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need help with schools

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need help with schools

Hello, im a second year student at Pratt inst. in Brooklyn NY for 3D animation. i know the school is good and the program is serious but am i missing out? i need to know if there is a school out there that offers more or am i in the right place? im just worried about after i get out if im going to be ready for the 3D animation world.
can some one maybe give me a list of schools to look into but of corse any input would be very helpful. i just want the best chance i can get when i come out of school.
_Thanks

From what I hear Pratt is a very good school. You will get out of it what you put in is the most common answer to your question. How many hours a week outside of school do you practice or work on your animation? have you been exploring elective classes that tie into your major? What type of animation do you want to work in once you graduate? Film? Web? TV? Special Effects? Chracters? Lighting? Modeling? There is a variety of things you can do if you specialize in something.

read this thread too
http://forums.awn.com/showthread.php?t=1501&highlight=Ringling

it has a list of other shools if you want to compare

"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that has been given to us." ---Gandalf

Hello, im a second year student at Pratt inst. in Brooklyn NY for 3D animation. i know the school is good and the program is serious but am i missing out? i need to know if there is a school out there that offers more or am i in the right place? im just worried about after i get out if im going to be ready for the 3D animation world.
can some one maybe give me a list of schools to look into but of corse any input would be very helpful. i just want the best chance i can get when i come out of school.
_Thanks

If the school has a "good rep" and fields a "serious" program then you are not "missing out".

What is this "more" that you are looking for?

You might want to re-evaluate your yardsticks.
Try gauging your work with the stuff that is out there in the industry. Does your animation move the same way, does it have appeal, expression, life? Are you doing designs that are just as interesting? Are you getting feedback that says you are a novel thinker--a capable designer--a good animator?
Does your work entertain??

If you cannot answer these questions, you might want to ask them of your instructors. If they cannot answer them, then you might want to re-think the school.

The best "chance" you'll have coming out of school will mean that your portfolio will have to have exceptional character animation, exceptional FX animation, exceptional life-drawing, exceptional design sense, exceptional drawing skills or storytelling ability--and any combination of the above. If you lack in those areas, then the school isn't probably going to help you that much--the rest of the journey will be yours to make.

"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)

thanks for all the info. i feel better now that i better know where i stand. Pratt so far is very hard and expencive but as long as im on the right track i can put my all into it.

well right now i have been trying to learn alittle bit about the programs i might be using. i have gotten my hands on Flash MX 2004, Maya Unlimated 6.5, Photoshop CS, and LightWave. so far i have learned a lot on every thing except maya and lightwave. free lessions are hard to find and trying to learn it on my own hurts my head heh. iv also been drawing in my pad like a demon and writing up Shorts and practicing my storyboarding. sence my summer job ended iv been trying to learn as much as i can befor school comes around.

as far as electives go im still not sure what ties into what i need to know. i have a credit open so i have to figure it out quick.

i know this is what i want to do but right now its so crazy trying to understand it all.

i have gotten my hands on Flash MX 2004, Maya Unlimated 6.5, Photoshop CS, and LightWave.

If Pratt was -free- it would be expensive to someone who just bought all of those packages =) I've always heard very commendable things about that school, but that's probably not terribly useful especially since the comments were never specific to your program.

In all honesty you're on a good track if you're identifying what you want (some people don't even have -that-) and looking for ways to answer your questions. If you need things sorted out, keep asking questions at places like this or do some hardcore investigation on your own. It's the only way to survive aside from practice, which is my next (and first) recommendation. If you can lean way the heck over on your drawing skills, and STAY doing that, you'll have a tool useful for wherever you seem to want to go.

What's more, if you're into story, you can start developing exercises and situations to practice. You don't have to wear fancy pants to say "I want him to walk across the screen and push a box." You just, well, you do it, and try to find out how to do it well, and keep doing it and enjoying the learning process until you have a whole body of work to whittle something great to present out of.

I've got a pretty good intuitive feeling about you, crazy as it sounds. I like that you seem to want to explore. GUIDE your energy, and break down what seems overwhelming into manageable bits. You can get where you want to go with focus.

yeah i just found this site today and i hope there are many more out there like it. it has been hard trying to find out information on what i want to do and to find people that understand it and are willing to help newbs like me.

to tell the truth the programs were a gift from a friend of mine who is out of school right now. i myself could not pay for those programs....heh. sence i was lucky enough to get them im trying not to let them sit on my computer.

i am trying to try out every thing i can in this field so i can find out what i am strongest in and then become crazy good at it haha. i think today i will hit the book store and see if there are any books that jump out at me.

LightWave. so far i have learned a lot on every thing except maya and lightwave.

Desktop Images has a good DVD tutorial on Lightwave. It is not free, so maybe you could buy the disks one at a time.

If I can ask Gray, if you had to pick one...what's your passion?

If I can ask Gray, if you had to pick one...what's your passion?

To tell the truth im not sure yet. every thing intrest me a lot and i can see me doing every thing but i know i have to chose some thing to focous on. right now every thing is hard for me but it makes doing it right feel so good hahaha.

Desktop Images has a good DVD tutorial on Lightwave. It is not free, so maybe you could buy the disks one at a time.

thanks. i will look into it and yeah ill most likely have to buy them one by one lol.

Welcome to the Forums GrayDaze.

If I may suggest, pick either Maya or Lightwave, not both. If your school has classes in Maya learn that one, if Lightwave, then choose Lightwave. Learning both programs is redundant. Most of the larger studios don't use off the shelf software, and if they do, it's tweeked quite a bit. So just learn one program enough, then focus on your animation. If you want to be a great animator, focus on learning the basics and learning them amazingly well. That will get you a good job, not how many programs you learn. I too have heard good things about Pratt, although it's all third hand info.

Aloha,
the Ape

...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."

And if you're going to pick one program, and use it for -animation-, pick Maya. I'm never one to choose sides in a situation like this, between software, but I've used both. Lightwave is enoooormmmmous, it's got features, power, all that stuff. However, the support from the community for character animation is a wafer compared to Maya's and most importantly, working in just the few things you need to know to animate in Maya is 10 times as intuitive.