Guide to selecting the best 3D Animation Institute
by Riyaz on Nov.26, 2010, under 3D Animation Courses, 3D Animation Institutes, Animation, General 3D, Lighting, Modeling, Training Program
Many people join a 3d animation institutes just because they saw an advertisement in the local papers or happened to hear from it from a friend. Very rarely do they understand what their getting into and willingly shell out thousands and lakhs of rupees without doing any background research on the animation institute.
In this post, I will tell you what you should be looking for when joining a 3d animation institute.
1. Students Work
This is perhaps the single most important factor one should consider when joining an animation institute. Nearly all animation institutes put up their students works on their website as a promotion. If you don’t like what you see or feel the animation institute is happy with bad quality work..then think twice before joining.
You can visit my older post which compares students works at http://dimension-z.net/blog/best-3d-animation-institutes-and-schools-in-india/
2. The Teacher
Unfortunately many animation institutes in India hire their own students who are unable to get a job in a studio as teachers. These teachers neither have good quality work, experience nor are qualified to teach.
Simply put, if your teacher cannot find a job in a studio, don’t expect to find one either.
3. The Programs
Many animation institutes have really confusing names for their programs that just don’t make any sense. I encountered this problem when I was listing the courses of animation institutes and going through these names even left me baffled.
There are a couple of common things I noticed about most programs.
1. They were created by a businessman with no knowledge of 3D
2. They were purposely extended to go on for as long as 2 to 3 years so that students could pay exorbitant fees in ‘easy’ installments
3. They crammed in teach as many software’s as possible probably to entice students without giving each software proper time.
The Duration
Like I mentioned earlier many institutes give students 1-2 hrs daily or alternate days with programs that can take 2-3 years to complete.
I’ve had many students coming to me for interviews who show me substandard quality work and even after completing 3 years are struggling to get a job. They all have similar issues that go with such long term animation courses.
1. The teachers kept changing during the animation course because they finally found a job somewhere else.
2. The timing were not enough to actually get any work done….This is probably because nobody told them that 3D is very time consuming and you could spend days working and still be back on square one.
I don’t see why, when international schools like Escape Studios whose students get to work in Hollywood, have courses for a maximum of 1 year should Indian institutes have 2-3 year courses. I think this just wastes a student years and is a ploy used by Institutes to have students pay in ‘easy’ installments’.
Diploma’s, Degrees and Certificates
We love our certificates, we seem to horde them as part of our collection.
While diploma’s, degrees and certificates would have been useful had you been doing an MBA. They are worthless when it comes to 3D Animation and no piece of paper can magically transform you into a 3D artist.
However, that being said; the knowledge got from doing an traditional art course from reputed schools like JJ School of Art or Rachna Sansad can be extremely useful in your pursuit to become a 3D Artist.
Software
Which software to learn is one of the biggest dilemmas faced by students. It can get crazy trying to decide which software to study.
I think animation institutes place way too much importance of software. Its true that learning a 3D software is a little difficult but once you have got your mind around 3D concepts and techniques then learning any 3D software takes only a month or two to learn.
I suggest students learn first learn 3DS Max and Photoshop. Once you have learned these well, you should try and transfer your knowledge from 3ds Max to Maya…(please try not to join a separate course just to learn Maya)…you can transfer your knowledge easily by just playing with the software and reading the help files online or simply join a course that teaches you both 3ds Max and Maya. Another software that is very useful in production and while making your showreel is AfterEffects….This is again an easy software to get started with and is very similar to Photoshop.
For the more adventurous, I would recommend learning Blender 3D. This software is available for free from http://www.blender3d.org as opensource software and is an amazing with a wealth of features.
Its not all Fun & Games
There are many people who join 3D Animation Institutes because they think 3D movies are cute and games are cool. Most don’t see the hard work and countless nights spent just so that you can have something cool to see.
3D Animation is hard work, it requires a lot of patience and time and a never ending thirst for knowledge and is a field that requires passionate people working in it. This is the wrong field if your in it just for the money because it will take years of experience for you to earn well and you could probably make better money in a call center.
Franchisees
Many 3D Animation Institutes in India have gone the franchisee way. In my opinion, franchisees are started by businessmen who have office spaces facing main roads that have high visibility amongst students.
These businessmen are usually clueless about 3D Animation and are in this field only for the revenue it generates. One of the major complaints I hear from students is that the franchisee closed down and opened another more profitable business.
Its just not possible for 3D Animation Institutes to control the quality of 3d education taught at hundreds of their branches spread all over India. This trend of starting franchisees is only in India and no International 3D Animation School will ever start franchisees and yet people from all over the world go to study in these schools because they are well renowned for the quality of their education.
As far as I know, we seem to be the only 3D Animation Institute that are against the idea of opening franchisees.
About the Author:
Riyaz Gomes started out as an 3D artist working with Virtual Reality Interactive Technologies and has worked with international studios like Octoplus Entertainment and BlueMoon Studios as Lead Artist before setting up Dimension-Z Studios.
At Dimension-Z Studios, Riyaz has supervised over 65 commercials, 4 channel promotions and 8 international games. He has been responsible for everything from hiring artists to managing projects, in-house training, upgrading in-house artist skills and provides one-on-one training with students, sharing 13 years of his experience teaching them the art of 3D.
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