Hello guys,
I’ll start by telling you that I have a good 3D background, because I’ve got a Diploma (3 years course) at the IED school in Rome (Italy) CG and Virtual Design course. But I didn’t feel like they taught me much about modelling, texturin or anything, I mean they taught me a bit, but not that much I’ll be ready to work. So I decided to go at the Gnomon School of VFX in LA, to attend some individual courses (intro to maya, texturing and shading, hard surface modelling) to refresh, in some way, my 3D skills. I learned a lot of stuff those 3 months, more than I ever learned in 3 year at the IED in Rome, but I still need to fill some gaps as a 3D artist. So now I’m looking for a serious school in Europe (cuz I don’t want to deal with American VISA and I would like to find a part time job) that would really complete me as a 3d artist. I’m looking forward to enter the videogame industry, but I don’t really know if I should look for a CGI course or a Game Art course, or something like that. My intention was to look some schools in UK, like escape studios, futureworks or whatever, but I need that all the lectures are in English, that’s why, maybe, I need to find it in the UK. What do you guys reccomend?
CGI/Game school in EU
Hello libraxege, I’m not sure if you’re still into advice for this but from what I’ve heard from artists - most recently Andrew Price(BlenderGuru) - is that a course in CGI and video FX is much better because it opens more doors due to the sheer quality of your work as CGI and video effects requires greatly detailed meshes and so that skill is highly looked upon for freelancing / adverts / games / films etc… as the believability is unlike game art which teaches you low polygon modelling, limiting yourself to the game art field.That’s why I’m hoping to head into a 3D modelling and video FX course at Futureworks next September 
Thanks for the reply, I’m still looking for a school in UK to teach me decent 3D. Do you know if at Futureworks CGI course they teach Maya, 3DStudio Max or blender as main program?
I don’t necessarily agree with this, and also (and I mean no offence to Andrew, whose posts I’ve seen around this site too) you shouldn’t be taking the opinions of people who don’t actually work in the industry as gospel.
If the OP wants to work in video gaming, then it makes sense to do a course that’s more tailored to that industry. Furthermore, low polygon modelling? Perhaps you haven’t kept up do date with next gen gaming, but there’s not exactly a huge difference between modelling for games and modelling for film any more.
Personally I’m more a fan of actual art courses as opposed to computer graphics courses, as I believe they offer a more rounded and robust education that’s likely to prove more helpful in the long run, but that’s really just my own personal view. At the end of the day, you need to find something that suits your goals most closely and do that.
Yes i agree with the beginning which is why i posted the source being andrew because i didn’t want the OP to think this was from someone in the game industry.
And that’s my point, i’ve heard 3d courses still teach low polygon modelling which isn’t needed as much anymore but CGI courses can teach you to increase the detail of meshes which can then be reduced in polygon count as that is much easier than trying to learn detailed modelling when you were taught low detailed modelling.
However i do agree with you that if all they want to learn is game art then they can do that too.
And to the OP, i believe they use autodesk such as 3DSMAX and Maya in both courses and probably mudbox for the sculpting all of which are available by autodesk education