Written by The Gorilla on May 5, 2011
Let’s be very clear. School isn’t mandatory to be successful in a creative industry. Nobody cares if you have a degree or if you went to a prestigious school. No matter how you get there, the only thing that matters is that you’re good. That’s it.
So what value does school have to offer if not a degree? Why should you even go?
The Hard Stuff
Please don’t go to school to learn Software. What a gigantic waste. Software is easy to learn. Just search for some video training for any tool and you will find hours of people showing you what each and every button does. Learn that stuff on the weekend and test out of those classes. Instead, while you’re at school, learn the hard stuff like design, color theory, typography, story telling, composition, animation, editing, and compositing.
Forced Deadlines
School helps to get you ready for working with clients and getting projects finished by giving you hard deadlines to work with. A project due on monday means a weekend of working your ass off. Learning how to create great work and put it out for the world to see is THE KEY to being a creative. School projects give you great excuses to stay up all night worrying about a big project. And, that’s EXACTLY where the learning happens.
Mentors
Ask anybody that went to school what they thought of it, and you will get the same response. “It was ok, not great. But this one teacher made it all worth while.” It’s exactly that one or two teachers that you connect with that make the school experience “worth it”. When you find your mentor, go out of your way to take more classes with them. Ask them for guidance and have them critique your work HARD. Their advice will be more than worth the tuition.
Contacts
Being great is only half of the equation of course. You also need people. Without people, you don’t get work or show work. Great work without people is useless. Don’t end up being a great artist in the basement. People hire or recommend, or see, or enjoy, or buy what you do. Your classmates and teachers are the usually the first contacts you have and these relationships can help you throughout your career.
Time
Most importantly, school gives you the time you need to play and learn. You must make many many ugly things before you start making pretty ones. School gives you that time to go though that phase without the pressure to “Get A Job”. Especially for young students, school is where you make all your mistakes and find out what your strengths are.
Really Worth It????
Is it really worth all this time and money just for the piece of paper nobody will ever ask you for? Of course not. It’s all the other stuff that goes along with school that you are really paying for. In the end, you get out of school what you put in. Can you skip school and save the cash? Sure! Many successful talented people have. Can you get some of these things on your own? Yep. There are always outliers. But as a rule, If you are thinking about going to school, do it.
http://greyscalegorilla.com/blog/2011/05/is-design-school-actually-worth-it/
Tuesday, 13 December 2011
Sunday, 4 December 2011
PCTIA - Tuition and Fee Refund Policy
The tuition and fee refund policy is subject to the minimum requirements set out herein. In the event that the terms of this policy conflict with or are silent on a matter addressed in these Bylaws, the Bylaws will prevail.
An institution may adopt a tuition and fee refund policy which is more generous than the minimum requirements set out herein
A student may be entitled to a refund of tuition fees paid to an institution in the event that:
The written notice of withdrawal or dismissal may be delivered in any manner provided that a receipt or other verification is available that indicates the date on which the notice is delivered.
The notice of withdrawal or dismissal is deemed to be effective from the date it is delivered.
The refund entitlement to which a student is entitled is calculated on the total tuition fees due under the contract. Where total tuition fees have not yet been collected, the institution is not responsible for refunding more than has been collected to date and a student may be required to make up for monies due under the contract.
If the institution has received fees in excess of the amount it is entitled to under the student contract, the excess amounts must be refunded.
Refund policy for students:
Refunds before the program of study begins:
Refunds after the program of study starts:
Where a student is deemed not to have met the institutional and/or program specific minimum requirements for admission through no misrepresentation or fault of their own, the institution must refund all tuition and fees paid under the contract, less the applicable non‐ refundable student application or registration fee.
Where a student withdraws or is dismissed from their program they are entitled to 100% refund of any as‐yet to be received consumables that have been pre‐paid.
Where a student withdraws or is dismissed from their program after receiving technical equipment from the institution free of charge:
Refunds owing to students must be paid within 30 calendar days of the institution receiving written notification of withdrawal and all required supporting documentation, or within 30 calendar days of an institution’s written notice of dismissal.
