad ones. There is always the possibility that you could make it on your own and not go to school. What I would reccomend is looking for work while u attend school. If you find that dream job, take it and drop out. You can learn more at a job that at school, I can guarantee u that. Well, maybe not more, but you definetly learn quicker when your ass is on the line.

If you're not enjoying your classes, do something about it. Complain, find a new teacher, go to the dept head...man, I do that stuff all the time. Once I get in the 3d classes...those guys better watch out...

*Insert "Top Gun" music here*

Hahaha....I like your attitude! It will serve you well.

[danteort]

THis is my third university I've been to. There are always good teachers and bad ones. There is always the possibility that you could make it on your own and not go to school. What I would reccomend is looking for work while u attend school. If you find that dream job, take it and drop out. You can learn more at a job that at school, I can guarantee u that. Well, maybe not more, but you definetly learn quicker when your ass is on the line.

Yes, there are always both good and bad teachers at almost any school. I'm quite familiar with that; had a music history professor several years ago (for an entire YEAR) who was quite easily the worst teacher I've ever had. That's part of the price you pay sometimes, since most universities are concerned more with the output of their faculty (publishing, research) than with how well they actually teach. I guess my concern is more with the fact that the Academy seems to be a bit of a revolving door in terms of faculty leaving/joining. That's generally not a good sign.

Also, I admit there are some great teachers here. That's undeniable. But I think this really comes down to personal preference. I can see myself being happier studying fine art and learning CG on the side. At first I didn't think I'd want to do that, but I've come to realize that I'm really pretty decent as a fine artist, so I'd really like to explore that further. Yes, the AAU has a fine arts major, but I don't think that's really its strength, so I can't see myself staying here for that.

Plus, there's some personal stuff that does have an influence on my decision. Not at all related to the school.

So, my long-winded semi-rant was probably a little melodramatic and a little off base, but I think I just needed to get some of that out there. It was a little more satisfying than simply posting "I'm not sure I'll be coming back to the AAU next semester."

Edit: Went ahead and deleted my other post, since it really was more personal preference than anything directly related to the school.

[mangual]

I know you said personal stuff was influencing your decision, but does it have anything to do with the city itself or the people? I am considering attending moving to the area and I'm wondering what your experience has been like living in San Francisco while attending AAU.

[danteort]

I know you said personal stuff was influencing your decision, but does it have anything to do with the city itself or the people? I am considering attending moving to the area and I'm wondering what your experience has been like living in San Francisco while attending AAU.
The city is fine, though I don't really feel 'connected' to it. There's not a lot making me need to live here. Part of it has to do with being a student, since when you're on a student's budget you don't really get to experience a whole lot of San Francisco stuff. So, lifestyle-wise, the only thing setting this city apart from any other (for me) is that I take buses everywhere and have to walk up a lot of hills.

Last semester I was totally excited about living out here, but now that the "newness" has worn off, I've kind of cooled down and started thinking in terms of whether or not going to school here is the best thing for me.

[Unled]

I know you said personal stuff was influencing your decision, but does it have anything to do with the city itself or the people? I am considering attending moving to the area and I'm wondering what your experience has been like living in San Francisco while attending AAU.

In my personal opinion SF is a great place to go to school. Sure it's expensive as all hell but it affords opportunities to be involved in some great stuff. I got to visit Pixar when I first got here, for a Maya user group and that was inspirational enough, but since then you can't beat all the animation festivals, we just had the GDC here (although i didn't make it to that), and I also got to meet Brad Bird and have him sign my Incredibles DVD.
This type of thing is very inspirational and helps you feel a little more involved. No to mention all the great art galleries and tons of live music, there's three concerts next month I have plans to attend.
I've never been so artistically stimulated as I have since I moved here and immersed myself in my schoolwork and the culture.
People here are generally very very nice! There's a lot of tragic hipsters running around in $300 jeans but beyond that there's lots of friendly normal folks.

