VFXWorld Training & Job Survey: How Did You Get Started?
I thought this article would be good information for all those fans (for example, TJ!), who are interested in the SFX field:
From VFX World:
http://vfxworld.com/?sa=adv&code=57c...ticles&id=2529
(Please follow the link for the complete four-page article.)
VFXWorld Training & Job Survey: How Did You Get Started?
VFXWorld polled its readers to see how they are training for their careers and getting jobs. Rick DeMott reports back with the findings and highlights.
By Rick DeMott
[ Posted on June 21, 2005 ]
A few months back AWN and VFXWorld surveyed its readers to discover trends and stories about professional training and education. Questions included:
More and more artists are taking education into their own hands.
In order to get up to speed and get a job, how did you get your training?
- Self taught with offline/printed materials such as books, magazines and/or tutorials?
- Self taught with online materials such as articles and tutorials?
- Video training and/or DVDs
- Art school courses
- University courses
- Technical school training courses
- Online workshops, courses and/or other distance learning
- Other
Please describe your training/educational experiences
What was your big break into the industry?
Did you have a mentor that helped your career? If so, what did you learn from him or her?
Explain your career path and how it shaped what you do today.
More than 1,000 people participated. 45% of those people surveyed were from the U.S., 10% from Canada, 9% from the U.K., 8% from India and 3% from Australia. However, the responses came from all parts of the world, including the United Arab Emirates and Kenya.
It seems that a large percentage (64%) of the people surveyed have self-trained using books, magazines and/or tutorials; 44% self-trained using online materials; 37% and 36% took art school or university courses, respectively, while 24% went through technical school training; 22% have used video or DVD training with 9% partaking in online workshops, courses or distant learning; and 80% of the people surveyed have trained using at least two of the above criteria.
Below we have a sampling of what people said:
Ron Roberts of BIG Designs in Australia received a degree in architecture, which led indirectly to him becoming a set and production designer. An interest in CG from experimenting with CAD led to going out and spending about $50,000 on gear and just making it work.
Australia-based Melov Design’s Tony Melov drew medical illustrations by day and at night trained on a Quantel pbox in downtime at a TV network. After some time, be convinced the promo people of his skills and became the promo designer at the network. Through contacts made there, he left and freelanced as a HAL/Henry designer; later he took a full-time position at a production house. After that he went on to open his own company, specializing in title and TV show design, which moved into animation, after the title sequence industry collapsed.
Andy Hayes went to NCCA, where he learned animation. He used to program as a kid but the course introduced him to C++ and openGL. When script based animation packages became the norm it meant that not only was he well prepared for just animating, but could tackle technical issues as well. It gave him the opportunity to explore so much in such a short space of time — something he believes he would have found hard doing to the same degree working in a busy production environment. He stayed on at the university working as a lecturer and then progressed into some effects work in London. He moved at the beginning of the year to Australia to work on the CG feature Happy Feet.
Francisco Lima took Autocad lessons in college where he began modeling in 3D. He got in as a trainee in an English company and was hired as a CAD operator. Soon he started using 3D in the job and began studying 3D animation programs. He worked really hard on a specific project and was awarded with a trip to the U.S. Lima trained at the School of Visual Arts and supplemented his education there with books and magazines.
After returning from New York, he consulted in the building of a small CGI department at a production house in Rio. From there, a friend called to start a multimedia/CGI department at a new educational TV channel. He soon became the manager of this department, which had 20 3D/2D animators.
(Three other pages follow.)
|*|(*)|*|(*)|*|
Morjana
From VFX World:
http://vfxworld.com/?sa=adv&code=57c...ticles&id=2529
(Please follow the link for the complete four-page article.)
VFXWorld Training & Job Survey: How Did You Get Started?
VFXWorld polled its readers to see how they are training for their careers and getting jobs. Rick DeMott reports back with the findings and highlights.
By Rick DeMott
[ Posted on June 21, 2005 ]
A few months back AWN and VFXWorld surveyed its readers to discover trends and stories about professional training and education. Questions included:
More and more artists are taking education into their own hands.
In order to get up to speed and get a job, how did you get your training?
- Self taught with offline/printed materials such as books, magazines and/or tutorials?
- Self taught with online materials such as articles and tutorials?
- Video training and/or DVDs
- Art school courses
- University courses
- Technical school training courses
- Online workshops, courses and/or other distance learning
- Other
Please describe your training/educational experiences
What was your big break into the industry?
Did you have a mentor that helped your career? If so, what did you learn from him or her?
Explain your career path and how it shaped what you do today.
More than 1,000 people participated. 45% of those people surveyed were from the U.S., 10% from Canada, 9% from the U.K., 8% from India and 3% from Australia. However, the responses came from all parts of the world, including the United Arab Emirates and Kenya.
It seems that a large percentage (64%) of the people surveyed have self-trained using books, magazines and/or tutorials; 44% self-trained using online materials; 37% and 36% took art school or university courses, respectively, while 24% went through technical school training; 22% have used video or DVD training with 9% partaking in online workshops, courses or distant learning; and 80% of the people surveyed have trained using at least two of the above criteria.
Below we have a sampling of what people said:
Ron Roberts of BIG Designs in Australia received a degree in architecture, which led indirectly to him becoming a set and production designer. An interest in CG from experimenting with CAD led to going out and spending about $50,000 on gear and just making it work.
Australia-based Melov Design’s Tony Melov drew medical illustrations by day and at night trained on a Quantel pbox in downtime at a TV network. After some time, be convinced the promo people of his skills and became the promo designer at the network. Through contacts made there, he left and freelanced as a HAL/Henry designer; later he took a full-time position at a production house. After that he went on to open his own company, specializing in title and TV show design, which moved into animation, after the title sequence industry collapsed.
Andy Hayes went to NCCA, where he learned animation. He used to program as a kid but the course introduced him to C++ and openGL. When script based animation packages became the norm it meant that not only was he well prepared for just animating, but could tackle technical issues as well. It gave him the opportunity to explore so much in such a short space of time — something he believes he would have found hard doing to the same degree working in a busy production environment. He stayed on at the university working as a lecturer and then progressed into some effects work in London. He moved at the beginning of the year to Australia to work on the CG feature Happy Feet.
Francisco Lima took Autocad lessons in college where he began modeling in 3D. He got in as a trainee in an English company and was hired as a CAD operator. Soon he started using 3D in the job and began studying 3D animation programs. He worked really hard on a specific project and was awarded with a trip to the U.S. Lima trained at the School of Visual Arts and supplemented his education there with books and magazines.
After returning from New York, he consulted in the building of a small CGI department at a production house in Rio. From there, a friend called to start a multimedia/CGI department at a new educational TV channel. He soon became the manager of this department, which had 20 3D/2D animators.
(Three other pages follow.)
|*|(*)|*|(*)|*|
Morjana
