The challenges of the educational system
Expensive, time-consuming and inaccessible!
The challenges for most students (or their parents) with the current educational system for animation students is that it is expensive, time-consuming and in most cases out of the reach to most students unless they relocate. In many cases too animation schools or colleges just do not teach everything the animation student of today needs to know! All too often the instructors at many schools and colleges are just not qualified to teach the subject properly. This is because of the derelict academic system for the arts – where quite often the best teachers are not allowed to teach their subjects because they do not have a degree, or that many of those who do have a degree are teaching because they are simply not good enough to get into the industry! Students are suffering as a result of this - especially in view of the extortionate fees they are required to pay these days to learn what they are passionate about!
The problems with accreditation for animation students:
Additionally most colleges are made to become accredited in order to attract student loans. This effectively means that students have to pay through the nose for courses that have nothing to do with the subject they most want to study - animation! Reflecting this point, it should be pointed out that the best animation schools in the world are Gobelins in France and (online) Animation Mentor or iAnimate. None of these are accredited and they are by far and away the best advanced programs any aspiring animator could wish to study. Yet even these do not offer in the core foundations that the best animators will need to build their advanced training upon if they really want to compete in the marketplace! Without accreditation we can donate 100% of the teaching process to just providing our students with only the valuable foundation elements they really need to know. Should they then choose to enter the industry directly, or move on to a degree course of hight education in animation, then they will be better creatively equip to more than compete with their fellow students AND they will enter the future with much more understanding and discrimination as to what is good and what is not in terms of their effort and commitment!
Escalating costs!
Added to this is the fact that the better mainstream schools, even with all their non-animation related classes, are becoming exponentially expensive and require their students to uproot themselves and move to where the school is - in some cases up to $44,000 a year, or more! Many of them are even picky on who they accept for training - which means that students with a passion for animation but who lack core foundational skills will never get in, even if they can afford to do so! All this means is many of the best and most passionate animation students do not have a fair shot at getting the best training in a way that is both affordable and accessible to them.
Why do you need an art-based curriculum?
Tony White has pointed out in his book “Jumping Through Hoops ~ The Animation Job Coach” (a free digital copy of which is given to all Advanced Certificate students by the way!) that more and more employees in the animation industry are asking to see not only digital animation portfolios and showreels but much more. Today employers often expect to see things beyond just software competence - such things as additional art skills, comprehensive sketchbooks and indications of creative process that has enabled the applicant to present what they are presenting. This becomes more and more imperative to employers – especially for small studio employers where most graduates start out. Applicants with art skills are so much more versatile than just 'software jockeys' in what they can offer. Big studios invariably prefer specialists - although those specialist have to come with significant industry experience also! The smaller studios on the other hand will be more inclined to take a chance on the unexperience college leaver – although the clincher in this case must be that the applicant can demonstrate proven and wide-ranging art skills that will enable them to work in several different departments in the studio production process if they are asked to.
The artist is king!
Many tech-driven schools and colleges do not teach this to a significant degree and will not tell you that you will need that side of your skill base too. But so many potential students are seduced by the glamor of new technology, state-of-the-art software and the special-effects obsession. The real truth however is that it is only the artist behind the software that has real value - everyone else is just a technician and these can be found anywhere! Therefore, the Animation Foundation Course has been designed to provide all those necessary foundation art skills to individual students who either want to enter the industry or simply apply for a more advanced academic program they believe will ultimately get them into the industry. The Animation Foundation Course will therefore fill that gap that most schools and colleges have in their program and will give anyone taking it a solid animation-focused foundation that will put them way ahead of the completion in these neglected skills.
A final truth!
The one thing that the academic system does not tell you – in fact they don’t even know it themselves in the case of some schools and colleges – is that IN THE ART & ANIMATION FIELDS YOU DO NOT NEED A DEGREE TO GET A JOB!
This is true in science, medicine, engineering, law, physics, etc. But in terms of art and animation it is WHAT YOU CAN DO OR WHAT YOU CAN SHOW that gets you the job, not the bit of paper that says you have completed a teaching program! The best thing a school can do therefore is give you the ammunition in your showreel or portfolio to fight a good fight when job-seeking but a degree adds nothing more to your armory. The only thing a degree will enable you to do of course is teach – but in 99% of the cases animators only turn to teaching because they do not have the necessary high-earning, creative skills to exist in the industry. If you have art and technique skills of a high enough nature then you will be employed (and often very well remunerated) in thie industry regardless of degree or what school you did (or did not) attend! Consequently, future students should consider their educational paths carefully. This Animation Foundation Course does at least offer the very best art-based foundational that any professional, or higher learning degree students, will need to move ahead of everyone else. And at only a fraction of the cost that most schools and colleges would charge!
