The Ringling Thread Part Deux (2005 hopefuls) + summary of old thread

[CatHicks]

Nooooo!! Don't smite meeeee!! *cowers*

Hey, maybe that bad reviewer guy has no idea what he's talking about. But who knows. I've been wanting to see that movie for a while now. I've got a picture of Rodney Copperbottom in my binder. Haha!

[sula_nebouxi]

Aww...come on, you wouldn't enjoy a good movie with the voice talents of Gilbert Gottfried, Fran Drescher and Kathy Griffin?

[Hett15]

Aww...come on, you wouldn't enjoy a good movie with the voice talents of Gilbert Gottfried, Fran Drescher and Kathy Griffin?


I would rather listen to a herd of alley cats being eaten alive by alley ants.

[CatHicks]

I would rather listen to a herd of alley cats being eaten alive by alley ants. Hahahahah!

I still think Robbin Williams is a great voice actor...even if his voice is now really really really recognizable. My favorite animated character that he played is BATTY from Fern Gully. I used to know the entire Batty Song. Please tell me I'm not the only person who remembers that movie.

[sula_nebouxi]

Uh....what's Fern Gully? :nohope:

[CatHicks]

Common! Fern Gully! It's an old animated movie about faries and some dumb luberjack kid who accidently gets turned into "fairy size"... and stuff happens. And there is this evil smoke eating sludge monster thing and...stuff. And Batty! He's a bat that's flown out of some animal testing lab and he's got this antenna thing coming out of his ear and he's gone crazy.

http://www.new-video.de/co/ferngull.jpg
Maybe the more I think about it... don't feel bad that you don't remember this movie.

[ScatteredLogical]

Most people would recognize the trailer with "Oh no I'm BLIND! ....I can SEE, it's a MIRACLE!" (something to that effect)...

[sula_nebouxi]

It's a good bet I've repressed those memories. Yep...wait a sec, Batty!?!? Oh my god! I think I know what it is...I better stop now...

edit: anyways, can we not bring up any more horrible traumatic experiences, especially with FernGully hehe ;)? kthxbye

[CatHicks]

Haha! Ok ok... I'm thinking of some older overlooked animated movies that ARN'T FernGully.

How about Princess Mononoke? Or Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Iron Giant (even though that's not too old)?

[Pixeldragoon]

Mononoke is technicaly an anime, made by Miazaki.

[EccoXile]

Holy crap. I Love that movie (fern gully). Haven't seen it for ages. But yeah, that quote, ahh the memories.



were we supposed to have the done and signatures recieved and the sar and all that done by march 1st? or just have it submitted? because i just got the sar today >< no pell for me..damn. hopefully ringling loves me :bashful:

[Hett15]

Fern Gully represented all that was wrong with the world of animation at the time of its release. It was environmentally friendly, PC, cheap budget, goofy lame songs, and a love story/action/comedy that didn't quite hit the mark.

Not to mention voice actors that were so so (except of course for Robin Williams as Batty - the only semi good part about that "movie")

[sula_nebouxi]

We were just supposed to have it submitted and processed by Mar 1st. Sorry about not getting anything from pell :( I think you're supposed to get a few hundred regardless of financial status...

[Hett15]

now Iron Giant is a great movie.


** We probably should save this kind of banter for a different thread?**
we don't want to clog up this Ringling thread too much.

[CatHicks]

Mononoke is technicaly an anime, made by Miazaki.

Yeah but it's still animated!

Hayao Miyazaki is great. Have you seen Spirited Away?

Speaking of Miyazaki... I've been looking for a Studio Ghibli shirt for about 2 years now. It seems everyone I know has one but me. :(

[Hett15]

Anyone know what kind of projects we will be working on when we get there? Are there a lot of individual or group assignments? Heard anything from other students etc.?

[sula_nebouxi]

Agrees with Hett...methinks this might be better suited for a chat room or IRC or something. Someone might need to sift through this thread for info, only to find us talking about the horrors of FernGully and we don't need people going into anaphylactic shock(yes I know that's for allergies :P) or something over it...hehe alright...carry on.

Oh and Hett: I hear there are both individual and group stuff...I think there are even inter-major collaborations.

[CatHicks]

You talking about CA Hett? I think we do a buch of individual projects. There are themes like, "Impress Me" or "Primal Theater". I remember my TA at Pre-College mentioning one that had to do with light and staging. Junior year we'll be spending a lot of time doing pre-production on our final thesis... and then senior year we'll be working on our thesis! I think that's how it all works. Apparently we have some traditional animation classes we take too. There's 'prolly a lot of group stuff too though.

[OneYouCannotMention]

Santa, if you're still reading this crazy thread, my bad! I'm sorry! I didn't know you wouldn't want me too. Please don't smite me down with all your almightiness! My pal Rob had done the same thing in his livejournal. And someone else posted one from Don Brandas there too... maybe I should warn them not to?

Cat no harm no foul. No need for smiting this time, I'll just shake my head in a disapproving manor next time I see you.

OYCM

[EccoXile]

We were just supposed to have it submitted and processed by Mar 1st. Sorry about not getting anything from pell :( I think you're supposed to get a few hundred regardless of financial status...and processed? ...damnit....

i don't know why i didn't get from pell, my efc is pathetically low.
ack, well, ill deal with it tommorow. homework :P

[CatHicks]

Cat no harm no foul. No need for smiting this time, I'll just shake my head in a disapproving manor next time I see you.

OYCM

Thank you for your mercy! *bows*

I cannot wait! This summer is going to go by sooo sllooooow. I think this will be the first time in my life that I will be counting down the days until school starts.

[OneYouCannotMention]

I wonder if the OneYouCanNotMention wants to make a caricature of he/she/itself like the rest of us and add it to our eventual collage of caricatures? Eh..eh


Actually I look a lot like Cat's avatar just use that.

OYCM

[CatHicks]

Haha! You've got to add a bit of collar of a hawaiian shirt though Hett.

[CatHicks]

Hey have any of y'all seen this? A Scanner Darkly (http://www.apple.com/trailers/warner_independent_pictures/a_scanner_darkly.html) It's all rotoscoped. Pretty cool.

[sula_nebouxi]

http://www.eden.rutgers.edu/~atso/manor.JPG

Please don't hurt me. I'm no MS paint master :(

hehe just kidding OYCM, we all love you :)

[CatHicks]

Oh man, hahahah! That made my night.

[CatHicks]

Hey OYCM, is there any chance of you being able to give us the lowdown on the new "CA major only" minors? There's a visiual development minor right? I'm way interested in that one. You don't think having a minor will take time away from CA will it? I hear all the time that CA majors have zero time whatsoever.

[ScatteredLogical]

Who Framed Roger Rabbit overlooked? It's practically historical...

[OneYouCannotMention]

I believe out of the four new minors only gaming is CA only because it flows back into the major.

Visual Development is designed to enhance your CA experience but it's open to all.

Digital Film is in a state of flux right now but again open to all and it would enhance your storytelling ability which would be a big plus for CA.

Art of Business is open to all as well.

Also your description of the CA experience (on the 3D side) is pretty much right on without getting into too much details; then there is the Concept side which balances things out. Also we have changed the schedule a little and you guys will be taking your first semester of Traditional Animation in your spring sememter of your Freshman year.

oycm

[ScatteredLogical]

Meaning three semesters total, or two pushed back into half first year half second...?

If you might happen to now...by chance, of course :confident

[sula_nebouxi]

Ooh awesome, fun for all ;) We can get a head start on drawing the little bouncing balls and the...other stuff...yay!

[OneYouCannotMention]

Meaning three semesters total, or two pushed back into half first year half second...?

Traditional is still only two semesters. I think it was pushed back to make room for a second semester of Drawing for Animators...again I think that was the plan.

oycm

[CatHicks]

Sweet! That's so awesome! Thanks for the info. That's great that we're actually going to be ANIMATING next year.

So if I wanted to learn more about character design, concept, storyboarding and more behind the scenes jazz do you think I should be more intrested in Digital Film or Visual Development?

Thank you so much for filling us in!

[ScatteredLogical]

When I told a girl in my design class I was waitlisted, she said "Good riddance! I hate that school! My grandmother went there for illustration, and she had nothing but drawing classes!" (Dead serious, isn't that funny?)

She still isn't convinced that animation is a fine art.

Ah well, give it time I suppose =)

[OneYouCannotMention]

So if I wanted to learn more about character design, concept, storyboarding and more behind the scenes jazz do you think I should be more intrested in Digital Film or Visual Development?

Visual Development is what you want to take especailly if you want to do a lot of drawing. Digital Film will cover a lot of that in it's own way but it's done more in camera.

It's been fun chatting with everyone, I'll have to pop in some other time to see where this thread has ended up.

Later.

oycm

[CatHicks]

Thank you so much! It's been great chatting with you again. I'm sorry if we've bored you with our incoming freshman questions. Thanks again for your help. You're the best!

I'm going to sign out too guys. I'm tired. Talk to y'all later!

[ScatteredLogical]

On that note, I think that about does it for what I can contribute to this board and still be relevant. Congratulations to all those accepted. Have a good first year, and I'll be seeing you at the Big Show.

[sula_nebouxi]

Hmm, this makes me wonder. If traditional animation is being pushed foward into the freshman year and another semester of drawing for animators is being added, is something being taken out? Or are we going to have 6 classes that semester? (5 for me hopefully since I've already taken 4 art history classes). Hoo boy the workload is gonna be insane for you poor high school grads...art history, animation, studio courses, writing, and history. I don't envy you.

Glad I got my writing and art history stuff done...I never want to go through that again...art history gives me nightmares. I have never studied so hard for a class and I end up getting a C+, I mean I've put in days of studying, I've prepared weeks in advance...It's insane I tell ya, the only people who get good grades in that class are the people who can memorize phone books. That's all the class is, memorization of names, dates, places and historical events. Bah...why couldn't those tests be multiple choice? *shudder* I'll lend whatever help I can to those who have to take it at Ringling. I found that a vital part of this class is studying with others. It helps tremendously. Alone = not so good. Seriously, I wouldn't wish that kind of burden on anyone. Ok, enough griping, I passed thankfully and it's all behind me now.

And SL, come back and chat whenever you can :) You're always welcome here.

[jejuhorse]

Cool thank you for the information, oycm :D
in my art class we get to learn about simple and basic history of art every friday i actually do like learning them...my art teacher is insane he has soo much energy and eager to teach his own students:) he's great

hmmm still waiting for my mail to come...:( hopefully i'll be able to get it today

[Hett15]

I have Art History I & II finished and another art history about ancient Italy

They were 3 of the hardest classes I took in my four years of college. It will be sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo nice to not have to take those again or any of the other liberal arts classes :) I think I'll pick some elective to do instead. fun ones. :yayca:

[sula_nebouxi]

Jeez jeju...why on earth is it taking so long? These mailmen need to get their act together ;)

And yeah Hett, gotta agree with ya there. Art History is without a doubt the hardest class I have ever taken. But it was kinda fun with my Renaissance-contemporary period art history professor. Like, I would have never known that some dumbass cut away both sides of the Mona Lisa(not the real name btw), or that Leonardo da Vinci was just Leonardo of Vinci and not called da Vinci. Yeah, he made a big stink about the da Vinci Code :P

Glad with those things outta the way I can take...well...I have no idea what to take heh. Ok, random question, when and how do we register for classes?

[Hett15]

I THINK..the first year is pretty much laid out for us (times and all) , I could be very wrong about this. Cat would you know? I also think I remember reading at welcome.rsad.edu that we get an email with a log on ID and then we can register online. (Will do some re-researching) :painting:

Yea I listened to "The from the city of Vinci Code" on CD while one of my brothers and I drove from Florida to New Jersey to go suprise my oldest brother with a bachelor party. It was an ok story. Completely ludacris though, but it helped the miles pass.

[jejuhorse]

i didn't get my letter after all...this is driving me insane...
i'm going to call up Ringling tomorrow
I called them today but i was too late T.T
i'm having some suspision with this mail man though
cause couple weeks ago when i got this letter from Michigan state university
i found that it was pealed opened and then couple days later it happened again so i called my near post office and told him about this thing going on he told me that he will talk to him and see what's going on never got a call back though...
i hope he's not angry or somethin and putting my mails in different mail boxes and crap....i first thought that if i called i might put him into a jeopardy of getting fired but had to call cause all those letters were very important to me...

[CatHicks]

Here's the first year schedule.

FIRST YEAR [credits, course, ID]

3 Drawing Studio: Perceptual Systems [CS 101]

3 Drawing Studio: Observation & Color [CS 102A]

OR

Draw/Design Studio: Image & Color [CS 102B]

3 Design Studio: Visual Processes [CS 111]

3 Design Studio: Time & Light [CS 112]

3 Drawing Studio: Figure & Dynamics [CS 121]

3 Drawing Studio: Figure & Context [CS 122]

3 Design Studio: Form & Space [CS 130]

3 Computerized Writing Studio [EN 151]

6 Euro-Western Art & Ideas I-II [AH 191-192]

3 History of Animation [CG 170]


They may be changing some things around for our Traditional Animation I class. I'm thinking about finding a community college and getting Computerized Writing Studio out of the way this summer. Is that a good idea, do you think?

I can't wait to get my own @ringling.edu email addy. XD And webspace! Woot! That will be a godsend.

[Pixeldragoon]

Wait, so, can I take htose classes at a community college? Because my mom wants me to take "The basics" at a community college before going to Ringling. Will it matter? I mean wil I get different classes at Ringling?

[jayneko]

Pixel- If you wanna do that, call Ringling up and asks if they can recommend and colleges where you can do that. They are VERY specific with what courses will transfer, and you don't wanna waste one year at a cominnuty college to retake them at Ringling.

