So I want to get into the animation industry and become a character designer/visual development artist. I want to study at college but I'm not sure what the best route is. Should I take a course in animation, a course in art and design, a course in illustration, a course in graphic design? I feel animation is the most obvious one but will I be wasting my time learning Maya when I should really be developing my drawing an painting skills. However if I'm trying to get into animation my work will need to be of a certain standard and I feel colleges that offer art and design courses would look down upon animation style artwork
If you want to be a vis dev artist, study illustration with a course in animation; you'll basically never touch the animation itself. If you want to be a character designer, you should still study illustration, but an animation knowledge will be much more important because you'll need to understand what is a good design for animation. And do NOT learn animation with 3D.
>>2436786
Thanks man. Do you have any recommendations on highly regarded animation courses and illustration courses?
>>2436791
I don't know about illustration as much; I studied animation. I guess CalArts, RISD, SVA, the usual.
>>2436768
man jewtube went full copyright mode on that video
>>2436791
There's some good courses out there, but they're rather expensive. Though, in the mean time, if you haven't yet, just master your fundamentals since that's necessary in order to get into animation.
>>2436768
I'm Studding Digital Game Design in Portugal. I have Drawing classes + 2D and 3D animation + 2D and 3D character design and also other classes. It's pretty cool
An illustration course is probably your best best.
1. You get proper exposure to art foundations.
2. Since it's illustration they're likely to be open to western animation stylization.
3. Since it's illustration you won't be forced to animate, something which is extremely time consuming and isn't worth the effort if you want to do visual development.
Hope this helps.
P. S. Don't go to somewhere outside of your means. A school can help but it is not worth going to Calarts on full loans.
>>2437728
you lie, there's no decent game art course in Portugal.
>>2438851
Good point. No point in spending $30,000+ to do a character animation course if I don't wanna animate. I just get the fear that I'm going to end up in CalArts paying $30,000 for literally a three year long masterclass in Maya.
Not OP, sorta on topic.. I want to get into the animation business, but I live in an area where internships/getting any kind field experience is impossible. I'm going with the mindset that Field Experience > School's I can get into.
Any suggestions. At all. Kinda in a rut.
>>2442306
Move?
>>2437728
I'm portuguese aswell, what univ do you go to?
San Jose State University has a degree in "Animation & Illustration" you might want to look into. There they have you study animation and illustration equally at first, and then later have you choose a focus on one or the other, so it should be a good choice if you specifically want to get into character design/visual development within the animation industry.
It's not as well known as CalArts or the other big names, but it does have a growing reputation. In fact, it already has a bit of a reputation of being "the affordable CalArts." Just take a look at their student reel to see for yourself.
>>2442310
No alternatives? I'd have to get more than one job to support myself and also there's the chance an animation company decides not to hire me and I'm shit outta luck stuck with some shitty part time jobs for years until I can catch a break. I wouldn't even know where to move to.. Just a lot of risk involved. I'm 20, I couldn't imagine moving out, let alone thousands of miles away from home to get a chance at a real career. And that's all it'd be, a chance. Is there anything I can do, to lessen the risk?
>>2442323
Do you know what a portfolio is? lmao
>>2442323
Well, you can try freelancing online, but that's really quite shit tbqh.
Moving to a new place to go to a school or getting an internship doesn't have to be that scary.
I'm pretty sure it's not rare to get accepted for a job or internship before you move.
It is a risk, but it's what you want, right?
>>2436768
Ringling easily the best animation school in the country, and the second best in the world.
Also debt for the rest of your life.
>>2436786
you clearly have 0 knowledge of the industry. please don't go around giving people advice.
animation is animation regardless of the industry. simon otto both designed, animated AND boarded on how to train your dragon. the fields are all very closely related.
you really need basic knowledge of all the facets of the industry before you can specialize and you really only get that opportunity if you study it in college. op don't listen to that guy he's a stupid cunt who should keep his wrong misguided opinions to himself
>>2442778
regardless of the medium*
also cal arts is 43 grand a year and 4 years long
>>2436768
Study Visual development ya dingus. They have majors specifically for concept art.
As far as I know they have this major at Calarts, Art center and Academy of art university.
Please people don't go to art school. spend whatever you have on something worth it, like maths.
>>2442274
It wouldn't be a three year long Maya class, but you'd do way more Maya than you'd want, and you'd be doing tons of 2D animation and boards. Not exactly your target.
