depressed
 

Hey guys,

I've been surfing on the CGTALKS site and viewing some of the threads made me kinda depressed, they were mostly about how In CG you make no money and get thrown around from company to company and never have a steady job which is kinda depressing, I love CG ALOT!! I currently am only a shipper reciever for my dads company and I have a pretty nice car for my age and make decent pay but hate the work with a passion and I love CG with a passion that is why I'm depressed. I posted hoping that maybe someone could cheer me up a bit.

I just don't want to go through all of this training and not really get anything out of it, Know what I mean

Thanks for letting me rant a bit

Brennan Clarkson

CG isn't like makeing wigets at some factroy, thats why you hear some people complaining. But its also what makes CG so fun. In CG there is always a project to be worked on, when thats over sometimes you do get moved around a little. True. But if your prepared its manigable. There is always a new advinture around the corner. Its not like other industrys though were its the same thing year in year out all the time.

Its a true thing that CG is unstable, but thease days what isn't ? I wish your dad's company the best, and maybe its difrent but most companys are not totaly stable anyway.

I think people can find things to complain about in any industry.

Is CG unstable, yes. But intresting.
Is factory work stable, mostly. But its boring.
Do you make money starting out in CG, maybe not. But pay increses faster.
Do you make money starting out at a factory. Good money. But very very little room to increase it.

I'm wandering what kind of training?

Well at first I was going to learn maya on my own but now I'm thinking differently it seems that you need a degree to make it out there, I'm currently taking part time animation courses and life drawing courses,

I'm just a little worried is all

Well the way I see it is, you don’t go to them you make them come to you, your Dad has the right Idea about having his own business, Life is a full time job in it self and worrying about will I be good enough to cut it in the CG bizz, build up your portfolio, get some creditability and start your own company. Many people will try to shut you down saying you can’t do that and those are the people that are working for some one else. So If you got the ambition to do something don’t stop,,, stay focused ,, the only one that can stop you is your self. :tup:

Learn Drafting/CAD and design automobiles. :)

I'm a little depressed too I think. I'm not the least bit motivated to make anything in 3D. I have a nice portfolio on my website which is more than enough to get me into the college I want to go to, so I don't really see any need to improve it. The thing I'm really worried about is how much infasis companies hiring 3D modelers put on the ability to draw. Right now, I really stink at conceptual art and can't really see myself improving much at all. I have always had a difficult time coming up with creative ideas for new models and whatnot and that sort of scares me... :\

What I can and really enjoy doing is taking excellent conceptual drawings done by other people and turning them into 3D models. The only problem is that I can't find any excellent drawings anywhere and that most of the good ones have a crappy design to them. I like making robots and the like.....

Here is one of Dolmuji's pieces that I found on CGTalk. This is the quality I want in a sketch, but most sketches don't come near to having this fine of detail. :\

Dude you Rock and you should always do things that make you happy, 8 out of 10 people will always judge your work as crap, those are the ones you can count on to tare you up and spit you out, so you can listen to them as they build them self’s up by chopping you down or you can Do what you want to do because you know you can do what ever you want.
Life is a jerry Springer Show with the channel set to miserable. Don’t do any thing for any one but your self, if you do, you set your self up to fail. :Pirate: R,R,r,r!! <--hehe pirate talk

That model is amazing that is all I have to say, I have a decent background in traditional art

5years in highschool (Including Art History for 2)
Currently doing a Animation and Life drawing along with Anatomy for animation courses at sheridan college in Ontario Canada

So I have a decent background but now I need to learn the program and technical aspects, I don't think I need to go to college to get a degree in 3d if I have the fundementals of art down, I bought the organics DVD today so I'm looking forward to that and hopefully it will swing me into doing some awsome cg work

I sooo hope I can make models with that much detail once I learn maya.

Oh one more thing

After my figure drawing courses I will have certificates in both Animation and Fine Arts but no degree, I might also take a certification course on maya at Seneca College

some thoughts for you about school. the animation is good, It will give you some ideas. The life drawing is great.
That aside.

In a informal pole on the cg site you mentioned only 10% of the pro's in the field had any sort of formal training in the field.

I'm in the same boat as you in lots of ways. I'v done a lot of serching hear, there and everywhare for ansers. They are out there. I would sugest you keep looking and informing your self also.

A basic distilation of what I have found:

Do companys care about rather or not you have a degree in CG? mostly NO. Companys don't care becosue it dosn't mean anything to what they are looking for. It sure isn't a garinty of skill. only your demoReal will show that. It does show a little bonuse that you can meat some kind of deadlines. But they would rather have more evidence than a one year deadline to get your thisis demo real done.

They do want to see a killer demo real. Make sure you don't suck.
They want to see that you can repeat what you did. ei 3 good models or difrent types of animation is a good way to show that.
They also want refrances. If you dont' have expirance, your best bet is, great referals. In other words you need good networking skills and you need to be known in the comunity. The best way to get that is through the on line comunity.

Many of the studio owners that have made post about this. Or the artdirecters in charege of highering people. Most of them have made post to the opinion that the schools are pumping out kids with the abiltiy to push a button, but lack tallent in one form or another. They know they can train anyone what button to press. But they are not going to take the time to train tallent !

