Hello all! This is my first post here, after lurking for many months. I’ve been sculpting using brush now for 7-8 months, outside of work, deciding where to go to school. I have a problem though. I realized I wanted to do Character Modeling specifically after I backed out of my admission to full sail and purchased Zbrush to play with. I love it! I have a lot left to learn, A LOT. Which brings me to where I am asking you all for help. I get my GI Bill, which covers my tuition for four years of schooling. I don’t have a very firm foundation in fine arts, beyond sketching when I was younger, but I have been teaching myself sculpting since I began. I need your expert opinions on my next step in regards to school, as it is my one shot that doesn’t come out of my pocket, and I have to be sure it’s going to be worth my using that one shot. Which would benefit someone who wants to do character modeling and texturing more? Public University for 4 years focusing on fine arts, or a trade/technical school like Full Sail or any of the Arts Institutes for more focus on the programs/pipeline? Obviously they give you some knowledge as far as the arts go, but are more tailored to the technical side I’ve been told. Any help will be immensely valued, and thank you for reading.
GI Bill=1 opportunity for free school. Help!
First off thank you for your service. The GI Bill is a great benefit.
What caused you to back out of full sail? Was this after service separation and got cold feet about the program?
What are your long term career goals. Many people enter the field going into a certain role and wind up doing something else. I was originally an Animator, doing illustration and 2D work and eventually wound up doing effects work after several years.
There’s a few angles where you can approach this. Usually art fields don’t pay well so its a good idea to have a backup plan, or an education background that is flexible and more generalized.
For example you could lean more in the computer science direction, learning math and software development and follow that up with a general art foundation.
Learning matrix math, writing a basic renderer and plugins in school and back that up with art classes. The idea being you would come in with a strong technical background in addition to art and if the industry bombs out or something happens you can always turn around and get a job in software. With the recent film/vfx layoffs here and there many of my friends left the animation field and went into software development ranging from game development to working for google and nvidia.
If that’s an option I’d look at computer graphics programs at places like Texas A&M and Purdue, this route is understanding the principles of computer graphics as well as applying it.
The other route is going the art school route. I would focus on a strong fundamental base first to hone your skills. You could go to film school or a fine arts background and work away from the computer. Learn color theory, illustration, working in sculpture, painting, art history, photography, composition. Once you get that foundation then take the program specific course after that, or pick up a few video tutorials and learn on your own time.
For art schools I’d look at the best value you can get. When I went to school for traditional animation and illustration for a few years and followed that up with a short power animator/maya post-secondary program and then jumped into the industry.
Those few years ran me about $16,000 in student loans that I paid off shortly after I started working. I think it’s terrifying that students are racking up $100,000+ loans to go to animation school to start in a field that your starting salary is likely to be $30,000 a year provided your first job lasts that long.
I’d stay away from the purely “for profit” schools and find a nice state level college/university and go there. Software isn’t everything, your next job may not even use the software you used at school.
So I think the question is where do you want to end up.
Modeling can range all over the place. You can go engineering and industrial design and go the CAD/CAM route and make things for manufacturing from toys to prosthetics. Or wanting to get into games or television/film work, to just doing posters and t-shirts, where do you want to end up?
In the end it’s about your portfolio and demo reel for your first few jobs, but the degree is important for work visa considerations if you want to work outside the US.
Thank you for your service. As someone who has worked in the industry for 6 plus years and has a brother currently serving let me just say…
DO NOT GET A DEGREE IN THIS STUFF!
Aside from the fact that the industry is in HUGE turmoil and jobs are fleeting. I also say that because most schools are a waste of time/money.
AND
IN THE END
You end up teaching yourself. I dont care what school you go to. If all you ever do is what the teacher assigns you’ll never get good enough to get a job. Thats besides the point that a lot/most teachers teaching this stuff lack the skills themselves to get in the industry.
Get a regular degree in something that is actually useful. Degrees in this field mean exactly NOTHING. Then on the side buy DVD’s and go Online and learn that way.
Trust me. I’d say 9/10 artists I know working in the industry now would say the same thing.
Thanks Kurt for taking the time to offer your advice.
Purdue just expanded their CS department by 300 spots this year, and I’m hoping to transfer to one of their satellite campuses later this year. I’ve also heard from others that they are a good place to study computer graphics.They mention on their site that their CS grads have worked at places like Pixar and ILM. They also have lots of satellite campuses that are less competitive and more accessible.