[adm_soul]

Hello everyone,
I just about finished with highschool ( I dont have a seond semester) and I think it's high time to pick a post secondary school. For a while I have been planning on going to CDIS (www.artschool.com), but after a visit there I wasn't impressed. Its a nice facility and friendly people, but they would never answer any questions concerning the number of graduates that have found jobs in their respective fields. The only answers I would get would be about a specific individual who "made it in." So now I'm lookin around for the "Harvard" of digital art schools. Right now Im thinking of any school no matter what the cost (my dad told me not to worry, so I wont... at least not now.) Can you pls post anything you know about good Digital Art schools; webpages, email addresses, anything really. Thanks for the help!

[wigin]

im not sure what you mean about digital art schools? do you mean 3d??? anyways personally if i would be living in the US of A i would go to Art centre in illustration or industrial design or maybe trasportation design with a major in entertainment design...

Or can you just take entertaiment design?

Anyways that would be my dream school. But I live in canada and Us art schools are out of reach unless your a rich SOB...

[wigin]

ewww.. i just realized that you lived in edmonton... hmm well what career are you planning for your future?? And well if money doenst really matter than try to go study in florence or whatever down in europe such inspiration down there.. Ahh im planning on apply to Ocad and take their studyingf abroad program to europe... But i would still go study in the Us if i could.

Anyways is it Canada only you want to study or your dad is willing to pay the whole nine yards and pay like over 30 000$ a year to study in the states .. thats like what 50 000$ canadian a year hehe ...

Guess your a rich mofo!!! =/

[Disco Batman]

Hey, I'm from Edmonton as well and was also looking into schools for digital art that were accessable to me. I attended a seminar hosted by CDIS and they are indeed all bark and no bite, unfortunately. Canada-wise, there are two primary schools that are probably your best bet. One is the Vancouver Film School which is in Van.. derr.. and the second is Sheridan in Toronto, both of them have highly renowned reputations. It will ultimately depend on what you want to learn as to where you want to go, don't let the Film School's name fool you though, it covers a very broad spectrum.

Vancouver Film School

Sheridan

Hope this helps.

[wigin]

Again it really depends what you mean by digital? i personally am in Art fundamental at sheridan college and going into animation or illustration. If digital you mean 3d then i dont know much about sheridan and 3d .. but if you want to get more into 2d digital work well i dont really thing sheridan is the place for you.... ALthough they are GREAT for traditional skills... Hmm for example they have only begun using computers for there traditonal animation program something like last year haha... And well illustration is all tradtional from what i can see... But to tell you the truth my roommate in third year traditional animation is doing his whole demo real or final film on the computer. All animation is done by hand just put together on the computer. He is coloring on computer, adding sound , doing backgrounds with his wacom. But ithink he will have some tradionnal paintings in there too.. Well just to tell you he is Awesome in any medium he has picked up soo far. But it is traditional skillz that made him good at digital art since a bit easier and more fogiving than trational... Undo is such a great command =)...

anyways more info on what you want to do would help a great deal to decide which school you want to go to...

[xXxPZxXx]

grrr that really pisses me off hearing that about CDIS. I was really hoping that would be a good choice for me. Being more affordable, and having courses I am looking for. It was one of my top 2 schools I was looking to attend =(

but here are my bookmarks of the colleges I am looking at...
http://www.digipen.edu/
http://www.scad.edu
http://www.rsad.edu/
http://www.aipx.edu/ (art institute of San Francisco also has a degree in game art/design) Anyone have comments about the art institutes?

like I said though. CDIS was the real backbone of what I was looking at. SCAD and the others are so expensive, and I don't have the ability to really pay much. (plus my portfolio blows nuts) you say "all bark and no bite" about CDIS. could you maybe expand a bit more? I mean they do have life drawing classes and instruction in maya. They just don't teach well or what?

