Career help !!

#1

Hello

I have recently graduated from the International University of Sarajevo
with a four year Bachelor of Architecture degree. During my education i have been working on 2D and 3D production
design and when i was at my 3rd year i was introduced with visual effects and compositing and was and still am really excited
and speechless of the possibilities that you can create. I began searching about visual effects and the industry and kept learning about 3D softwares. I stumbled on CGSociety website because when i saw your works and the projects that youve worked on i was amazed , i would like to get some help concerning vfx career, and hopefully to guide me to the right direction to becoming a part of the vfx studio. Some of the questions i would like you to answer are:

1.) What are the best universities in Germany that has a program about vfx Houdini or the essentials that can kickstart my career or master degree progam , or do i even have to go to university , i mean i don’t mind i would like to learn as much as possible . Some of the universities that i found ,are they for vfx ?:
http://www-en.fh-ooe.at/programmes/master/digital-arts/

http://www.dieangewandte.at/en

http://www.animationsinstitut.de/en/technology/

2.) What about taking a online tutorial on Digital Tutors or Gnomon Workshop is this better than going to University?

3.) I am also thinking on buying a computer with great performances and work on creating particles,smoke, crowd etc houdini fx and slowly build up a demo reel. But my question is do i need to work on other programs like Nuke 3D and Maya or can i specialise just one like Houdini fx ,?

4.) Some of the books that im planning to buy are: Compositing Visual Effects -Essential by Steve Wright,
Filming the Fantastic by Mark Sawicki , The VES Handbook of Visual Effects -Industry Standard VFX Practices and Procedures
, The Visual Effects Arsenal by Bill Byrne.

Thank You

#2

As far as choosing a university vs. learning from online resources, it all depends on how you learn. If you learn best on your own, without being forced to complete assignments for a grade then I would lean away from a university. If you can create an amazing demo reel and have all of this basically learned via Gnomon, Digital tutors, etc then that is what you may need over a university. It will help you in the future when you may need to learn something new for a job and the only way of doing that is to teach yourself. Don’t get me wrong, a degree looks great to potential employers, but what really speaks to your talent is your demo reel/portfolio.

As far as your PC is concerned, get the most powerful hardware you can afford. Particle effects can and will require a large amount of resources to be able to work effectively. Do not skimp in the hardware department if VFX is your main goal.

Lastly, I would get a basic understanding of 3D programs such as Maya. You may have to work with it or a program like it in the future. It is always a good idea to have that knowledge and be prepared. If you like and understand VFX the most, specialize in VFX. Learn all you can learn about the subject, as larger studios tend to hire people who are incredibly talented in one specialization (such as VFX). Smaller studios often will hire more generalists. This is all of course if you want to work for a studio and not do contract work.

I hope some of my advice helps, I have been through University myself and found that it helped a bit with networking and looking good on paper. But I will tell you that the most of what I learned was through doing work on my own through sites such as Digital Tutors or Gnomon. I also learned a great deal from hanging out with other artists and learning from them. Even the help file in 3ds Max and Maya went a long way to contribute to where I am today.

Best of luck to you and your future career. Let your passion drive you.

#3

Thank You Schreibzilla for your reply !!

Your 100% correct about the degree vs. portfolio. I had many problems at university when working in a team :banghead: with people lacking in(!basic design!!!) and no talent whatsoever so 99% i had to work everything for them. I kept pushing my self to the limit because i knew it was a test on how to work with these kind of people… and later scored excellent skills for myself and for the team, but still i would never ever get my self in that situation again. I mean 4 years dragging them around … NOO WAAYY!!! the worst thing about all of it was the MENTALITY that your surrounded in!!
One of the reasons why i mention those universities is because i checked they are not surrounded with this kind of mentality!

I have a very good understanding in 3ds Max so ill work in it more often, my primary goal is mastering programs such as Houdini fx and Nuke 8.
Thank you for your advice , now i know what to do . Im gonna take online tutorials on Digital Tutors, Gnomon and cmiVFX cause they have great examples for vfx. :thumbsup:

Oh btw here is the PC specs that ive composed:

-ASUS SABERTOOTH 990FX AMD 990F/SB 950AM3+
-NVIDIA GTX 660 2GB
-AMD FX 8370/ SOCKET AM3 125W 4GHz
-RAM 8GB DDR3 / 1600 MGHz
-500 GB SATA 3
-THERMAL TAKE V4 Black ATX
-CHIEFTEC 700W
-TRANSCEND DVD RW USB 2.0

Price is around 1000$ This is the cheapest it gets around here. What do you think ? :wavey:

Thanks again for your help btw your work is fantastic ! :buttrock:

#4

As a former student you should prefer a school instead of selflearning.

Sealflearning is only for stressed people.

#5

As a former student myself I too can speak to the benefits of going to university. There are pros and cons to both sides, you really have to decide how you learn best as an individual.

#6

Sharky, where do you live? That seems really expensive for that hardware. I may be able to give you a good workstation build. Do you live in Germany?

#7

Does this build suit your budget? Much more powerful for around the same cost.
PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/McW3sY

#8

Hey Schreibzilla ! :eek:

Wooow … I did not even know this site exists! I’m from Bosnia & Herzegovina and i’ve checked with many stores here and that was the price for the parts and yeah they tend to overprice things , but this is just unbelievable :thumbsup: its like doubling the pc power for the same price ! Thanks for this pal , btw your picture shows a perfect workstation what are the specs i wonder can it fly with jetpacks ?? :slight_smile:

#9

Yeah then order it all online its the cheapest way to get your pc. My specs are

Intel Core i7 2600 3.6ghz overclocked to 4 ghz
Corsair H100 water cooling system
Dual Nvidia GTX 780s in SLI
16GB of crucial RAM
1 WD green 1TB HDD
2 SSDs: 1 128 GB OCZ Vertex 3 (boot drive) and a 256GB OCZ Vertex 4 SSD (to run my 3d apps on)
850 watt corsair PSU
ASRock Fatal1ty z77 motherboard
3 24 inch acer monitors

Having more than one monitor is also an incredible help. The more screen real estate the better. So if you have the budget go for two good sized monitors. I’m glad I was able to help, if you have any questions just let me know :slight_smile: