High School Animation Advice?

College Majors Visual Arts and Film Majors
1

<p>I was told that this tread is better suited for my questions.</p>

<p>I'm a rising junior who has thoughts about my future. Actually, I dont exactly know why I'm thinking about this, but I got tired of studying for the SATs and wanted to ask something.</p>

<p>I always wanted to enter animation (ever since I was six and vandalizing walls with a crayon.) I never lost sight of my goals, and I'm doing fine in school. I want to eventually enter CalArts at one point in my life and do something awesome like work at Pixar.</p>

<p>Honestly, my parents don't exactly have such a high opinion on kids who enter art schools as undergraduates. They would probably hate the idea of me dumping my SATs and academic work to concentrate on some portfolio. It sounds like I'm not being assertive in this, but I sort of see their point; I worked hard to improve myself as a student in private school. </p>

<p>However, my parents are willing to spend as much money for my education. It's an extremely generous offer that I am truly grateful for. I especially don't want to be the bum of the family who crushed my parents' aspirations.</p>

<p>Ultimately, I decided on going to another undergraduate school before applying for CalArts as a graduate student. I honestly don't know where I want to end up. I know the acceptance rate at CalArts is very low, so I want to land myself in a high ranked school. I figure that a well renown school has solid connections and a well established art classes. Then, with a lot of work and a solid portfolio,I can finally apply.</p>

<p>I want to ask if I'm being too indirect with my plan? I guess part of my reasoning is influenced by my other interests. I often was told that an overspecialized individual would have a disadvantage against a person with multiple solid specialties. I think I shown an aptitude for creative writing along with art. I only realized my ability to write recently, but I already won awards for my stories. I also attended a creative writing workshop down at Columbia, so I wish to use my gained knowledge for future endeavors.</p>

<p>I feel like CalArts concentrates on a visually based portfolio. While I feel like I can create a well thought out portfolio by the time I'm a senior, but I don't want to waste my writing or academic. It would probably put me at a disadvantage (I sort of established myself as a well balanced student.) I wish to take my time in college to establish myself before taking a step forward to my dreams (eg. taking life drawing classes, improving my art style, establish myself as a cartoonist/animator, etc.)</p>

<p>My dreams are awfully narrow in perspective, so I tell myself that I just have to force myself down that path (preferably with writing and art as my weapons in a battlefield filled with crushed dreams--I never realized how many people get rejected at CalArts.) I want to spare the horror of being rejected. I'll take whatever advice I can.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

<p>Sang Bae</p>

<p>PS- My SAT score is currently over 2200 (780 reading, 720 math and 740 writing) and will improve by October. I also plan on taking five-seven AP courses, continue running a debate club I established as a freshman, and really boost my GPA in junior and senior year. I don't think I'm limited with choices, but I definitely can't get into certain colleges without working my butt off...</p>

2

<p>Software:</p>

<p>TVPaint - Ever watch animations from gobelins? check this software out. it’s not vector based, which is why the end results tend to look more natural and hand done.</p>

<p>Adobe Flash Professional - Of course, we have the flash animation software that bases its models on vectors. </p>

<p>These are just two of my software recommendations. They’re both great great software, though I tend to prefer TVPaint simply for its natural look (over flash’s vector-computer-look). Dunno why I suddenly started talking about software, though!</p>

<hr>

<p>As for your planning for the future, I would say that you shouldn’t have anything holding you back from art. And by that, I mean that art is not something that you must have an art school degree to learn. While you are off in college, you should definitely use your free time and devote some of those extra hours to art (drawing, painting, etc). Heck, use your high school free time for some art… after reading your last paragraph, I realized that you were still a rising junior. Pleeeenty of time, my friend. It’s not something you really need a teacher to do. In the professional world, tons of artists, and by that I mean a solid chunk of a percentage pie, are self taught. </p>

<p>“boost my GPA in junior and senior year” ~ ahh. i didn’t know you were still a sophomore/rising junior. Seriously, you have so much time to think things through! You don’t have to be rock solid with this kind of plan already. You still have lots of time to think. definitely boost those academic aspects. judging from your solid sats, it wouldn’t hurt to bring them up to 2300+ either, given that you have a whole year for that stuff.</p>

<p>At the moment, you shouldn’t be specializing in anything. Period. You’re a high school student, so you shouldn’t give up whatever you have in writing, art, or academics. Work on all of them. Eventually, though, you’re gonna find yourself in a position where you must make a choice. you’re either going to end up going down one road or another, but that kind of decision is miles beyond where you are now. That’s when you start involving yourself in the professional fields.</p>

3

<p>I personally would NOT encourage you to focus on animation software especially since the software will probably change a great deal by the time you are out of school.</p>

<p>My recommendation is to develop your portfolio creating drawings from observation. Having strong drawing skills will benefit you throughout your college and artistic career.</p>

<p>Secondly, don’t give up on the SAT. Having strong SATs will not only open up more doors but probably will garner you some good scholarship monies.</p>

<p>Third, understand, animation consists of various specialties and various schools focus on one specialty or another. You might want to investigate what specialty is most interesting to you. For example , if you are interested in 2d animation Calarts, USC, SVA, RISD,Laguna College of Design, SCAD and several others would be a good choice. If you want to focus on 3d work and special effects, Ringling heads the list in North America followed by SVA, RIT, Pratt, SCAD among others. Gnomon School of Visual Effects would be an excellent choice once you graduate from one of these colleges especially if you attended a 2d oriented school. </p>

<p>Moreover, most animators usually specialize beyond what I noted above such as in character animation, lighting, skinning, texturing, modeling, rigging etc. Again, these are skills that you begin to develop in college and should not be a focus in high school.</p>

<p>Bottom Line: Focus on drawing and studying for the SAT. Don’t worry about animation software. You will have plenty of software training in college.</p>

4

<p>Good advice. One thing I forgot to mention (when responding to your thread from yesterday on the college search forum) is that a <em>portfolio development course</em> could be very helpful. It sounds like you are on the east coast/NYC area…perhaps SVA offers one. DS did an 8-week course at Laguna College of Art & Design (LCAD)–focused on life drawing, etc. It was very good and allowed him to experience an ‘art school’ atmosphere. </p>

<p>And I already mentioned (other thread) the possibility of a summer animation workshop/course–UCLA offers one, as do others. Perhaps other CC folks can suggest locations on the east coast that would offer you a taste of animation in a college or art school setting. I’d guess SVA has one. This would definitely help you determine whether it’s your cup of tea. </p>

<p>The question of art school setting vs. university is an interesting one and there is an active thread here on that topic. A search of this forum will offer more useful observations. </p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

5

<p>PS on pre-college portfolio development courses: heartily recommend them, especially for kids who are strong on academics, perhaps even strong in animation, but weak in fine art training/experience. This was our son’s situation last year. </p>

<p>LCAD’s course was an incredible value at $275 for 8 weeks of Saturdays (1/2 days). They did life drawing from live models and taxidermy animals, etc., and received constructive, ongoing critical feedback. At the end, the teacher and class, together, evaluated all the portfolios and helped each student select their strongest work for college application portfolios. This was exactly what our son needed. I heartily recommend it to anyone in the SoCal area.</p>

6

<p>For 1 -2 week summer animation camps, I believe that US Performing Arts, has programs throughout different colleges thru out the country, including at UCLA.</p>