Where the delivery of the program of study is through home study or distance education, refunds must be based on the percent of the program of study completed at the rates as set out in the Refund Policy for Students section of these Bylaws.
An institution may adopt a tuition and fee refund policy which is more generous than the minimum requirements set out herein
A student may be entitled to a refund of tuition fees paid to an institution in the event that:
- The student provides written notice to the institution that he or she is withdrawing from the program; or
- The institution provides written notice to the student advising that the student has been dismissed from the program
The written notice of withdrawal or dismissal may be delivered in any manner provided that a receipt or other verification is available that indicates the date on which the notice is delivered.
The notice of withdrawal or dismissal is deemed to be effective from the date it is delivered.
The refund entitlement to which a student is entitled is calculated on the total tuition fees due under the contract. Where total tuition fees have not yet been collected, the institution is not responsible for refunding more than has been collected to date and a student may be required to make up for monies due under the contract.
If the institution has received fees in excess of the amount it is entitled to under the student contract, the excess amounts must be refunded.
Refund policy for students:
Refunds before the program of study begins:
- If written notice of withdrawal is received by the institution less than 7 calendar days after the contract is made, and before the commencement of the period of instruction specified in the contract, the institution may retain the lesser of 10% of the total tuition and fees due under the contract or $250.00.
- Subject to subsection 24. 11) a) i), if written notice of withdrawal is received by the institution 30 calendar days or more before the commencement of the period of instruction specified in the contract, the institution may retain the lesser of 10% of the total tuition and fees due under the contract, or $750.00.
- Subject to subsection 24.11)a) i), if written notice of withdrawal is received by the institution less than 30 calendar days before the commencement of the period of instruction specified in the contract, the institution may retain the lesser of 20% of the total tuition and fees due under the contract, or $1000.00.
Refunds after the program of study starts:
- If written notice of withdrawal is received by the institution or a student is dismissed before 10% of the period of instruction specified in the contract has elapsed, the institution may retain 30% of the tuition and fees due under the contract.
- If written notice of withdrawal is received by the institution, or a student is dismissed, after 10% and before 30% of the period of instruction specified in the contract has elapsed, the institution may retain 50% of the tuition and fees due under the contract.
- If a student withdraws or is dismissed after 30% of the period of instruction specified in the contract has elapsed, no refund is required.
Where a student is deemed not to have met the institutional and/or program specific minimum requirements for admission through no misrepresentation or fault of their own, the institution must refund all tuition and fees paid under the contract, less the applicable non‐ refundable student application or registration fee.
Where a student withdraws or is dismissed from their program they are entitled to 100% refund of any as‐yet to be received consumables that have been pre‐paid.
Where a student withdraws or is dismissed from their program after receiving technical equipment from the institution free of charge:
- The student must return the equipment unopened or as issued within 14 calendar days; and
- If the student fails to return the equipment as set out above, the institution may deduct the reasonable cost of the equipment from any amount to be refunded to the student.
Refunds owing to students must be paid within 30 calendar days of the institution receiving written notification of withdrawal and all required supporting documentation, or within 30 calendar days of an institution’s written notice of dismissal.
Where the delivery of the program of study is through home study or distance education, refunds must be based on the percent of the program of study completed at the rates as set out in the Refund Policy for Students section of these Bylaws.
VFX education is a very hard topic to bitch about
VFX education is a very hard topic to bitch about :) You'll need a computer, yes, and if you're honest and not too poor, you can get the software and courses legally. If you're not so honest or too poor, you can get everything for free. Forums where people all over the world can critique your work - the second ingredient in education - are free and people write on them 24/7. I don't really see any other field where you can get good education totally for free, investing just your time and effort. So we can't complain really.
One important thing not noted in your article - understandable, since you wouldn't like pesky foreigners like me taking westerners nice jobs away, hehe, is that an actual degree from an actual university is very important for immigration officials, if one wants to move from the east to the west.