Also, you would also transfer some of the liberal art courses. Such as art history and math, I s'pose. Everyone starts as a freshman at Ringling, with very few exceptions (or so I've been told). @_@ That's why you rock when you graduate from there. ;D

BTW, has anyone sent the comfirmaiton letter thingie yet? ^^ I hope to send it on Friday.. need to get the visa business done with asap so I don't stress out about it later. XD And yeah, can't wait to be there. :D Found a lill' job here until July so I can save up for at least the first semester and help my parents with it. n.n

*Re-reads the catalog, and wonders why he never got the calendar* ;_;

[CatHicks]

I sent mine overnight. They should have gotten it before lunch today.

Arn't we also suspossed to pay some $1,700 program fee sometime soon? My dad mentioned it today... anyway, I got some financial aid stuff in the mail today. I'm not sure who was asking about that but apparently they are sending the loan stuff out now.

[Pixeldragoon]

I probably will be off campus when I go in a few years, after highschool, to save money. But I really want scholarships because I really want to get on campus and spend nights studying with friends in the halls. It'd be a dream come true!

[sula_nebouxi]

Hmm...here's the reason I was asking when and how we register. Hopefully, some of my courses will transfer over. This means that my first year I won't have to take Art history or writing. So I'm wondering what I can put in place of those classes.

Anyhoo, it may be a good idea to take writing and stuff over the summer. But check to make sure that it can transfer since it's so close to the start of the new semester at Ringling. Oh, sorta unrelated story...The Rutgers equivalent of Computerized Writing is Expository Writing. Yeah...that was my first nightmare class. I had a teacher from Kenya, so English was was his second language. I had absoultely no clue what this guy wanted at any given time. When I would write a paper one way, he'd fail me. When I adjusted to his comments, he'd still fail me. Finally I went to his office to talk to him. I specifically told him what I would do in my next paper. He said "OK do that". Guess what? Failed. Seriously, how can you tell someone that that is what you want but still give out a failing grade? Utterly ridiculous. I guess he hated me or something. So, I told people not to take him, that if you didn't write for the New York Times and have several Pulitzers under your belt, don't even try it. Anyways, I took it again next semester and this time with a teacher who was a Journalism major in college. Wrote in the same style I did in the previous course and guess what? I got a B. Yeah...makes sense doesn't it?

Ok, I'm done ranting unless someone brings up math, then I can go for a few more pages.

Oh and Cat, the $1100 CA program fee isn't due until your sophmore year. You only have to pay the CORE fee which is like $500 or something. I still need to discuss a few more things with the family before I send off everything, gotta make extra double sure I can pay for all this but so far, all signs point to yes :)

[jejuhorse]

i wish my parents were here :(
it would've been way much easier to discuss about this whole situation.
Having myself call them to korea and trying to explain it to them word by word is pretty difficult, wish i had a better communication skill :(

yea i think sula is right we pay $1100 for computer animation when we are sophmores but right now only $500 :D

[CatHicks]

Ooo.. thanks y'all! Better let my dad know that. Are they going to send us a bill for the CORE fee soon?

I just want to get everything paid for and settled. I guess I'm just afraid something terrible is going to happen and everything get messed up. Haha!

[sula_nebouxi]

Bills don't get sent out till June I think and we have to pay by July 12 or something. It should all be on the welcome.rsad.edu page. And we will pay all of at once. The payments aren't split up or anything. As long as you sent out that attendance confirmation thing you'll be fine until the bill arrives :)

[EccoXile]

is there a certain time that their admissions office is open? im thinking maybe i should call them and have a chat about things, but if they are only open so late im just going to email my counsler and be annoying :)

all you guys are getting me worried :p already sending in your fees and that and i havent even gotten my letter. i shouldnt be so worried though, they said it would be a couple weeks. egh, watch my patience wearing thin...

[OneYouCannotMention]

1. If you can take an liberal arts electives during the summer I'd say do it. If you don't, somewhere along the way you need to do an overload which isn't very easy. But always check with the Registar office first to make sure it will transfer in; you don't want to be wasting your time.

On a side note, if you are looking at the big picure manage your schedule so by the time you are going into senior year you are only taking enough classes to be full time.

2. The freshman year is being restructured. I think next year there is one less required CORE course and the following there will be another one gone.

oycm

[jayneko]

From 9..to 12...then from 1:30 till 5? I think. ^.^;;;;

[CatHicks]

Oooo...

I'm going to try and find out what classes I can go ahead and get out of the way this summer. I'm wondering how the Pre-College credits transfer in to everything. I have no idea how any of that stuff works... I better learn. Ha!

[sula_nebouxi]

That's good advice oycm :)

And that's interesting that 2 CORE classes will be taken out...I wonder which ones...Anyhoo, thanks for the info :)

[Pixeldragoon]

I dunno. but it means a bit less work. One thing I am afraid of is explaining to my mom the importance of figure drawing and knowing the human anatomy. I am afraid that when I try to enroll in Precollege next year she will stop me from going because you draw nude models. =( She thinks I'm an immature lil perv. I'm a mature perv. (<-Just kidding!)

But still, does anyone have tips on how I can explain to my mom about figure drawing when the time comes?

[sula_nebouxi]

I guess you could say this: Art is the medium in which you comment on life. But, you can't comment on life without understanding it. The way artists try to understand life is through observational drawing and the use of the figure. Also, the nude figure is considered one of the most difficult things to render; you not only have to draw the figure accurately but it might be a good idea to include a certain emotion or feeling to make it seem more than just a study. To do this takes years upon years of studying the figure.

On a side note, I just got my financial aid award letter...oh my god...wow...that's...that's a lot of money...soooo...it looks like I don't have to worry too much about finances as much as before :) I've got almost $12,000 in *grant* money. $4000 of that is from a Ringling scholarship w00t, thanks to whoever gave that to me! :) And...another $2635 from the stafford loan. Wow...this is so awesome. I won't be in as big of a debt as I thought I'd be :) I so happy, I will make this work!

[Hett15]

Wow that's great Sula. I almost wish I didn't finish my business degree, because now I can't get any help from the government and my odds of getting anything from Ringling are also cut by about 95% There are only 1 or 2 scholarships that don't care what you alrady have and those only go to TOP incoming freshman and such people.

Hey Pixel Dragon. For now get the Christopher Hart book Human Anatomy Made Amazingly Easy It is completely illustrated with no actual nudes (illustrated nudes though) It will be a starting point to help your mom transition into seeing what you are wanting to do. My wife was the same way at first, but she is getting more used to seeing me draw and research figures. I actually had her try to draw it one day with me so that the whole awkward veil gets dropped and she could see how hard it was to get right. That's why you need a lot of practice. Start with art books, and then you will eventually get her more comfortable with actual live classes.

(funny story is my dad went through the same problem when he was dating my mom in college in the late 1960's. He had to do figure drawing for his architecture degree and she didn't understand why, so they had many "arguements" about the nudes in his portfolio and the classes he went to. And that shows you that all artist can benefit from figure drawing--even technical artist like architects)

[sula_nebouxi]

Aww Hett, well at least you can get better interest rates for loans through that educational union right? Over time, that's very useful.

hehe ya know, my parents kinda felt the same way when they saw the drawings I was bringing home from school. They went...why are these people naked?! Are you a perv or something, drawing nude people...Oy...they especially flipped when they saw the male nudes...But anyways they're over it now. It's almost as if they've repressed it all :P

[jayneko]

Wow, congrats Sula! :D

I hope I get some kinda help too. x.x Not sure if Ill get any though, being non-american and such. ._.

[Avelena]

I've never taken a figure drawing class...I've just started taking a drawing and painting class at my school this year which is why I was pleased to have just made it into the school.

Yeah, my parents were a little on edge about me drawing nude figures my first year there but they got over it quickly.

[jejuhorse]

same here never drew nudes before...well actually did it once last year during summer vacation (but no actual live models)
showed my parents all the drawings i drew in art class with couple of my figure drawings and looked like they just completely ignored the fact that i had some figure drawings...they never talked about it hehehe

oh and i still didn't recieve my letter....:( so i called Ringling and i think the problem was with my address...the address i gave to them somewhat worked cause i recieved early letters and the calender...
But i hope that that was the reason why it did not get here
rather than my mailman getting pissed at my and did something with my letter
Our Ringling conselor told me that she will send me another one and hopefully i'll be able to get it by next monday~!
I feel so sorry to her though cause now she has to print all those stuff and send it to me again...
But overall i found out 150% sure that i got accepted so i'm not going to be having any of those 'what if...' thoughts :D

and Sula CONGRATS~!!!hehe that's awesome~! 12k...very nice :D but are you talking about 12k for this year??

[Avelena]

Wow, Sula, 12k is very nice! Many congrats!

[sula_nebouxi]

Hehe...thanks...yeah it's 12k for one year. I couldn't believe my eyes. I was really surprised that I got a scholarship too. On the actual award letter it said I could get a little over $18,000 in aid but that's with a PLUS loan, which means that interest starts adding up immediately(which I don't want but it looks like I may have to). I'm not sure if I'll apply for that so I rounded it down to $14,500ish aid that I will accept. Some people have said that Ringling doesn't really give scholarships. I think it has to be either need based or merit based, there's no way it can be academically based, since I have a 2.8 average GPA right now at Rutgers :P

hehe jeju, at least you know for sure now that you're in ;) Soon...soon the preciousss will arrive at your door.

[jejuhorse]

ah~~~~my precioussss heheh
That's very good news sula :D
oh and we can apply for financial aid every year right?
so next year i'm really really going to apply for my financial aid early
i called financial aid(not Ringling) because i sent my signature page and the post office told me that it arrived yesterday
And so i had to check if they recieved it or not but what they say that whether the letter got here it takes about 1 or 2 weeks to confirm.....AHHH!!!!!!!gotta wait another week???pffff....:(..

[sula_nebouxi]

Hmm...usually it doesn't take more than a week or so to process. I think mine took a few days. I submitted the form on Feb 18 i think, which is really cutting it close. And yeah we apply for aid every year. If you've already filled out the FAFSA, most of the info stays there. You only have to re-enter all those fields regarding income and how much you have in your checking accounts and whatnot.

Be sure to do it early though. I think they only have a certain amount of money they can award. Be sure to do it well before the deadline you can grab a gigantic piece of the pie when no one's looking :P

[jejuhorse]

I'm sure i'm going to apply early as possible
i regret it so much that i misunderstood about fin aid
i should've just take some time and read closely as possible but that stupid little laziness will some day come and bite you like what just happened to me..and financial aid....that's "a lot" of money they give out...

[jayneko]

What's merit based mean if it doesn't take grades into account? o.o

*Has to get a green card* XP ...or...a blue one! bwhah!

[Pixeldragoon]

I hope you guys are right... :(

[sula_nebouxi]

Hehe by merit, I mean the portfolio. I doubt they took my grades into account when decision time came. My first semester at Rutgers had a humoungous stain that will be hard to live down. I'm surprised they looked past it. Actually I made it up...I worked at it and every semester I improved. I guess that counted for something...Anyways, I'm rambling. I seriously doubt it had anything to do with grades.

[EccoXile]

congrats on that sula :D thats a looot.

but if you say they don't really give out scholarships...eek. That's what I'm relying on....or hoping t. It just seems like ringlings over 20k, that's a freaking lot and I have no idea how I'm supposed to get that without some miracle scholarship and a really big loan. Eck, i just need to educate self more in these things.

[jejuhorse]

Ecco, same thing here
i hope some kinda miracle will happen to me
well good luck to you Ecco :D

[EccoXile]

:P thanks. good luck getting your miracle as well. haha.

i shouldn't worry so much though. my art teacher is very supportive and likes to tell me not to think about the money thing. and he said that if i don't get a scholarship i am to go into their office and slam down my portfolio and demand money :D. that was rather amusing since I can just go walk into rsad whenever i want...

really though, theres always a way. and for something as big in your life as college is, there has to be a way. atleast my way of thinking.

[sula_nebouxi]

Oh definetly, there's always a way. Whether it's donating tons and tons of blood, filling out surveys, testing a new drug, what have you...The money will come. What's important is that this is what you want to do. In the end, you'll get a job, you'll pay back your student loans, and looking at the big picture, you'll have a much more fulfilling life because you stuck with it and you did what you so desperately wanted to do. Did that make any sense at all? Heh, I'm not even sure it made any sense to me :P

But anyways, sure you may have a bigger debt coming outta college, but it's not all about the money. It's about the experience. That's something that you will always keep with you.

[CatHicks]

Hey Hett I just emailed you my part of the collage.

[sula_nebouxi]

What a coincidence...I've just finished my contribution :). I'll send it off in a few minutes if it turns out alright.

[Pixeldragoon]

Alot of people there that graduate and get a job right away at a good company make enough money that they can probably pay off their debt within a few years. Keep that in mind! And yeah, but as long as you get to go then awesome.


I really want to stay on Campus, but since it's possible for me to drive there, I'll end up doing that to save money.

[ScatteredLogical]

OK, sorry, I had to break the silence...With all this talk of money...

It happens to the best of us:

http://forums.awn.com/showpost.php?p=13766&postcount=11

:^^:

And you never do know. Two months ago I thought light-heartedly "Jeepers, poor grandchildren will have to inherit this burden..."

And then Tuesday night I was offered a potential interior design contract that would allow me to pay off all four Ringling years in one calendar year.

[sula_nebouxi]

Very cool SL, hmm that link makes me wonder about the cost of loans but how old was Ed before going back to school, late 20's I think? And how old is he now?

Anyways, eventually it'll be paid off and everyone will be happy :P Even though it might be 20 years down the line heh.

[jayneko]

Well, to give an example, if you borrow 10,000 dollars at a 6% yearly interest rate, you'll end up paying 17000 in the end (aprox) XD (In a 20 year period of time, making monthly payments from the get go adding to the interest and principal).

O_o A month ago I hardly knew what the word interest meant. ;)

*Filling out the papers..sending them on Monday!*

[ScatteredLogical]

I'd gladly fill out anything they would send :dur:

[jejuhorse]

muhahaha financial aid just got my parent's signature confirmed hehe
thought that it was going to take a week or so...
but it's already done~hehehe this is Great!!:D
hopefully i'll get to talk with Ringling financial aid staff soon

[sula_nebouxi]

That sounds about right Jay...now take that $10,000 an multiply it by 15 that that's about what Ringling should cost in loans after interest for me. Good lord...thank the government for subsidized loans. Now, if you'll excuse me I need to rob a bank.

