<p>Could I go to a graduate program in animation having a Bachelor of Arts in Math and Rhetoric? I was first looking at something like the MS Visualization Science at Texas A&M but I think it’s impossible because I’d be graduating with a mediocre GPA ~3.3</p>
<p>What about USC or UCLA? Do the masters program require portfolio? I’ve only taken art history in college and I have no art works since high school. I guess I want something a little technical like animation and visual effects…</p>
<p>Look at the websites and they should tell you. You should at least take some courses relating to that field so you have some experience, some portfolio, and can see if it’s really what you want to do.</p>
<p>Spoondrift, my daughter is somewhat in your situation. She majored in digital design,which is basically web design with some limited motion and animation studies. She wants to go to grad school for an mfa in animation.The problem is that most of the grad programs really don’t teach the skills as well as a good undergrad program does. It is a bit surprising, but they tend to be research oriented.</p>
<p>I would recommend that you get some training in the elements of animation with a trade school first before going to a Masters ;program. If you do this, you will probably have a good enough portfolio to get a scholarship too. You will also need a good portfolio of drawings from observation too.</p>
<p>There are many trade programs. Boston University has a one year program in digital animation that could get you the basic skills. Gnomon is widely considered the leader . It has a 21 month program that is considered quite good. However, Gnomon charges 65K for this this.</p>
<p>However, one great approach is to subscribe to the gnomon videos,which only cost about $500 per year. You can watch each video and emulate the projects putting in your own touch. This way, you would get the skills and have a great portfolio. It would take at least a year to one and one-half years of hard work to accomplish this.</p>
<p>Gnomon has a combination of analog videos for drawing, figure drawing, anatomy etc and digital videos for digital animation. I would do the analog ones first before you attempt the digital videos.</p>
<p>I should note that there are three grad ;programs that don’t seem as research oriented and seem to be skills oriented. Check out:</p>
<p>Academy of Art university in San Francisco, Sheridan Institute in Canada, and SCAD in Savannah.</p>
<p>If you go with the trade school route first, you should consider USC, SVA and Pratt. Sheridan would also be a good choice too.</p>
<p>Try looking into community colleges. That’s the least expensive way to get some good experience and training since you already have a BA degree. Save your money for an MFA if that’s the route you want to take.</p>
<p>Most animation master’s programs (CMU, USC, UCLA, CalArts, A&M, ACAD, etc) you can apply to with any sort of undergraduate background. They will however often require GRE test scores and a GPA (eg. USC/UCLA), although neither usually has to be far above the minimum requirements of the university. Also usually required will be a portfolio but not to the standards of a typical portfolio for more competitive 3D undergraduate programs like Ringling.</p>
<p>USC and UCLA are primarily film programs and cover the entire process of animated film making in all mediums from paper cut out to 3D. Academy of Art’s grad program is also similar in which you spend most of your time and money creating a short film. The focus may be less on developing your skills in one specific area, but more on improving in a generalized broad fashion. More technical programs would be RIT, CMU Media and A&M’s Vis Lab in which you can focus on combining technical and artistic disciplines in unique ways that can be wholly unrelated to animation. They are not film programs like USC/UCLA/Acad/CalArts but more focused on the technical/research side of CG. </p>
<p>The grad departments for these schools are usually small, no more than 20 students per class, and you will generally do better if you know what your ultimate goals are and if you come into the program with a sense of your artistic style, and/or strong foundation in art and film. That doesn’t mean you can’t go through the program without an existing foundation, but just that you will get more out of the experience. What these programs typically look for in a portfolio isn’t killer artistic skills but a strong vision and direction in your work that will contribute to a varied and diverse class of graduates. </p>
<p>Not quite sure what you mean when you say “something a little technical like animation and visual effects”</p>
<p>If you are looking for more specific technical training - particle/fluid effects, shader writing, rigging, etc then look into taking the courses that interest you either on site or online: gnomon3d, fxphd, cgworkshops, and many others.</p>
<p>Depending on what you want to pursue, there are a great many options online these days. Spending a few thousand on a few select online VFX/Animation classes is a great way to obtain training in areas the schools you’ve mentioned wouldn’t teach you anyway. And it will help you decide what direction you want to go in with your education.</p>
<p>I would like to add something to Pumpkinking’s excellent post. If you go to USC, UCLA, Cal Arts, you are indeed going to be more film focused, They also have some connections with the film industry for internships. If you attend a school such as SVA or Pratt, they tend to be more commerical oriented, although I am sure that you can do some filmwork too. Their connections tend to be with studios and advertising agencies that produce commercials.</p>
<p>The online program such as animation mentor always hit me as being very pidgeonhold for a specific skill. With AM it is character animation. Thus, you won’t learn rigging , modeling, storyboarding, lighting etc. </p>
<p>Gnomon seems more broad based,but even they seem very modeling oriented. To their credit they do have a wide variety of courses ,but not enough in my opinion for 2d work and storyboarding that you might get in a school like USC. </p>
<p>I do think that you need to have set goals before you go to a graduate program. Simply wanting to learn animation isn’t enough. Maybe you want to be a 3d modeler, or develop an expertise in lighting or environments or work on films or commercials or do special effects. You definitely should have some project in mind too. </p>
<p>I have personally recommended to my daughter that she develop the 3d skills taught at Gnomon before going to grad school. This can be gotten using Gnomon videos, taking courses at local schools, attending an online program etc because a lot of the technical aspects of animation don’t seem to be as much of the curriculum as you would find in the technical schools noted above. </p>
<p>I hope all this makes sense.</p>
<p>All good points taxguy.