Cheers ;)
Glacierise (a.k.a. Hristo Velev) said...
http://effectscorner.blogspot.com/2010/09/price-of-vfx-education.html
One important thing not noted in your article - understandable, since you wouldn't like pesky foreigners like me taking westerners nice jobs away, hehe, is that an actual degree from an actual university is very important for immigration officials, if one wants to move from the east to the west.
Cheers ;)
Glacierise (a.k.a. Hristo Velev) said...
http://effectscorner.blogspot.com/2010/09/price-of-vfx-education.html
Saturday, 3 December 2011
Lost Boys - Go for it!!!
Introduction:
I always had a passion to get into entertainment industry. After graduating in Commerce I ended up becoming a VFX Artist. I started in the animation industry by taking a short course at Maya Academy of Advanced Cinematic, Pune, India. I worked as 3D Generalist and Lighting Artist in India for few years but my goal was always to get into the VFX industry.
To further enhance my skills for VFX and gain some International experience, I decided to take a course in Canada. I chose Lost Boys Learning because the duration was for one year and the course was financially beneficial. The course structure was based on various projects, which would cover all the basic knowledge to get into the industry as an artist. I also researched about the school through alumni who were from India. The school was situated in the beautiful Comox valley. It is the best place to stay and to be focused on your studies. Now the school has moved to Vancouver, where the industry is situated. At the school we have amazing mentors like Mark Benard (VFX Director & Owner), Ganz Ramalingam (Visual Effects Instructor/IT Manager) and Ria Ambrose (Program Administrator/Student Services Director/VFX Production Manager). Mark has 15 years of industry experience. He is an excellent teacher and a fun person to work with. Ganz was my classmate from batch 007. He has over 10 years experience in multimedia. He is also a Nuke certified trainer. Ria was our VFX production manager and also helped out a lot with student projects with her Special Effects Make-up and Prosthetic experience. She is also currently handling the administration of the school and has run an animation school in the past.
About The Program:
The program is mainly with Autodesk’s Maya and The foundry’s Nuke. The curriculum is on their website and it is strictly followed from day one. You are assigned projects and also provided with lectures and demonstrations. Mark with all his creative experience will always keep giving his inputs. You get the liberty to be as creative as you can be, as long as you complete your assignments. One day of the week is industry studies where you are to discuss current things happening in the industry, watch reels, read articles etc. Every Friday is a ‘Screening Day’ in which you have to show your week’s work and of course, get loads of feedback from classmates and mentors. Believe me it gets the best out of you.
As the program is project based it starts with basics and gets more complicated till the date of your graduation, (LOL) but that’s how it is in real production. The project based learning teaches you the importance of deadlines and your commitment towards the assigned shot. The facility is open 24 hours for students so it practically becomes your second home. You can work, play, nap, watch movies, while you render... or whatever you want, but come ‘Screening Day’ you will have to present something each week. As the number of students per batch are less you will personally learn a lot from the staff and from your classmates. You get full guidance, on how to achieve what you want to from the industry.
The Verdict:
Tuition Rates are the same for both native and International Students, so it the best deal in a country like Canada. Being an international student I would totally recommend this school for its quality of education and the amazing people you will be with. I had the best year of my career in Lost Boys. It took me two months after my graduation to find my first job in Vancouver. During this period I had a lot of support from Lost Boys which was beyond my expectation... Lost Boys is the place to be if you want to nourish your potential. Go for it!!!
I always had a passion to get into entertainment industry. After graduating in Commerce I ended up becoming a VFX Artist. I started in the animation industry by taking a short course at Maya Academy of Advanced Cinematic, Pune, India. I worked as 3D Generalist and Lighting Artist in India for few years but my goal was always to get into the VFX industry.