>>2442306
>>2442323
It's important to be willing to move to where the jobs are, but I do not think it's a good idea to move out there when you don't have anything waiting for you. As in, I think you should work on your portfolio/reel where you are, then move afterwards once you get people interested in your work.
>>2442778
Simon Otto is a way high up supervisor/head person. He isn't the normal example. I do agree that it is important to know the basics of various parts of the pipeline but it can be really detrimental if he knows he wants to work in 2D preproduction, and he's forced to spend time he could be working on his portfolio on 3D stuff.
>>2442344
No, I don't agree. I went there... Well, it's good depending on what you want to do. I can elaborate if anyone wants. I left the school because I didn't want to be in debt for life and didn't think it was worth the cost, but I was about halfway through.
>>2442789
This is actually worth considering, if you like something like computer science, that degree actually will hold some weight. But if you have no interest at all then don't waste your time becoming mediocre at it. Still, don't go to art school if it's going to put you in crazy debt. You can always go somewhere cheaper, do online shit, etc. It's not like you need X prestigious school on your resume to get a job in animation.
>>2442836
did you ,major in computer animation at ringling?
Saying you got "half way through" is fucking retarded. The real courses start in your junior and senior years.
The debt thing is true though. But any art school is going to rape you in the ass in that way.
Do you work as a professional animator? What is portfolio like?
In 3 different studios I worked at at least 50% of the animators came from ringling.
>>2442856
I did one semester of junior year. The real courses start sophomore year. Although you do start traditional animation second semester freshman year; that course is very good.
And no, I just left recently so I'm still working on folio stuff. Besides financial shit I also left because it's very hard to learn anything from the school at a pro level besides character animation. Hence your comment - yeah a lot of strong animators come from the school.
Yeah, obviously you have to learn a lot on your own, but there are a clusterfuck of issues at the school that become more pronounced the more you want to do CG work that isn't character animation. The basics of a lot of the other disciplines aren't taught properly, or insist on strange workflows, the deadlines are sometimes kind of loose and then suddenly become literally impossible (meaning instructors have to let people keep submitting for another week unless they want to fail everyone), making the curriculum messy, there's a lot of strange politics in the department that lead to some weird decisions... off the top of my head: IT wants to calibrate the Cintiqs and the monitors, but one teacher insists this "isn't possible" because "every software has a different color profile"... the school updates to the newest maya version or newest PRman a few weeks before school starts, so bugs are never worked out before projects start and both instructors and students are left in the dark. Honestly, I can go on and on.
But I don't mean to knock on the school too hard. The professors care a lot and 90% of them are qualified (at least for character animation).
It's just hard when you're someone like me who wants to go down a cg generalist or lookdev path.
I'd totally show you my work if most of it wasn't unpolished student shit I had to do last minute. Currently I'm working on a reel and signing up for online classes. If i pop up in a similar thread in a month or two ask me again and I won't why away.
>>2442836
he's the perfect example. why would i use an example of someone who's barely been working in the industry? people in animation don't stay in one position for too long. you need to be versatile to keep yourself employed. unless you're one of the top character designers in the world you don't just get to do character design. nico marlet was an animator for years before he became an art director for dreamworks. you don't know anything about the industry. just because you might have to do one 3d course in cal arts doesn't mean that a) it's not worth it and b) what you learn is irrelevant
you'll probably learn a lot more things irrelevant to animation and character design than you would as an illustration major. anon seriously stop giving shit advice.
>>2442875
won't shy away*
And yeah, I guess it is better than pretty much every other brick and mortar school in the states in terms of animation quality. You just get really jaded being there.
>>2442879
You definitely have a good point, that's part of why I'm pursuing multiple disciplines. However, I don't know if it's necessary for them to be pushing 2d and 3d skills at the same time. Rather, they could diversify in the 2d department. Obviously, only doing a character design portfolio is stupid. I have my point of view because I have friends in the industry who work as 2d artists and mostly regret the time they spent on 3d. I also know people who have stayed employed doing the exact same discipline for several years. And I know people who have bounced around between say lighting, lookdev, comp. There are different paths. I mean, I agree that knowing art foundations and being open to learning new things is necessary, but it's also not wrong to specialize.
>why would i use an example of someone who's barely been working in the industry?
I had a teacher who worked as an animator/supervisor in games for a decade and then an animator/supervisor in vfx for another decade. Yeah he changed industries but he didn't change the fact that he was a specialist. Seriously, try to be more open to other views.
what type of art books help me to become a visual development artist?
