Okay, here's the deal: I've been serious about art now for about three years, and though I've always leaned towards being a comic-artist... Lately I've been thinking about studying animation. I'm only 15, so I obviously have a while to think about all this, but I wanted to ask: If you go to an Art College, any art college, will they teach you how to animate? Or are there only particular schools that teach animation? Thanks for all the replies I know I'll receive, and God Bless!PS: I know literally nothing about animation... Just figured I'd mention that.
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Well, in the end, if you aren't *really* good at doing the job, a degree won't be worth the paper it's printed on. I suppose in theory a Bachelor's is better, as they generally take longer and teach you more.
Concentrate on practice and independent study. And more practice.
And dig around online for artists blogs. Most artists have a long list of blogs they read. Usually, you'll find that the people they link to are actually better than the person doing the linking, or at least really different. Good artists look at better artists. And when they get to a level where they can match an artist, they move on an look at other artists. Compare your stuff to the people who are working now, not the people you go to school with, even in art school. The people who have jobs now are your competition.
That's no to discourage you, it's to spur you on to better things. A lot f people I know never stopped lookin around to see what would get them a passing grade, and they missed the whole point. Reach to be a great artist, and you'll get good grades thrown in. Setting low expectations for yourself doesn't help anybody. Don't settle for what you can get away with, try to knock their socks off. Even if you don't knock ther socks off, the effort will show itself, and your attitude and work ethic will take you a long way.
My recommendation right now is to read everything you can on the process of animation, and maybe even try doing some flipbooks and short stop-motion pieces (i.e. with action figures and a webcam). That'll either completely energize you towards doing animation, or completely kill you with tedium. Doing animation (at least the character movement part) is a very painstaking process. It's a total jazz when you like to do it. It's a total downer when you don't. Some people would go crazy doing my job, I'd go crazy doing theirs.
Find out what you can about each step of the process. Right now you like to draw, but there are about a dozen different specific job titles within animation that require some drawing. Look into things like character design, environment design, storyboarding (you might be particularly interested in that), and color design, as well as the actual animation itself. See if any of thoe strike your fancy. There are also a ton of jobs that require more computer work, but don't require you to be a great drawer. Being a great drawer always helps, but for some jobs it's not a requirement.
If you want to get a job drawing, you have to practice, practice, practice! Don't let the fear of doing a bad drawing paralyze you from drawing and practicing. Draw loose, and focus on learning from your mistakes. Try to draw so much that a bad drawing won't bother you, because you can whip out another one and it'll be slightly better because you learned from the last one. It's bad to go long periods without drawing, because it takes a while to really warm up and get good drawings flowing. The longer you go between drawings, the more rust there is to shake off.
Glad to hear you're thinking about animation. I look forward to seeing your forays into that medium. Be sure to hit me up when you need advice or help with drawings, flipbooks or whatever.
Out of wild curiosity, how would 'one' become a character designer -- or any of those other job titles you mentioned -- for Cartoon Network? Just apply? Or would you need some sort of Fine Arts degree? Again, that question was purely out of wild curiosity...
Well, degrees are not really a requirement for jobs, but generally the people who do those jobs will have some kind of fine arts or animation art degree.
~R
Thanks Randy! To be honest, though I posted here on the forums, you're the only person I really wanted to talk too. Being in the field of animation and all... And it is as you said, I'm very early in this whole decision making process... I don't even know that I really want to pursue animation, though I have to admit I've been leaning that way for a couple of months now. Thanks again for your reply/suggestions!
I would definately recommend that you look into investing in the animation programs even before you get into an art college or institute. I believe if you have potential and a passion for animation, it doesnt really matter what college you go to, as long as you get acquainted with the requirements of your career and get that degree. You can learn the programs on your own, you would basically be going for the animation experience. Well, that's my two sense. Take it for what it is I guess.
God bless my friend,
Levon
Randy Hayes > Levon PeltSeptember 14, 2008 at 5:18pm
One point of clarification/disagreement here...
Animation programs are generally so deep and difficult that they scare people off. One thing schools and job trainers are good at is teaching which buttons to press. I actually didn't know Maya until I started working in the industry. I knew some about other programs, but button-pressing can be easily taught, once you know for sure what your focus is.
If you (Baron) do finally decide to go into animation, it would be good to start learning programs prior to school, but it sounds right now like you're earlier on in that decision process.
I suggest you (Baron) try something less intimidating and expensive, before making those decisions. I gave some ideas in my other post, so I won't repeat it here.
Replies
Concentrate on practice and independent study. And more practice.
And dig around online for artists blogs. Most artists have a long list of blogs they read. Usually, you'll find that the people they link to are actually better than the person doing the linking, or at least really different. Good artists look at better artists. And when they get to a level where they can match an artist, they move on an look at other artists. Compare your stuff to the people who are working now, not the people you go to school with, even in art school. The people who have jobs now are your competition.
That's no to discourage you, it's to spur you on to better things. A lot f people I know never stopped lookin around to see what would get them a passing grade, and they missed the whole point. Reach to be a great artist, and you'll get good grades thrown in. Setting low expectations for yourself doesn't help anybody. Don't settle for what you can get away with, try to knock their socks off. Even if you don't knock ther socks off, the effort will show itself, and your attitude and work ethic will take you a long way.
:)
Find out what you can about each step of the process. Right now you like to draw, but there are about a dozen different specific job titles within animation that require some drawing. Look into things like character design, environment design, storyboarding (you might be particularly interested in that), and color design, as well as the actual animation itself. See if any of thoe strike your fancy. There are also a ton of jobs that require more computer work, but don't require you to be a great drawer. Being a great drawer always helps, but for some jobs it's not a requirement.
If you want to get a job drawing, you have to practice, practice, practice! Don't let the fear of doing a bad drawing paralyze you from drawing and practicing. Draw loose, and focus on learning from your mistakes. Try to draw so much that a bad drawing won't bother you, because you can whip out another one and it'll be slightly better because you learned from the last one. It's bad to go long periods without drawing, because it takes a while to really warm up and get good drawings flowing. The longer you go between drawings, the more rust there is to shake off.
Glad to hear you're thinking about animation. I look forward to seeing your forays into that medium. Be sure to hit me up when you need advice or help with drawings, flipbooks or whatever.
Good luck, man!
~R
~R
God bless my friend,
Levon
Animation programs are generally so deep and difficult that they scare people off. One thing schools and job trainers are good at is teaching which buttons to press. I actually didn't know Maya until I started working in the industry. I knew some about other programs, but button-pressing can be easily taught, once you know for sure what your focus is.
If you (Baron) do finally decide to go into animation, it would be good to start learning programs prior to school, but it sounds right now like you're earlier on in that decision process.
I suggest you (Baron) try something less intimidating and expensive, before making those decisions. I gave some ideas in my other post, so I won't repeat it here.
~R
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