scadlies-blog

[scadlies-blog]

Get a SCAD VFX Education for cheap (and have more to show for it)

Read 2500 words. Save $100k. Sounds good? Keep reading

First, I think you should have a good idea of what you should be going to an art school for. When schools advertise their services, they make a point to show the best work that has been produced at their school. This isn't false advertising. It is just distorted. Your work may or may not get to that level when you leave.

{{SCAD VFX in general}}

What exactly is supposed to happen?

You pay the school to put you in a creative, collaborative environment. Your money also goes towards having access to professors that have current, expert knowledge in their field. What many get wrong about art schools is that they buy into the notion that "if I can just get in, I will be a better artist". This just isn't so. No school will make you a better artist. At the end of the day, the work you put in will have a lot to do with the work you get  out.

Also, there is a mutual understanding between the school and the future student. I pay the school money and in return, the school educates me enough to become a viable candidate in the field I chose to study in. If you leave a school and you are not good enough to work in your field, you have been cheated. The work that you are producing in your final year at SCAD should be no different or very similar to what you will be doing in the industry. The school should make sure of that.

Unfortunately, what you risk producing at SCAD is the same eye-rolling drudgery that recruiters have been seeing year after year. Watch a few SCAD VFX demo reels yourself. Google it. They all have the same kind of camera movement and presentation style. What you make is just as important as how you present it. 

What am I really saying? If I take the VFX course at SCAD I won't get a job when I am finished?

Due to the way the VFX department is run, you have a very high risk of not producing industry standard work. Meeting the SCAD standard is not difficult. Know that the SCAD standard is not industry standard. If you want to see the work that gets attention and has recruiters knocking on your door, go to www.cgstudentawards.com and look at all the finalists in the different categories. Look at all of them throughout the years. If your work doesn't get to to that level by the time you graduate, do not expect to get a job straight out of school.

This is not a shit-post. If it comes off like one, sorry not sorry. I refuse to let innocent parents, deceived into SCAD being the savior of their beloved soon-to-be-"starving artist" child. That all they have to do is spend their hard earned money and presto! Companies want to throw their money at you!

No.

The reality is that you will leave SCAD and a select few of your friends will get jobs right out of college (or even before, if they are that good) and you will be left there wondering what went wrong and why you have suddenly become the ugly duckling in the prospective job market. 

{{THE GOOD}}

Where I think the SCAD VFX department gets it right.

They keep all the software up to date. You really won't have to worry about using a super outdated version of any particular software. All the stuff you need will be the latest, if not a version/update behind. This ties into the renderfarm. You have access to a SERIOUSLY POWERFUL renderfarm. On a good day you will have the rendering power of over 250 computers. You get close to 500 during the summer. You will not appreciate what a renderfarm is unless you have actually dealt with rendering an animated sequence before.  

{{THE BAD}}

The first thing you will not realize when you enter the VSFX program at SCAD is that, as smart and cool as you think the teachers are (which most of them are) a lot of them have been out of the industry for a long, long time. Some have not even been in the industry at all. Do not twist my words. As teachers, I think these professors fulfill their role. Where I find fault is how long these professors have been out of the CG industry, arguably one of the fastest changing and most volatile industries on the planet. Let me give a simple analogy. If you were going to war, would you want advice from someone who went to Iraq/recently deployed or from someone who read Black Hawk Down and Sun Tsu? The closer and more recent the person has been to the action, the better. That will not be the case at SCAD (VFX).

Here are the teachers you will encounter:

Deborah Fowler

Highest accolades include working with Pixar in the 90's and her work with Phyllotactic patterns, also in the 90's. Out of the industry about 15 years.

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Bridget Gaynor

Highest accolades include working with Rhythm & Hues. Out of the Industry about 10 years.

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Dave Kaul

Highest accolades include making digital toy models for Fischer-Price in the 90's and working on a Dodge commercial for the Superbowl in the 90's. Out of the industry about 18 years.

