I am 30 years old and...

#1

Long short story.

I have a b.a in Industrial Design and I live in Puerto Rico which means I would need to move out of this country to have better chances to find a good job. Time has passed and I practically lost almost all interest on this career and all practice to the point where I feel I need to start all over from scratch.

I’ve been working on temporary and part time jobs around my island to survive.
During this time I have been working on a personal project. “The Sealed Ark”, a board game. You can find it online if you are curious. Making this board game is leading me to the conclusion that I need to study and maybe dedicate my future in the gaming industry which I have always had great interest in.

I am willing to move out and find what would be the best choice for me.
I came here to ask you guys suggestions based on what I have said.

I have looked the Vancouver Film School and it sure sounds good, as well as Full Sail but I would be involved in a student loan.

I am going through a lot and a hard moment in my life and I need to start acting now.

I will appreciate any feedback.
Thank you very much.

#2

Hi!

The internet is yours. You can find lots of tutorials on both technical and artistic sides of the subject, so I definitely would not go to any school to learn this. If you are interested in it, you will advance quickly by setting smaller project goals and working on them. An image or a simple animation with simple models… (If you are not really interested, the school won’t help you either.)
Find a theme that excites you and you would be willing to work on it for a month. (Star Wars fan art, or recreating a building, or anything that excites you). Then start to learn the basics of modeling, texturing, animation…according to what you need to do your project. Along the way if you don’t know how to do something, find a tutorial that explains it.

Technical skills are important but if your eyes are not trained (getting proportions right, getting colors - lighting - composition - timing (in animation) right), then it won’t look good. Trained eyes are a result of practice and observation. That takes time.

So you can do it without any school just by doing it and learning from what you see online and around you.
Have fun! :slight_smile:

#3

I’m guessing that the reason you included your age in the thread title is because you feel it might have an effect on your plans - if so, don’t worry too much about that, as age isn’t likely to be a problem. And at any rate, 30 is young.

I tend to agree with the post above mine. Spend some time utilising the resources available online. Keep working on your project, or perhaps set yourself a new one. Ease back into doing CG, and see how you fare after a month or two. I’d avoid rushing into any education commitments until you’ve got a bit more practice under your belt, and are feeling totally comfortable doing CG again.

#4

Schools are pretty expensive but the truth is that schools make the path shorter. Right now you seem troubled, and maybe it will be good for you to meet people, learn together, move to other city and "start again"instead of being in your room wondering if you are going to make it right. I’m telling you this because working your way alone into this world can be awesome and frustrating, you expend tons of time working and sometimes you just don’t feel rewarded.

As they have told you above, just try learning on-line, see how it goes and if you think that you can continue like this a one year or 2 go on… if not, think about the school (I’m doing it myself right now) not just because of what you can learn but who can you meet, and what oportunities appears…

I hope you feel better than how you felt when you started this post!! And don’t worry about the age I have just read a post about this topic and everybody said that age didn’t really matter :smiley: (30 IS NOT OLD for Gods sake!)

Regards