#ILM
Hi. Pardon my jumping into this thread, but it looked really
interesting and particularily relevant to my personal situation. This
message is not addressed to anyone specifically, but I just replied
in the thread where I thought it should go.
I'm a student in my last year of high school. I'm very much into
computer animation and would like to see myself doing it as a
career. I'm not sure if I want to end up character animating for
film or television, though. I'm pretty sure, though, that what I
want to do hasn't even been invented yet. A couple years ago, I took
a course in Extended Media which dealt with video, film, animation,
photography and other technological wonders. It was very
enlightening. All my life I had assumed I could be a techie person
and I would get me where I wanted. I realized that in order to do
anything worthwhile, I needed the art background also. I've been
taking art for the past two years and find it refreshing. The ideas
that your put into your stuff are more important than how you
actually do it. I'm sure that's what ILM is looking for. Anyone can
be taught to use a computer, but not anyone can be taught to be an
artist. I was lucky enough to have it in me that I also loved movies
and wanted to make them, so I feel that I have a fairly good
combination of both skills needed (art and computer) to get along.
My history, though is mainly with computers. I, like you (I think, or
someone else in the thread), am 100% self taught. I've taken all the
computer courses in my school, but just for the credit. I could have
actually TAUGHT them with what I knew. I've been using 3DS for about
2 and a half years now, that was completely self taught also. The
art stuff is kind of new to me, but I'm liking it and taking to it
well. I work part time at a local computer animation firm and the
experience that I'm getting there tells me that you need something
more than just computer knowledge. Half the people there are
artists, trained to use computers after they learned design at art
school. Everyone there does some sort of art on the side, in some
other medium, for themselves.
Having to apply for university for next year really soon, these issues
are really relevant. I know I want to do animation, but not just a
computer science major with a graphics specialty. I've talked to
people doing that and they just program applications. They figure
out the formulas for ray tracing and discover new and faster
techniques for shadows and reflections, that sort of thing. They're
headed for a job programming software at Alias or Softimage. What
they don't do, is actually use the stuff. They never make any
animation with what they've done, other than for demonstrational
purposes. Animation done by scientists is traditionally, bad. I want
to use the stuff for a purpose, as well as know how it works. Knowing
the programming is still an essential part of it (especially with
IPAS), but it's not ALL of it.
I live in Toronto. I've checked out local York University for their
programs there. They offer the only Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in
Canada and have a fairly good film program. I'm also looking into
going to the states, but the cost is tremendous. I've been fortunate
enough to speak with profs and students at York and figure out a
schedule so that I could major in Film and minor in computer
science. This is pretty good. I can do just about everything I want
to. Also nearby is Sheridan college, whose comp. animation program
is considered by many, including ILM and Disney, to be the best in
the world. They have a 1 year program that requires a fine arts
degree to get into. Supposedly, though, they and York are cooking up
a new program that combines film and computer animation. I would
love to go into that.
I can talk for hours on this (as you can probably see). Actually, I'm
more used to seeking out information like this than actually giving
it out. If you've read this far, thanks for putting up with my life
story. I just wanted to express all the stuff that's been in my head
for the last while, and this seemed like a good place to do it.
Please reply (anyone), I'd love to get into a conversation about this
stuff.
Aaron
P.S. I've never heard of an animation major either. Is it offered at
a specific school, or is it just comp. sci. with a specialty?