<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>