Illustration at Ringling or Animation at SCAD

College Majors Visual Arts and Film Majors
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My daughter liked to major in Character Animation and applied to Ringling, SCAD, LMU & USC. Within two weeks of her application to SCAD accepted her and followed up with academic achievement & another stackable scholarship based on her portfolio. Ringling got back to her recently and said they can’t accept her in CA but would accept her in Illustration, or Motion Design or Game Art. We are yet to hear from LMU & USC. We have not yet visited any of these colleges.

I had her take a look at the Illustration curriculum at Ringling and she likes it a lot (she wants to develop concept art, character development etc.). My concern with Illustration program is how much of career opportunities are available compared with the 3D Animation program. From my limited understanding of the fields it appears that 3D Animation graduates have higher employment prospects and Illustrators generally do more of freelancing work (I might be completely wrong, so please excuse my ignorance). Given the costs associated with any of these colleges I would like to understand and guide her appropriately to choose the right the major.

We plan to visit both SCAD and RIngling shortly. The objective of this post to ask parent & students who are at these colleges to provide me with any feedback on Animation program at SCAD as well as the Illustration program at Ringling.
I have read some mixed reviews about SCAD in general and cannot get a pulse on how good it is. On the other hand Ringling seems to have a better reviews. One of my daughter’s ambition is to work in film/tv studios such as Dreamworks & Nickelodeon (from the incessant watching of spongebob in her formative years!). Would Illustration be relevant for this goal? or should she pursue Animation?

Thank you

Wf.

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Google Motion design degree Ringling. There is a very good description of what career opportunities there are in the field. It sounds right up her alley especially if she is interested in TV and not necessarily the movie studio experience.

Remember that computer animation means just that–computers. You gotta love it. 24/7.
Be aware that a majority of animators work from contract to contract and project to project.
And being an illustrator doesn’t mean you can’t work with major studios doing story or character design/concept.

Feel free to ask questions.

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Gouf78, thanks. She looked into Motion Design as well. To me it sounds great as it includes the technical skills related to animation. However she is more interested in developing story & character rather than the “motion” only aspects of animation.

I am curious about how illustrators fit in major studios doing character/concept design.
Wouldn’t animators be designing characters/story? I have no background in this area so please feel free to educate me. Thanks.

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There is a lot of overlap in the industry and lots of facets. In movies there is character design, story, concept design, modeling, the actual animation, lighting, special effects, the technical side of computers and programming, rendering (putting all those frames together). Then there is production and of course marketing etc.

An illustrator may get into character design, concept art. Modeling is basically sculpture–the 3D version of characters.
Story would say we want a wicked queen who is old and crabby and have an idea of what she looks like. Quick sketch. Character design fleshes that out into a portrait of her which is very detailed. Story says she lives atop a huge mountain in the clouds–concept art. Different scenes are developed.

Animators are the computer gurus who translate it to the screen and bring it to life.

Story is the department where the ideas and plot line originates. Or take a story and rewrite it for screen. The king here is quick sketch that shows action (which is important for a Ringling portfolio if you want CA). Everybody and aliens too want to do story and truth is there aren’t that many spots within a studio which is the reason a grad needs to get a job first and not wait for a break. At my D’s studio the job description requires 3 years experience before applying (so get that first job).

The technical side has animators, computer science grads.

Lighting, special effects have animators who specialize in those things. They are separate departments.

Rendering is on the technical side. They take the frames (which run in short segments) and blend them together for a smooth final product. They work with everybody pretty much.

Production keeps the circus together making time-lines.

My D went to Ringling for CA and had a roommate who went into Illustration. Both work for studios now. The roomie is in character design I will say that her art was incredible in detail–I have some of it hanging in my home. Her roommate also was able to be a Hallmark intern (a coveted position) during college. She had a great time there also.
Her present roommate (another Illustration Ringling grad) works at a toy company in design (which sounds fun to me!)

Everybody at Ringling has core art courses (which is why studios like Ringling for CA–artists first rather than just technical).

My D did a pre-college session at Ringling before applying. I wasn’t sure she would actually like CA (I was wrong!)
But her good friend who dreamed of CA (who got my D interested to begin with) found out she HATED it and went into Illustration. CA is 24/7 computers–if you like big screens and sitting in the dark you’d be happy as a clam. If you’d rather create a masterpiece with pencil, paint and paper you’re better off in illustration. I don’t know about motion design and game art/design.

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My one other bit of very unsolicited advice to your D…if you go to Ringling be very open to criticism. You’ll have professor critiques, student critiques, squirrel and seagull critiques (well there are a lot!). The ones who excel are the ones who take it to heart and try new techniques and make changes. Or at least consider them. It’s difficult to look at your own art with objective eyes. I have art from the now character design roommate from the beginning and at the end of Ringling. There is no doubt of the growth as an artist.

Not every student takes the advice (they like their art the way it is, I guess) and their art doesn’t change or get better.
They’re too busy being mad that someone had the nerve to say something critical about their art. I’ve known a couple of those students also.

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We visited SCAD before settling on Ringling. (but both were for CA majors). The SCAD campus is very spread out and the CA department is not close to anything (in a parent’s eyes at least). The student work was better at Ringling also. I don’t believe SCAD is NASAD accredited (always a controversy on whether it matters).

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Gouf78, Thank you for the detailed information. Quite useful.

Did you consider any other college for your D for animation?

Any recommendations on housing on Ringling campus vs. off campus? Safety of the area…?
Thank you

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We saw Full Sail, SCAD and Ringling. After visiting and research, Ringling was pretty much a slam dunk for 3D CA. Especially after pre-college.
D stayed on campus all four years. First in the freshman dorms (very nice) and then in the Bayou (still on campus) apartments (4 small bedrooms/dining-living room-kitchen). Some of her friends rented homes which were across the street from campus. And by senior year she lived in the computer labs (kidding but not really).
The area is fairly safe. There is an area behind the campus that might be shady but I never heard anybody complain about it. Ringling for the past few years has been buying up some of the property adjacent to the campus and improving it.
Another poster colcon on CC (look her up) has a D who went (or is still at) Ringling for Illustration. Maybe you could get in touch with her for more info for that major.

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Thank you for the information. I have sent a private message to colcon as well.