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Asked by carpethatdiem carpethatdiem

I'm sure you've heard it all before, but I'm an aspiring animator [OH HO HO] in her senior year of highschool. I've already been accepted to a small private school with a developing Digital Media Arts program, but am also considering SCAD. Do you think it's necessary to attend a "well known art college" in order to do something with an animation major? Also, congrats on achieving your dreams :D

Congrats ahead of time on wrapping up your senior year of high school.  Honestly, I think for an animator - college does matter.  This is a specialized field, and it’s really hard to pick it up without the proper training. Not to say there aren’t self-taught people - it just takes awhile longer, and it’s a lot more difficult.  I’d say, there are three things to check:

• What you want to do.  There are a lot of parts that make up a movie or a TV show - modelers, riggers, surfacers, lighters - not just animators.  Some schools excel in one of these areas but only provide general knowledge in others.  If you aren’t sure which part you like, then go to the one that can provide the best general information - you can always transfer later.  
• What your potential teachers have done - look up IMDB pages. This industry moves very fast, so someone who has worked in the field recently is a better bet than someone who’s been out of it.  And someone who has never done industry work might not be reliable at all.  Your developing school may be new, but if the teachers have a good track record - you should keep it in mind.
• What the other students have done.  Look at their reels (even mine is online, and it sucks), and go to the place where the student work is the best.  After all, your portfolio of work is what gets you hired, not your degree!  If there is a particular studio you want to work for (or if you want to freelance), ask students at that school what people come to recruit - and more importantly, how many get hired.  Certain schools feed into certain departments.  Here, a  lot of our surfacers come from Ringling and Sheridan, but a lot of our lighters come from SCAD, and a lot of our riggers come from Texas A & M.

That’s about it, though, I think.  Me, personally, I went into animation as a programmer (a rare, difficult, job no one knows exists), so I chose a school with one of the only available graphics programming majors at the time.  It had a long-standing relationship and regular recruiting with Pixar, Disney, and EA.  And now I’m here - and my old boss was actually an alum of my program, haha!

Lastly, good luck! :)

Posted 3 months ago — 5 notes