Oh, and if any of you are eligible, you can apply for a work-study job on campus. You'd have to have a low EFC though. I emailed the financial aid office about this and they said that you can stop by the Career services table at Orientation and ask them about it. Best part is, your pay is untaxed :). The money won't go towards tuition though, you'll actually get a paycheck. So...you'll still have to get a loan. But's it's nice to have a little pocket change :)

[CatHicks]

I saw Robots tonight.

I liked it! The story didn't appeal to be very much but it looked really great. I saw this thing on TV where Chris Wedge was talking about something called "radiosity"... which is like, light bouncing off one thing and playing on another. It makes everything look really nice and soft. Worked out great for Robots! The animation was awesome too. Some parts were a little fast but maybe that was just me. Speaking of fast animation... has anyone seen the Madagascar trailer? I love the idea and the character designs but things are happening so fast in the trailer that I get lost. Haha! Anyway, back to Robots... the kids loved it. They were all over it. That's important. I heard a lot of "We've got to buy it when it comes out on DVD!" as we were leaving. There were some things that flew over their heads. I guess that's BlueSky doing what Dreamworks did with Shrek. Oh and one more thing....

HOLY HELL, ICE AGE 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As soon as Scrat popped up on the screen EVERYONE in the theater was just like, "Iiiiicccceee Aaaaaagggggeeee!!!! We have to see it!" Brilliant. Anyway... just thought I'd share.

[jejuhorse]

Thanx for sharing Cat :D
I'm defenately gonna go see Robots
And I never thougt they would make Ice Age 2...well that sounds great :D

[ScatteredLogical]

I believe radiosity is the realistic emulation of the actual properties of light in a scene. In other words, rather than using programming to change certain colors in mathematical ways and pull off an "illusion" of lighting, radiosity assumes a certain finite amount of light and does all the physical calculations including absorbing of rays, reflections, etc. and in one single calculation can create lighting that works just like it does in the real world that doesn't have to even be redone once it's finally thought-through by the computer. It's a hard distinction to make but that's how it's always been explained to me.

[CatHicks]

^ Hmmm. I understand now. Interesting! Thank you.

[Avelena]

Oh Awesome! I've gotta see that movie with my family...when their feeling better *pokes them with a gloved hand* icky sick people...

Anywho...That's awesome! Radiosity, eh? We're learning about properties of light in physics, but how does the program know what kind of object the lights hitting cause doesn't that change how much is reflected and how much is absorbed?

One of my favorite movies is Monsters Inc if for no other reason than a loved watching the "behind the scenes" stuff where they showed the tests for the program that determined the movement of Sully's fuz.

[jejuhorse]

http://www.movie-list.net/exclusive/star-wars-ep3-trailer-hd-640.mov
watch this~~!! Star wars episode 3 :D you'll be stunned by all the graphics
I just can't WAIT to see that~!!!hehehe

[CatHicks]

^ I saw the trailer! Vader, baby! That's gonna' be awesome.

Avelena, Monsters Inc.is my favorite too. And I know exactally what test you are talking about! The one where Sully goes though the obstacle course. I love that!

[sula_nebouxi]

Yep Cat, you're right. Radiosity, simply put, is the way light bounces off an object and how it reacts with something else.

For a little more in-depth explanation(or maybe too in-depth):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiosity

And Avelena, those values are entered in by the user, the radiosity calcuations just take those numbers and turn them into the lighting effects we see.

As for Robots, I might see it this weekend. Plus I sooo want to get the Incredibles DVD when it comes out tuesday next week. I can't wait to see all the special features :)

edit: oh and I can't wait for episode 3...even though I expect the guy who plays Anakin to be absolutely horrible in it. The CG looks spectacular. Anyways, go go Mace Windu!

[ScatteredLogical]

Yah, as long as we're repeating for emphasis, it isn't as if you create a sphere and the software knows it's a crystal ball. It's specified.

For some reason it's harder to find than it used to be, but if you get a sec and a little bit of determination look up the Lightscape radiosity calculation software that tacks on to some modeling/animation programs. Even some of the stuff they did in the late 90s to just basic architectural forms looks freaky-real.

[Avelena]

I love the obstacle course, the one where his hair magically sticks to everything is hilarious!

Ah, I didn't think the computer just knew, that's why I was a little confused.

[ScatteredLogical]

Oh, I didn't mean it like that haha. I was riffing.

Might be a good time to mention that I'm part of a project to build an animation Wikipedia: the
AnimWiki (http://www.studentofanimation.com/AnimWiki)... It's got a few interesting articles so far, a lot of them are ports related to animation from the original Wikipedia, but thanks to a few students and professionals at the AWN board there will soon be a lot of new users, a lot more spreading around of its existence, and a lot more personalized info on what's really good and useful to know about our field of study...

[jayneko]

Added to my bookmarks...which I shall organize now. XD

Has anyone else received any financial aid packages? ^^ Just curious. Wondering if I should wait for one or not. XD

[sula_nebouxi]

Very cool...I'll have to keep an eye on that.

[jayneko]

I....found my old Mario Paint cartridge. My first animations...

Bwhah XD So my love for animation goes back from before I thought it did!

Anyone else ever tried to do stuff fon Mario Paint?

Man..best game ever. :hatsoff:

[sula_nebouxi]

Ahh...Mario Paint...I always wanted a copy of that game when I was a kid. I need to hunt me down a copy on Ebay just for nostalgic reasons ;)

[ScatteredLogical]

I wonder if the people that made Acid ever played Mario Paint.

[CatHicks]

I'm afraid I've never even heard of Mario Paint! :( You could make animations with it?

My first animations were balls bouncing up and down in the corners of my text books in 2nd grade. That later evolved into dogs running and birds flying in the middle of post-it pads that I'd steal from my dad's office.

[Avelena]

The only flip-book animations I ever did were at the corner of my notebooks and they were always simple, yet weird, things. Like a gopher jumping into and out of a hole I think...couldn't tell it was a gopher, but I also didn't really know what they looked like, I still don't now that I think about it.

[sula_nebouxi]

Hehe Mario Paint came out in 1992 I think...and yeah you could make animations with it, it had a sound editor, really amazing stuff for something for the SNES.

I think my first animation was in the corner of a textbook back in school. I think it was of a guy walking around until a UFO came by and beamed him up, then went on it's merry way. I thought it was pretty funny :P

[jejuhorse]

I never heard of mario paint either

And my first animation was a bouncing ball and then when the ball reaches the top it blows like a fire cracker :D
And mine also was done on a corner of a textbook hehe

[CatHicks]

You know... the earliest known animations date back to the time of ancient Rome. Scientists found that drawings on a Roman Vase depict an acrobat in different poses. If photographed and shot in succession, the man would perform a somersault!

(I did a 15 page research paper on the history of animation last year. Please excuse my random information. Haha!)

[ScatteredLogical]

That's a bit more literal; I suppose it depends on your criteria... consider the caves of Lascaux, with the multi-en-partum animal poses in the crude drawings of what the cavepeople were hunting.

Or more recently, if the information in Richard Williams' book is true, the Egyptians, with their hieroglyphics that told a dynamic story as chariots raced past...

In the same book he refers to Greek pottery having the same effect when rotated, and most ancient Greek history predates (though also overlaps) the Roman empire.

That's one of the things I think is so cool. This impulse has always been in us, even before we were "civilized." Like animation is something done rather than just some thing. Painters need paint, sculptors need minerals, what does an animator need? Whatever's around!

[CatHicks]

Hmmm.. never thought about the caveman drawings. I guess it's all in how you look at it. I may have to check out that Richard Williams book.

[OneYouCannotMention]

Just popped in and I see a few things I need to comment on:

1. Simply put radiosity is when you are stand next to a red wall and you and your shirt appear more red than you actually are. The light hits the red wall and bouces red onto whatever is near.

The Blue Sky renderer is a wonderful thing. The folks that write the code for it are truely geniuses and have an amazing understanding of light and how it works in the real world.

I had time to play with it during my all too short time there. For every pixel on a frame it sends out X amount of rays to see what the camera is seeing for that pixel and what lights and textures are making up that pixel and it think it averages them all together or something like that. If everyone here works hard enough you too may get the opportunity to play with it too.

2. I was 27 when I started Ringling, you can do the math for the rest.

later...

[CatHicks]

Yes! The all-knowing OYCM has returned to us!

The Blue Sky renderer does indeed sound like a wonderful thing. In that same videp with Chris Wedge he was talking about how they had a bunch of scientists come in and do research with light and whatnot when they were developing it. Man, I want to play with radiosity one day!

BlueSky uses a program called CGIStudio, am I right? I'm pretty sure I read that in Animation Magazine. I'm guessing that's there "in-house" program.

Speaking of you at BlueSky, I watched Bunny the other day.

[jayneko]

Digital Lighting and Rendering by Jeremy Birn looks like a good book to learn more about the subject, Cat, and anyone else interested in it.

[sula_nebouxi]

Richard William's Animator's Survival Kit is awesome. Great little insights and all the examples are drawn by him :) It's just littered with visual examples which makes it such an easy way to learn from. Jeremy Birn's book is great too, heh I bought that like a year ago. Great resource on lighting in general. Another good read is The Illusion of Life by Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas. Very good history of western animation and Disney. It's absolutely huge though and it'll take a while to read. But, it's very entertaining. Heh, yet another book that I've found to be quite interesting is Stop Staring by Jason Osipa. Very funny guy with a huge knowledge of facial animation. I'll get back to ya if I get any other books that stick out :)

Oh...and it's official, at the time of this writing, I am headed to the post office to send off my acceptance confirmation. Everything is in order and I'm ready to go! I'll see you all under the giant cube in August :P

[CatHicks]

Wait, I already HAVE Animator's Survival Kit. I just didn't recognize the name Richard William. Wow, good one Cat! Ha! I've got The Illusion of Life too. I'll have to check out Stop Staring by Jason Osipa. I love facial expressions.

[ScatteredLogical]

OneYouCannotMention...both of those books have been said to be on the required reading lists. And of course no one thinks this is a so-called "software school." How about filling in the space between? We'll obviously be learning many in-depth things that cannot be learned from, say, Barnes & Noble, an online hand-out, and a manual... What do we explore? How intricate does the teaching get?

[sula_nebouxi]

SL, the CA program gets really indepth in regards to story elements and concept development. That makes it far from a "button-pushing" school. Also, there are no courses entitled "Maya 101" or "Intro to Inverse kinematics". Of course you have to learn the program and there are many books out there that help, but that's secondary to the real meat of animation, which is story. Animation pre-production and concept development for the senior thesis starts *junior* year. That's a year of planning and a year of actually making the short film. Name one button-pushing school that actually does that. Those 2 years spent on the senior thesis alone is longer than an entire certificate program at most of those schools.

And it's as indepth as you want it to be. There's no end to what kind of questions you can ask. If you want to learn more about sub surface scattering, global illumination, UVW unwrapping and what have you, just ask and you'll go as deep as you can go. Most likely, in class you'll only touch on these things. And quite honestly, I don't think anyone will be able to succeed out in the industry without learning the bulk of it outside of class. There's only so much time spent inside a classroom and you can only cover so much. Think of class as an introduction to general aspects of animation. It's up to you to really probe as deep as you can.

[jejuhorse]

The Incredibles~hehehe
http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hv&id=1808405432&cf=trailer
some clips from Incredibles DVD special features :D

watch especially the one that titled "What Makes The Incredibles"

[CatHicks]

Thats for that link jeju! I love the Incredi-Blunders. Funny as hell!

All of these little behind the scenes featurettes make me respect Brad Bird even more.

[OneYouCannotMention]

OneYouCannotMention...both of those books have been said to be on the required reading lists. And of course no one thinks this is a so-called "software school." How about filling in the space between? We'll obviously be learning many in-depth things that cannot be learned from, say, Barnes & Noble, an online hand-out, and a manual... What do we explore? How intricate does the teaching get?

Sula_nebouxi basicly said it all. We require no Maya books but we will suggest the better ones if you want one.

It's the drive of the students that really make the program, they want to be the best and we help them get there. Maya or 3D in general gets more and more complex every day so it's impossible to know everything about everything, I gave up trying. But the collective mind of the students and faculty is really pretty impressive. Everyone goes off on what interests them and shares. I have no problem going to a student and asking "how did you do that?" It's a great learning environment for all involved.

[ScatteredLogical]

Long story short, software isn't a concern of mine. Just so you know, I wasn't making a comparison of any kind and I wasn't casting any doubt on the school. I was simply asking E--er, Mr. Mention a simple question on details, filling the gap between the two extremes. Thanks for the response, and sula for your intentions.

Incidentally, I just got my waitlist letter. It doesn't have the same sense of humor as the predicted letter =) but if anyone's tracking the progress still it's getting sent out tonight!

[edited for politeness]

[sula_nebouxi]

Sorry if my response back there sounded a little harsh or condescending. I didn't want to run off a bunch of things that you of course already knew.

On a lighter note, I just got my Incredibles dvd and the Incredi-blunders are hilarious! I was laughing my ass off half the time. Oh man...we need more technical goof ups :) The part with Mr Incredible pinching Elastigirl...priceless! And then, Syndrome and Mirage sharing a moment...oh wow...

[CatHicks]

I got the Incredibles today too. I was hoping for a new Cars trailer but alas... they have the same one on the DVD. Same with the Chicken Little trailer. I have high hopes for Chicken Little. He's so adorable! Anyway....

Yes the Incredi-Blunders are great! Syndrome totally licking Mirage.. Haha! I still haven't gone though everything but so far all of the Making-Of stuff is awesome. I love Jack-Jack Attack. Jack-Jack has more powers than I thought! I love when Syndrome shows up and Carrie (or however you spell it) is like, "Yes! I'm Carrie! The babysitter!!!!" And then Syndrome goes on to explain why he couldn't put "BS" on his shirt.

