I don't know where to go... SVA or UCF (or Ringling) for animation? Help!

gouf78
Thu, 27 Apr 2017 17:40:51 +0000

We are blessed. We didn’t have to deal too hard with the financials at the time but it’s gotten even more expensive in the past years. I can’t advise you about that except to say don’t jump in head first. Don’t drown in debt. Ain’t pretty.

Illustration does equal visuals. It’s traditional art. But some go into character design and sequential art.
One of D’s roommates applied for many scholarships as an illustration major and did very well. She was extremely talented–still has some loans but manageable.

Motion design and game art both include animation. Look up both curiculums (and some student work is on youtube
so you can see).
You will have a reel of work when you get done–just not a personal “movie”. Does that make sense?
Game art and design also has the computer programming element from what I can tell.

CA is like producing your own small movie from start to finish including character design and story. That is the goal.
The other two majors teach you techniques to do aspects of animation (which a ton of students love) but minus the final “movie”. Like I’ve mentioned–not many jobs available overall for “story”–but it is a wide industry.

CALL and ask to speak to someone (or a name you can e-mail) from one of the departments to give you more guidance about the differences between majors and what you’d be learning. Tell them what you want to achieve. Tell them you didn’t make it into CA and now want to know your options.
Something other than CA may be up your ally and give you skills to still do what you want as a career. Maybe even a broader scope.
And make sure about the money.

As to experience in CA…it’s TOUGH. Not for the faint-hearted. When I say 24/7 I mean 24/7.
It is progressive–the first year is fine, second harder, third barely tolerable and fourth year is …not good. D had her sleeping gear under the computer lab desk. But ultimately rewarding.
My D LOVED it but it was very stressful.

It’s professional and industry based program. Deadlines are drop-deadlines. Critiques are hard (you need to learn to accept criticism to grow–that’s in all majors). Industry professionals from Pixar and Dreamworks (and others) show up for critiques (they’re nicer than the instructors BTW while critiquing student work by the way according to D.).
Slackers/procrastinators/wannabees who don’t want to work that hard-- won’t make it. Quite a few drop out.

At the end of this process, my D said “employers love Ringling grads because we are ready for anything. They already know we know how to work hard and get the job done.”