-PZ-

[Gryphon]

Ringling definitely has classes in Maya - matter of fact, that's the only program they use for animation. They've got a separate wing for all the animation, and their computers just got updated 2000ish. I know they go every year to SIGGRAPH and so forth, and the teacher I worked with rocked. The animation I saw coming out of their program for the juniors/seniors was really nice stuff, too.

If you can't pay much, but you have good test scores, I'd say to go with SCAD, though, since they've promised me a little over 1/3 of my tuition for mine. SCAD has a better atmosphere, in my opinion (RSAD is right in the middle of suburbia and there's NOWHERE quiet on campus) because of all the historical structures and so on. SCAD's primarily using 3D Studio Max, though you can take classes in other things.

Personally, I'm not all that impressed with the art institutes - RSAD and SCAD are much more well-regarded.

Hrm. Was that enough to answer your question?

[Liser Studios]

hello
i know someone currently going to Savannah. It's supposed to be a REALLY good school.
but, he's going to be transfering back home, up here to PA. He just wasn't ready to leave PA *cough*girlfriend*cough*
also, he said that the different buildings were all throughout different parts of the city. so you'd actually have to get onto a bus and travel to different parts of the city to get to your classes. i guess that when they started the school, it was a smaller building, then when they went to expand they couldn't, so they had to buy buildings at other parts of the city. kind of weird... but heck, if you learn a lot there, it's not that big of a deal, eh?
i'm thinking of college too, and...
what does everyone think of the School of Visual Arts? i've heard good stuff (heck, hogarth started it!) but what you hear and what's real are two different things.
I have NO idea where to go. I want to do illustration, both tradiotional mediums and digital (2d), but i'm not sure where to go... plus my accumulative GPA is 1.9 yes, 1.9
i don't want to go to a little crappy "school of gumbo art" place, but my grades are terrible and my parents together only make $30,000 US a year.

[xXxPZxXx]

I hear ya Liser. My GPA sucks too, but I did decent on my ACT's. My parents combined income is right around there also.

Why ARE art colleges so expensive? No wonder there are starving artists, they all went to these expensive schools and now they can't even eat.

My plan right now is to stick around the house for a year after HS, take some general art classes at the local community college and see if I can get a portfolio going. Perhaps learn some 3d in that time too. I am really in no rush, There is just nothing I would rather be good at then art/game design/3d animation ya know?

Sorry liser I don't really know anything about the school of visual arts. I do have to say though that if you really care you can always take loans and work your ass off to be the best. Maybe be making a ton of money right out of school? I would also start working on a portfolio, get some nice enough stuff and scholarships will flood your way. =D Good luck

-PZ-

[Gryphon]

Yes, you do have to bus around Savannah, but they provide the bus, so it's no big deal.

The reason they couldn't expand a single building is that there are historic buildings all over the place, so they had to build in between them.

[Liser Studios]

xXxPZxXx> ah, i still haven't taken my ACT's (well, around here, we take SAT's... but you can take ACT's i think) but i haven't taken either of them yet... not sure if i'm going to.
the local community college doesn't require SAT's or anything... i mean, they accept people who drop out and get their GED's, so apparently grades don't matter much.
my guidance conselour said that when you transfer from a college to another that your high school grades aren't included, so neither are your SAT's. but i really don't feel like doin that if i COULD get into a good school.
and yeah, a lot of artists come from poor or middle class families, and don't even make that much money when they're pro. yet we're paying more for college than most other professions. ain't that garbage?

Gryphon> ah, i see. i thought that was kind of weird when my freind was telling me about that. I guess that's fine if they provide the bus for you. You could practice on the bus ride, draw quick sketches of things around you.
which kind of reminds me. i think i want to save up enough money so that one day i'll be able to fly to the moon (if you have heard of that one guy paying so he can fly in space orbiting the earth) and i want to go up to the moon and be the first person to paint somewhere other than Earth. hahaha, wouldn't that be awesome? the paint would probably freeze though

[bigfoot]

Hi all,
I find this post interesting.
I'm curious why all you talented people are not looking for scholarships
or grants. If you have them, you can transfer them, if you don't like the
school your in. If your not eligible for either, what gives you the right to depend
on your parents to pay?
As far as a good school....ask the company you'd like to work for!
They will tell you what schools they consider the best.