I will say though, that neither USC nor UCLA are big on industry connections unless you are in their live action programs. A bit like CalArts’ experimental MFA, they champion the independent filmmaker, for example Bill Plympton. </p>
<p>A program such as Animation Mentor is for students and/or professionals who know they want a top notch program to master or improve their animation skills. Animation is a whole other art form different from the 2D or 3D areas taught by most schools. It is an art that can take a life time to truly master, and unless you are a generalist working for a small post house or enjoy doing a little bit in every part of the process, an animator will not be concerned with modeling, rigging or lighting. AM is a program for a person interested in pursuing a career in character animation for film, and that requires a level of skill and dedication that does not really allow for distractions in most other areas until you are fairly good.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, these days, with the increasing skill and competition in the industry, it simply isn’t good enough to be able to do a little something in every area. One has to be very good in one or two areas to be competitive.</p>
<p>Modeling seems to always be taught first, probably because it is easier to teach and is located at the beginning of the pipeline. It does not require as much technical skill as rigging, shading or effects, so the barrier to entry is lower for beginning students. With shading and effects, a solid foundation in math or computer science is very helpful. </p>
<p>Storyboarding, like concept art or matte painting is more of the 2D arena and at most studios is handled by department separate from the 3D side. Most helpful would be a background in film, cinematography, illustration and animation, something that most 3D trade schools are usually not equipped to teach. </p>
<p>The concepts in lighting are all based on live action cinematography and photography principles so there isn’t anything necessarily “CG” about it. The CG part comes into play when wrangling the technical issues of why things are not working correctly, understanding how the lighting is calculated by the computer and different methods of optimizing a scene. Probably not as glamorous nor immediately gratifying as modeling. And like lighting, there are some areas - layout/previs, render wrangling, rigging, muscle simulation, massive, which just aren’t as glamorous. </p>
<p>The entire industry runs the gamut from highly artistic to highly technical, but most schools just lump it all into a visual effects, animation, or 3D CG program. IMO it really isn’t possible to teach or learn it all well in the short time span most programs provide. A place like Gnomon sort of offers the shotgun approach, while Animation Mentor is like a high powered laser. Both may take one to an employable level in one specialization, but when given only 2-3 years, it would definitely have to be at the expense of other areas.</p>
<p>pumpkinking , the problem is that students with no background in the animation pipeline may not know what area they want or will be good in. Yes, Animation Mentor seems to offer great concentration in character animation IF you know that is what you want! I do believe that students should first have a broad based exposure to the whole animation pipeline first. </p>
<p>I have met a number of animators who noted that it is common for studios to ask their employees if they have experience in some other area of need. Getting a broad based background in the area seems very helpful. Now once someone understands which area of the pipeline they want to focus on, I would think that schools like Animation Mentor, ( which I am a fan of), fxphd etc would be great. However, I could be in error on this since I am NOT in the animation industry. All that I know is from hearsay from those in the industry.</p>
<p>I would like to know what you think of grad programs such as CMU entertainment design , Texas A&M program and RIT program from both a skills development perspective and from an industry connections perspective, assuming someone doesn’t necessarily only want game design? Do you have any opinions on these schools? Same can be said for Rensselaer’s program.</p>
<p>Is it crazy to suggest getting a second Bachelor’s degree rather than the Masters? Since you already have a BA most of the requirements would already be fulfilled and you would be taking mostly animation, etc. classes.</p>
<p>OhioMom, no it isn’t crazy,but you have to be careful. For example, schools like Pratt do not waive Gen eds unless those taken match what they would have required. Ringling ,on the other hand, will waive all gen eds for those with bachelors.</p>
<p>Secondly, many undergrad programs have a lot of specific requirements. Thus, you must take courese x, y and z to be able to take courses A, B , C and then take C, D,F. Thus, it can take at least 3 years and even 4 years if you want another undergrad.In addition, you are taking courses with folks who are a lot younger than you. In addition, with a masters, you can teach with it if it ends in an MFA. Masters programs are also usually taught at a high level and have greater expectations of the students.</p>
<p>However, from a training perspective, It might not be a bad idea to simply get another undergrad degree. I do believe that this option might give better training than many masters programs,whose goal is the thesis.</p>
<p>ohiomom - not crazy to suggest a second bachelors if one has the time and money for it. Most MFA programs actually can take as long or longer than a regular bachelors. For skills training if one is coming from a different field, a bachelors would be better than a masters program. </p>
<p>taxguy - yes, perhaps I wasn’t clear enough. Animation Mentor and the other new ones popping up all the time are for those who know they want to do character animation. Fortunately places like AM do not require a full commitment, so you can try a few sessions without losing out on too much. </p>
<p>Learning the rest of the pipeline is always helpful, and that very basic knowledge can honestly be acquired on its own, especially since every studio’s pipeline can be very different. Employees should always make sure they are appropriately compensated if they are knowledgeable in several areas, studios will often take advantage of any extra juice they can squeeze out of you. It is pretty much the trade off of being a generalist or a specialist, with different types of studios and industries needing different types, usually requiring some of each. I’m a fan of always learning more breadth, and that can often be acquired on the job.</p>
<p>I’m not too familiar with the RIT program, and it sounds like they revamped it again possibly. It sounds like a promising mix between art and tech. I believe CMU’s ETC is a broader program that gives its students the freedom to pursue any type of multimedia team project. From multimedia installations to games, etc. I don’t believe they may teach the specific necessary skills for the CG/Animation industry, especially given the short 2 year program length. Texas A&M’s seems to be more technically oriented that also gives students a large playground to explore. My only familiarity with those programs is from speaking with alums, but it definitely seems A&M and CMU allow the student to explore many options, some of which may be less useful for finding a job than others.</p>
<p>oh, another good question to ask when looking at master’s programs is the percent of the incoming class that finishes the program, and the average number of years taken to obtain the degree.
Like many PhD candidates, an MFA can often drag out and take a long time to complete, if completed at all.</p>