[sula_nebouxi]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1238474/posts?page=3

This was posted on the Ringling LiveJournal....reposting it here. Oo0o0o0o0...maybe OYCM can comment on this ;)

[jayneko]

Poor Mary. Sad story. Still not sure if it's all true or just people being paranoid.. But it'd still be creepy to live there. XD

[CatHicks]

^ At Pre-College my friend Greg was seriously terrified of Mary. It was the funniest thing. One night a bunch of us girls went up to Keating to see the staircase that she hung herself in. It was somewhat freaky. Somewhat. There are tons of Mary stories. You'll hear them all freshman year.

Idelson is haunted too. And so is Bayou Village.

[jejuhorse]

Bayou Village too? i didn't know about that one hehe
from that link sula gave us
and when i read it you know that part when she's talking about mary staring at her right infront of her face....that's freaky as hell XD

[jayneko]

Oh, and happy 65th birthday, Bugs! n.n

[CatHicks]

Am I going crazy or does The Incredibles not LOOK as good as I originally thought it did? My eyes are broken!! Was the version in theater rendered out better or something? Please tell me I'm not the only one who thinks some parts look cheap. The animation is awesome, of course, but.. but... it just doesn't look as good as I thought it did.

[ScatteredLogical]

I edited my post to be a bit less insensitive. Bad days happen to us all =)

I finished my first short in Lightwave class! It was improv. We had a character, and we had to rummage through sets and props and build an animation. I had 4 hrs of lab time last night, and I cranked it out... I loved picking out the camera shots....I'll see if they'll let me render today...

[sula_nebouxi]

Cat, maybe it was the tv? There's a THX optimizer on the disc too so you can get the colors right. It looked fine to me...I played it on my comp too...colors look wonderful. Everything is crisp and clear.

SL...cool! I'd love to see it sometime.

[EccoXile]

mehh, all the talk is about animation now >P and movies ive never seen. i havea friend down in florida that thinks im very deprived because i havent seen all these movies. says that hes gonna force me into watching a ton of them when i get down there :P yayy....so excited. not. okay, off topic.

oh, read the mary thing, bwhah. thats great. i so want that room. even before i heard this stuff i thought that keating sounded the nicest. so, i still stick with that. well, one of the studio apts. things would be wonderful..but im cheap.

and i got a calandar. not the best art in there, but meh. just gives me hope that a letters on its way :D

[sula_nebouxi]

Hehe...that calendar sure did take a while didn't it? :P Eh...only a few months late heh. Hope they don't get back to you in June or something hehe :P

[dadamafia]

hey who in here got the most scholarship money from ringling so far?

[CatHicks]

I got two calandars. XD Not sure why...

Anyway, dadamafia, they haven't sent out any scholarship info yet.

[dadamafia]

cool beans. thanx.

[sula_nebouxi]

I don't know if they've announced the Presidential scholarship yet...but if you did get a scholarship from Ringling, it should show on your financial aid award letter.

[ScatteredLogical]

I don't know what they're doing for me, but I'm giving them a scholarship worth thirty thousand dollars =)

[sula_nebouxi]

http://www.livejournal.com/community/rsad/110069.html

Piccies of Ringling in this link. The websites don't do it justice. Of particular interest are the animation tables ;) Damn those things are really slanted...I imagine drawing on those will be extremely uncomfortable. Lots of pics you won't see in any catalog. That makes them super special :)

oh my god...I can't wait another 5 months :( I might visit the campus at the end of May to hold me over till August. This is going to be the longest 5 months ever.

[jejuhorse]

SWEET thanx for sharing sula :D
yea those tables are intimidating hehe
i never saw or used an animation table before
I think it's going to be pretty challeging and fun!hehe

[CatHicks]

The animation tables we have at school are the same way. You get used to it.

sula_nebouxi, when we called admissions they said that NON of the scholarships had been given away yet. But who knows! You may be right.

I've gotten scholarships from AI and SCAD so far... if I don't get anything from Ringling, my parents might force me to go somewhere else. (Yikes)

[ScatteredLogical]

If you'd be living on campus anyhow, what does it matter? How old are you that they can force you?

I don't think it's a yikes situation. Especially if you also got accepted to CalArts. When every great school in the entire country is pleading for you, and some are offering to PAY you to come...there is no yikes lol There is only yay and super-yay :confident

[sula_nebouxi]

http://www.eden.rutgers.edu/~atso/award.jpg

I'm pretty sure they've handed at least some of them out...unless they've totally lied to me. I sure hope not heh :^^:

[CatHicks]

I don't think it's a yikes situation. Especially if you also got accepted to CalArts. When every great school in the entire country is pleading for you, and some are offering to PAY you to come...there is no yikes lol There is only yay and super-yay :confident

Well I only got accepted to CalArts... I havent gotten any scholarship info from them. So right now they like me... but don't want me. XD Or something. I just hope everything works out.

Congrats on your scholarship Sula!

[ScatteredLogical]

If they didn't want you they wouldn't have accepted you. Sometimes you just get the cake and not the eating. Count your blessings! :}

[dadamafia]

its cool you got into calarts. on the scholarship note, you can share any amount yougot from any school. id love to see how much love you all are getting.

[jayneko]

None! Not even the calendar! XD XD I did like the neat folder the acceptance stuff comes in. I'm keeping it.

But that just means they want me to study hard, work harder (and eat little!). :D Which sucks cause I eat a lot but anyway. XD

I'm hoping the give some sort of awards (financial help) at the end of a semester to the best students or so. @.@

Oh. Happy St Pat's and I hope everyone had a fun spring break. n.n

[ScatteredLogical]

Unless they have a scholarship for Dwirgites, I have to earn all of what I get.

For the uninitiated, a Dwirgite is Dutch Welsh IRish German ITalian and English :teeth:

[sula_nebouxi]

Hehe thanks Cat, CalArts is a wonderful school, it has to be with the glowing reputation it has ;)

And yeah, if you got into all those schools, then you're a hot commodity. Everyone wants you. About scholarships...Ringling offers a few actually...some based on need and merit, some on whether you win a "best in show" kinda award. It's all in the catalog actually. They list a couple scholarhips in the financial aid section. pg 170 and 171 of the new catalog.

Oh! if anyone wants to stare at the construction site of the new Ringling Student Life center, go here: (refresh it really quickly and it's like a movie!)

https://saffron.rsad.edu/webcam1/axis-cgi/jpg/image.cgi?resolution=352x240&dummy=1111088477733

edit:oh and we've reached a milestone, this thread has reached 10,000 views heh. Yay!

[Hett15]

And I have now viewed it 10,001 times!


Hello all, I made it back finally. I got my "fianancial aid" letter too.

I got a perkins and a stafford loan and then a small scholarship of about $2,600 for the year (which I don't know if it is reoccuring or not). It totals about $9,500 for the first year, which I guess will help a lot. Then with working during the summers I will only have to get an additional $6,000 in loans a year (which isn't bad at all.) I was kind of hoping I could get some more help though, but after getting a degree already I thought I wouldn't get anything. I'm not going to complain. I am grateful for what I did get.

[ScatteredLogical]

I think they finished tonight! :}

http://www.studentofanimation.com/delRing.jpg

[jayneko]

Ah! Filled with student paintings. ;)

..Hey, gotta finance some way! ;D

[jejuhorse]

at the financial aid webpage it said that i'm not eligible for pell grant..
I guess it's cause any of our family member didn't do the tax report..that probably why..darn it :(

[Lokklyn]

I'm working out the kinks of my financial aid stuff. My FAFSA's EFC number is a bit higher than it should be because my family's income dropped by about 60% due to a parent losing a job fairly recently (around May of 2004)- and that wasn't reflected in last year's tax return.

As a result, I got zero help outside of loans. My guess is that I failed to qualify for anything based on both merit and need. Entirely merit based stuff, like the Presidential Scholarship, I probably have little hope for. While I'm confident in my portfolio, I won't be number one in CA applicants, for sure. I'm stuck in a very bad situation if I can't get Ringling to rethink their decision. :d

The Parent Loan for my family is $20000 a year though. I also got the Stafford Loan - but there's no way my parents can afford an $80000 loan over four years (nor are they willing). -I- wouldn't have a problem with it, but no place in the world will lend me that much money due to my lack of credit history.

I'm really happy for people who are getting lots of financial help though! I apologize if I sound a little bitter, and in no way am I requesting a pity party. What I actually want is some advice in how to alleviate some of this burden. If anyone's got some tips for me, I'd love to hear them.

I'm currently discussing my situation with Ringling, so hopefully I'll have good news later! :) I would love to join you all, but if I can't, I'll transfer in. Through a competitive art scholarship program, I was awarded a full ride to a Maryland state college with a fairly strong computer animation program (UMBC).

It's not like I don't have something to fall back on, but arrgh, it does hurt to have a bit of a financial roadblock. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[ScatteredLogical]

I hear there's a new pawn shop on campus?

I'm sorry, that was bad...

It's a shame they won't help because even if your credit sucks slash doesn't exist I would think there could be collateral perhaps, that you could use if just for a year, say, like a car?

[Avelena]

Hrm, I'm just going to end up getting a job during the first two years and in the summer when I'm at home. My parents are okay with paying for most of it, though the more help I get the more they'll love me (I think it's funny, but I'm not sure their kidding).

We didn't bother filing a FAFSA, we know we don't fall under any scholarships on merit or need.

[sula_nebouxi]

I'm sorry to hear about that Lokklyn...I was going to suggest somehow working it out with Ringling, but I see you're already doing that. I'm pretty sure there's some way to adjust the fafsa and your financial aid because of these new circumstances. I mean, you can always edit a processed fafsa form...Sorry I can't be of more help to you...but don't count out scholarships. There's lots of them out there. If your parents are willing, they can take out a home equity loan. You can borrow up to the amount of your home's value that's not being mortgaged. Basically, your home is collateral. Although this is an absolute last resort, and I believe you start paying back the loan immediately. Good luck though...

[carpal]

no offense, but mortaging your house to go to art school is like owning a country and being king but handing it over because you want to be a jester for a little bit. You might never be king again.

It is financial suicide.

If I had a full ride ANYWWHERE I would take it. Debt is the syphillis of our age, and the fact that we allow ourselves to take it on so needlessly is one of the saddest things of all. It shows a lack of values in our culture.

but... if you want to dance, you usually have to pay the fiddler.

for me, I am running for the hills.

[Hett15]

You don't have to look at the loan debt as one big lump sum. Year by year your financial situation will change. It is good to plan for the future, but there is no garuntee on what money will be there and what might not. I am breaking it down into yearly loans. If you can get a perkins and a staford loan you don't have to pay them off until you are 6-9 months out of school. Then work during the summers. Work hard. You can make $3,000-$5,000. That is close to $10,000 a year. Most people's parents can contribute about $3,000 - 5,000 a year. Its like $600 a month. If you then take out a $5,000 loan to cover the rest of tuition you end up only paying about $20,000- $25,000 for 4 years pf school, which is very reasonable. Then once you graduate and get a job you can easily make your student loans a part of your monthly financial payments. People will give you loans because they believe you will succeed in paying them back (with interest). Don't let financial stress stop you, but then again I don't know everyone's family situation. Be safe, but if you want it badly enough, don't be scared to take a risk.

[sula_nebouxi]

Just stating an option that's available. It's probably one of the last ditch resorts if you really really need the money now. Not saying it's a good idea either. Having 2 mortgages(if you had one before the loan) is insane and it doesn't really need an explanation.

About debt, sure it can be a scary thing. I'm pretty sure the people in this thread know that as much as anyone. I mean...we are going to pay out of our asses to pay for this education. I don't think it's necessarily a lack of values...in our society, it's generally accepted as "good debt". That we will make something out of ourselves with the money put in. I guess people believe the old saying "It takes money to make money".

Also, something interesting to note. I read in a sociology study once that in the past few decades, people tended to care more about making money after college rather than following a dream career. I always ask myself, what's the point of life if you don't do what you love? You've got maybe 80 years on Earth, why not make them count? I want to look back on life and say that I've accomplished my goals, that I did what I wanted to in life. I don't want to regret it all when I'm on my deathbed, saying that I could have been something else. That's one of my greatest fears.

Some advice that I've gotten over the years that I've taken to heart..."It truly is a blessing to know what you want out of life, since very few do...follow your dreams, the money will come soon enough"

edit:Hett, that's a good idea...I guess that business degree comes in handy every now and then eh? :) Although it might be a little more difficult for those that have to pay for housing ;)
edit#2: PZ, I see you're going to RSAD, so I have to ask, are you going to be swimming in debt?

[OneYouCannotMention]

Two Points:

1. If I worried about the loans and all the money my education was going to cost me I wouldn't have ever done it and I would have been a miserable person somewhere right now instead of having a career that I really enjoy.

2. What better motivation can you have than a large debt to make you be the best you can be and be at the top of your class so when recuiters come you are top on their list. I know that was my motivation. I loved it when I saw my peers screwing around, wasting their education, it was only going to make me look all the better.

[ScatteredLogical]

I don't think desire is an issue; some people only have straight-up working as an option. If he's an average student and white that knocks him out of a lot of scholarships. Well, at least the grants. Thank goodness it's an art school and all those generous endowment people are there. If you can get into the school on your talent, your same talent might be able to attract -artistic- merit money.

I also think Ed has a fantastic point. We're all going to take a huge hit. Who's going get the best bargain here, and be so awesome that they get a great deal out of what they payed for....? (That's rhetorical by the way... ;) )

[jayneko]

Agreed with you all. This is a debt worth taking on. Much better than paying for a sports car. It'll just break down eventually. An education is the best thing you can get in debt for.

And OYCM's right. It's great motivation to work your ass off! Besides, people tend to appreciate something that costs them more than something they got for free... Not that I would mind a free ride but, you get the point. ;)

Just watched Robots today. I loved it! Not only for the technical aspects but the story was nice. Sure, t'was a short movie so not too much character development was made but.. Still, I liked the main idea. Follow your dreams..or they'll haunt you forever! :E *Dun dun dunnn*

Money's a scary thing once you're "out of home", but hey, eventually you'll have to risk a little to gain a little. And stuff. n_n

*Must take Inspirational Speech Class 101* :P Hehe.

