[Svanur]

I know that the questions about schools is becoming quite bothersome for some people but accepting the fact that some people's future may depend on it, it is wiser to ask these questions than stay locked up in one's own secure bubble and in the end, wither and die.

I have been scourging the web for schools and many times I am unable to find anything that sounds promising. At last I have found three schools that seem acceptable. Yet I cannot readily agree to the empty promises that the schools state on their web pages so I ask you, who may know more, about these matters.

Here are the three schools I am talking about and I will also list their webpage and location.

1. Academy of Art College, http://www.academyart.edu/ , San Francisco

2. Full Sail http://www.fullsail.com , Orlando Florida (was number three in "the top 10 digital schools" in some magazine)

3. Willem de Kooning Academy
Rotterdam http://wdka.hro.nl Rotterdam , Netherlands

If you know anything about these schools, please answer me. I am getting pretty desperate, ...I am desperate!

[balistic]

I toured the Academy of Art College and wasn't impressed. Its spread out all over 'Frisco, and their facilities didn't really look like they harbored much creativity (nothing on the walls).

One of the guys here used to be an instructor at Full Sail . . . from what he's told me, the place is a joke. Inadequate facilities, lazy teachers, et cetera. I'll send you his address privately if you want to ask him anything specific.



------------------

Brian "balistic" Prince
3D Artist
Eggington Productions

[Svanur]

The guy was saying that Full Sail sucked or the Academy of art college?

[Svanur]

And I forgot, have you heard of any other school that has better credentials (or word of mouth) than these two and then I am mostly speaking about Computer Animation itself (although I would like to find a school that teaches both animation and some kind of art at the same time)

[Trance-R]

Have you seen vfs.com and cdis.com ?
CDIS gives you art + comp. animation.
But vfs specialize in 3D animation/modeling, soundFX production. VFS is actually certified Maya training center! :0

[Svanur]

Are you sure it's cdis.com? Because the link doesn't seem to work, or should I say it links to something that isn't a school.Does Art Center College of Desing teach computer animation and is it any good?

[Svanur]

And since I ain't american, what is the main difference between Undergraduate and Graduate programs? Which one will I benefit more from.

[Svanur]

And one other thing(now you must hate me )
Would it be wise to attend Illustration courses in schools like Art Center College and Design if one wanted to learn to draw and especially more techniques in drawing.

[balistic]

I've never heard anything good about either the Academy of Art College or Full Sail.

The Art Center College of Design looked like it would be a great education, but it was way out of my price range. It was the only school I looked into that I actually would've wanted to attend.

That's pretty much all I know on the subject . . . I just ended up going to a community college and teaching myself CG at home.

If it makes a difference to you, degrees mean basically dick in the computer animation industry. Anybody can get a degree in animation from their local Mc ArtInstitute, but real skill is much more rare.

Your portfolio and/or demo reel is your only selling point . . . a good 'folio is worth way more than any degree.




------------------

Brian "balistic" Prince
3D Artist
Eggington Productions

[Svanur]

But do you know anything about the Illustration course in the Art Center College of Design. Is it worthwhile and good.

[balistic]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Svanur:
But do you know whether it's really hard to get into ACCD or not? Do the elite only get admission or those with money or what?

---

Coming out of high school, my portfolio was /not/ on the level of most of the people at ACCD . . . I got the impression that very few people went there without prior college-level art training. I think they said that the average age of their students was 28.



------------------

Brian "balistic" Prince
3D Artist
Eggington Productions

[Jorge]

Undergraduate or graduate studies refer to the type of students that apply for them. It sounds somewhat stupid, but this is how it works: to be able to apply for a graduate program you usually must have finished (graduated in) an undergraduate program. A Bachelor is an undergraduate program; a Master is a graduate one. In Spain, and I guess in most Europe we refer to this simply as "career" for the first one and Master or Postgraduate (you do it after you get you graduate) for the second. If you apply for undergraduate studies you are just required (besides portfolio and skills stuff...) to have completed High School, and thus, start from the very basics. Graduate studies are supposed to require you to have a certain knowledge of the field and its level is supposed to be higher then. I say "supposed" because many times graduate studies tend to be a reduced version of the undergraduate program, intended for people who already finished some undergraduate studies but come from a somewhat different field (for instance, I doubt you'll see lots of people with both a Bachelor and a Master of Fine Arts in Animation).

