Animation in Scotland

Hey there, Mike,

in my opinion the best thing is always to ask a cross-section of people who have actually graduated from the different courses you're thinking of enrolling in. Ideally the colleges themselves ought to be able to put you in touch with former students so you can ask them for their views and opinions, based on their experiences of the course itself - and perhaps also the degree to which they received help, advice or support from the college or university with regard to their own individual career plans.

A lot also depends on where you yourself want to take things after you complete the postgraduate study. If your aim is to make or find a career in commercial animation you might also want to check with some of the HR people at the different commercial animation studios and post-production/effects houses in London (or New York or Toronto or LA - or wherever you're aiming to work).

These guys see reels from all the major colleges all the time - so they're always very clued-up on which courses are turning out students with which skills. When you're shopping around for a good course, my own advice - if you're setting your sights on commercial (rather than experimental) work - would be to talk to the graduates and also to the HR people - both these groups will know the score,

Fraser MacLean
Scotland