[Hett15]

I live life by this quote...
|
V

[sula_nebouxi]

“I am interested in entertaining people, in bringing pleasure, particularly laughter, to others, rather than being concerned with 'expressing' myself with obscure creative impressions” -Walt Disney

A quote I live by :) I even included it in my application essay heh.

And yes, I'm looking foward to watching the out-of-high-schoolers screw around :) I'm done with all that "freshman" crap...it's time to actually get something done.

[jayneko]

"I am a Banaaaaanaaaa~."

Wait no....that's not what I live by...

;) (Thanks to Sula for showing me that hillarious short)

[Hett15]

I just got a letter saying that they recieved my acceptance and enrollment fee and that I officially have a spot reserved in the 2005 -2006 class for the computer animation program.

yea! :bashful:

[ScatteredLogical]

"We'll be saying a big hello to all intelligent lifeforms everywhere... and to everyone else out there, the secret is to bang the rocks together, guys!" - Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

[sula_nebouxi]

Hehe...for those who don't recognize the quote, jayneko's referring to the short "Rejected". Awesome animated short :)

And that's awesome Hett! I can't wait to get my "we've reserved a spot" letter :)

On a side note, I called Ringling to ask about transfer credits. They've reviewed my studio classes and I *don't* think I have to take the elementary stuff again...they're still checking with my liberal arts credits and it'll be a while(since another department does all that, not admissions), but if all goes well, these couple of years will be a whole lot easier on me! Oh, does anyone know if the tuition is the same if I take 12 credits rather than 15 credits? If the price goes by per credit I might just stick with 12, that is, if I can't find a course that will count towards the degree. Don't want to have a larger courseload than absolutely necessary right? ;)

[jayneko]

I think it doesn't matter how much credits you take, as far as the price goes... or so I've been told. Might be wrong about that tho! x_x

[dadamafia]

its always nice to know that whenever i think i am obsessed with ringling, i can come to this thread and share the feeling.

[ScatteredLogical]

Hett told me that was the case too. 12 to 18 = same price per semester.

And he never lies. EVER.

[CatHicks]

Yes. Rejected is the best!

"Tuesday's coming. Did you bring your coat?"
"I live in a giant bucket."

Epic.

[Hett15]

I've never told a lie in 23 years. :bashful:

I believe the tuition IS just one flat rate for the whole semester (unless you somehow only go part time, which you can't really do in CA, but maybe other majors)

I am thinking about doing the Game Minor because I will have a bunch of stuff already completed for liberal arts and art history.

I would VERY STRONGLY recommend to most of you to take Art history I and Art History II at a community college over the summer. They are VERY difficult classes and take up a lot of time. You might even consider taking a third art history course (which is required) and getting it finished too. I did all three in the last semseter of college and it actually helped doing them at the same time, because I was in the mind set of hinking like an art history major. It will save you SO MUCH TIME, STRESS and EVEN SOME $$$. Instead of worrying about wether it was Raphael or Donatello that painted some picture in who knows what year and what significance it had...you could be taking a character design course and spending extra time perfecting the texture of your warthogman's axe and armour. Which sounds like more fun to you?


Oh and i never got anyone's self pics if you sent them to me. (to be honest I haven't done one yet myself.) hett15 @ hotmail dot com (<--keeps "spiders" from sending me spam.)

[Hett15]

oh and...




700 POSTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Jane Radstrom]

Hi all! I haven't been very active in lurking this thread (or CA at all recently!), but, I think Sula and maybe others remember me from last year's thread. I sent in a new portfolio, because I applied last year too late for financial help.
If anyone's curious, this is pretty much the portfolio that I sent them this year(Except that it was printed rather than digital copy.): http://www.velondra.com/images/wip/portfolio2005/

Weeelll... I got my letter back a few weeks ago and found out that I recieved about $13,000! 5,000 of that is from Ringling, and the rest is federal grant, state of Florida grants, and an academic scholarship. I guess I am lucky that my family is fairly poor, and I have good grades! But on the other side of that coin... my family is still poor, and there is still $9000 a year + I am guesstimating about $6000 in living expenses, art materials and books (if I live really cheaply off campus) left to pay. Yikes! So, I am in the same boat as many of you, trying to figure out how to cover what's left of tuition. And well.. I kinda have my fingers crossed about the presidential. They told me a decision should be announced the first week in April...

Oh, also, I am going down to Ringling to visit for a week (my bf is a sophomore illustration major), and I am hoping to sit in on some classes and ask alot of questions while I'm there. Let me know if there's anything you'd like me to find out!

Hopefully I'll see all of you in fall.

[jayneko]

Hey Velo! :D Wow, amazing work! ^_^v I'm still wondering how the _heck_ I got in! I really like your art, especially your use of colors.

I hope everyone finds the means to go. It'll be great to see you all there. :D
Myself, I'm taking the biggest loan in the history of my family. >_>;;; At least I'm thankful I'm able to take it.. Being Colombian and all, wasn't easy. x_x But when you really want something, I beleive you'll find the way... And I get cheesy after watching a good movie/finishing a good game, so.. Yeah, just finished Wind Waker. ;P

And Hett, sent ya my image thing. :D It's a good idea, taking those courses.. sadly, transfering credits overseas is a headache. Myself I've already had Art History I and II crunched up into one down here, so you might see how getting credit for those two might be a bit hard... I'll just have to suck it up. XD Gonna re-read my art history stuff over the summer though. Way too rusty right now.

Now I'm off to save the world. With a case of watercolors! *Poof*

[sula_nebouxi]

Cat,
"I'm a consumer !"
"And how!" oh...my...god...bwhahaha!!

Heh Hett...woooo! 700! Thanks for clearing that up about the tuition. Oh, and I could have sworn i sent the pic to you....yeah I did...I checked my sent folder and it definetly went through to hett15 at hotmail dot com.. hrm, oh well, i can resend it. But just in case, I'll PM you the link

Velo...that is so awesome! You rawk, those Watts drawings really must have bowled them over! You seriously need to teach me how they draw over there :) I'm in love with that simplified shadow style they have heh. Which reminds me...I need to stock up on Conte 1710 pencils since I stupidly forgot to bid on a set of possibly authentic Italian Ritmo charcoal pencils on ebay :( Anyways, I'll be rooting for you to get that presidential award! :) Wait...you're majoring in illustration and not CA right? :P hehe just kidding... congratulations on the grants :)

[ScatteredLogical]

Yah, I'm voting for you. Not all of the acceptance is talent, but even so you smoke the living bananas out of anyone I've seen that did get in. I've seen worse stuff out of the seniors there lol

[Avelena]

Ohh, Velo, I love your stuff! Are you going into Comp. Animation or Illustration?

[Jane Radstrom]

Hehe, thanks you guys. I'm majoring in Illustration.

[EccoXile]

freaking lovely stuff velo. damn watts kids :P makes us all look like crap. haha. im going to have to look for some figure drawing classes around here.

[jejuhorse]

very nice work velo I really like your portfolios :D
Congrats on those scholarships and grants
oh and as you mentioned that you registered for financial aid last year late,
Do you know what month was it around?
cause i also sent in my financial aid form late :(
and i really need financial support

And about art history damn i'm going to be having some hard time down there
cause i never had art history class before and i am going to korea this summer vaction, this might be the last time seeing my parents for 4 years if i get to go to Ringling
I guess i'll just try to enjoy art history there

Oh what kind of images do you want hett? you said a self photographed picture?

[Hett15]

Just for clarification...

for the group "photo" I don't really want photos. Make a caricature of yourself, color it, scan it and send it to me. Make a drawing that is like a pin-up of just a character. No background. Just plain white. Don't make a representational drawing either. Think loony tunes, or disney style.

http://home.comcast.net/~hett15/Greg__color2_500x.jpg

[jejuhorse]

ok thanx hett i'll do that hehe
never tried caricature before but i'll do my best :D
OH! I FINALLY got my acceptence letter!!!!hahahaha sooooo glad :D
now gotta wait for one more thing financial aid! hehe
hopefully i will get a good result from it
and I cannot hardly wait to see you all at Ringling XD

[CatHicks]

Awesome work Velo! You'll do great in Illustration!

have have you guys seen the secret easter eggs on the Incredibles DVD? Their are a few on the fist disk and then tons all over the second. There's one of a sock puppet version of the moive and it's hysterical! There's some other deleted scenes with Dash in class too.


Hett, you got my email with my picture for the project didn't you?

[jejuhorse]

i was trying to rent incredibles so i can watch all those awesome special features...but at blockbuster every single one of them were already out...:(

oh hett thanx for the clarification :D

[Hett15]

Sorry Cat I think I must have deleted it or else it went in my junk mail and it was deleted while I was away. I think becasue I don't have your emails everything has been going to my junk mail. If you guys can put something like Conceptart or Ringling in the subject I can scan my junk email folder for them and spot them easier. If you have already sent your picture if you could resend it I will be on the look out for them. It's my fault because I have my filter level set realy high and because I haven't been home in a week.


wow this got complicated quickly. :rolleyes:

by the way happy first day of Spring (March 21st)

[CatHicks]

Sent it... again.

[ScatteredLogical]

jeju I was going to rent it too; I want to own it, a part of me does, but I figure mostly I just wanna see the cool new things, so that was my genius solution....Alas, Blockbuster isn't so hot on the in-stock department....but Hollywood Video is too far away for me

Oh, and as far as timing: The government's official site for FAFSA says the absolute best time you could possibly send it in is immediately after filing your taxes. Makes sense when you think about how it's all representative of your financial status.

[ScatteredLogical]

As an update, I know at least one of you was interested in the improv scene-building project I had in my Lightwave class. We render Wed night, so that the comps in the lab can dance around and pump out the renders undisturbed whilst everyone else is away...

A Newtek-logo clad "Skullbot" character (think of a MechWarrior if it had human anatomy and a skull for a head) and scenery/props from supplied content directories or the book's CD come together in a narrative of your own design. You get so many hours to pick things out, plan, and then pump this out. You'll all see mine eventually, but I thought I'd share an interesting self-exercise I underwent this morning.

TJ is an acquaintance of mine who sits behind me in our lab. He hadn't finished anything really but the setup of the scene. He had the whole environment done, and done well, but only bare bones for the 'story' element of the grade. He asked me to come by and offer suggestions.

In TJ's story, Skullbot is at a computer typing away, and an intolerable malfunction angers him to the breaking point. He grips the nearest thing and tosses out the window with the ridiculously inhuman force that only his robo-body is capable of. My suggestion was thus:

* The first view we see (I'm not gonna step on his toes completely...it's a good establishing shot so we're working with that I continue)...is on a shelf in the corner opposite the character looking down from behind him working at his desk. Being sort of Escher-like, recursive or possibly security-camera like, and taking a screenshot of his workspace as he was making the animation, and using that as the image on the monitor gives it a bit more content than the stock blue screen. That comes from the details-for-realism camp.

* The really important thing is this, and it changes the whole effect:

Make the object valuable.

I don't know what the value system is of a Skullbot, but I know it brings in more depth to the emotional dynamic to have him conflicted by anger and surprise and then longing regret -- from 1 to 3. You see, if it's valuable, like a high school football trophy or a money clip, he'll grab it and toss it, because he's PO'ed and it was the first thing close by he could swipe...but if it's very important to him, as soon as he does a take after settling from the throw checking his hands, he realizes what he just threw and where it went, and all of the sudden now he has this complete shock, and the internal motivation provides both pathos and comedy because of the situational reactions. Additionally, he can now dive out of the window after it to exit whereas previously he only exited via the doorway stewing in his own mental juices.

I love that sort of decision-making process! Sometimes I practice ridiculous walks, but this week I've been trying to act as I would normally except with exaggerated anticipations. I can't even see myself half the time but I actually feel how much more compelling I must be to view! lol :P

As an aside, for inspiration, think about the world's unsuccessful actors for a second. They spend all the time and money they can muster in their lifetime trying to do something because of the beingness they seek from it; if they could only be an actor, they'd feel this or get this. It's all bass-ackwards. If they're an actor inside, if they come from a place of acting and it is really all they are about, all the doingness will come. And that which is satisfied within them, will be made moreso too as a direct result. Are you doing animation or being animation? Let it show in your work, and for that matter in everything you do at this school!

[EccoXile]

Oh, and as far as timing: The government's official site for FAFSA says the absolute best time you could possibly send it in is immediately after filing your taxes. Makes sense when you think about how it's all representative of your financial status.

unless your like my family...still haven't filed ours this year. ughs. so with the whole ringling wanting them before march...that doesn't really work :dur:

[ScatteredLogical]

Making the decisions this late disrupts quite a few things. Not many conventions as far as applying to schools, getting accepted, financial aid, etc. pertain to our collective situation. God bless rolling admissions for backups. I had a couple before but in case it comes down to the latecomers, you know...

[Hett15]

Hey Scattered I was just thinking about TJ's scene and I had a few thoughts...

what if he threw whatever object it is not just through the window, but through the wall. That show how strong/mad he is. As for the object you are definately right that it should have value of some sort. Possibly a picture frame with his dear old mom and family of skullbots or whatever (that all looked like him, but with wigs and lipstick etc.) it would be an endearing, but comical moment when he sticks his head out through the hole in the wall and looks down at the shattered picture frame with his family facing up at him.

just a thought.

[ScatteredLogical]

I don't see him till tomorrow (unless he e-mails me) but I'll pass along the ideas. The reason I chose the window is because of its superficial meaning. Even if it's physically closed a window is seen as something open, some area, some avenue of disposal. The window's also right in line with him when he steps back because the room is so much longer than it is wide. How can we show, by the way, that he's on a high enough floor to dive? Or do we go for extra comedy and make it a first floor office, and he dives into a crumple?

