having problem choosing a college

[tritrinh]

Hey everyone, I want to be a compositor but there isn't any college in Washington that focus on that, I was planing to go to Digipen (a 3d animation institution), even though I like to work with 3d program, i like compositing beter, I went on the net to see if there is any school around here but couldn't find any, i think of going to an art school because i heard Compositor need what they call a "good eye" and art/painting will help me with that. But that doesn't solve my problem, I want to build a good foundation for VfX, and art isn't going to cut it, I heard Gnomon School is top of the line, but i wouldn't be able to afford the education, or even a living over there, so can anyone in here give me some advice maybe?

[aitorarroyo]

After to pay 8000$ in one School, I recomended you to searh work of runner or practice. I paied 6000€ for nothing. I learned more in one mounth in practice than 1 year in school.


Good luck

[gottony]

well you could still go there but focus on compositing. do group projects and you be the compositor. my school is pretty broad but I finally just said I want to composite and began to get some group projects and did compositing. It also helps to find an internship or job where you'll do nothing but composite, it'll help train your eye because a job will teach you things school can't. Also, try photography if you do'nt like painting and stuff. I hate to draw but I'm a descent photographer. You can photoshop those pictures and it's basically the same thing...except without the matte painting.

[girlcompositor]

If you can't afford to go to college, and can't afford to move I recommend buying some books and dvds. You can buy course dvds from gnomon and some other schools. You can also learn all compositing software on your own if you have the interest and the vested time. You'll just have to be determined and I recommend making a "course" schedule for yourself.

Give yourself a deadline to complete the tutorials in the books. Give yourself a deadline to complete projects on your own. Then you can place these solo projects on the Work In Progress board here on vfx talk and get some critiques from industry professionals.

You can learn things on your own, trust me. If I was going to recommend a good program to start out with I'd recommend Shake. Shake has a beginner's book with tutorials, is somewhat inexpensive to buy ($500), and is pretty straight forward. Don't forget the tutorials available online at this forum, and there are also discussions on compositing techniques.

[tritrinh]

Yeah I Just went through finishing Marco Paolini book for shake 4, and I bought Fusion 5 package from cmivfx. But I look through people resume and I see everyone have some sort of education so doesn't that mean a person would have a better chance with an education then the one that don't?

[girlcompositor]

Yeah I Just went through finishing Marco Paolini book for shake 4, and I bought Fusion 5 package from cmivfx. But I look through people resume and I see everyone have some sort of education so doesn't that mean a person would have a better chance with an education then the one that don't?

Ha! Yeah you'd think so wouldn't you? I think getting an education really helps, but it helps more for meeting people and networking than learning programs. Like aitorarroyo said you will learn more working for someone than going to college. I know a number of people who started as runners or took internships and are younger and are farther along in their careers than some people who went to college.

I am by no means saying college is useless, I'm really glad I went. However, I understand that it was not needed for me to gain access to the visual effects industry.

[tritrinh]

thankyou, I remember I post this few month back, and I learn so much now since then, I sound so clueless. I am glad I join in with this comunity. thanks again

[gHikikomori]

I'm just out of School.
I was already working but allways getting stuck.
I thought the solution was spending 5 months studying postproduction.
The Lecturer was teaching tutorials i had already done, following the Apple Pro Training Books for Shake and "borrowing" stuff and lessons from the internet.
With this 7000$ i could have done much better things or just stay at home doing the only thing that matters: a good reel and good films.
PS: discipline is a must for self-paced learning!

[theRobr]

hey, i'm also interested in 3d, compositing, and visual effects and I'm currently at the art institute of seattle. I understand the difficulty of searching for good schools that train well on that subject here in washington, i struggled with it for a bit.

