Finding a College for Motion Graphics
There is a lot that goes into finding a college to pursue some form of 3D animation or Motion Graphics. It’s a brand new career field, in that it has changed so much since personal computers have become a luxury for every adventurous young artist. With this new fledge field has come some amazing schools, teachers, and artists but it has also dug up a lot of ways for someone to play negatively on that ambition.
Art schools are a dime a dozen now, and trudging through them is a full time task. Simply doing a Google search will toss back results containing hundreds of schools and institutes, all of them claiming that they are the superior school to spend your time and money going through. How in any possible way will you make a match?
Your first task for finding a school that fits is to sign up for a call, to talk to a representative of that school. When you speak to them ask them every question you possibly can think of that is important to you, money, classes, accreditation, and location. Think about the things you want from that school, and if you don’t know, figure it out first. It is very important you have an idea of what you want from school; going in blind to any “purchase” is a disaster. Ask to see student work; this will be a great way to gauge the quality of the school. When you do talk to a rep, and take a tour of the school, take it all with a grain of salt. The rep is there to sell something, in fact most are paid based on their selling, and they are no different than a car salesman. This isn’t saying they would lie to you, but they will sugar coat anything, and avoid actually telling you any negative drawbacks of the school. Going through them is only step one.
Social
Step two is to go social, not as a buzzword and not as a marketing term. I mean go online, on Facebook or Twitter, and find people who are in the school that you are looking at. Message them and tell them you are thinking of going to their school, ask them of their opinions. Don’t go into money or anything technical; stick with their emotion of the school. The technical stuff should have been sorted out by the representative you spoke to previously. It may seem strange to look for their emotion, but it will tell a lot about their overall feelings of the school. It’s so important you enjoy school; it will help your mind grow so much more than you would constantly complaining about how much school brings you down. I see that most people are more than happy to share their feelings of the school, the campus, the city, and this information will be valuable to you, you might also make a friend. Never judge the school off of one person’s opinion. Make sure you sample the school, pick people in different majors and of different cultures. You will see a trend quickly.
There isn’t much else I can say about the process, once you have spoken to 5-7 people and they all said they are unhappy with their school, I am sure you will have made some sort of decision. Just keep at it, one of the schools will catch on you, after all there is plenty of them to sort through.
Next time I will share some of my secrets for actually getting through school, tips I learned from teachers and personal experience. For now, share any tips you might have about finding a school.
Hey guys! I like to play with 3 dimensions of space and 1 dimension of time, but unlike Einstein, I only make motion art. So I spend most of my time expressing myself in some abstract, visual way, and I have really latched onto Motion Graphics. I am a newbie here in the field, but I have a passion for the work. Feel free to if you are also a newbie or someone just looking into this awesome form of art, I always enjoy helping people out.
Back in the day when I was in school… (yeah, like it was oh so long ago)… we didn’t have a media program. After some struggles, a lot of paperwork, and more than a few run-ins with the administration, I created my own major. The year after I graduated the college began a media arts program.
Don’t get discouraged if you can’t find “the right school.” As long as you find the right school for you and are dedicated to the cause you can make your dream come true!
nice post. maybe if anyone has the info could make a post listing the principal digital art schools and some details about them, including any details about foreign students application :D
I don’t know where to look for that, and I ‘d like to analyze the possibility to go to school in the US (or anywhere else) someday :)
I know no one is looking to plug a school here–maybe specifically are ASKING *NOT* to but–I need to summarize my experience. The school I *hated* ended up being a school I adore now because of the change of major to its Motion graphics program.
OK I go to scad. Scad.edu in Savannah Georgia.
The weirdest place for an art college if you ask me and oddly too it likes to advertise itself as the *largest* in the nation.
I graduated High School summer ‘02. I transferred to SCAD from a private college Spring 2004. Between 2004 and 2007 I majored in Sequential Art and Illustration. From 2007 to 2009 I moved to SoCal, tried to freelance, then had to move back home with my parents. I had never fully finished my degree.
SCAD changed its “Broadcast Design & Motion Graphics” major to “Motion Media Design” my very first quarter back when I re-enrolled, in the fall of 2009 a year ago. It was the same first quarter for the professor who’s now Chair of the MOME department there — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Betancourt . This is the first quarter for Austin Shaw ( http://www.austinshaw.com/ ) and he’s my senior project advisor/ coordinator /professor.
All these people rock hard and intimidate my balls off:
http://www.scad.edu/motion-media-design/faculty.cfm
Look them up. Look at their stuff. Look at what the professors have done and still do for ANY college you look at.
The other departments I’ve been in at SCAD– SEQA and ILLU–professors left after a year, weren’t very skilled in their field or couldn’t teach effectively. SCAD’s Motion Media Design faculty list is stellar. Professor Duff (Woon Yong) has basically defined kinetic typography standards in the past decade with his Time-Based Typography course.
There’s problems with the school I’ll be the first to admit, but the professors who don’t seem to be leaving anytime soon really make the major challenging & rewarding. I was pissed with my experience @the school before, but now I’m constantly impressed.
Thanks alot – your answer solved all my porbelms after several days struggling