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Malcolm Allan Kesson

Highest accolades include being a freelance Renderman course instructor for 7 years. Author of the Cutter text editor. Stays up to date with current Renderman practices. Teaching at SCAD for 18 years. I consider him still a part of the industry.

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Barbara McCullough

Current chair of VSFX at SCAD. Highest accolades include being in Manager positions at Rhythm & Hues, DreamWorks and Digital Domain. Surprisingly does not see the state the VFX department is in as current chair. Out of the industry for over 5 years.

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Joe Pasquale

Highest accolades include working as a computer artist with ILM at one point in the 90's. Out of the industry for 17 years.

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Patricia G. Perrone

Highest accolades include being an instructor for 6 years then working for SCAD for the next 23 years. Has never been in the industry.

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Manuel Prada

Highest accolades include completing masters degree at SCAD. Has never been in the industry.

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Stuart Robertson

Highest accolades include being a multiple award winner(Academy of Film and TV Arts '83, Academy '98, Effects society nomination '02), contributor to The VES Handbook of Visual Effects, Oscar winner.  Out of the industry for 8 years.

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Timothy Patrick Steele

Highest accolades include being the lead Character FX Artist at DreamWorks. Worked on How To Train Your Dragon 2. Fresh from the industry.

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Kirt Witte

Highest accolades include doing freelance for 1 year and being a 3D artist at Paradigm Entertainment. Out of the industry for 14 years.

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The Visual Effects Industry is in turmoil right now. I am not saying getting a job is impossible, I have yet to find my start into the industry and I hope I will soon, but for every situation you have to know what you are dealing with. Stay informed! Here is the most recent interview with Scott Ross. If you don't know who he is and you plan to be a CG artist, you need to change that, now.

Video Of Scott Ross : http://www.awn.com/news/watch-scott-ross-talks-flawed-economics-vfx-fmx-2015

Read "Inside VFX"

Highly recommended book about understanding the entertainment industry as a whole and why the millions that movies make at the box office isn't the end all and be all of where the money goes. This rabbit hole goes deep my friends. Buy it here.

{{The UGLY}}

Honestly, I do not think that the department is being run with the student's interests in mind right now. The overwhelming majority of the faculty have not been in a production environment for close to a decade or more. I do not believe that we are being trained to become the future CG juggernauts that most of us want to be. We don't want someone to look at our work, shrug and say "meh". Artists want your eyes blown out of your skull. We want you to be impressed. The teachers at SCAD are explicitly told to be easy when it comes to critiquing your work. You will not be told the bold truth you need to hear to get to the next level, even if you ask. You will be told just enough so that the "SCAD Experience" will be preserved. Teachers have gotten in trouble for replicating an environment that more closely simulated the production environment. You need to be prepared for the working environment! To envelope the students in a bubble of fake niceness is wrong. Telling a student that their work looks good will never make them improve. On the other hand I do not condone tearing an artist down for no reason. The "constructive criticism" here is just not good enough to get you to professional standard.

If I can take a few courses online and be on the same level as students leaving your school after spending $100k there is something wrong with that. The amount you spend for ONE quarter at SCAD (~$10k/3 classes) can, if you know how to plan out your education, fund your learning online and put you in a more marketable position.

Companies in the industry care more about the work you can do than what degree you got from which school. You could go to the most prestigious school in the world, if you cannot perform, they will not hire you.

{{WHAT I THINK THE VFX DEPT NEEDS}}

I'll make this short and to the point.

- A chair that is a veteran in the VFX industry and has been involved with current practices at both large and mid-sized companies. One that understands the level that the industry demands and will focus on the students being able to support themselves during the high and low times in their career. Basically we need a department that is focused on developing successful artists not job-focused artists.

- FRESH professors that have fulfilled intermediate/senior positions in the industry and have worked on films less than 2 years old.

