What are the best colleges/degrees for a concept artist?

[Hawgca11er]

I am in the military and want to do something with art in videogames. Im a pretty good artist so i know i could get excepted. Im just wondering what kind of degree some of you have and how long it took to get it. Thanks for your help.

[Seedling]

Hello Haw. What you need is skills, not necessarily a degree. Often the best way to get those skills is through a degree program; and an illustration program is the most likely to help you get where you want to be. Try checking out the art schools and education ( http://conceptart.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=15) section for information on specific schools. For information on the games industry, there is a link in my sig.

Cheers!

[drd]

This is a bit off-topic, but somewhat related:

When applying for an art college (Let's say, SCAD for example) What is more important to them: The grades in your art classes or the quality of your portfolio?

[Elwell]

Portfolio is the most important. Then comes GPA (NOT just your art class grades) because it's a good predictor of whether you'll actually take things seriously and stick it out. Although SCAD may be different, since they don't require a portfolio for admissions.

[drd]

Portfolio is the most important. Then comes GPA (NOT just your art class grades) because it's a good predictor of whether you'll actually take things seriously and stick it out. Although SCAD may be different, since they don't require a portfolio for admissions.

Is that so? That's odd, I would think they would want to make sure you had a strong skill level already. Or at least to know what you're current level is.

Hm

[thesinfulsaint]

SCAD is more or less an inexpensive art school that ups their tuition so that you think you're getting a good deal. Lots of people come out with 20k+ in scholarship money. When it comes down to it, a school is out to make money, and SCAD is the biggest art school around for a reason. That's not to say that there aren't successful students out of their programs. Some of the student work is very impressive. I think that SCAD shouldn't be completely shortchanged as an institution--it's just that they are good at money sucking, too.

[Nightblue]

I've just started attending a degree-yielding school to appease my parents. God forbid I'm interested in "playthings" like video games... if I cannot even carry a degree home from it there's no way I can justify it.

It's called Guildhall at SMU, located in Texas. It offers both a master in technology program and a certificate program. I'm not sure how good the school is as the students seem to come into the program at a very wide variety of skill range, but the morale is high, schedule is packed to the brims, and I can only take it as a good sign.

One thing though - it does not focus on concept art. The art creation specialization works in both 2D and 3D, with 3D seemingly more in the focus. Some students did graduate to become concept artists, though.

[Meloncov]

Portfolio is the most important. Then comes GPA (NOT just your art class grades) because it's a good predictor of whether you'll actually take things seriously and stick it out.

At least at my school, art class grades don't affect GPA, presumably because the grading is so often a joke.

[Maxine Schacker]

Max the Mutt Animation School in Toronto now offers a 4 year diploma program in concept art for animation and video games. The curriculum includes in depth training in traditional representational drawing and painting; cartooning, character design, layout, and basic animation principles, as well as courses specific to concept art. This program was designed with input from top people in the industry.For more information check the web site, www.maxthemutt.com, and/or contact Van Olson, admissions@maxthemutt.com, 1-877-486-MUTT.

[Brittons]

I can only speak for what's worked for me. I work as a concept/production artist in the gaming industry for THQ in Boston. Almost without exception, it's been my experience that conceptual artists wear a lot of hats and are usually expected to do some 3-D if you're in-house. Because you never know what game your studio is getting next, some projects need less concept art, so you'll need other skills if you want to stay in the same company and not be a freelancer. A good example is my last company was working on a fantasy DND title and then the next project was desparate housewives, the video game.

It's really your portfolio, 100%, so I would say, be honest with yourself about your skills and make sure to look at the competition and see where you stack up and if you can get there with the current group of teachers you have. Regardless of degree, if the teachers can't give you what you need, the school won't help you.

What worked for me was going to different, small art schools like Watts Atelier and the California Art Institute. That way, I could identify what the different studios were looking for and if I found a great teacher like Jeff Watts, I could take his class a million times without any conflict. Even if there is a great teacher at RISD (which there are I'm sure), you'll likely only be able to take their class one to three times tops. It's been my experience that often times, it can take a year or more to just begin to understand a really advanced artist if you're studying with them.