------------------
Jorge

[burn0ut]

i think ill be taking a figruedrawing class at ACCD on saturdays, its part of the saturday high courses, that are aimed for highschool students 9-12 grade. its like $175 for a 10week course.

[balistic]

Illustration was what I was looking into at ACCD, but I don't know enough about the curriculum to comment on it. Didn't Fred Flickstone go to Art Center? Maybe you can ask him.

------------------

Brian "balistic" Prince
3D Artist
Eggington Productions

[Chapel]

I thought about going to Full Sail, but its too expensive and I haven't heard any terrific remarks about it. Plus, I want to learn 3d animation and I don't believe they teach it there.

[assa]

Just don't go to 'rotterdam' cuz it's pretty
crap. The level of education is bad, but
that seems to be a dutch trend, found at
all dutch art uni's.

assa
-----
pro artist.designer

[Svanur]

But do you know whether it's really hard to get into ACCD or not? Do the elite only get admission or those with money or what?

[Svanur]

Chapel: They teach animation and they are sending me some kind of brochure to show me.

Assa: Could you be more specific why they are crap. A friend of mine is in the college I mentioned and he says it is good.(he ain't the smartest guy I know though)

[Svanur]

Ain't much considering how expensive the school itself is. It's 10.000$ for each semester and the illustration is about 8 terms which is what? 4 years? That's a pretty sum.

What other art schools are good for illustration education.

[Jason Manley]

Hi,

I just wanted to say that as an artist in the gaming industry I cannot stress the importance of studying traditional art. Ringling School of Art and Art Center are two schools that stress drawing and painting as well as the 3-d stuff. Ringling is the cheaper and they have an illustration program as well as a 4 year program in computer illustration.

Here at Black Isle, I will say that the last 4 people we hired all have extremely strong 2-d backgrounds and 3 of them never used 3-d at all....we teach them the packages. We feel that it is better to train a 2-d in digital skills than the reverse. All our 3-d artists have very good 2-d skills. What it comes down to is it is easy to teach 3-d packages to an artist. It is hard to teach someone to be a good artist. Study the fundamentals. Period.

Jason

[above]

Any comments or opinions on the savannah school of arts, I was looking into that one for illustration. I'm also gonna take figure drawing and other drawing classes at my local community college. And what should I have in my portfolio? I got nothing, but I'm only a junior so I can get working.

[Feklore]

I am currently a student at SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design). www.scad.edu

I did numerous research around the country and SCAD seemed to be one of the best. It's a four year art college, and offers majors and/or minors in just about everything imaginable related to art. I was *told* it was the best one in the eastern part of the United States, but don't take my word for it, visit the website.

------------------
Feklore

[Feklore]

Woops, I almost forgot. In response to your question on illustration, yes illustration is one of the larger and more popular majors here at SCAD

[Trance-R]

Ugh! Sorry if I am too late to reply this.
I made a terrible mistake.
It's artschool.com not cdis.com

[chumps]

Svanur I know this is pretty obvious but I hope you have requested catalogs and brochures for all the colleges are you interested in.

I wasn't really going to go to an expensive artschool until I looked over savannah and arcenter's catalogs. Just something about them made me realize that I would have to try to apply despite the costs.


------------------
Stroke my ego.

[Svanur]

I signed up for some free brochures so I could look through them and show my family. I find it easier to extract information from brochures than web sites, especially since there ain't no load time The only bad thing is that everything takes time getting here to my little island(although it ain't actually an island). Been 2 weeks since I ordered books from Amazon.com and they haven't arrived yet.

And despite the cost, I would still want to get to a good school, just because of the education.

[Svanur]

Jason Manley:
I agree with you 100% percent. Like I have said before, in another thread, 3D packages are only tools and like other tools they are only extensions of ones own abilities.