[quikslvr]

even humber has started a 3d animation program....anybody knows how good is it? A friend is going there this feb...appreciate any info

[wigin]

bigfoot thats not how it works.

Most grants or scholarships are for specific schools soo you CANT transfer. Other times its a grant you can use but in a specific program ie science or languages or whatever. Im sure that if you could use any grant /scholarship anywhere then they wouldnt make there parents pay.

And what the hell do you mean by " what gives you the right to depend on your parents to pay"??? No one takes the right to make there parents to pay. Once your 18 or so in canada parents dont have to pay for ANYTHING. Unless they want to. If i had money to pay on my own i would certainly pay it willingly before taking money from others. But since my parents WANT TO PAY SO THAT I HAVE A GOOD START IN LIFE than all the better. If they WERENT WILLING TO PAY i wouldnt be in college or i would try to get a loan from a bank and pay later.

And as for asking companies what school to go to. I wouldnt even bother. They care less from what school you come from. Tehy probably dont even care if you did go to school in arts. All that matters is you portfolio. Alot of my Illustrator friends / concept design friends didnt even attend art schools they studied something like business. All while working on there art ect.. And most of them are working for companies such as nelvana, disney and some in video game industry... Some companies MIGHT mention where some of there employess came from and were satisfied from them but its what you make of your education afterward...

[balistic]

A word of advice: do not go to art school to learn 3D. Go to learn art. Teach yourself 3D at home with something like A:M or Lightwave.

Spending a thousand dollars to learn the interface to a software that will be obsolete by the time you graduate is a bit of a waste. Learn to paint though, and that skill will be with you for the rest of your life.

[Quasar]

I have to agree with balistic here. You need to go to school to leanr how to be an artist. Painting and drawing and figure classes. Anyone can learn 3d it's just a tool but you have to learn to be an artist first. There seems to be a whole lot of artists who come from ART CENTER who got a good education. I am not saying to not take some 3d classes deffinatly do that. Learn as much as you can about modeling and animation and lighting ...but also build up your traditional skills as-well

[adm_soul]

Well, well thanks alot people. I didnt think I would get this much help so soon. I have been looking into the Vancouver Film School and think it looks good. Im just wondering if anyone has anything specific to say about it, thanks.

[Neo-MatrixX]

[ January 07, 2002: Message edited by: Neo-MatrixX ]

[Neo-MatrixX]

Money isn't an issue…huh
Dude, go to an school that companies look to hire students, not the other way around.
I'd recommend "Gnomon" (http://www.gnomon3d.com/), l think it's only $30,000 a year. Or go to "Full Sail", it's in the top 5 animation schools in the world (http://www.fullsail.com/).

[Neo-MatrixX]

[ January 07, 2002: Message edited by: Neo-MatrixX ]

[Lev]

Do a search for VFS or Vancouver Film school (or both), you'll get lots of results! Also search for topics about schooling in general for some good advice. I've been considering VFS for a year now but I think they focus more on the software than the art (check the students demo reel avis, they aren't all too great except 1 or 2 per class if even). For Sheridan I'd like to go but living in toronto to complete the art courses/animation would cost me more than the fees of the school, even though they're cheap (some 13 or 14 000 a year).

Adm- where about in edmonton do ya live? I'm on the south side

[ January 07, 2002: Message edited by: Lev ]

[Laemtao]

All i can say is.. I am ONE HUNDRED AND TEN PERCENT in Agreement with BALISTIC. Learn to draw and paint.. learn design even .. Learn the true basics.. the color theories.. the perspective drawings.. the painting techniques even.. (The new Painter 7 has been rewritten to simulate so closely to real world paint techniques.. u gotta to know actual painting to fully appreciate the program now.. The old masters that once knew the software so well have to now reacclamatize with this new aspect of it from what i hear.)

