is Academy of Arts a good school to go to

#1641

Yea I agree with Eric. Also laptops get stolen (happened to 5 people I know while at academy) and more often than not you will be animating at the lab anyway.

#1642

Ok, yeah the desktop is a good idea. But what about internet lines and stuff? They say they offer wifi do they also offer the phone cords, because when i went into the room i didnt see no phone cords / dsl boxes. For the dorms, since im under 21 they say if your out of state you have to stay in there dorms until your 21 :expressionless: otherwise id just rent a studio and get a dsl boxā€¦ and bring my desktop. Also the rooms that i saw could only have 1 desktop in there. because there so small thats why im wondering about the laptop vs desktop.

#1643

Iā€™m enrolled for the Fall semester and Iā€™m from out of state so Iā€™ll have to be in the dorms for the first semester Iā€™m there, but Iā€™ll be turning 21 midway through, anyhow on to my question. Since thatā€™s my case would bringing both my laptop and desktop be a bad idea? I plan on switching to an oncampus apartment afterwards and possibly offcampus for the spring semester.

#1644

they have computer labs you can go to even if you live off campus

#1645

I currently attend the Academy and think itā€™s Ok so far. How has the animation and visual effects programs improved over the years? I have spoken and heard of all sorts of storiesā€¦bad and good professorsā€¦students was succeeded and didnā€™tā€¦but has AAU helped in anyway in training and networking?

Does it have career fairs or meet and greets with companies. What professors there NOW have worked in well known companies? Does anyone know?

I have also just recently been accepted to the University of Southern Californiaā€™s Animation program. Alumnis have been telling me about how itā€™s a difficult school to get into and the highest ranking film school in the country. But I donā€™t heard much from itā€™s animation students, so it got me wondering.

Can someone help me decide which school is better? I feel so lost. I know itā€™s really up to how passionate the school is but every student needs help, and which is the better advantage? Which would look better to employers on a resume, saying I graduated from USC or AAU especially if my demo is good, not excellent, but alrightā€¦

#1646

I graduated in 2007, The career center was quite lacking in my opinion. They are friendly and all, but they didnā€™t do much to help me. I donā€™t think they ever had a career fairā€¦ wait I take that back, they had one every year around this time of year (summer/spring show) I just never knew about it or heard about it or was invited until I graduated.

I canā€™t really speak about the teachers that might be there now, but it seemed like some of their experience was getting kinda old and dated. My texture and lighting teacher worked on the original ā€œRoad Rashā€ which was done with sprites and not polygons. Still a good teacher though.

I think you might find more opportunities for networking in a techno-centric city like San Francisco that is condensed together, than you might find in the sprawl of Southern California. I got my first job through a friend from school and not because of the school, sending out resumes, or the career services department. In fact, my art lead and my art director both told me that a degree wasnā€™t even neccessary. They would hire anyone that had the right portfolio over wether they went to a specific school.

I think in the end, the name of the school matters less than you might think. I would take other factors such as cost, school facilities, and location into consideration more.

#1647

I graduated in May and i thought it was a pretty good school. I did have a handful of bad teachers but for the most part the teachers were great. The worst thing about the school would probably be the students that just dont seem to care, it sucked to have to sit through their critique when you knew they wouldnt improve and the teacher could have spent more time helping the people that are serious about the class.

I majored in animation and was lucky enough to get into 2 of the Pixar classes, these are classes taught by Pixar animators and require a pretty good demo reel to get in, there are 3 levels and each class has about 12 people. These were the best classes ive ever had and i learned an insane amount of information from the teachers and the students.

They had a career day type thing for people graduating, you had to submit a 10 second reel to be able to go and if they liked it you would get invited. It was pretty cool to talk to people from all the different studios and get feedback on your reel from them.

Overall i think if you are willing to work hard it is a great school, if you are an animator at the school then your number one priority should be getting into the Pixar classes.

#1648

Hey guys,

I know, it will probably be a classical question but iā€™m not sure about applying for Academyā€¦

I was very sticky about SF and Academy but then what i read here and rumors just keeping me out this schoolā€¦

One of the rumors and like andgarber says, student doesnt care what they do or will doā€¦ One of the teachers in VFX course, Richard Taylor, had left the school because of this reason, they told meā€¦

Some say they are out of date and some say they are great but i cant find a good solution on how they are and is that really worth to go Academy and pay nearly 20k yearly ???

Is there any active forum member who is attending on courses (Animation or VFX (Especially VFX)) in Academy, would they say anything real to clean this frasturating stuffs on my mind???

I talked so many times with admin on Academy and of course they are saying that they are one of the best schools in US but is it ? There are lots of schools to go but i cant decide what to do?