[puppetmastah]

I am studying CS and I was wondering if AAU Master Degrees would be a good idea. I am also considering Sheridan. I know that San Fransisco is a great area and it's close to the industry. How about Sheridan? Which degree would be more suitable for me? Any advice would be really helpfull!!

[jbo]

That's a little disappointing to read, since I don't find the foundations classes to be that hard. It's just a matter of how much time and effort you're willing to put into improving your abilities. Also, following instructions plays a big part in that. A lot of people seem to have trouble listening to the teacher and actually applying what was said.

One would hope that the higher level you go, the more difficult it gets.

This semester it's taken me a bit to get back into the swing of things. My first few assignments have been kind of mediocre. Granted, I also didn't put in the kind of time that I should have. But, I'm getting back into focus.

it's not so much that it get's easier, but that you find what you're good at. and it all depends on what teachers you get of course. i was just generalizing from my experience. Also, I spend a lot more time on homework now than i did in the foundations, so while grading may be easier, the ammount of work you have to do is way more.

[glitch02]

I was wondering if anyone watching the forum was planning on attending the April 16th Academy Day in Chicago. I've got my RSVP in but thought maybe a few of us could meet up.

Scott
§

[SpiralFace]

I am studying CS and I was wondering if AAU Master Degrees would be a good idea. I am also considering Sheridan. I know that San Fransisco is a great area and it's close to the industry. How about Sheridan? Which degree would be more suitable for me? Any advice would be really helpfull!!

Ok, when you say CS, your refering to a Computer Science degree right?

If you are, and are thinking about continueing some Computer Science with an emphisis for computer Graphics, then I beleave that this might not be the right school for you. We are much more Art oriented and as someone on our AAU student forums said, when it comes to Physics, Math, and Programming corses, this school realy comes up short. Mainly becuase our school is more geared twards the Artistic ends of the production like Modeling, animation, and Illustration. And although we do have some scripting, Partical, rigging, and other technicaly oriented classes, I won't praise it for being as strong as say our modeling and animation ciriculum. But if your trying to jump more on the artistic end instead of the technical end, then its my opinion that this is a great school to go to.

[jeremybirn]

I am studying CS and I was wondering if AAU Master Degrees would be a good idea. I am also considering Sheridan. I know that San Fransisco is a great area and it's close to the industry. How about Sheridan? Which degree would be more suitable for me? Any advice would be really helpfull!!

Following up a CS degree with an MFA to study computer art is often a good plan. It seems as if the students that are first picks for getting competetive internships at the big studios are doing that combo. If you haven't done any graphics-related programming, shader development, things like that, then you would have to fill in some of those "missing links" on your own, because these art schools don't cover that, but that's not a huge deal to tackle in the course of your work.

-jeremy

[darktding]

If you haven't done any graphics-related programming, shader development, things like that, then you would have to fill in some of those "missing links" on your own,
-jeremy

Oh yea, once you begin to tackle stuff like what jeremy mentioned on one's own, things start to become challenging. Here at the AAU one is like a fish out of water when it comes to technical aspects which is a shame honestly for a school that has the capacity and resources to take the necessary steps to do so...
Try SCAD, I know they have a very good resource on technical aspects of cg... I for one am planning to move out there and really learn if I dont learn enough on my own...

[GrahamHRoss]

Last semester I was totally excited about living out here, but now that the "newness" has worn off, I've kind of cooled down and started thinking in terms of whether or not going to school here is the best thing for me.

And here I thought it was just my heinus body odor...

I'm actually planning on going back to Chicago the 16th...but that's the day Im arriving so I'm gonna be pretty beat. I might be willing to meet with you later that weekend...of course, feel free to e-mail me...

As for the whole CS degree thing...it's true. They don't teach much as far as programming here, at least that's what I've heard. Talk to darkting about that. Me and him seem to be the only code junkies in the school...

Learn scripting...but when it comes to art fundamentals and learning to draw, the academy is a good place to be. In the three months I've been here my drawing has really gotten WAY friggin better....