As for schools.. i think VFS , Full sail etc are too software oriented. I been to full sail and seen their course sylabus.. i dont think they have enuf emphasis on traditional art techniques and foundation.. but then.. that was 4 years ago.. i dont know about them now.

I think alot of u heard of the Art institute international group of art schools. they have like almost 20 schools around USA. First of all .. caution when u apply to these schools. What i mean is.. dont let their admissions ppl hoodwink u with their sales talk. Tour the school and talk to students.. dont go visit the schools during the holidays when the school is empty of students. Though they may not have the reputation as per Ringling or Savannah or Art Center.. They do have decent facilities and teachers. And they cost about half of what Ringling and the other top schools charge for tuition.

Check each branch school as per individual though. Even though they are under the same umbrella each school differs.. I personally liked the Art institute of Pittsburgh.. Their Teachers are excellent. They have a decent industrial design course as well. And i know 2 of the teachers have been in some hollywood movie projects. one of them worked on Silence of the lambs. and the other teacher.. Doug Henderson (?) if i can remember his name correctly.. I learned sculpture and mold making from him.. what a fun class.. And another teacher is a veteran of 2D animation. I know he has done a 2D music video for Tom Petty. As for the facilities.. i can attest to the Technology department's pride in how they maintain their labs. ( i know.. i was one of their lab monitors/techs) ANd they have alot of LABS.. and up to date aquipments and visual teaching aids.

THeir teachers often hold workshops in the evenings which are free.. like puppet making, life drawing...(they bring in good looking models .. mmm mm.. ), make up efx, caricature drawing, maquette making. I would say majority of the teachers in that art institute are really dedicated.. and some of the students work.. WOWZA.. really impressed me.. I dunno if its still there.. but the 2ndfloor office there is a 6 foot tall Gundam built using cardboard from those brown CArdboard boxes. Totally amazing.. i think it was done by one of the industrial design students.. To tell u the truth.. The industrial design students had the option to learn the most fun stuff.. and the graduation portfolio reviews.. the ID students had the most fantastic displays.. really inspiring.

Bah.. i ranted too long.. Well. that was like 5 years ago.. i hope AIP hasnt lost its magic..

Mo.

[Liser Studios]

I agree with what everyone has been saying. Although I'm just a little high schooler, it does make a lot of sense.
I think i read something somewhere that said: you can train a good artist to use software, but you can't train a good software user to be an artist.
something like that.

[Liser Studios]

Laemtao> Hey. I live around Pittsburgh, and I was thinking about going there. I dunno if it was cheap before, but it's EXPENSIVE now. Really expensive. Well, to me it is at least. I don't remember exactly how much tuition was... but not including rooming and stuff (i'd just commute) I'd go out of there oweing over 50,000 dollars after a 4 year degree. That was for animation, illustration (or, graphic design, whatever) was a little cheaper, but not that much.
they have a guy teaching down there now that used to draw Spider Man. Also, although their animation is pretty new (they just got their 4 year degree for it a few years ago) they have a bunch of people in the gaming industry. The one that really caught my eye though was a graduate who worked on the Final Fantasy movie.

edit> btw, Art Ins of Pitt moved to a new building. It's friggin NICE. VERY nice. It's about 12 stories tall. When you walk into the building you enter into the art gallery. It's impressive, and the setup is wonderful too. Then you go to the secretary or whatever, and it's really nice there. The secretaries little part looks wonderful too... a glass table by the couches. Great stuff. Then you go into the actual school part (2-12 stories) and every hallways is in a Square around the story So there's rooms to the inside and outside of the Hallways... they can get the most out of the space they have. Plus, the rooms are NICE, and they're not small either (from what i could tell). The halls are also full of artwork, which is nice.
this is probably why tuition has gone up too.

sorry for all that, just thought it'd be nice to update you on AIP's new building.