If he's too strong the impact might obliterate the frame before it leaves, or if it does go through, it takes a small picture-sized area out with it instead of say crumpling the whole side of the building. It's interesting that you said that though because after we first started doing walking assignments he'd already been doing tutorials in the back of the book where you assign certain properties to stuff and it breaks down into tiny versions of itself (it was a brick wall too if I remember right)...

I love the family of Skullbots concept. I wish I had a picture to show you how much the Skullbot looks exactly like what you think it does. Plus the only thing that moves on his face is a hinging jaw, so wigs and lipstick would almost look like s/he was forced to do it and emasculate it to the point of extreme comedy. I'll ask after his renders if I can host the movie somewhere, so we can all see your ideas manifested (he'll likely take the suggestions if I can convince him it's not too much extra work).

Mine's more straightforward. Wino Skullbot is fixing the chimney on his roof. He notices a rose growing through a crack on the edge of his very long roof, and gets curious about it. So he drunkenly saunters over, plucks it, sniffs it, and takes a giant sigh of contentment. He resumes walking, but pules a Wile E. and has walked too far =off= the ceiling. He realizes that, and the camera flips away to do a Hitchcock/Vertigo-style move-in/zoom-out trick until it's inches from his face. Even though his face is unmoving it reads pretty well that he's thinking "Oh jeez..." and then he (through scaling and stretching) zips off-camera to certain doom below. The animation's done there; the teacher has since fixed the lighting issues in the software and I'm set to begin rendering mine tomorrow.

[jayneko]

Sounds good! Be sure to upload it and show it to us! :D

[sula_nebouxi]

I cannot wait to get the hell out of Rutgers. It just gets worse and worse here everyday. And I mean it is getting *bad*. It's bad enough that I hear about rapes, robberies, assaults, car thefts, and have ambulances screaming past me everyday on campus, but now...this is simply too much.

Here's an excerpt from a news article. This all happened a few blocks from where I was having class.

New Brunswick hostage situation ends, captive teen girl released

(03/22/05) NEW BRUNSWICK – A six-hour hostage situation in New Brunswick has ended with the apparent peaceful surrender of two men.

Police were seen taking two men away from the scene on Seaman Street in handcuffs at approximately 4:30 p.m. The 14-year-old female captive, along with another woman, were then escorted away from the home where the teen was held since 10 a.m.

Police Sergeant Thomas Keefe says the girl called authorities and informed them that men had taken her hostage. According to Keefe, a man took the phone at the end of the conversation and threatened to kill the girl, nearby police officers and himself if authorities attempted to enter the premises.

The Middlesex County hostage negotiation team was later called to the scene to defuse the situation.



I heard helicopters flying around for hours wondering what was going on. Then someone in class told me what happened. No one could believe it. Yeah...needless to say, I can't wait to get the hell out of here. And to those who think Ringling is in a ghetto, try living in my neck of the woods for a few days.

On a lighter note..SL, cool story. I'm interested to see how this is all portrayed.

[Avelena]

Aww man, that's a really crappy sounding neighborhood. Stay safe!

*squiggles on piece of paper* I'm working on my little caricature!

[Pixeldragoon]

HEY EVRYONE, LET'S GO TO THE DIGITAL THREE THESIS SHOW
It's on april 1st, friday after next, from 6 to 9, and I'll be going with my drawing teacher. Our seniors will be having an exhibit there, and I'll get extra credit by going. I'd love to meet some of you, so tell me if you are going! It's gonna be real fun!

[jayneko]

Yeah. RSAD is NOT gettho. ;P It's actually a nice little place, and as long as you don't do stupid things as going out at 1 am with nothing than gold chains on and 1000 bucks in your wallet, you'll be ok. ;P

Hope the hostage thing ended well eh? n_n;; Must've sucked while it lasted. But you know, crazy stuff can happen everywhere. @_x Granted, I bet you're glad you'll be in sunny FL soon. ;) Aren't ya? Huh? Huh? We all are. @_@

And hey, what's this Thesis Three show, Pixel? XD Where issit? Not that I'd be able to go but..just curious. ^_^

And for a totally random question. ... ... ... Has everyone received their fin-aid letters? n_n Not wanting to pry on who got what, just wondering if I was even sent one or not. ^^;

[sula_nebouxi]

Avelena, that's what mace is for but thanks for the thought ;) Heh, it's not too hard to avoid trouble. It's just common sense like Jay says heh. Just gotta watch out for the bum here who verbally abuses you when you don't give him money. He'll start following you if you really cheese him off. I've wanted to crack his head on the sidewalk for following me and my friend and wanting money, but ya know...society frowns on those kinds of things.

And I wish I could go, Pixel, sounds like fun :) I don't know what it is, but it still sounds cool heh.

Oh and Jay, the hostage situation ended peacefully. Looks like the guys gave up and turned themselves in. So, everything is peachy keen now.

[Pixeldragoon]

Digital Three: 941-321-7209
1938 Adams Ln # 204 Sarasota, FL 34236,

Here is a map (http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?latlongtype=internal&addtohistory=&latitude=pSMvxoY0suQ%3d&longitude=tTdrewljdnY%3d&name=Digital%20Three&country=US&address=1938%20Adams%20Ln%20%23%20204&city=Sarasota&state=FL&zipcode=34236&phone=941%2d321%2d7209&spurl=0&searchtype=search&cat=Web%20Site%20Design%20Service)

It's a senior thesis show, where people come to look at our seniors' work. I'll get a good explanation from my teacher when he tells memore about it. It's at a gallery called Digital Three

[sula_nebouxi]

Ah!! The senior thesises(thesi?). That's awesome that they're done. I can't wait to see this years :) Ooh...time to raid cgtalk and see if they're posted there hehe. They usually are ;)

[OneYouCannotMention]

I'm not quite sure what that Digital Three show is all about but the senior CA projects won't be done until April 4th. Our end of year show that features all senior projects along with senior good byes and best of under classmen work is April 29th (I pretty sure) and it's at the theater at Manatee Community College in Bradenton.

The show is totally created be the seniors so we never know what to expect but it's always entertaining

[sula_nebouxi]

Oh...shucks...and here I thought they were done early this year heh. Oh well...back to eager anticipation. It'll be worth it I'm sure. :)

[CatHicks]

Gah, I just tried to ask a serious question about the CORE program and taking liberal arts courses during the summer over at the RSAD livejournal and some guy went through and deleting all posts made my incoming freshman. Piffle!

Hey, OYCM! How are things? Any idea when we'll get to see the 2005 animations on the webpage? Last year they wern't up while we were at Pre-College. Will it be mid-summer again this year too?

[Pixeldragoon]

No, I mean, High school seniors. Our Seniors. At Digital three, they are going to be showing some of their portfolio work, and it's called a Thesis show for it sounds cool.

[Avelena]

Hrm, sounds interesting pixel, I'll probably be busy then though.

Ohh...I can't wait to see the RSAD senior thesis'! *bounces*

[sula_nebouxi]

What did you ask, Cat? Maybe we can help...we won't delete your post :P Peh...him talking about growing up when he goes and deletes "lame" questions. I think he also deleted a post of a friend of mine's too. Whatever...he can go live in his little world. We're a family here...pull up a chair, crack those knuckles and ask away...:)

[sula_nebouxi]

You must see these animations now.

There She Is!!
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/161181
There She Is!! Step 2
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/224148

Beautiful, wonderful Korean flash animation. Plus the music is really catchy :) Be sure to watch the first one first, the 2nd is the sequel. Watch now! Now now now!

I'm such a sap for these kinds of movies :P

[jayneko]

People like that really tick me off. :P

Sula - Bwhaha, that's too cute. XD Definetly worth watching! *Adds a bookmark* Really well made. XD The beginning of the second one reminds me of living in Montreal! XD

Makes me wonder if we'd ever try to use flash to animated in Ringling.

Anyhow. Ask away Cat! We'll get the info somehow... 8)

[jejuhorse]

hmm.... it says loading...but this is taking quite a bit heh
well hopefully it's worth waiting

hey pixel...it sounds great but i think i live too far from there..darn it
so i guess maybe next year's i'll go and see :D

...hehe just saw the flash..:D it's cute lol
yea the song's lyrics are all just right for the flash too heheh
well time to go and see the second one

[CatHicks]

I've seen There She Is before. Great animation! Hadn't seen the second one before! I really want to learn more Flash MX. I wonder if Ringling offers any on-the-side flash workshops. Does anyone know? That'd be awesome if they did.

Hey thanks for the sympathy guys. It's smarter to ask here anyway. You guys are cool. I was just wondering about which classes I should go ahead and take this summer. Computerized Writing Studio [EN 151] or Euro-Western Art & Ideas I-II [AH 191-192]. If I have the time I want to take them all. I don't want to take any kind of art class outside of RSAD but I can do the english and art history classes anywhere. I have a feeling that the art history classes will be harder at Ringling. I also wanted to know how many people take liberal arts classes during the summer and if there is a different entry test for those who do.

We went by the Digital Three studio at Pre-College when we were doing a tour of different artists' studios. Pretty cool! I have pictures somewhere. I'll have to upload them.

[ScatteredLogical]

It's good for Flash... The educational version of MX is very inexpensive and with just a brief overview you can get do doing interesting animation and even programming inside two weeks...

Skullbot update >> When I left today 77 of 952 frames had rendered at about 12.6 seconds per frame avg... It looks like tomorrow around noon we can all watch mine...I don't know when TJ's will be done...still waiting on that e-mail...He cracked up at your idea though, Hett

[jejuhorse]

hehe can't wait to see your work SL :D

oh and Cat if i was you i would take Art History
I think Art History would be very stressful when you also have other different classes yea...i would perfer art history for summer..
I wish i did it..so i could just be alittle bit eased off but...i think that will never work...i'll probably going insane after couple days of art history in Ringling hehe
Well...i guess that would be my first obsticle in Ringling heh

[jayneko]

I dunno.. I kinda like history so I think I'll enjoy those classes.. But hey, s'just me. XD

Are we allowed to stay at rsad over the summer to take some of the credits? Would it have an extra charge? Anyone know? n_n;;

SL-Sounds good. Can't wait to take a look see either. :D

[jejuhorse]

i think summer all those dorms are closed..
but i read this couple months ago..but i think they only open upperclassmen apartments..but with extra fees..but i think you are old enought to live in bayou apartment though..

if i go to Ringling i'm also going to be staying near ringling and try to get a job so i can pay atleast part of my loan

[sula_nebouxi]

I'd take art history too...I'm betting that they will go more in depth than liberal arts colleges. It's hard enough there...I can't imagine how much they want you to remember at Ringling. I dunno about whether or not English courses will be easier in a community college or at Ringling. But if you want it out of the way so you can concentrate on other things, go for it.

[CatHicks]

Hmm... good point guys. Thank you for your input! I think I'll shoot for getting the Art Histories out of the way first and then see if I have time to squeeze English into my summer too. I better start looking at local colleges and call Ringling to see what can transfer. Thanks again y'all!

[ScatteredLogical]

We'll see if it's actually true that story can save crap art. I've never used 3D and there a lot of things like timing that I would see through differently if I had a stronger grasp. Should be neat though just to see the whole thing fully rendered. A lot of the instant replay VCR-control stuff as you scrub through will only show details when stopped, and everything else in real-time as it plays just becomes things like bounding boxes.

My own personal recommendation is take anything aside from non-anim and non-CA classes elsewhere. I know from experience just the difference between a state school and community college when it comes to stuff like English. My comp class at Edinboro was non-stop work; the teacher had some personality issues to overcome but she was EXTREMELY thorough; a published writer for Prentice-Hall, she had a success rate of something like 87% that all of the students that took her class eventually went on to be published in some shape or form, regardless of major. We're talking scary details. But for some people, especially animators, writing is something we can worry about later, and certainly in a complexity more forgiving to our schedule. It was hard knocks but the efforts were worth it -- if that's your thing. Taking Comp I and Comp & Lit at RACC was far more simple. The semesters there are condensed by five weeks but it was streamlined, mostly in-class work except for the papers, and taught by BA adjuncts instead of doctors. Far less thorough but rewarding nonetheless if you put your heart in it. I suppose that's why you pay 10000 dollars less.

I wish it saved time off the four-years deal but there are far worse things that could happen.

[Pixeldragoon]

Wait, so what classes should I take before Ringling to get them out of the way? Like the ones I can go to a COmmunity college for?

[jayneko]

Quite possibly the art history ones, Pixel. You should call Ringling and check with them exactly what is seen in that class and if they can recommend a community college near you to take them. They're very strict in what transfers and what doesn't, so you don't wanna waste your money and summer studying to have them say no to your credits. ;P

Myself, I have to call 'em too.. Doubt my art history classes will transfer but hey. XD

[JAIR428]

hey i just got excepted into RSAD for animation, this fall maybe i will see some of you there!
--------there's all this talk of people dreading the drawing classes actually all the drawing really excites me!... jus waiten on a scholarship now! $$$$all about the Benjamins /m\

[sula_nebouxi]

Congrats JAIR and welcome to the thread heh. I checked out your sketchbook...and I have to say there's some really nice drawings in there. I see an influence from wes9000 too. Great jorb man...I'll see ya on campus ;)

[ScatteredLogical]

That cobra girl especially is the best one. Talent + concept = goodness. She reminds me of that masked angelly thing (Jenova?) from FFVII except pretty...

SKULLBOT UPDATE >> http://www.studentofanimation.com/images/ and right-click to Save Target As... on the fullrender.mov. Around 30mb in Quicktime format. You can really tell I'm just learning this program haha. As a small note, he's supposed to be getting up both with his backthrusters and using the chimney for leverage. I haven't gotten to particle effects and I was staging to avoid seeing most of the -really- bad anim for that part. And the camera was supposed to move UP for the flower shot at the beginning, not sink the flower -into- the roof. I do like his walk though.