BTW, i saw Scad is looking very good but im not sureā€¦ On the other hand, Iā€™m studying Architecture and working as a 3d artist in a top rank design studio in Turkey, so iā€™m not sure about going for undergrad which means another 4 years to me, may be you guys can say something about this issueā€¦

Iā€™m looking forward for some repliesā€¦

#1649

If you are working in the top rank design studio in Turkey, why go to school? School is for people who may want to advance their skills for a number of reasons, or in my case canā€™t find a job any other way. If I could drop out and do my dream job instead, believe me I would.

#1650

well, reason behind going school is improving the skills that i haveā€¦

Working in a design studio doesnā€™t mean I have a great chance to work in US especially in a top rank VFX studioā€¦

Going school in US probably give me that chance (at least better chance instead of here), thatā€™s why i wanna study again in USā€¦

Do u guys have any advices ?

#1651

In your case, if you have the skills to get a job, then school isnā€™t nessesary, since you have the basic foundation for those skills already in play. (Which is really what I got out of art school anyways.) And for you, its more about branching out your connections and bringing your skills up to a level that high end VFX houses will be interested in you.

Going to school at a good school in america (or anywhere for that matter) doesnā€™t automatically give you access to the top industry professionals, exept for things like carrer days for Recent graduates, and along the way you might have a teacher that worked at ILM or Pixar.

But in all honesty, if you already have the basic foundations in skills already set in, then I think it would be more worth your time and money to continuously invest in trips to the big Industry events like Sigraph and GDC to go directly to the people that you want to be hired from, and get feed back DIRECTLY from them about where you need to push your potfolio to catch their eye. You can then use the money you would save on tuition to get advanced training DVDā€™s or books that Beginners would probably not be able to follow along, and just improve your skills from there.

From my experiance with the academy, the best thing I got out of the school was the foundation of knoledge to go out and find out the more advanced things on my own. So if you already have that foundation of knowledge, then I donā€™t think it would be worth your while to go back, pay a lot of money on tuition, just to go through classes that are meant to really give people the skills that you might already have.

Classes and workshops at Sigraph, GDC, and training DVDā€™s I think would be the better alternatives for people that are working in the industry that want to bring their skills up to the next level should go. If anything because you can be serious with yourself and know exactly where to start. School is really for people that are just figuring out how this industry really works, and giving them a guiding light to get those skills. If you already have that, then a good amount of the things that the school will teach will seem just redundant to you.

#1652

Im thinking about attending CAL-Arts for my MASTERS what does everyone think of CAL ARTS:applause:good BAD:twisted:

#1653

Hi

Iā€™m starting at AAU this fall in Animation and Visual Effects. Currently I live in Norway and Iā€™m planning the trip to San Francisco on the 20th of August, semester starts September 4th. Anyone else here starting their education this fall? Or does anyone have some tips regarding living in San Francisco?

#1654

Bring a jacket.

#1655

School quality academics is all in a matter of opinion, purpose, and how you make use of the school to adhere to your abilities. I learned by asking the same questions in this thread and many other threads that ask how good a school is, that itā€™s really what you take from the education not how good the schoolā€™s reputation is .

#1656

And then put it away till December. Norther Californiaā€™s ā€œIndian Summerā€ means that while everyone else in the northern hemisphere deals with Fall, SF will pretty much keep its summer weather. (Unless you live in the Sunset where all the fog gets traped.) Although yeah, if your comming over durring the summer, then you better bring a jacket, and always remember what Mark Twain said.

#1657

I have been thinking about going to this school for a while nowā€¦

But I have a question,

I want to be a visual effects/shading/surface artistā€¦ Should I attend AAU for Visual Effects and Animation or should I go to a 4 year school and get a degree in computer science?

Or should I just teach myself visual effects/shading/surfacing and not be in debt til Im 50?

#1658

Hey Skabear,

Just tell us your experiences about SF after u arriveā€¦ I heard living in SF costs a lot! And u guys Iā€™m wondering all of u who are studying in Academy, are studying with loans and scholarships, cause I think it makes a lot for 1 year living in SFā€¦

Anyway just anyone can say what about living and expensesā€¦ Or little part time works, Loans and Scholarships will cover my expenses ?

#1659

Living in SF is very expensive. Just google ā€œmost expensive cities to live inā€. Having said that going to any school, doesnā€™t have to be AAU, with job, loans, scholarships is always helpful unless you are a billionaire. Rising costs of tuition for any school not just AAU is always on the uprise. This is a very expensive school + dorm costs.

#1660

Do they offer a masterā€™s degree?