As far as 3-D, Photoshop and concept design go, the Gnoman DVDs are a great source, as is this website. I would say, make sure to get your traditional skills very strong and start by imitating artists you like in the concept art field, trying to match their style/quality. If your work is very good, but not necessarily original, you have some nice life drawing and finished pieces and a basic knowledge/pieces in 3-D, there's a good chance you can get an entry level position in a game studio where you can learn and move up. You'll likely need to move though because you probably can't predict exactly where you're going to work for the first job.

That's my take on it. Make sure to listen to yourself because the school is a business and won't necessarily give you a clear picture of the reality of how much a degree does or what the students do when they graduate. Many students working as concept artists from colleges were very good before they even set foot in the school.

[Storyboard Dave]

Take a look here:

http://www.aicad.org/

Scour the individual websites, see who their alums are and while you're at it- scour the current student galleries as well.

[moroi]

thesinfulsaint- Before you say a majority gets 20k+ in scholarships...don't. The large scholarship trend is unique to this year alone (so far). Previous years had the scholarships MUCH more modest. Also, I wouldn't say the scholarships are in the 20k range. I've found it much more common to be in the 10k. I realized what I'm saying might come out as rude, I don't mean it that way, I just want to let you know because you seem to be a helpful person around the forums. And it's better to be a little more informed of these things when you post them. :)

drd- No, the school doesn't require portfolios. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, it gives a chance for lower skilled artists to come to a place where they can grow. But besides all that, a large majority drop out during/after freshmen year or shortly into their major. Why? They find out doing art isn't so easy, and isn't always fun. By the time you get into your higher level studios, its with a lot of dedicated students. (although I'm sure this can be said of any school)

[Maxine Schacker]

Moroi, what school do you attend? What year are you in? What program? Just curious about what they're teaching you.

[moroi]

Maxine Schacker- Hi, I guess I should have mentioned I go to SCAD (hence the talking about it). :) I'm in my first quarter here as a transfer (meaning= all my foundations studio/classes were taken at a state university with a horrible fine arts program). I'm an Industrial Design major with a Sequential Art minor. I have a strong interest in product/industrial design but I can't help but find "concept art" interesting too.

As of this quarter the two studios (you usually take 2 per quarter), I'm taking are "Drawing for Design" and "Intro to Industrial Design". I'm learning a ton in my Drawing for Design course, stuff that would have been hard to understand/find on my own. It's mostly construction drawing, starting from geometric shapes and translating these into organic forms. The mysteries on how to draw airplanes, cars, etc have been revealed to me. haha. My prof even shows examples in class of concept art work by Scott Robertson and such. I'm enjoying this very much, on my own the only thing I've found that taught these concepts well were the G DVDs (the word "" seems not to appear when I type it?).

[sula_nebouxi]

Check out Art Center in California. They've put out a couple of books showcasing student work like The Skillful Huntsman and In the Future.. etc etc. They have a major called Entertainment design(I believe) that focuses on concept design for films/games. They've got some wonderful talent there and some very well known concept artists teaching there.

[NoSeRider]

Wanna know how much Art College Directors get Paid?
http://tfcny.fdncenter.org/990s/990search/esearch.php

Type in Art Center College of Design or California Institute of the Arts, even Laguna College.

The Directors and Officers at Art Center are really greedy.

[Maxine Schacker]

Hawgcaller, have you checked out Max the Mutt yet? Just curious.

[Brynmor]

I'll chime in with moroi. I go to SCAD's atlanta campus. I'm a freshman. I have a 20k scholarship. You get a 20k scholarship for a high SAT score (I scored a 1480 out of 1600 on mine, the minimum is 1470 out of 1600). Scholarships like mine or a full scholarship (the next one up) are very rare. The combined honors scholarship has a maximum of 18k, and that's also rare. Most scholarships that I've seen are from the $5,000 to $10,000 range, and not everyone gets one. It's true that it's easier to get scholarship money at SCAD, but it's vastly blown out of proportion as to how much you can actually get (on average), unless you can destroy standardized tests and/or had a perfect GPA and/or have an amazing portfolio.