[UnknownArtist]

I am currently about to transer to Southeast Missouri State University with a BFA in Computer Imaging and Animation... Later I would like to further myself in a MA degree, I have read through the boards and got a decent amount of pros and cons to this. So is it worth it to go to somewhere like the Academy to get this? If so is their MA degree well enough or is there better?

Sorry if this has been asked, there are a lot a pages to this thread :eek: ... Got through a fair portion then said forget it Ill just ask.

[glitch02]

KungFu Hampster,



I'm just coming into Chicago for the night before and the day of Academy Day so I won't be able to meet up with you other than the 16th. It was worth the try though, thanks

[silicate]

I've got to make my choice of student housing. What do you guys think about the dormitories vs. the apartments? I know the price difference isn't that much and I have stuff I have to take with me so am not sure if I can/should share a room.

Any opinions of the different buildings:
Degas
Vermeer
Lang
Da Vinci
Sargent
1055 Pine
1153 Bush
Van Ness

What about private rooms in the dorms vs. the apartments? I plan to spend at least the first year in student housing. Like I said I have some stuff, books/dvds, computer crap, that I (in a packrat like way) have to keep close by me so I might not be the kind of person who should share a room. Any opinions on this would be apreciated. :hmm:

Thanks!

[GrahamHRoss]

Where ru staying in Chicago man? Maybe I could suggest some places ta go...

[glitch02]

I'm staying at the Cass Hotel on Wabash Ave. I've got a single room with free parking for only $65 before taxes. It’s located two blocks away from Millenium Knickerbocker Hotel, where Academy Day is being held.

[Hullabaloo]

Hey silicate, go to 1055 Pine, its where i am at, and its great fun. Meet people, im buying a house with 5 people i met from Pine. Dont listen to what people say about the dorms, about how bad they are. Yes its a rip, but i have had many good memories from pine! and plus the girls dorm is two blocks away :)

[jbo]

Hey silicate, go to 1055 Pine, its where i am at, and its great fun. Meet people, im buying a house with 5 people i met from Pine. Dont listen to what people say about the dorms, about how bad they are. Yes its a rip, but i have had many good memories from pine! and plus the girls dorm is two blocks away :)

there's nothing bad about the dorms. except how much they cost. i pay way less and guess what... there's girls in my building!!!OMG!!@!@! but yeah, it does seem resonable to pay 3 times market value (in an already extremely expensive city) to live 2 blocks away from girls. way to go!

[jbo]

wow! cgtalk has a rule about putting too many exclaimation points in a row. awesome.

[silicate]

Hey silicate, go to 1055 Pine, its where i am at, and its great fun. Meet people, im buying a house with 5 people i met from Pine. Dont listen to what people say about the dorms, about how bad they are. Yes its a rip, but i have had many good memories from pine! and plus the girls dorm is two blocks away :)

Thanks, I thought I was about to stay in chicago for a second there ;). I saw the pine dorm and it was very friendly and the cafeteria is downstairs! Thanks for the input.

[SpiralFace]

Ah good old Pine dorm.

Last time I was there I was absolutely shocked at how much they improved the astetics of the place. When I lived there it was pretty bad. We used to joke around about how we where so run down that the Academy did'nt want to aknowledge us with one of their huge signs like on all the other buildings, becuase the place was so run down. But that was more then 2 years ago so the place has gotten alot better. But the one thing that made Pine dorm so kick ass where the people. ALL I ever heard from the co-ed dorms was nothing but drama. But Pine dorm was (at least at the time) all guys and all of them got along great. There was only one trouble maker and he got taken out within the first month, and then everyone else was perfectly fine. Pretty much all of my guy friends that go to this school are from Pine dorms, along with two of my room mates. I hope the people there are still as cool as they where 2 years ago.