To further enhance my skills for VFX and gain some International experience, I decided to take a course in Canada. I chose Lost Boys Learning because the duration was for one year and the course was financially beneficial. The course structure was based on various projects, which would cover all the basic knowledge to get into the industry as an artist. I also researched about the school through alumni who were from India. The school was situated in the beautiful Comox valley. It is the best place to stay and to be focused on your studies. Now the school has moved to Vancouver, where the industry is situated. At the school we have amazing mentors like Mark Benard (VFX Director & Owner), Ganz Ramalingam (Visual Effects Instructor/IT Manager) and Ria Ambrose (Program Administrator/Student Services Director/VFX Production Manager). Mark has 15 years of industry experience. He is an excellent teacher and a fun person to work with. Ganz was my classmate from batch 007. He has over 10 years experience in multimedia. He is also a Nuke certified trainer. Ria was our VFX production manager and also helped out a lot with student projects with her Special Effects Make-up and Prosthetic experience. She is also currently handling the administration of the school and has run an animation school in the past.
About The Program:
The program is mainly with Autodesk’s Maya and The foundry’s Nuke. The curriculum is on their website and it is strictly followed from day one. You are assigned projects and also provided with lectures and demonstrations. Mark with all his creative experience will always keep giving his inputs. You get the liberty to be as creative as you can be, as long as you complete your assignments. One day of the week is industry studies where you are to discuss current things happening in the industry, watch reels, read articles etc. Every Friday is a ‘Screening Day’ in which you have to show your week’s work and of course, get loads of feedback from classmates and mentors. Believe me it gets the best out of you.
As the program is project based it starts with basics and gets more complicated till the date of your graduation, (LOL) but that’s how it is in real production. The project based learning teaches you the importance of deadlines and your commitment towards the assigned shot. The facility is open 24 hours for students so it practically becomes your second home. You can work, play, nap, watch movies, while you render... or whatever you want, but come ‘Screening Day’ you will have to present something each week. As the number of students per batch are less you will personally learn a lot from the staff and from your classmates. You get full guidance, on how to achieve what you want to from the industry.
The Verdict:
Tuition Rates are the same for both native and International Students, so it the best deal in a country like Canada. Being an international student I would totally recommend this school for its quality of education and the amazing people you will be with. I had the best year of my career in Lost Boys. It took me two months after my graduation to find my first job in Vancouver. During this period I had a lot of support from Lost Boys which was beyond my expectation... Lost Boys is the place to be if you want to nourish your potential. Go for it!!!
Kishor Joshi
PCTIA - How to Choose a School
Choosing to pursue post-secondary education is a big decision, both financially and personally. There are many options available to you.
PCTIA encourages all students and parents to be informed consumers. It is your responsibility to make sure the institution you choose is right for you.
So take your time. Consider your options. Ask lots of questions and visit the institution before enrolling.
Questions you may want to consider:
Is the institution registered to operate in BC? Does this program qualify for a student loan? Do the hours fit my lifestyle? Can I manage this around my current job? Is the cost manageable for me? Will the program better prepare me for employment?
You can find a list of registered private career training institutions here. We also maintain a list of suspended or cancelled schools for your information.
The BC Ministry of Advanced Education publishes a guide called Being an Informed Student providing information about how to choose the right institution for you.
http://www.pctia.bc.ca/students/how-to-choose-a-school
PCTIA encourages all students and parents to be informed consumers. It is your responsibility to make sure the institution you choose is right for you.
So take your time. Consider your options. Ask lots of questions and visit the institution before enrolling.
Questions you may want to consider:
Is the institution registered to operate in BC? Does this program qualify for a student loan? Do the hours fit my lifestyle? Can I manage this around my current job? Is the cost manageable for me? Will the program better prepare me for employment?
You can find a list of registered private career training institutions here. We also maintain a list of suspended or cancelled schools for your information.
The BC Ministry of Advanced Education publishes a guide called Being an Informed Student providing information about how to choose the right institution for you.
http://www.pctia.bc.ca/students/how-to-choose-a-school
Think Tank - The Real Deal
A REVIEW OF THE Think Tank Training Centre - 3D Modeling & Animation PROGRAM.