[jayneko]

Hey SL! Took me a while to get the animation.. My stupid ISP kept timing out or something and it only donwloaded halfway..but I finally got it! o_@ Hehe, the walk -is- pretty fun. :)

I'm not a real animator yet so I don't feel comfy giving feedback on such cause everything I say may be a LIE but... XD *Is nosy!*

1- Take a look at your fcurves...or..graph editor. I forgot the name in lightwave. Some of the movements seem to float, not really stopping, and you lose the illusion of weight. The curves will tell you how the movements are happening. It takes a while to understand them (took ME a while!). o_o When the foot stops right in front of the flower see how it slides? If you can find the curve for the object that controls the foot's position, try to click on the keyframe and find a "Linear" option. It'll make the foot stick. I hope. I really haven't used lightwave for a while but the curve editor should work everywhere. n_n;;;

(Was that confusing enough? @_@) Sorry I couldnt give a better explanation of the curves.. It's why I'm no good teaching. ;) Just think of every moving object with keyframes as a mathematical graph. Or something.

2- You have a little bit of anticipation when the skullbot looks towards his right to spot the flower, when the head starts the movement. Try taking that earlier so he looks at the flower and THEN starts moving. :D You've all prolly read this tons of times before, but a character has to think before he acts. Usually leading an action with the character's gaze is a good way to lead the audience into the next action. Easier said than done, but hey, there's some anticipation there so why not use it? :) S'all good.

3- Once we get a closeup of the skullbot's face.. I'd hold the pose longer to get the "Uh oh" through..maybe drop his jaw. XD Blinking could help too. The hitchcock vertigo effect is hard to pull off. I guess it worked in the film because it was a shot of what the character saw under him, and not a zoom in/track out of his face. It's a bit looneytooney..which I love, but I know you were trying for the vertigo effect eh? Maybe a shot just like in Vertigo would explain this better? Facing down, then back to a close up, "Uh oh!", then down he goes?

4- When skullbot picks up the flower, the camera jumps over to the other side.. This is called jumping the Line of Action, or so my film teacher called it, and he proceeded to keel us. Painfully. It's disorienting for the viewer. Basically, one should stay on one side of the LoA unless it's a crazy, crazy movie. LoA is simply an imaginary line from where the main character in the scene is facing to his..um..goal? IE, the flower in this case.

5- After sniffing the rose and walking off..maybe Skullbot can look TO the camera. That way, it ill explain why he didn't notice the roof ending. He was too distracted by the pretty flower and was..I dunno, smiling at us to show his approval? Going wink wink nudge nudge or something. XD

The lighting's a bit dark too. It's a good start though! :) All I could make in lightwave were little trains and such. ;) Keep refining and it'll be great in no time. ^_^ And I apologize if I was making stuff up here.. if I was wrong I'll gladly eat my words with ketchup and mustard.

Im glad I got to download your stuff tho! I hope you didn't mind me giving it crits and such. Just trying to be useful around here. ^^;;;

And now it's midnight and I'm sleepy. So I'm off!

[ScatteredLogical]

Oh, yah, I am an expert at knowing what the problems are with this thing, so I can help you out. Four hours of lab isn't enough time to pop these things out.

1) Because it's parented to the calf and that parented to the thigh, the only thing you can control about the foot is its rotation. Position changes would break the foot off of the body. This is all forward kinematics, just setting up pivots and things. The slipping is in fact with the ultimate parent (the pelvis) where the copying and pasting of pieces of the timeline in the graph editor were uneven with the rest of the timing (we were asked to keep each new key 10 frames apart).

2) You can read a thing as much as you want, but it all changes when you're out there doing it, you know? I agree and disagree. I agree in that I wanted him to just turn the head, and that would prompt him to get up; I disagree in that part of his craning had this been adequately animated would account for the beginning lean of the body which is a preface to his getting up. Plus like you were saying there's the curve types in a graph editor that do that recoil stuff, and it's a real blasted event trying to keep track of what pieces are doing what and settling, especially when they're so highly interrelated. I suspect that was residual motion from something else that snuck in there.

3) I agree completely, and it's so obvious and so good of an idea it almost hurts. He's so starkly expressionless and yet with the one moveable part of his face, a snappy 1940s style jawdrop would be a perfect fit. As for the second point, I think it's a style decision. It breaks the tempo to pull the zoom/track, and it was sort of anticipated with the "Oh shnikes there's nothing but air below your next step!" pull-above camera shot that preceded it.

4) Breaking the line deals almost exclusively with conversations between people. It involves reciprocating one angle for another in relation to the two subjects so that the camera staging shows views that we would see if we were there. If I am facing you, and I'm on the right of the screen with my back to the camera and the shot's over my left shoulder, and you're on the left side of the screen, the setup has to be the same when it goes to you talking to me otherwise it would appear unnatural and as you said 'disorient' the person as to where they are, especially since I basically "spawned" in your place, whereas trading the foreground for the background is an agreeable change. You cannot break 180 degree angle, which is a straight line. Being approximate, I'm right on the line. If anyone can clarify I'd be interested because it seems like it works, especially with him flying solo in the scene. Because the assignment had us do 3 sections (establishing, walk cycle, interaction with object), approaching the flower is in my mind considered part of the walk cycle section. The reason it is from that side of him is it is connected to the end of the establishing shot, which is him in front of the chimney. I don't think a good establishing shot would be the chimney from behind him with pieces of him sticking out of the sides. Had I continued from the side of him during the walk, the flower would be blocked by his hand and be ineffective staging even if the silhouette were similar. Knowing what he's doing is important to the whole thing, plus him finally picking it up in near-profile reads very well in my opinion and is easily my favorite shot of the whole thing. So at least you know why I did what I did.

EDIT > To be fair I just realized very simply I didn't have to use his left arm to grab it. File -that- one under K'DUH!

5) Duly noted, in that his head under my explanation should stay where it was at during the sigh. Nice and lofty and high. Hell, it echoes his attitude with his body, right? Part of my walk cycle had his head basically stuck downward, which even if you were drunk and distracted by the flower (the whole point) makes it pretty hard to not notice the distant ground ahead of you. This is me being careless and not taking the story context into consideration when pasting in extra cycles. Adjustments should've been made for that. Good eye.

Incidentally, the lighting should be dark because the sun has gone down. I added in blue area light to create moonlight though we never see the moon, and I thought it would help reinforce the atmosphere. Then again, if we're being technical, he's not dreaming so a spotlight out of nowhere on the rose is ridiculous too.

I didn't put it up for critique per se, especially since the actual slap-together + render time was so limited BUT now I'm glad I did because I thought I knew all the crap parts; you opened my eyes. I hope the grading is less harsh but it makes me feel better to see what I can look out for and improve. This was really WAY more an exercise in becoming familiar with the software more than being fancy or using the principles or anything. I'm taking a course like this, as I said, so that when I get to Ringling it can be more about the art and less about these technical gaffes. Less distraction, y'know? I'm just happy it has continuity. Awesome animation can wait till I know my way around the program hehe

No sense in apologizing, I more than appreciate your desire and motivation to share that information. I wish it happened all the time, in and out of school. There's really no "wrong" that you can be. You can only say "That's broken," "that's a lack of effort," and "that's my opinion." I'm glad you wanted to be useful and even more glad that you were.

And thanks for being patient. The closest I came to a format change was 21mb and it was a TERRIBLE .AVI (I was exporting through Flash MX 2004)...

[ScatteredLogical]

Incidentally, have you ever had ketchup and mustard together with brown sugar as a sauce for meatloaf? I'd eat a SIDEWALK with that on it, OH my GOD!

[ScatteredLogical]

Hooray, I found this in a direction discussion board:

For a couple of people talking, so-called "reverse angles" which break the 180 degree rule or Axis of Action are quite common and not at all strange and jarring. Often they are point-of-view shots, i.e. two people sitting on a balcony, facing each other talking, filmed from the exterior. Then you see them both turn to the camera, and whoosh, we cut to the camera being 180 degrees on the other side looking 'with' them at whatever they're looking at (sunset, naked women, etc). This certainly breaks the 180 degree rule but is quite common and nobody gets confused. Why? Because all participants were in the shot from both angles. No spatial confusion.

On the flip side, what =is= confusing is if you film these two balcony-goers, one at a time one from the exterior again in the left of the frame, and then cut to the =other= guy filmed from the interior looking out. That puts him =also= in the left of the frame -- jarring and confusing.

Basically, then, you can say that the "proper" interpretation of the 180 degree rule is: "The camera should stay on one side of the 'imaginary line of action' at all times =unless= all participants (and adequate spatial cues) exist in =both= cuts."

Since the only participants are Skullbot and his flower-friend, my shot checks out and is officially "not a technical difficulty." Who's passing out the stickers?

[EccoXile]

finalllyyyyy. i was accepted into illustration :P still waiting on the letter and financial stuff. but yayyyy.

[jejuhorse]

Congrats Ecco i'm really glad to here that
i also looking foward to see you too :D
(hopefully i will also be able to go to Ringling..:))
i'm waiting for my financial aid letter to come...

[OneYouCannotMention]

[QUOTE=ScatteredLogical]Oh, yah, I am an expert at knowing what the problems are with this thing, so I can help you out. Four hours of lab isn't enough time to pop these things out.
QUOTE]

It's much better to have something short and good rather than somthing way too long and not so good.

If you only have four hours why not create a project that can be somewhat close to be being finished in that time. If you are just starting out spending four hours to just have the guy stand up is fine.

Qualtiy not quantity.

[OneYouCannotMention]

Since the only participants are Skullbot and his flower-friend, my shot checks out and is officially "not a technical difficulty." Who's passing out the stickers?

Sorry but it's still a jump cut.

[ScatteredLogical]

It's much better to have something short and good rather than somthing way too long and not so good. If you only have four hours why not create a project that can be somewhat close to be being finished in that time. If you are just starting out spending four hours to just have the guy stand up is fine.

Quality not quantity.

It's fine if that was the assignment. I agree wholeheartedly; however, I already said there was specific criteria in place. The assignment wasn't "have something happen," it was "have these handful of specific things happen." 4 hours is what I had, and this is as far as I got doing what was assigned in those 4 hours. I also already stated that the focus wasn't in the animation -- it can't be when you're learning things as you go -- but in getting used to the software and using that knowledge to carry out what was asked of us. If I knew the software like the back of my hand instead, and all the characters and props and lighting were there and rigged and all I had to worry about was animation, the quality would be there. I have enough 2D skills to make it work better than what it's at right now. Unfortunately, those simply weren't the circumstances.

It's in the catalog as Lightwave class and not something that teaches us how to animate. As an example, walk cycles were one of the first things we covered, and something that is often regarded as the hardest thing to pull off acting-wise in all of animationdom, correct? What he showed the class was him going through the paces of mechanically doing two poses and tweening them, and adjusting them in the graph editor. I'm not complaining though, it's what you get for 267 dollars a credit hour, and as I explained before I'm in this to get the tech kinks out of my system before travelling elsewhere and nothing more.

Sorry but it's still a jump cut.

I meant that it 'checked out' for breaking the line. There's no one else in the scene, so by a broad definition any way I shoot him unless the whole thing was continuous could be perceived as a jump cut, and even with a very specific definition I can't disagree. It's very much a mismatched edit. All I have is my rationale, which makes good logical sense from a continuity standpoint but not the strongest directorial sense in practice. That wasn't what I was discussing though.

My own description, based off of what I remembered in my mind as an abstraction, was that both of them were in profile. In reality, if you watch the clip, before the cut occurs the perspective is above and forward from the character, and after the profile shot the next cut has the props and lighting showing that the orientation has changed. There can't be a terribly strong confusion with a bird's eye 3/4 and a closeup profile. The actual flaw with this that would have it not satisfy the requirement is that when the cut is first made, we have only scattered information (a background that looks very similar in every shot, the roof pieces which all share a texture) to help us figure out where he is. That's insufficient. I'd need to have better visual reference to make it work right.

[OneYouCannotMention]

It doesn't have to do anything with the background the problem is that is one shot he's facing to our left and the next he's facing right. It's breaks the 180 rule (which can be broken but not the way you are doing it), it jarring and confusing. If a viewer stops to think about which way the character is facing from shot to shot and rather than the story it's not working.

Since the whole idea for a cut is to show new information to the viewer a close up of the hand picking up the flower would make more sense, just rotate the hand so the palm is facing forward more so we can see it better. Yes I know it was only a four hour project I'll be quite now.

[ScatteredLogical]

it jarring and confusing. Even if there wasn't a rule about it, which of course there is (http://www.ouc.bc.ca/fina/glossary/o_list/180degreerule.html), that being the case for just one person means it should be changed. Revised until there's no technical fuss to occlude the storytelling. Bear in mind it makes more sense to me because I've seen the whole environment in Layout, so I have no fresh eyes to perceive the cuts with.

I misunderstood said rule. Here's what I was thinking:

http://studentofanimation.com/images/AWNForums.jpg

In the first diagram is the location of the three camera shots in the middle of the file and the position of Skullbot (it's approximate). I thought that the first angle, the red line, would set up the "line going through the middle of the scene" as described in the Axis of Action definition, when in fact it is parallel to the dashed path he was walking. In my reasoning, when the next green line came in, it wasn't past the red 180-degree-line (which isn't one at all) and thus I wasn't breaking it. Now I know that I have broken it, and that just by being over on the other side there's a strong chance the shot can't work, even if the side of the frame he occupies with most of his visual weight has changed.

I consider this a lesson learned! Now that I've talked about it and hear different views, etc. it will be in my memory banks to avoid making the same mistake twice. I think this kinda thing is healthy, to show the people coming in in a practical way what to avoid.

Yes I know it was only a four hour project I'll be quite now. I was making a point for clarity that I would've done exactly what I should've (made something less, but made it well) had the opportunity been there. As an artist I have to care about what people think, especially when it comes to the integrity of the expression of my ideas. If I am unaware of that or cannot defend or explain that then I've lost some of my control as a filmmaker to communicate to the audience. As far as physical efforts are concerned displaying it differently would fit in the timespan, to be sure, but not if I used its time to make a bad decision. If I did what I did and staged it improperly, staging it properly requires going back and necessitates more time. I was actually still working on it as the lab closed. I have to work on getting it right the first time =)

Just because I am opinionated, or even declared something as a perceived fact, is not an argument or even a critical defense, even though it looks just like it. I am making statements and asking questions to understand what I currently do not. I would hope that discussing work and even what someone thinks he or she knows has a place at a school. If there are just directions and criteria, and then you say "Fill in the gaps with your own research and creativity," that's fantastic and right up my alley, but never dealing with the end product once it's there is not being accountable for the entire second half of the learning process. It's like touching a hot stove and not sending the message to the brain that it's painful and harmful.