[ January 08, 2002: Message edited by: Liser Studios ]

[Laemtao]

Hey Liser.. Thanks for the Update.. I really liked my time spent in Pittsburgh.. I shared an apt. in the Shadyside / Squirrel Hill area.. what a lovely neighbourhood.. Thats where i saw my first snowfall (I came from Malaysia.. a totally tropical country).
Anyhoo.. about the 50,000 tuition fee for a 4 year degree.. thats about right. i think it used to cost about 26K for a 2 year associates degree.. back then it didnt have a degree program but u could transfer to one of its branch institutes that had a degree program and finish a degree in like 15months .. so totall a degree would take u 39 months or so.. depending if all your credits were good from the transfer..

How come so short a time? well they adopt a quarterly semester system.. so 4 quarters in a year.. and no breaks for summer holidays.. =P (but u can have the option to take a quarter off during the summer.. alot of students dont take off though). If u think 50K tuition (not includint art and supplies and books and Lodging and food) is expensive.. You should check out Art Center.. yikes.. Ringling and SCAD(Savannah) are within the same range in terms of tuition i think. And i would personally prefer Ringling between the 2. Every year in Siggraph, they have never failed to showcase some Ringling student's work in the ELectronic Theatre and/or Animation Festival. I think Ringling has the highest number of work being showcased in Siggraph.

Coming back to your news.. when i was there. they did have a plan to move to their own campus, but i didnt get to see a mockup of the proposed new building. During my time there.. I had the most fun with the ID students and their workshop area.. i even baked my maquette in their "ovens"(?)

Halloween in AIP is a blast.. those make-up and efx industrial design students walked from Alegheny center(the dorms) to school in like zombie makeup.. totally gross.. was like a scene from the evil dead or something haha.
I wonder if the dorms are still in Allegheny center? The only facility in AIP that i thot wasnt that good was for Broadcast/video/.. that may not be the case now.. :P

If u do explore the industrial design workshop.. see whether u can spot the car they were building from scratch. Last i saw it .. they had the frame and chasis put together.. and was installing an engine i think. Also while i was there. the ID department was helping to put up an exhibit at the Pittsburgh Zoo on Extinct animals.. u should see the Life size Siberian Snow Leopard.. and the JAVANESE Rhino. MAN AWESOME..

Mo

[Basement bound]

Due to the fact that you have no financial constraints, your lucky. After the suggestions of going art school to go to learn art/design, have you looked into ACAD (Alberta Collage of Art and Design)?

JA

[MarshallX]

Hey if your willing to travel to Ontario I go to St. Clair College for Tradigital Animation. It is a mix of Traditional Animation as well as Digital. Right now I just finished third semester and I love it. It's worth checking out were a new program but its definately a great program. Great instructors all with experience. It alot of fun. You learn all about timing in animation which is key and then applying it to differant types of animation. We use Maya 4 and as of now we have three differant maya classes. If you have any other questions just e-mail me [email protected]

[wigin]

hey Marshall i dont want to bust your ass or anything but are you full of CACA??

i dont knwo in an earlier thread you mentioned that YOUR brother is in the TRad digital program and not you.... http://www.sijun.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=3&t=002197

unless this is your brother or what?? you guys share nicks??

Ahh well either way

[Laemtao]

Oops.. o fergot to post a link to AIP
http://www.aip.aii.edu/ http://www.aip.aii.edu/welc_PNCpark.htm

Bah.. oi.. arent i shameless plugging me old school like that? mwahaha.

Mo

[MarshallX]

Yes that was my brother talking, he was just watching me look at some of the posts and he saw one about art school and he told me to let him post at it...sorry about the mixup.