Going in to Animation, any advice?

I'll be starting school in October at the Art Institute. I was planning on majoring in animation which I hear there's tons of drawing involved. I'm ok with that 'cause I draw a lot anyway. I was just wondering if any of you guys who have been to an art college have any good advice for me so that I don't make any bonehead mistakes.

I'm trying to get into animation myself, or graphics design and the such. Which art institute are you goin too?

The Art Institute of Las Vegas How about you?

Woo-hoo  Art Institute of Colorado grad right here!!!  Good luck!!

I'm a Graphic Design student so I don't have any advice about animation.  But I can offer this:

Prepare to unlearn old habits. (In reference to your art/creative skills) The teachers aren't always right, but you may find they have a point once in a while.

Oh cool you went to an Art Institute too XD what was your school like? Hard? Easy?

I've always heard that going to college you have to change study habits and habits in general. Duly noted anything else guys??

I'm gonna try out for the Art Institute Online, not sure if it's the same thing  Art Institute Online or DeVry University or something like that. I was told that all the classes i'm taking now will help in going into graphic design, but I need to cram in a year of art to have a good chance of making it XP *hangs self for bad drawingness*

I was in animation for awhile and there's two kinds of paths you can go down: traditional or computer. Either choice is incredibly tedious, and will have you spending long hours in the animation labs after class, say till midnight when the school closes scrambling to get your work done. We called our lab the "bat cave" and we were all hopped up on Mountain Dew and coffee. It was pretty fun.

While you are in your animation program I recommend you take as many figure drawing classes as you can. That will help you a lot, because at my school, most of the people that were in animaiton couldn't draw very well, and it'd be cool if you were able to draw better than every one else.

So for advice, just put your nose to the grindstone and work hard, because you're probably going to work harder than any other major at your school.

Best of luck!

Thanks for the advice RT I'll be sure to take lots of figure drawing classes. I really want to do traditional animation but I know the future of animation is in computer so that's what I think I'll choose.

Ditto what Runic Tunic said. Studying figure drawing and getting practice from a live model is essential for animation. There are a lot of animators there that ONLY learn the 3D software and never learn the basics of anatomy and gesture. Gesture is an essential part of character animation so if that's what you want to do, learn how to do figure drawing well and the rest will be easy. Some companies will even hire an artist who doesn't even know 3D to work on a 3D film because they have mad drawing skills and 2D animation experience thinking that they can teach them the 3D software along the way.

At my school we studied 2D first and then 3D (but i skipped out of the 3D stuff 'cause i wasn't interested). We've found that 2D is great for learning the basics of animation such as squash and stretch, timing, gesture, etc. If you go strait into 3D it may be a strugle because you're not only trying to learn how to use difficult software, you're also trying to learn the basics of animation which is difficult because people tend to just focus on trying to learn the software. But without the basic drawing principles, a person can't make a good animation with just the software.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't study 3D. Quite the contrary. There are a lot more opportunities in the industry today for 3D animators than there are for 2D animators. Especially since 3D is becoming a lot more mainstream in live action films for special effects.

Also another bit of advice. At some point during your time in school take it upon yourself to make a short film. Perhaps a 30-second film at first. Then later try something more ambitious like 2 or 3 minutes. Working on a short film not only teaches you a lot, it looks GREAT in your reel. It also looks good if you worked with other students to make a film.

I recently graduated from San Jose State's BFA Animation/Illustration program which is one of the toughest programs in the country. I barely made it out alive. I was one of the less skilled artists in my graduating class. Our alumni are working at Dreamworks, Pixar, LucasArts, BlueSky, and Electronic Arts.

Dude, seriously? o___o I'm starting in October at the AI of Las Vegas too. No joke. Media Arts and animation I'm getting so impatient. I'm actually going there this saturday for an animation club

I definitely want to do more of the 3D animation, but I'm looking forward to learning pretty much anything. It would be pretty sweet to end up working for one of the major major movie making places like Pixar and such though

On Aug 30, 2007 10:37 pm, BogusRed said:

I'll be sure to keep that all in mind. I just registered for school today and I took a look at the curiculum and it turns out I have quite a few life drawing classes so it shouldn't be that hard for me to keep up with figure drawing

As for the short film part. My whole goal before the end of school is to make at least a ten minute animation that looks incredibly awesome lol a little over ambitious but hey what's life without ambition Dreamworks and Pixar! damn those are some big names luckily I'll get good enough to aim for some big companies also.

Dude, seriously? o___o I'm starting in October at the AI of Las Vegas too. No joke. Media Arts and animation I'm getting so impatient. I'm actually going there this saturday for an animation club

Really!? Well dang maybe we'll run in to each or have the same classes. That'd be cool

For sure   You already know your schedule?? Ahhhhh what the heck. I'm dying to know mine...wonder if I can just go in the office and check or something? I've been thinking this whole time I get it at orientation or something like that.

I don't know my schedual yet. Maybe you do get it at orientation. when is orientation btw?? I went there this morning to take care of all the financial stuff. Going back next friday to do that test and to finish up some other financial stuff

On Sep 1, 2007 4:39 pm, Jill V. -S.T.A.R.S. said:

Ah yeah I've kinda figured out we do get it at orientation, cause we can go to the classrooms and maybe meet the teachers, get supplies. Kinda do a lot at once. Orientation is the Thursday before school starts, and I think it starts Oct 1st? I'm not too sure on the exact date it starts, might as well just ask the office haha, I probably will next time I stop by. I met a few animation students today....oh boy....2D is gonna be interesting... I'm not used to drawing the same thing 30 times over D:

On Sep 1, 2007 11:30 pm, Myszt said:

Yeah that's gonna be tough but fun hopefully ^_^ I just took my accuplacer test today and I have my schedule and everything. I have all afternoon classes. I'm dead in the morning XD lol just a question though. Did you have to show a portfolio??

Im happy to hear that you're going to an art institute, i myself wanna join an art institute. I'm wondering though, how expensive is it to go to an art institute, that's one of the issues that i've had to think about and has kept me from starting. I'm sure you're gonna have lots of fun so work hard to become the best in your class

Actually the price is pretty steep. My tuition is like $80,000 but I got this special kind of loan ( I don't even know what it does lol...I should look in to it more) so I'm pretty much good until I graduate then I'll have to start paying it off.