<p>First off, sorry if this has been posted before.</p>
<p>Now on to my post, I recently got accepted into Drexel University. there I plan on studying Animation and Visual Effects. Therefore, I was wondering if someone is in this program or knows someone in it and what they think about it? I live in Miami, Florida so its kind of hard for me to go to Philadelphia to check it out in person (although this does not mean I have not done research). I just want an opinion, since sometimes what people write online is biased...</p>
<p>Thanks in advance</p>
<p>pipe…</p>
<p>I asked my son, who works in the vfx world in LA (Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon and Real Steel are two he worked on) about Drexel. His response was that no one cares what school you came from; it’s all about talent. Now the main thing that you need is to be able to show that talent and to do that you’ll need connections. the more connections you have the more people they’ll be able to help get your demo reel in front of.</p>
<p>And this is where the school might make a difference, because you will have interned, or because there is an alumni network that can help, or your upperclassmates you worked with will be in the business and can facilitate having the right people see your reel. But you have to start working on these connections when you first start school, not after you finish it, by volunteering to work with the student filmmakers and getting a reputation in school as one who can deliver on vfx requirements.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Thanks for the answer. in term of connections, thats why I found Drexel interesting. since in their programs you can get either 1 or 3 co-ops, which are 6 month job experience out on the field, you can probably meet people from the industry and stay in contact.</p>
<p>@digmedia did your son graduate from Drexel or another school? its good to hear from someone in the field that what school you come from doesnt play a big role.</p>
<p>Hey Pipe1992!
I’m currently an Animation student at Drexel and I hope I can answer some of your questions. Note that this year is the first year for the Animation and Visual Effects major. Prior years it was called Digital Media but now it is broken into three separate majors, Animation, Video Game Design and Web Interactivity. Pretty much the first year of classes is the same for these three classes. As far as I know, Animation majors can only choose the 4-year 1 co op option. As far as connections go, I highly suggest you join Drexel’s Siggraph Chapter where there are weekly meetings held and a yearly conference that you can volunteer at. You should at least go to the conference at least once in your four years there, preferably after your Junior year. There they have all sorts of seminars with Pixar, Disney, Universal, ect. along with a job fair and companies like Disney will look over your demo reel. We have had people not come back after a conference because they were offered jobs on the spot.<br>
In the first couple months of this new term we have had seminars hosted by Pixar, Sony, and other companies. Some will come to our campus and others will hold events at Penn’s campus where the Penn faculty email us and invite us to join. Lastly we have had graduates work for Pixar, Unviersal, and other companies. A couple months ago during a Siggraph meeting, a Drexel grad who works for Pixar held a Skype chat and went over stuff and how he helped make the Cars 2 movie.<br>
Lastly, for Fall of 2012, we will be moving into a new state of the art facility, the URBN Center, where there will be new labs, mocap studio, and other fun stuff. Sorry if I rambled but I hope this info helps in your search.</p>
<p>@dutallen thanks for the info. you didnt ramble at all…this was pretty much exactly what I was looking for since I love the campus itself and wanted to know how good the program is.</p>
<p>Media Arts in the Honors Tutorial College of Ohio University. Turns out OU has quite a presence in the industry, given that not many people would choose it for a film degree.</p>