[Father McKenzie]

Hey people. I got into CA and just want some advice form vets on what I need to do this summer to make the transition smooth. Specifically what programs i need to be familiar with. Thanks

[sula_nebouxi]

Couple of notes...

Ecco and McKenzie...congrats on making it in! We all knew you could do it Ecco ;) And McK, you don't have to be familiar with a program going in. They'll teach you that in class. But it doesn't hurt to have some prior knowledge. They use Maya in the CA program, so if you'd like to you can practice a little with it over the summer. Just note that you won't be touching Maya until your sophmore year.

SL, personally I think the project could have been made even simpler. And I think it could have included a little bit of acting in there too. I figure, why not kill two birds with one stone? Practice acting in animation and technical skills.

One of the first lessons we learned in the acting class I'm taking now is how to keep things simple. Acting doesn't require crying and screaming to be called *good* acting. It can be just as interesting to watch someone drink coffee and read the paper. Scratch that, it can be made even simpler than that. It's possible to make a scene where Skullbot sits down in a chair interesting. I think that fulfills your assignment, he does interact with an object. If all we had was Skullbot, a chair and a door, I think it could work.

Let's say Skullbot walks in through the door and pauses. He notices a chair by turning his head to the side. He turns his body to face the direction of his head and walks towards the chair. He sits down and stretches out his legs. He leans back and puts his hands behind his head. This is just an example, but if done right, it can be interesting. Could it have been done in 4 hours? Probably. I mean it wouldn't be Pixar quality, but you would have created an animation using the knowledge of how to work the program while practicing animation skills. A couple of well placed spot lights with a fairly high falloff is all you need for lighting. Camera placement and control would be easy too. It's a calm scene, static shots will do.

Ok final word...now that it's all been said and done, can we keep this thread about Ringling and not animation critiques? CGtalk is a much better place for it.

[jipe]

Hey guys (and gals),

Thought I would finally post here; I've been watching this thread with interest as I was a lurker for the 2004 thread during my college application process. I initially applied to RSAD but never sent in a portfolio because my work wasn't strong enough, so I went elsewhere.

I am a freshman at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, which isn't quite the quality of RSAD because it's a state college, not a private art school. It has a pretty good digital art program, though, and in my foundations classes these first two semesters I have met a bunch of dedicated and talented peers. My professors have all been eager and enthusiastic about art, and I am excited about my future.

Why am I posting this? Well, I finally had my portfolio review today and it went very smoothly. It's hard for me to believe that a year and two months after dropping my application to RSAD due to a lack of a worthy portfolio, I have what one could call, at the very least, a decent body of work.

I never took any any art classes in high school because I was an A student, good at math and writing, and focused solely on honors & AP courses. I couldn't draw at all, in fact, it was sort of a running joke. When people found out I wanted to major in something art-y (computer animation), they thought I had gone off my rocker. I suppose with my grades and ACT score I was expected to attend a prestigious school and become a doctor or lawyer or something. I don't know - it doesn't matter.

My point is twofold:

1) Don't let people pigeonhole you. If you've found something that you love doing, then do it. The only thing holding you back should be yourself. Can't do something? Learn how. There were times when I felt that I would never be able to make even a mediocre drawing, but you push through those doubting moments and come out on top, with more resolve and experience to tackle the next hurdle.

2) If you didn't get into Ringling, it's not the end of the world. There are plenty of other places to get a good art education. In the end it's how much you apply yourself that counts, and from this thread I can tell that you guys have a lot of passion, be it for animation, illustration, or whatever floats your boat. That's awesome to see - it's so damn cool to be around other people who are passionate and dedicated - because no school in the world can teach you that (or take it away from you!). So good luck with your schooling and get ready to rock the animation world when we graduate in 3-4 years.

As a side note, I thought I would post my portfolio pieces in case anyone was interested. Crits are welcome, if you feel up to it, but I realize that the pieces have their problems and I am too busy to go back to them (so consider it a noble but futile cause!).

Here is my work: http://personal.bgsu.edu/~jlevass/portfolio/

-Jim

[dadamafia]

i was just sitting here wondering if ringling would mail someone to tell them that they aint giving them no financial aid? that would be messed up. get all excited thinking you bout to get some chees and when you open it you get a filthy rat.

[CatHicks]

It doesn't have to do anything with the background the problem is that is one shot he's facing to our left and the next he's facing right. It's breaks the 180 rule (which can be broken but not the way you are doing it), it jarring and confusing. If a viewer stops to think about which way the character is facing from shot to shot and rather than the story it's not working.


Wow. Reading you two talk is really educational. Haha! Man I can't wait to get to Ringling.

[Avelena]

finalllyyyyy. i was accepted into illustration :P still waiting on the letter and financial stuff. but yayyyy.

*dances* Yay Ecco! Congrats!

[jayneko]

http://welcome.rsad.edu/mailings.php

Might be the mailing calendar for last year but..it should give us an idea of when to expect RIngling letters eh? ^_^

[Hett15]

Happy Easter everyone.

I just got back in town again. This makes 3 weekends in a row I've been gone. I talked about everything Ringling related with my folks and they are happy for me, but they still just don't get it. They both keep telling me that after a year or two I could probabaly drop out and still get a really good job in "animation" doing "something". After a frustraing conversation my wife once again steps up to the plate and hits a homer. She told them off in the nicest and sweetest way possible and somehow ended the whole thing off on a good note and they now understand Ringling a little more and why I want to go there.

On a side note she and I are driving down there this next weekend to go house/apartment hunting. We need to find a place and make a decision relatively soon so that we can get situated down there. Driving around Sarasota/Bradenton for two days will be nice. I hope the weather will be cooperative.


Another dumb thing that I did was download all the pictures (3) that some of you sent me onto my computer at work. Well on friday we had to install a new edit system on it and the whole computer got reformatted and I once again lost the pictures. I will not give up on trying to make this little group pic, so if EVERYONE will just send me a character of themselves (including those who already sent one) I WILL get this together. If you don't have time or don't want to make one yourself I will gladly create one of you based on how I have percieved you through your posts and by your avatar picture.

I just got hired by my church back home to do caricatures of the seniors that will be graduating each year. They are going to send me photos and a short bio and I will crank out a caricature for $10 each. Should be kind of fun.

See you all around, and remeber to send me your pictures you slackers! :)

[ScatteredLogical]

Why not kill two birds with one stone? Practice acting in animation and technical skills.

You're fortunate to be able to do that. However, if I'm familiarizing myself with the alphabet, I'd rather start out doing it with simple subject-verb sentences than beginning with attempts at Shakespeare or even Broadway. Takes all kinds to make a world =)

It's possible to make a scene where Skullbot sits down in a chair interesting. I think that fulfills your assignment, he does interact with an object. If all we had was Skullbot, a chair and a door, I think it could work.

Such is the gift of hindsight. I chose the objects I did, lit it the way I did, shot it the way I did, and gave it an actual narrative. Did it work out like a dream? Nope. Did I do something simple and do it well in the alotted time? Obviously not. I made other decisions with it, fell flat on my arse, and it was extremely informative. I for one am proud I got something that's a unit together, that I worked at a considerable pace, and I think it could be a great deal more terrible for a first time job. Before going to the school that helps me make something more of myself I've already gotten a head start with real live experience in an environment like that. Pretty cool! Now I can move on to the next thing using this newly acquired knowledge...


Ok final word...now that it's all been said and done, can we keep this thread about Ringling and not animation critiques? CGtalk is a much better place for it.

Thank you especially then, for being the person to express first and ongoing interest in it (#657)! And I'll apologize then, too; I have no interest in going to CGTalk because I didn't ask for any critiques to begin with; but I did suggest they continue after one was contributed because I felt it could benefit the group. After all, I am still potentially among you (until I'm told otherwise), so I assumed being a Ringling hopeful for computer animation, that mentioning and eventually posting a small actual computer animation might have some relevance and even be somewhat entertaining for a thread about, well, Ringling hopefuls that focuses on computer animation. Nonetheless, I agree and think it's been drained of all usefulness so I won't talk about it again if no one else does (which they won't).


Wow. Reading you two talk is really educational. Haha! Man I can't wait to get to Ringling.

Thanks! Mission accomplished at least once...

[leealex_2005]

Hi, after reading all most of the posts, I want to first congradulate to all who got accepted! But now is my question: Hows the illustration program in ringling compare to other art schools? The reason I ask this is because I got accepted into Ringling(yay), SCAD but still waiting for Risd. My parents want me to choose the "best" (I know there's no best art schools) illustration program out of those schools. They are worried about me, and I want to hear opinions about this major from you guys :D thx By the way, I do not want to start a flame war about the best illustration schools, just want to hear from u guys since this is the ringling thread.

[sula_nebouxi]

Hett, have fun house shopping :) I really really need to get you my caricature! I've got the sketch done, I just need to paint it in PS or something. Having a tough time with digital painting...plus I've got some schoolwork to take care of...I'll see if I can get it to ya in a few days.

SL, heh point taken...let us know when you get the letter.

And welcome to the thread Lee! And congrats to ya! Anyways...all I can tell you about RISD is that it's practically a part of Brown university, an Ivy league. Expect that school to whip your ass several times over. Not saying it's a bad thing. I think it's a very well respected art school. I think it will really push you to your limits. I don't know very much about their illustration department however. Here's a little tidbit, did you know that Conceptart.org was created by a Ringling grad? Yep...good ol' Jason Manley and I believe one other graduated from there. Just so ya know...he's got some damn fine stuff ;)

Each school has their differences, and I think that student work is usually a good determining factor for the quality of the program and what they emphasize. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

-Anthony

[leealex_2005]

Hi thx for the reply! Quote: "Here's a little tidbit, did you know that Conceptart.org was created by a Ringling grad? Yep...good ol' Jason Manley and I believe one other graduated from there. Just so ya know...he's got some damn fine stuff" <----This is so kewl! Now I'm looking forward to Ringling than other school..... But i have another question D: I'm an international student so I don't really know U.S in terms of the living cost/location... Do you think that the living expense in Ringling(the school and the location) will be greater compare to other schools such as risd or rsad or scad? The reason is my father wants me to choose to the "best" art school available for me while my mom wants me to choose the cheapest among the list I have.....this is so hard for me :[ Thx for any replies :confident

[ScatteredLogical]

I tried finding Rhode Island's tuition and fees but didn't see anything on the site. Anyone else a better finder? However, I do know that Savannah's generally on par with Ringling. In the past few years the only deviations have been that Savannah's housing was more expensive but their tuition was 2 thousand cheaper. Ringling's full name is Ringling School of Art and Design (I'm sure the middle part's from Communion or something), giving it the acronym of RSAD....so their prices will be identical =)

[sula_nebouxi]

RISD is much more expensive it seems. These prices are coming from a 3rd party, Peterson's. The prices seem outdated, so add a thousand to it.

Comprehensive fee: $35,697 includes full-time tuition ($27,510), mandatory fees ($465), and room and board ($7722)
Room and board: college room only: $4324.

It's about $3-4000 more than Ringling I believe. Living costs in Florida are generally less expensive than other parts of the US. I believe that Ringling is one of the cheaper art schools out there. You'll find a lot about SCAD on these boards and on CGtalk...it definetly has it's share of bad publicity. I personally have not had any experience with it at all, so I can't really say much. But do a search on here and you'll come up with some very...powerful opinions. People have said that it's in a bad neighborhood, that the administration will screw you over horribly, unsafe security, and fraudulent practices(basically giving away Masters degrees). This one professor who taught there put up a website www.scad.info detailing everything that was wrong with SCAD. I think he was sued for libel and the owner of the site won. But yeah...it's around the same cost as Ringling.

[jayneko]

To be quite honest, RSAD seems to be one of the cheapest art schools for an international student (I am one too!), and as you may have seen in their student gallery, their work is incredible. That was the only thing that made me pick RSAD over SCAD. :D

Pick the best school for you, and think about prices later (Well, unless the difference is astronomical!). If the difference is a couple thousand but you KNOW you'll get a better education out of it, pick the one you like the most, the one that'll give you a good challenge, and one that'll end up making you a great artist and let you land a great job afterwards. :D Like a buncha people have said here, a good way to tell how good a school is is by their student's work, so check them all out. :)

In case you need info and links on loans for intl. students and other interesting stuffles about living abroad and such, I'll be glad to post them here. Didn't post them now cause..I have to find them again. XD I'll update soon.

G'luck!

[Hett15]

updated tally
----------
GOT IN
----------

CatHicks (CA)
Father McKenzie (CA)
Hett15 (CA)
JAIR428 (CA)
Jayneko (CA)
jejuhorse (CA)
the horror (CA)
hunter (CA)
Sula_Nebouxi (CA)
kgb (CA)/(Illustration)
Avelena (Illustration)
Dadmafia (Illustration)
EccoXile (Illustration)
LeeAlex2005 (Illustration)
RSADHopeful (Illustration)
Red Rock (Illustration)
Velo (Illustration)
Precollege Rob (CA)
Precollege Kendra (Ca)
Precollege Cassie (Photography)
-------------------
waiting for letters or other schools
-------------------
WayoftheStrega (Illustration) M.I.A.
jerkobs (CA) M.I.A.
AnarchyAo2 (CA/Illustration?) M.I.A.
filtered (Graphic Design) M.I.A.
-----------------------
waiting list
-----------------------
andoo45 (CA hopeful) (Digi Pen?)
scattered_logical (holding on for CA)


Are all of these updated? I haven't heard anything from some of the waiting people in a long time. Cat are there more precollege people that can be added? Congrats to all.