Need Opinions on Various Schools...

[viper3d]

Ok... Here goes...

I attended the Illinois Institute of Art in Schaumburg in the computer animation program for approximately a year... I was sadly disappointed in the lack of experience that my instructors had. Some of them were great people, but they lacked experience and direction when teaching. I even had classes where my instructors NEVER SHOWED. One class... the teacher had a less than 50% attendance rate. Thus, I left that school and now I'm left with somewhat of a dilemma...

I've gone down to Florida and checked out both Full Sail and Ringling. I presented my work to Ringling and I was told that I had a good chance to make it into their Computer Animation program if I had a little more work in Life Drawing. I completely agree with that, so I decided to check out some art classes at my local community college. I didn't think that Life drawing was any different whereever you take it... as long as their is a live model... I shouldn't have any problems should I?

I'm currently out in Las Vegas and I realized that I'm not too far from Watt's Atelier. If I stay and work out in the Vegas/California Area, then I could possibly attend Watt's Atelier and take as many courses through them as I could.

What my question is... should I go to Watt's and go through the full program and not even worry about Ringling? or should I take the classes I need at Watt's then Apply for Ringling for 2005. Or would taking some life drawing classes at my local community college back in Illinois be okay? And is the combination of Watts and Ringling really what I need if I want to be in computer animation? My main hope is to do concept art and character modeling. I have pretty much left Full Sail out of the loop, I liked its high tech computers and state of the art equipment... but something just didn't feel right when I was there.


One last question, Since I went to the AI in Schaumburg, I have student loans that will become due soon... and I'll have to start making payments. If I go to Watt's, can I use that for a school to continue my student loans on? What I was thinking was possibly going to my community college for a month or two... which would hold off the loans for a while, then go to Watts... and wait and then get a 6 month deferment on the loan (if I couldn't use Watt's as a School to get Loan money for)... Then apply for Ringling and continue my loans on that School...

Any comments on any of this or any of these schools would be much help. I'm kind of in a big mess here and I would really appreciate some help in trying to straighten this out.

Thanks!

-Vips

Er... one more question... Is the Atelier in Minneapolis worth Attending over watts? Or if I go the Atelier route... is watt's the only real choice? New York is kind of out of the question.

[hoku]

well Art Institutes . . . I've heard nothing good from them, do a search for art institutes by someone called david, there will be links, also I posted those links too in other threads.

Ringling is really good. Watts is too . . . Actually watts has good techniques to improve. I took art for two semesters at San Diego State, and they didn't go into some of the stuff like color wheels etc that the Watts class descriptions go into. And the art work by students, is impressive!

Although san diego sucks (short synopsis)

1. High cost of living
2. Even higher cost of rentals / buying a place to live in
3. Overcrowding and over population.
4. No jobs, and weak economy. Sure the whole nation has bad. But San Diego has it worse, since Calif govt choked on their budget, SD govt is choking as well (whoo hoo just got laid off), and hard to get a job because of #3

Good stuff about SD is surfing and watts. I'm also lucky as I bypass expensive rent / mortgage, because I live here.


I read through the AWN.com forums (great read) and generally they say:

Great Reels rock, talent is above having a degree and lesser talent. Also those who know 2D (which needs you to go through traditional art) win at 3D, since 3D is about software learning, and 3D is like another tool in the artist's tool kit.

I checked out ringling and they do have traditional art, yet not nowhere near as same level as atelier does. Plus money is a big factor (I'm paying SDSU loans off now!) and lack of surf in FL gulf coast.

So I'm staying close to surf, surfing, and drilling at Atelier. Learning software / PC stuff is easy since I just finished an IT degree at SDSU.

Good luck with everything!

[hoku]

I sat in Watts Atelier class. YOu know how many times Oh My God ran through my head?

Jeff Watts was explaining a bit of anatomy, which was more info in 3 minutes than 2+ art classes at SDSU (one was on life drawing, they just said get anatomy books study and draw) and highschool (the teacher said you had visualize the way muscles flexed under the skin to help draw out figures . ..)

Good stuff. It just solidified my decision to stay near surf and learn at watts.

Yet it does take some time. Jeff said its a process, and he said if I'm quick it could be 2-3 years of lots of study and drawing, before I get uber enough to tangle with the pro's.

If . . . hehe. I'll just learn and see how it all goes.

[dzu]

I study at Watts Atelier and was in the figure drawing class yesterday. Hoku, were you part of that couple that came in right before the demo?

I'd highly recommend Watts. I've been going there for about a year and have improved dramatically. You need more than just a model to develop your skills. It's essential to have someone with a trained eye give you C & C so that you can learn and avoid making the same mistakes. Since I've started going full time this quarter, I've learned so much.

San Diego is expensive and unfortunately, Watts is not an accredited school so financial aid will not cover your costs here. I have yet to find a good community college life drawing class that was even close to the quality and instruction at Watts. The instructors are top notch, and some of them post on this forum. If you come in now, you're in luck because Ron/fredflickstone is teaching full time in addition to doing freelance work. Next quarters schedule will be out soon and some of the classes will be kick ass!

[hoku]

yeah I'm soo there . . . yeah might have been . . .

All I remember was Jeff Watts was there and another instructor, and they were joking about conceptart.org, and how many industry people hang out here, and one of the students said something about never being part of an online community as most of them suck.

All I know I'm going to attend. I already have a B.S. from an accredited university.

In this economy it literally means B.S. j/k, it really taught me alot.

So I'll be hitting up watts 4 fall.