In short:
Tallent,
Deadlines(ei reputation)

You don't have to take my word for it though. The pro's are online and they do post. Look for what they have said.

There was post maid while I was writing my long winded one.. LOL forgive me.

BTW they do apriceat FineArt education more than CG school degree's

Thoughs are bonuses.

Hey thanks pony that makes me feel better since I am getting fine arts background now while learning software, puts things in perspective

I too am taking the traditional route through university. I decided on Illustration over Fine Art as i think Illustration suites me, and the industery more, as Fine Art tends be more personal based work, with alot of airy fairy stuff that dosent suit me that much.

I went to the Bornmouth University open day and I got the impression that many of the major companies still only tend to accept people who have gone through the traditional route, allthough technical skill is essential, i guess you could be a master at maya, but without being able to come up with ideas is a big problem.

When 3d is your job or any art is your job, I would think it would be easier to come up with ideas because you have the time to do so.

Darkware, know how you feel, im good at art now i guess but conceptual art is very hard, drawing from the mind rather from an object in reality is very hard for me, for me to get any idea on paper into 3d I have to sit there for an hour thinking of how to do each bit.

you know what though school isn't going to teach you to draw from memory all school gives you is a foundation, you have to do it yourself from then on, I give myself another year of traditional work and I should be able to easily come up with things in my head then put them on paper and hopefully put into 3D

Classical traditional skills such as life drawing is pivotal when applying to say, Pixar.

Alot of companies use there own software packages so any prior software training you have would really be irrelevant.

You should really look to become a good artist are fotget about the medum you will use.

Getting a degree in 3d is a misconception as many companies are out to look for your demo reel not a college. That is the biggest failure of people that get into 3d. Go to cg talk and look for people looking for degrees. Art degrees how ever may be your best bet.

I think I found a really good certificate program
Check it out, it also has a 30day work placement after you graduate

Tell me if it looks like a good move

Sorry here is the link

http://www.thecentre.centennialcolle...ion/index.html

What a pill, That School is full of crap, First I have to have a portfolio to show them that "If" I'm good Enough to Attend their Classes, Then I got to give them $15,000 for then to teach me?

Dude,, Save your money,,, there's other schools out there, in the mean time learn all you can from places like this, plus Game companys are always Hiring, I been offerd a job in Sidney Australia with the little Knowledge I have with modeling for some Mod team I been in, But didn’t want to relocate that far.

See the problem is I can't work outside of Canada without a degree which sucks, I'd sooo learn on my own but I'd also like to have a little comfort knowing that I can move around if need be.

OK, i'm currently deciding on BA in Illustration or a BA in Drawing at Camberwell College of Art. I think the drawing degree has more of a focus in life drawing, which is why i'm swinging that way, but things may change.

Take a look:
Illustration Degree

Drawing Degree

Any advice?
Cheers :)

Well I think I now know what I'm going to do

Currently taking life drawing courses and traditional courses for about 2 years included is anatomy courses for animation

After that I'm going to go to Seneca College for there Animation program which includes traditional animation and maya training over a 2 year term

That is my plan - sound good
As well learning maya on my own at home with simply maya tutorials:D

dont worry !just operate simplymaya then you will get more information

degree in computer animation is a good thing. i have a masters in it and I now work for the biggest VFX company in Europe! I earn a very good wage (I'm straight outta uni) and I have lots of responsibilities and a contract for a year and a half.... I only have this job because of my degree. I can't draw for toffee! There's loads of different ways of getting into this industry but not many people around me draw that well. They can sketch and stuff but there's not much in the way of fine art around here. It would help but it's not essential. Being able to push the right buttons is a good thing... it lets you fit straight into their working practice..

hte best animation degree you can find is in australia and france

if you want to work there then yes. If you want to work in the UK or in US then one from Bournemouth is one of the best you can get. ILM, framestore, MPC, PDI, WETA, etc etc all recruit heavily from there. So the above statement is complete rubbish. They maybe the best in terms of producing a nice piece at the end. But I didnt have a great piece of work at the end but I still have a great job.

Can you guys recommend a good degree program in canada?

I know of 2 that I'm looking at
Seneca College
Centennial College http://www.bccc.com/animation/index.html

I'm not looking into Sheridan College because you need to take a 4 year fine arts course or there 4 year BA in Classical animation to even qualify to attend there 3d course

Thanks for the help guys

the most obvious one is the vancouver film school. It's supposed to be excellent, and to be honest the work that I've seen come out of there has been top notch. I think it's expensive though.

Alan

I wanna do the art based animation MA at Bournemouth after my BA. I think a traditional background is more important if your in the art side, rather than the technical side. I love to design/draw so going the traditional way is also a personal choice, not just a career choice.

Yea VFS is a very expenisve school and is a long trip for me considering I live in Toronto

hey guys i know one site of maya but i forgoted it pls tell me what it is!

My man you hiting the wacky tobacky,:smoker: You got to give a little more then this to get help;)

Are you asking for the maya home page?

http://www.aliaswavefront.com