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As someone going into their senior year of the Visual Effects program at SCAD, I don't care what the word about SCAD has been in the past few years. The high price of SCAD tuition is seriously money well spent. I just got back from the SIGGRAPH convention in San Diego, the mecca of CG artists and the like for the film and gaming industry and SCAD has a very intense presence in the industry. Not like a hand of god kind of presence where just being a SCAD student assures you way into the working world, but many times where I talked to people from Pixar and Industrial Light and Magic, whenever I mentioned I was a SCAD student, that person often went from just making conversation to actually engaged in the conversation. The industry really recognizes the education you get out here, and as far as the digital media aspects go, you are trained in the software that really matters, primarily Maya, Renderman, and Houdini. The professors for those particular packages, specifically Renderman (the proprietary Pixar renderer that just about everyone uses) and Houdini (a procedural based 3D app which specializes in dynamic sims) are more or less the cream in their field. Our Renderman professor, Malcolm Kesson, is currently in Norcal right now training Pixar recruits. He's training loving Pixar on its OWN software. Its serious poo poo. If you're considering SCAD for any of our digital media programs, it should be near the top of your list. The only thing that will set you apart from anyone else here is your motivation, because the program is only as good as what you make of it, which tends to be the mantra for any art school anyway. You have to really REALLY REALLY want it, and I cannot stress that enough. There's so much competition out there and if you aren't sweating blood and bullets, clawing your way into the ranks of the elite, you're wasting your time. If you're in your third year of school here, and your major has not consumed your life by this point, you're probably not doing it right. EDIT: Also, I'd like to point out that 9 times out of 10 (and this is in my own opinion) any kind of Game Design major is complete and utter bullshit waste of your time. If you really want to get somewhere with that, and not that I have any room to talk as I'm just a student too, I would recommend pursuing something such as Visual Effects as a major, since the technology that is being used to create effects for film ultimately trickle their way into real-time game engines anyway. You'll learn all of the techniques that go into creating amazing CG which also have their hand in games as well, and that is much more useful than dick-around surface scraping classes that often come accompanied with game design programs. Trintintin posted:Come September I will be at SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) for my freshman undergraduate year. At the moment I'm confused on what major I should choose. I applied and got accepted to the school for there Broadcast Design and Motion Graphics program, but lately I haven't been able to find any student feedback or information on it. I decided that it was the program I wanted to major in after I talked extensively with a SCAD representative at a college fair around December of 2006. The fundamental difference between the BCST people and the VSFX people is that the BCST people are primarily After Effects users, because BCST is mostly about creating sweet motion graphics for commercials, title credits for TV and movies, etc. etc. and learning basic VSFX principles just to incorporate into those projects, such as learning to pull a green screen key, or maybe doing simple 3D composites. While VSFX is definitely more 3D CG based, it also provides a much deeper understanding of the things that make BCST work. A lot of commercials and advertisement going on right now can be high-budget effects masterpieces (see Weta's giant rolling katamari ball of people commercial), and while not to paint motion graphics in After Effects as being simplistic or a small piece of the puzzle, the main thing is that the software is just a tool and what is really important is how you develop your artistic abilities in tandem with using the software. In SCAD's VSFX program, theres absolutely nothing stopping you from pursuing a motion graphics path, all the while learning a complex understanding of cameras, photorealistic CG, compositing, matte painting, etc. You even have something like 4 free electives that you can spend on whatever you want from any major you want, so if you're still interested in the BCST side of things, you can burn all of those electives on BCST classes. ElecHeadMatt fucked around with this message at 02:47 on Aug 13, 2007 |
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Aug 13, 2007 02:30
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Trintintin posted:That helped a bunch and I most likely will be changing my major to Visual Effects. It seems to be a much more in depth program in the fields I'm interested in. What I was wondering is if it is important to have a basis in 3D modeling before entering the courses, or if going in with very little 3D knowledge is ok. It definitely won't hurt you to get as familiar with a 3D app before jumping into the VSFX program, but you are definitely are not required. I know people who walked in knowing nothing and in their senior year are producing some seriously excellent work. 3DS Max is a good program, but it generally only covered by the ITGM program (game design) and not even a whole lot. If you want to learn some 3D, go get yourself the trial or PLE of Maya. Thats pretty accurate, your first year at SCAD will be spent learning basic foundation skills, drawing, design, color theory classes. You'll have to take a few Gen Ed classes, like Public Speaking and Composition as well. These classes aren't nearly as important as your major specific classes, obviously, and you'll have free time to work on building your 3D knowledge too, but don't blow them off either. Every class you take at SCAD will benefit you in one way or another. Even the art history classes, while totally boring and irrelevant to your work (probably) you never know who down the line you'll wind up impressing with your knowledge of German Expressionism or 19th century portraiture. Soak up the knowledge. Trintintin posted:Also as a last small question (sorry if I'm overloading you with dumb questions), I was wondering how technical the programming aspect of visual effects is. It was the only thing that threw up a warning flag to me when I was going over the courses involved with the major. I took a few programming classes in High school and did ok in them, but it was nothing complicated. In general I was wondering how much is taught and how much is expected to be learned in any art school, but especially SCAD. I already know more than the average person when it comes to video editing and drawing in general, because I see it as a hobby now. I was just curious if art school is more of a teaching you everything correctly, or refining skills you should already have. Programming was sort of an alarm when I started getting into VSFX too, but by the end of it I found it to be one of the more interesting aspects of the program and is now what I'm trying to specialize in (specifically, procedural shader production.) Don't be afraid of it, your programming classes will be taught by either Dave Kaul, who is basically Napoleon Dynamite of VSFX at SCAD, or Malcolm Kesson, the guy I was speaking of in the last post. Learning from Malcolm is like learning kung fu straight from the grand master. He eases you into it very gently, is very plain english (with a very english accent) and easy to talk to and get along with, and is more or less the king of explaining things through diagrams on the white board. There is very little math involved, and what math IS involved will be explained to you at whatever level it is required, i.e. you won't learn math you don't need. SCAD teaches you a hell of a lot, but like I said before, it is entirely dependant of what you put into it. You can breeze through every single class and make straight A's, but as long as your portfolio at the end of four years is crap it wont matter what grades you made. Studios want to see your work and what you're capable of. It is up to you to push the envelope in every class you take, go above and beyond the call of duty, and if pushing yourself into a perpetual state of overdrive isn't your thing, you may have a problem. And there are no dumb questions! I'm happy to answer anything anyone is wondering about SCAD. Its a great school.
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Aug 13, 2007 19:29
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