{{HERE IS WHERE I SAVE YOU MONEY AND TIME}}

While SCAD sorts itself out, I am going to provide for you a lower cost plan to put you closer to your goal. I will provide every syllabus for the entire course at SCAD for the VFX department. I will only provide the Fall, Spring and Winter.  I don't know how to make a torrent so if you do it for me and send me a link I will update it here. Also, I will show you sources where you can get a good education. Some will be free, some will be paid.

Entire VFX Syllabus for Spring 2015: LINK HERE

Sources:

Digital Tutors | cmiVFX | Gumroad | FXPHD | Gnomon | Lynda | Countless others

Suggestions for how to use the syllabus as a guide to your "student" path.

- Look at the syllabus and see what the students in that class would be required to learn. Create a checklist.

- At each step, research an online class that would best teach you what is on that sylabus for that specific class.

- Remember, each class is 10 weeks long. So if you want to learn at the "SCAD Pace" you would take 3 courses for 10 weeks. Then continue until you are finished the "course".

For example. When you "take" VSFX 210 the outcome states:

1. Students will create accurate models using a variety of 3-D techniques and reference materials.

2. Students will use appropriate shading techniques to create a believable look to 3-D objects.

3. Students will use fundamental lighting, rendering techniques, non-character-related animation and appropriate 3-D camera manipulation to create images or animations that inform a compelling visual story.

So what you would then do is search (for example) on Digital tutors an introductory course on Autodesk Maya. The lesson on Digital Tutors in particular is over 100 lessons long and trust me, when you are finished you will know more about Maya than some seniors students graduating from the SCAD VFX department. Later on you will be "taking classes" in Houdini, Nuke, Zbrush. See what tutorials you can find to introduce you to the program and then afterwards get starts on some projects. First make yourself an easy one so you can prove to yourself that you can do it. Then an intermediate one and then if you are really going all in try to replicate something you saw in a movie or in an awesome demo reel.

There are also a lot of free resources made by independent artists, YouTube, etc, that you can take advantage of. After you have been learning for a while you will know what to search for, what classes to pay for and what to download that will help you and your interests. You can find anything on the internet. At first it is a lot to take in. Try everything and see what you like and then just keep going in the direction that makes the most sense to you.

{{FINAL THOUGHTS ON GETTING BETTER}}

Always be watching demo reels. See which ones get attention online and why people like it so much. Was it super realistic? Was it fun to watch? Keep asking yourself questions and try to break down stuff you think looks cool. ALWAYS do what you want to do!! Just keep doing things that interest you. People will always see the passion in your work. All these things lead you to improving and also honing your eye so that you can apply that to your work.

Enter competitions. It is good for networking and also you get a better sense of where you are at. You also get good feedback from time to time.

{{FINAL THOUGHT ON SCAD IN GENERAL}}

SCAD is a great school. It is very, very, VERY expensive and if you can get scholarships, have access to money or if it is low risk for you to go to university then do it. I am not saying that you can’t go to SCAD and get a good VFX education. I am saying that you will be at a disadvantage because of the professors’ lack of current experience. Everyone should be sure about why they want to go to college and there is plenty of advice to help you decide to do it or not. If you go, work hard. If you don't go, work hard. I wish you all the best.

TL;DR

What is the VFX program good at:

-They keep all the software up to date

- One of the best renderfarms you can have access to

What is the VFX program bad at:

- teachers that have been out of the industry for close to a decade or more

- No current/recent industry experience to help guide you towards industry practices

- No actual preparation for the shitstorm that is the VFX industry in it's current state.

- Chair of the VFX department doesn't have the direction to make the program competitive. Also not very computer/internet savvy.

Best of luck!

[scadlies-blog]

The Lies End Here

Soon,I will share information that I hope will help change the landscape of art education. For too long SCAD has been taking the money of the uninformed and the desperate. I hope that I will not be the first to speak out against this injustice. I encourage all to share their story and let their voices be heard. This has to stop