Career in CGI / Animation
Discussion
My son's school has written to us saying they believe his Art skills to be exceptional, wanting us to push him towards an art degree. We're interested in where this would go for a career. He's really interested in working in animation, so does anyone on here work in Film/GGI/Animation?
Currently he spends a lot of time using Pivot to do simple animation, he's tried using Maya but its a huge leap for him to grasp without any training.
Is Maya the industry standard? Should he try something inbetween Pivot and Maya. Also should he aim to get an art degree first, or is it better to do dedicated courses (say Maya)? Is it a difficult market to get a career in?
An old school friend works for Framestore, so I might try to get in contact with him, however any advice would be appreciated!
Currently he spends a lot of time using Pivot to do simple animation, he's tried using Maya but its a huge leap for him to grasp without any training.
Is Maya the industry standard? Should he try something inbetween Pivot and Maya. Also should he aim to get an art degree first, or is it better to do dedicated courses (say Maya)? Is it a difficult market to get a career in?
An old school friend works for Framestore, so I might try to get in contact with him, however any advice would be appreciated!
Have worked around the animation industry for a few years - commissioning and consultancy. It is a hugely competitive field, many students set off thinking they'll end up working for Pixar but most end up working on exploded animations of machinery for corporate websites. Certainly the need for CGI people is growing but the practice is become more and more mainstream so if you do get into a Pixar type operation, the chances are that you'll end up being little more than task and finish type projects.
One of the most gifted graphic designers I've ever worked with chucked it in a couple of years ago to put himself through a CGI course. He ended up working on the Thunderbirds movie (was part of a small team that animated the sequence where Thunderbird 2 lands by the London Eye). He spent 8 months in this and promptly went back into Graphic Design as there was no room for creativity in CGI.
Because so many people want to get into this, salaries are not that good either (although if you really, really shine, then you do have the opportunity to earn big later on)
Having a gift for art is to win one of life's major lotteries. It opens up a raft of really interesting opportunities beyond 'drawing'. Architecture, Design (graphic, interior, engineering, photography.....) the list goes on. If your lad is into films, then an art degree would stand him in good stead at a Director level, for example. Or set designer, etc. To put this into perspective, I have had several meetings over the past year and know reasonably well, a director that has worked on a couple of Pixar films, plus Dreamworks and Disney. I doubt the guy know one end of a computer from the other.
What he does, is to develop characters and draw the story boards, leaving the animation to others.
Point is, to keep his options open. At this stage, you know he has a gift for art, so best to nurture this and he'll find his own route as he progresses. By restricting the options too much will only end up stifling his natural creativity which would be a huge waste.
Only my opinion - hope it helps.
One of the most gifted graphic designers I've ever worked with chucked it in a couple of years ago to put himself through a CGI course. He ended up working on the Thunderbirds movie (was part of a small team that animated the sequence where Thunderbird 2 lands by the London Eye). He spent 8 months in this and promptly went back into Graphic Design as there was no room for creativity in CGI.
Because so many people want to get into this, salaries are not that good either (although if you really, really shine, then you do have the opportunity to earn big later on)
Having a gift for art is to win one of life's major lotteries. It opens up a raft of really interesting opportunities beyond 'drawing'. Architecture, Design (graphic, interior, engineering, photography.....) the list goes on. If your lad is into films, then an art degree would stand him in good stead at a Director level, for example. Or set designer, etc. To put this into perspective, I have had several meetings over the past year and know reasonably well, a director that has worked on a couple of Pixar films, plus Dreamworks and Disney. I doubt the guy know one end of a computer from the other.
What he does, is to develop characters and draw the story boards, leaving the animation to others.
Point is, to keep his options open. At this stage, you know he has a gift for art, so best to nurture this and he'll find his own route as he progresses. By restricting the options too much will only end up stifling his natural creativity which would be a huge waste.
Only my opinion - hope it helps.
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