[vox emiter]

I hear the market is opening up in Taiwan for graduates from this school
-Reeb-

[-Vormav-]

I've got to make my choice of student housing. What do you guys think about the dormitories vs. the apartments? I know the price difference isn't that much and I have stuff I have to take with me so am not sure if I can/should share a room.
Heh, I was about to rip into that statement... But I just noticed that there really is only a $100-200 price difference. Pretty surprising.
Anyway, I wouldn't worry too much about how much stuff you're bringing over, unless you're bringing furniture or large TVs and whatnot. You'd be amazed what you can fit in a small room with a little bit of ingenuity. If it's a matter of being able to trust your roommate though, just keep some stuff hidden away until you've decided how trustworthy your roommate is. Property insurance is a must, of course.



I guess I'm just gonna go for Pine for now (It's either that or the building on Bush). The building did seem a bit...old when I was there. But they have a lot more there than the dorms I've stayed in so far. And anyway, I don't think I'll have any room to complain; according to the Princeton Review, I've spent a year in the 12th worst dormitory in the country, and I managed just fine. http://cgtalk.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif

[Kimotion]

The only differences between dorms and apartments are that you have to be over 21 to live in the apartments, and that you would have your own kitchen and bathroom. In both, you'd still have roomates (unless you opt for single occupancy).

Even though you need to be over 21 to live in the apartments, alcohol is strictly forbidden. It's just university policy and they really do enforce it.

Also, the RA's tend to enter at any time to check up. Even if you have literature or newspapers that criticise the Academy, they have every right to confiscate, since the building are owned by the Academy.

I lived in the Powell building: it looks attractive at first, but the interior is really run down, complete with cracks in the ceilings from the tremors of San Francisco. It's also next to the touristy cable car line which is on a steep hill: so every 10 minutes until 1am you would hear tourists screaming in delight while you are trying to to homework or trying to sleep.

The good thing is that there is no other Academy building where you can get a full dose of San Francisco....it's also right next to the Illustration building, as well as being the closest housing near New Montgomery.

Stay at the Academy buildings if you are from outside the Bay area and don't have the time or the resources to look for regular housing. But once you live there for a semester, move out fast because you will soon realize that they are grossly overpriced.

[darktding]

Also, the RA's tend to enter at any time to check up. Even if you have literature or newspapers that criticise the Academy, they have every right to confiscate, since the building are owned by the Academy.


urm, that part is false....

[Kimotion]

urm, that part is false....

Nope. It's true. Maybe things have changed but it happened last year. Just ask those at the Sutter dorms. Perhaps they never claimed they had the "right" to do it and maybe my statement was exaggerated. However, the RAs were instructed to confiscate any printed media of the sort, including student rooms. This happened as one of the results of the Academy's efforts to stem off all the negative media press due to that student expulsion scandal.

The housing are privately owned entities, and it is their right to not have certain things in their own buildings.

[SpiralFace]

urm, that part is false....

Yeah I whould have to agree with this. I've never heard of an instance where the RA's where'nt justified in a serch. They did'nt seem to just do it on a whim. There might be one or two RA's that take their jobs way to seriously and might do that. But from my experiances, that is more of the Exeption then the rule. Most of the RA's are students themselves, and know the score when it comes to colege dorm life. From my experiance, if you don't give them a reason to bother you, then they won't. But it IS in your contract that you have to let them in and inspect the place. So if you are doing something that you are'nt supposed to be doing, then be sure to hide it well.

[WiSe]

Hey I'm pretty much requestiing help on some class choices as to professors.

Which professor is good in these courses?

figure drawing
Analysis of Form
intro comp graphic
figure modeling

Thanks in advance guys. Oh I'll be attending in Fall '05. I should join one of the meet-ups once i'm up there.

[danteort]

Hey I'm pretty much requestiing help on some class choices as to professors.

Which professor is good in these courses?

figure drawing
Analysis of Form
intro comp graphic
figure modeling

Thanks in advance guys. Oh I'll be attending in Fall '05. I should join one of the meet-ups once i'm up there.
For figure drawing, get Lee Ballard if you can (and if he's teaching it). I thought he was fantastic, and he'll expect more out of you than some other teachers.