In case you're curious, my major is undeclared. I don't have enough credits yet to declare one (you need 45 quarter hours, I have 25 from courses I've taken in highschool.) I have a general idea of where I'm going, but I want ot take some courses in the spring quarter to figure out which one of the majors I'm looking at is best. There's a sequential art program at SCAD. From what I hear, you learn a lot of skills relevant to concept art in the sequential major, but sequential is more about the trade of making comics than concept art itself.There's also an illustration program. Illustration is more strictly drawing oriented but less skills are learned about character design and the like.

I haven't much of an idea on how heavy of a digital-art oriented education you'll get in an illustration major, but at the sequential booth in the majors fair, it was implied that you'd be learning to use the computer for inking, coloring and prepping comics for the publication, possibly more since the industry is getting more digitally oriented.

Hope this was helpful.

[Storyboard Dave]

The Directors and Officers at Art Center are really greedy.

I'm not exactly what to think about their level of "greed". Are they really getting paid what their worth compared to others in their field (I have no idea)? What's considered greedy to some might not be fair to others.

And has someone also taken into consideration the cost of living in California compared to other states? I'd like to think that Pasadena's a heckuva lot more expensive to live in that other parts of the country.

Art schools are businesses. They're entitled to make what they can. No one should be allowed to say they shouldn't pay their good directors a good wage if that's what it takes to retain them. There's obviously a rationale to getting paid what they get paid.

Let's also toss OUR wages into the fray. Are we getting truly adequately compensated for what we do? I technically get paid to do a passion of mine but I don't think I should be getting paid any less for it because I enjoy it. I would love to get paid millions of dollars for my drawings BUT I get paid for what the market will bear. At what point am I being greedy? Are firefighters worth more than what they're getting paid because they risk their lives to protect us? Are MLB ballplayers getting paid too much? Again, in this society- the market bears out what a person can make, so let's be very careful in stating someone is being "greedy" in regards to their compensation.

[NoSeRider]

If you type in San Diego State University in this thread:
http://tfcny.fdncenter.org/990s/990search/esearch.php

You note the yearly assets is about 200,000,000. This is a school that has about 30,000 or more students.....this is a big sprawling campus that takes up many acres of land.

Type in one of those $ 100,000 a year art school campuses, and the yearly assets is about 100,000,000, for only about 2,000 or less students......with very few acres of space taken up.

Something is go'n on? Yes, school is a business. So, buyer beware.

I find it funny how teachers are allowed to criticize students, but students can't scrutinize the schools they teach at?

[Seedling]

I find it funny how teachers are allowed to criticize students, but students can't scrutinize the schools they teach at?

Nobody said you couldn't critize a school. Just expect to have any foolish assumptions blown out of the water. It wouldn't be a kindness to let you marinate in your own poorly-examined opinions.

[Jonas Heirwegh]

Wanna know how much Art College Directors get Paid?
http://tfcny.fdncenter.org/990s/990search/esearch.php

Type in Art Center College of Design or California Institute of the Arts, even Laguna College.

The Directors and Officers at Art Center are really greedy.

To me it looks like you are dying to attend art center:P

You bring it up in almost any thread for no reason. Art Center is expensive and nothing is gonna change that. I wish they were less expensive but they are increasing the tuition every year.

[thesinfulsaint]

I've heard rumors that Art Center is increasing its admission because they are hoping to purchase some dorms for their students. Right now, there is no on-campus housing. A have a couple of friends who were turned away from their program for that very reason. The upped admission might look "bad" right now, but it will ultimately add to their program in the long run.

[Storyboard Dave]

Obviously this thread has already been derailed by a discussion of expensive a private art school can be. If NoSeRider wants to start up a new thread about how expensive and unscrupulous he assumes Art Center to be, then so be it. Let's take the conversation there and leave the premise of this thread be. :nohope: