Okay. As for texturing, I thought that came w/ modeling.
Yes I totally agree for texturing, it helps alot to learn painting, drawing.
I guess I’m talking about Rotoscope, particles, coding, TD stuff.
Sorry about my mis understanding of the whole VFX genre.
Gosh it’s bigger than I thought.
VFX is an all encompassing term and no that wasnt my major…but if you dont know a thing about light and how it reacts to different surfaces (which they teach in analysis of form) how do you start a composite in which lighting is your main concern? Do you just guess how it should look? Also about color theory…you must know some basics to try and color grade a shot right? yea artistic skills have nothing to do with vfx (sarcasim)! I agree particles, coding and other TECHNICAL DIRECTING dosnt need much of the fundemental courses but hey why dont you go get a Computer Science degree …I also find it hard to believe that if this is what you are striving for, to be a TD, then good luck, I dont know of many TD’s that got there job strait away after school. Unless they had a computer science degree (or mad coding skillz) to back up there BFA.
I have to interject here, companies sure have the tendecy to hire a cs student to work on films, but its the students who work on projects at school and sharpen their eye as well as their technical understanding that really do the heavy lifting and finish the shots.
There is a disipline that comes with being an fx td that a cs school doesnt take into consideration. CS students might have awesome coding knowledge but an fx art student might have a good balance of both the software and coding. Its this balance that is essential to pull of an fx: for example: “I know what maya can do, do I need to write scripts? or can I pull it off soely with maya?”
You are also wrong to make an assumption that art students who take the fx route at our school never get jobs at say companies like Pixar, Ilm, bluesky, etc and yes I do know a bunch of students who are working in those companies from our school.
(Please note when I say fx I mean the shading/coding/scripting/particles area ONLY. )
You are also wrong to make an assumption that art students who take the fx route at our school never get jobs at say companies like Pixar, Ilm, bluesky, etc
I dont think I said they cant get jobs I just usually doubt that these companies hire new graduates as TECHNICAL DIRECTORS. Maybe fx artists…but to be banking on somone with no real world expierience to direct big budget shots? Guess its just hard for me to believe, when there are so many talented TDs with many years experience. But what do I know, you all have much more expierience than I.
Also are you grouping TD and FX artists in the same category? If so than I retract my previous statement…my bad.
Hehe I think you have a somewhat incorrect understanding of what a TD is. A TD is a person who specialises in the technical aspects of lighting, character rigging, look dev, etc. It’s got nothing to do with “directing shots” - that’s the film directors job 
And indeed there is such a thing as a junior TD.
your absolutley right i did have a misunderstanding of what a TD actually is and does thanks for the polite correction:thumbsup:. I thought the TD was the one who directed(and overviews) the fx and technical artsists and made sure there was consistency between vfx shots. not the one who actually codes and runs simulations ect. thanks for the clearification! I always appreciate a kind correction rather than an arrogant one!
The folks who oversee the process and ensure consistency are the leads, sequence leads and VFX supervisors. VFX productions, especially large scale ones, have quite large heirachies. TDs are found in numerous departments (like I mentioned before, in rigging, lighting, shading, look dev, FX, etc), handling technical tasks, and have their own heirachies, from junior TDs to senior TDs. I do think that technical director is a somewhat misleading term, since the term “director” is most commonly associated with a leader of some kind, whereas a TD isn’t always in a leading position. I guess it’s just another one of those odd things about this industry
Ok everyone, this kind of an important question…If it came down to AAU and SCAD for animation, where would you go? I mean the work out of the Pixar classes is amazing but correct me if im wrong, only 40 or so people out of 300 get into those classes. So how is AAU’s animation program besides the pixar classes? and do you get only 1 chance per year to apply to the pixar classes?
being a grad (and one that never had the chance to take a “pixar” class) i can only say aau prides itself in its “traditional” ways, being able to learn animation and how it began (where one has no limitation with any technology), and at the same time learn principles of animation was sure a benefit for me…but then again i dont think its the “pixar classes” that make an animator, its the timing!
Sure, those who get in have dope reels coming out, but i personally thing that they had quite of bit of skill coming in, otherwise i dont think they would be there.