The challenges for most students (or their parents) with the current educational system for animation students is that it is expensive, time-consuming and in most cases out of the reach to most students unless they relocate. In many cases too animation schools or colleges just do not teach everything the animation student of today needs to know! All too often the instructors at many schools and colleges are just not qualified to teach the subject properly. This is because of the derelict academic system for the arts – where quite often the best teachers are not allowed to teach their subjects because they do not have a degree, or that many of those who do have a degree are teaching because they are simply not good enough to get into the industry! Students are suffering as a result of this - especially in view of the extortionate fees they are required to pay these days to learn what they are passionate about!
The problems with accreditation for animation students:
Additionally most colleges are made to become accredited in order to attract student loans. This effectively means that students have to pay through the nose for courses that have nothing to do with the subject they most want to study - animation! Reflecting this point, it should be pointed out that the best animation schools in the world are Gobelins in France and (online) Animation Mentor or iAnimate. None of these are accredited and they are by far and away the best advanced programs any aspiring animator could wish to study. Yet even these do not offer in the core foundations that the best animators will need to build their advanced training upon if they really want to compete in the marketplace! Without accreditation we can donate 100% of the teaching process to just providing our students with only the valuable foundation elements they really need to know. Should they then choose to enter the industry directly, or move on to a degree course of hight education in animation, then they will be better creatively equip to more than compete with their fellow students AND they will enter the future with much more understanding and discrimination as to what is good and what is not in terms of their effort and commitment!
Escalating costs!
Added to this is the fact that the better mainstream schools, even with all their non-animation related classes, are becoming exponentially expensive and require their students to uproot themselves and move to where the school is - in some cases up to $44,000 a year, or more! Many of them are even picky on who they accept for training - which means that students with a passion for animation but who lack core foundational skills will never get in, even if they can afford to do so! All this means is many of the best and most passionate animation students do not have a fair shot at getting the best training in a way that is both affordable and accessible to them.
Why do you need an art-based curriculum?
Tony White has pointed out in his book “Jumping Through Hoops ~ The Animation Job Coach” (a free digital copy of which is given to all Advanced Certificate students by the way!) that more and more employees in the animation industry are asking to see not only digital animation portfolios and showreels but much more. Today employers often expect to see things beyond just software competence - such things as additional art skills, comprehensive sketchbooks and indications of creative process that has enabled the applicant to present what they are presenting. This becomes more and more imperative to employers – especially for small studio employers where most graduates start out. Applicants with art skills are so much more versatile than just 'software jockeys' in what they can offer. Big studios invariably prefer specialists - although those specialist have to come with significant industry experience also! The smaller studios on the other hand will be more inclined to take a chance on the unexperience college leaver – although the clincher in this case must be that the applicant can demonstrate proven and wide-ranging art skills that will enable them to work in several different departments in the studio production process if they are asked to.
The artist is king!
Many tech-driven schools and colleges do not teach this to a significant degree and will not tell you that you will need that side of your skill base too. But so many potential students are seduced by the glamor of new technology, state-of-the-art software and the special-effects obsession. The real truth however is that it is only the artist behind the software that has real value - everyone else is just a technician and these can be found anywhere! Therefore, the Animation Foundation Course has been designed to provide all those necessary foundation art skills to individual students who either want to enter the industry or simply apply for a more advanced academic program they believe will ultimately get them into the industry. The Animation Foundation Course will therefore fill that gap that most schools and colleges have in their program and will give anyone taking it a solid animation-focused foundation that will put them way ahead of the completion in these neglected skills.
A final truth!
The one thing that the academic system does not tell you – in fact they don’t even know it themselves in the case of some schools and colleges – is that IN THE ART & ANIMATION FIELDS YOU DO NOT NEED A DEGREE TO GET A JOB!
This is true in science, medicine, engineering, law, physics, etc. But in terms of art and animation it is WHAT YOU CAN DO OR WHAT YOU CAN SHOW that gets you the job, not the bit of paper that says you have completed a teaching program! The best thing a school can do therefore is give you the ammunition in your showreel or portfolio to fight a good fight when job-seeking but a degree adds nothing more to your armory. The only thing a degree will enable you to do of course is teach – but in 99% of the cases animators only turn to teaching because they do not have the necessary high-earning, creative skills to exist in the industry. If you have art and technique skills of a high enough nature then you will be employed (and often very well remunerated) in thie industry regardless of degree or what school you did (or did not) attend! Consequently, future students should consider their educational paths carefully. This Animation Foundation Course does at least offer the very best art-based foundational that any professional, or higher learning degree students, will need to move ahead of everyone else. And at only a fraction of the cost that most schools and colleges would charge!