CompuServe Messages

My personal, very biased, opinion about what kind of college to look into: If you're quite sure of an interest in computer animation (which seems to be the case), then obviously you want a school with a good computer lab, and good teachers in the computer graphics field. I would argue that what the hardware/software particulars are is irrelevant, as long as the setup provides for good access by the students (i.e., a room with 20 '486 machines is better than one with 1 SGI Onyx, teaching-wise). (the really biased part)– My feeling is you would get more out of a place that has a good liberal arts/visual arts curriculum integrated into whatever specialty curriculum there is. Also, don't be put off by a school that won't let you into a 'comp. animation' class until after your first year: of the animators and computer artists I know, the ones who do good work almost invariably learned their basic visual language in another medium (of course, they were mostly born before 1960, too!) The best foundation class for 3D animation is called "life drawing", and all you need is cheap paper, charcoal, and a good teacher. Add to this some painting (to understand color), photography (to understand lighting), sculpture (to understand space), and music and dance (to understand timing), along with literature, history, and science (to get a sense of what it all might mean), and you can probably see where I'm coming from. Learning how to use the software is the easy part; learning *why* to use the software is the hard part. Just one old fart's opinion, —jeff.