Hmm pixar classes are good but interesting thought …More and more students at aau seem to be leaning towards doing some courses at animation mentor while attending
anyone who has some experience in the modeling dep. or went for their BFA in modeling recently here care to share their experiences or have any opinions/advice? how are their instructors these days?
haha… im gonna keep my mouth =X
but there are few posts here that talked about it along w/ other threads.
ohhh the temptation… but I’ve learned to keep my mouth shut.
I was wondering if this school is as good as I read in the first several pages of this thread (like 1-15 or so), which was in the year 2003. The reason I’m asking this is because schools change and sometimes really good teachers leave, etc. I’ve posted in this thread before, and I’m still interested in the modeling program they have. Now that I’m a senior in high school, I’m still not sure if I can attend because of the money issue… I think if I’d be going into $120,000+ debt (living costs just killing me)…
So I’m asking if you guys could inform me about this school and if it’s still as good as it sounded in the first couple pages. I know I should be going deep into this thread and start reading, but I simply don’t really have to time to read 1500+ posts… and if someone could sum up some of what people have said recently (probably around end of 2005 to present) about the AAC and the modeling program, I’d greatly appreciate it.
You’re going to get a whole lot of different views on the school. I’ll tell you one thing though, I’m not doing modeling, but I have a friend who did and recently graduated, he’s worked on Spiderman 3 and Happy Feet his first year out of school. He worked veyr hard and was very talented though. You need to put a lot of work into your major, don’t expect the school to do it for you.
But again, I’m not majoring in modeling, so I don’t know how that program is doing.
After long thought here is my updated plan to attend AAU and minmize the costs as much as possible:
Each unit at AAU costs $600 per unit (3 units per class, so basically $1800/class). The Bachelor of Animation & Visual Effects (BFA) Degree at AAU requires 132 units (44 classes), 45 of which are liberal arts courses. To save some money, I’ve thought about attending Portland Communit College ($67/credit, credits/class usually vary from 3-5, which adds up to $201-$335/class) another year to transfer the maximum amount of credits (36 credits in liberal arts courses) to AAU. So far, I have a total of 3 credits transferable credits to AAU. By the end of Spring 07, I plan on acquiring at least 9 more transferable credits which will bring me up to 12. After Spring term 07, I can spend 2 terms (minimum) or a full year to get 24 more transferable credits (should take only 2 terms). With 36 units (12 classes) done, I would only need 96 (32 classes). With 36 units, I basically have 1/4 of my year done at AAU, so I believe I can graduate in 3 years.
Here is where the question about AAU and it’s terms. I read soemthing about semesters(2 terms a year) on their website, but I also read that it has Fall, Spring and Summer terms. In my community college, it has 4 terms (15 weeks a term) Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer in one year. Is AAU similar to this? Or does it only have 2 or 3 terms a year?
If AAU has only 2 terms a year, then that would mean 3 years and 1 term to graduate.
If AAU has 3 terms a year, 2 years and 2 terms to graduate.
The reason I would like to know this is because I’d like to know how fast I can get into the industry, and save money on living expenses (15k a year?)
If anyone could give me feedback whether or not this plan is good/works please comment about it. If you guys need additional information about this plan, feel free to ask. Any help is greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
Kumo
Kumo, you can take as many classes as you want. Your advisor can help you decide how many classes are appropriate since each class has a different work-load.
There is a Fall and Spring semester which are 15 weeks long and meet once per week. There is also a half-length Summer semester that has class twice a week. There’s also an inter-session term which has class everyday for around 15 school days. This is usually only used for a handful of liberal arts classes and you should only take one class during this short term.
The Academy generally wants you to take four classes but I have known people to take as many as eight and I have personally taken up to six without issue.
But be warned, this is an art school and some of the classes are extremely involved and can take a lot of time so try not to take too many classes. Your work could possibly suffer.
$67 per unit still sounds kinda pricey for a Community College… good idea still, that’s what I did. But when I was at Community College in 2002 it was $11 per unit and now in California the average is around $20 per unit for Community College.
Are there any students who are studing in the visual effects program?
If yes, can they please share their experience? How is their program? teachers? Facilites?(are softwares up to date?), student works? etc…
Thank You