I ended up coming here to AIS (im in my 2nd quarter as a transfer student from WSU) and I'm going to do the game art and design major. I was originally in it for the media arts and animation -- but I quickly found out that it is way too broad for my taste even though it seems like the logical major (since i want to work on films). The game art and design major covers all the same 3d classes as the media arts major but adds a few more that are left out (media arts major's have to take more 2d-oriented classes .. by 2d i mean frame-by-frame-hand-drawing-2d :)).

It might seem weird to you that I'm in game art and design since I want to do effects and such, but -- like someone else mentioned-- i'm going to focus my studio time and projects on compositing/effects and i'm taking my electives in compositing and effects classes.

The way i figure is that this major will give me a good foundation portfolio, offers more 3d than the media arts major, and is flexible enough for me to focus on what i want.

sorry for the long post.. hope that helps!

[tritrinh]

Hey Rob your live in Seattle area? I am close there too. Maybe we could meet up sometime. I was going to plan going to Seattle art instution but I dont know if they have the right equipment.

[mboden]

I go to the Academy Art University (http://www.academyart.edu/) and we have good solid composting program here. Totally agree with girlcompositor , school is not necessary, but if you have no connections, it is one way of meeting people. If it juts networking, you may want to see if there is a SIGRAPPH Chapter in your area, it a professional group of graphics people.

[theRobr]

yeah, i'm living in tukwila right now cuz student housing there is a joke (i have friends there -- they complain all the time about all kinds of stuff [like water/power running out, cleanliness, etc -- i mean, they're in downtown and paying quite a bit of money you'd think they'd be moderate!]).

like i said, this is my second quarter as a transfer student and overall i like it. i'm disappointed that there isn't "specific" visual effects/compositing major but there are classes geared towards that and ultimately you can choose what the focus of your major will be. the equipment is nice and the labs have been open for as long as i need them, most major software is on there and they update them within a quarter or two (usually once the stable versions been out), rentals are moderate too (from cameras to wacom tablets). they used to focus on 3ds max but starting last fall (when I started here) they switched everyone to maya now. they're also bringing in newer classes not listed in the website yet (according to Robbie Gilbert, the director of the department) like Zbrush and i can't remember the other ones.

i hate the library though -- 20 book maximum for two weeks which all right i guess but magazines are 1 day checkouts (and if they are the most recent issue they cant be checked out). dvd's (they have the gnomon set which is NICE :)) are only for 4 hours! WTF?

they are always having workshops though (and not just one day type of things but recurring), which seem good. i havent had the time to attend them (what with me working and going to school with a full schedule). i know there's been some stop motion workshops and a SHAKE one recently (its probably ongoing ATM).

I love the drawing classes though. Before AIS i never drew, i just wasnt motivated, and once I got here I've just gotten into it a lot and I can see my improvement (even through the course of each class). The instructors for these figure drawing classes are very nice and very, very helpful (ie, Zanetka Kral, Dan Lafferty).

Aside from the library "situation" (and housing), my only legit problem is the actual majors as I said before. From what I know, there used to be only one bachelor's (in this area) -- Media arts and animation. I hear they focused primarily on gaming (given the seattle marketplace, i guess) but you could basically try to focus your studies into either gaming, 2d animation ("hand-drawing-frames"), or 3d animation but you'd still be taking all the same core classes. Now, gaming and art design is its own bachelor's. However, it seems to me that the media arts and animation major is still awkwardly divided into 2d vs 3d (and i've been witness to some people throw actual fits about it, ie "we're not all fucking computer animators" ahaha). I've heard Robbie say that eventually it might just be broken up again into a 2d bachelor's and a 3d one or something like that, but for now that's how it stands.

personally, like i noted before, i've made the switch to the game art and design bachelor for, again, the reasons listed before -- more 3d classes and i feel like i can focus my study on 3d and effects as well (not to mention being able to fall back on gaming if thats what i eventually wanted to do, even though im not much of a gamer) -- and i can skip the 2d focused classes that i'd rather not take. plus, you can always keep on learning concurrently with the workshops and the library resources (books, dvds) provided.


hehe hope that helps :)