BY NATHAN S. WHO GRADUATED IN 2008
I initially came across Think Tank Training Centre as I was searching for post-grad training in 3D animation. I had been accepted to Gnomon School of Visual Effects in Hollywood, CA but I was looking for some alternatives because of the price and location of that school.
Obviously because the school was so new at the time it was a bit of a gamble, but it was a gamble that paid off immensely.
After reviewing some of the instructor and student work (though there wasn’t much student work at the time as I was part of only the 2nd or 3rd term of students to ever go through the program) and talking with the staff, I felt like Think Tank was the place for me. Obviously because the school was so new at the time it was a bit of a gamble, but it was a gamble that paid off immensely.
Though I had some prior 3D self-instruction as well as rudimentary formal instruction, the training I received during my time at Think Tank is the primary reason I am in the 3D animation field today.
Your Typical Year…
The program is 1 year long broken up into three terms. The first term is very broad in subject matter. The idea is to give students a taste of every discipline to see where their strengths lie. With each successive term the curriculum becomes more tailored around that student’s focus. Eventually the student chooses a specific path (i.e. Modeler, Animator, Compositor, etc) and from then on you spend almost all of your time on your focus path.
I had high expectations for this school before I started as I had been burned by promises of “industry level training” before from another school. But I can honestly say that Think Tank lived up to its end of the bargain.
Not to say that it doesn’t take hard work, if you want to succeed in games or VFX a strong work ethic is an absolute must. This is no place for someone who thinks they can just show up and the school will make all their dreams come true. But what Think Tank will be is a strong guiding hand to help shape you into a true professional if you have ambition and a willingness to put in the hours.
The number one priority is to get you into the industry, and 20 minute epic short films aren’t usually the best way to go about it.
As for the pluses of this school (of which there are many) I would say class size is a huge one. My graduating class was me along with seven others. With only eight people in my class you can be sure we never felt like a number. Your instructors aren’t off in an office somewhere, they are in the room working with you directly. There is always help at hand even after class. And you never need to fight for computer time as you have a machine assigned to you that is yours alone. Every teacher we had was currently working in games, television, or film.
Another great plus is that the school is always open to student input. It’s your education and nothing is completely written in stone. But they will use their wisdom and infinite experience in the field to steer you away from a bad idea or two. We all want to make our opus, but your instructors will be very frank with you about time constraints and how feasible your ideas are. The number one priority is to get you into the industry, and 20 minute epic short films aren’t usually the best way to go about it.
In your final term you are assigned a direct mentor – a working professional whose job is to help you get your work where it needs to be and produce an employable demo reel or portfolio, so that when you leave Think Tank, you have not only the tools to succeed in this competitive field, but the means to get a job as well.
Honestly, I felt that the worst part of the program was that it was only a year. Which was more than enough to get me a job, but I sometimes wonder how good I could have become if it were a TWO year program. In actuality though I chose this school in-part because it was a one year program. I had been through a traditional art program already and didn’t want to waste my time on the very basics. But what’s great about Think Tank is that it can accommodate people of any skill in 3D from beginner to advanced.
If you are ahead of the curve they make sure you don’t feel like you’re being held back by other students. The education is highly individual. I had a fellow animator who came into our year with almost no 3D experience. But what he had was true dedication. I’m happy to say that thanks to Think Tank’s guidance and his hard work he is now a feature film animator.
The Verdict
I give this school my absolute highest recommendation. It is a wonderful alternative to some other expensive schools of lower immersion. For the money you aren’t likely to find another school that can compare. I feel very fortunate to have had the chance to study there. It is absolutely a cut above. The bottom line, if you are willing to put in the work—and it IS hard work—you will never regret your decision to attend Think Tank Training Centre.
If you are willing to put in the work—and it IS hard work—you will never regret your decision to attend Think Tank Training Centre.
You can see some of my work from Think Tank here (animations):
http://www.nathanjseitz.com/nSeitz_reel_08.mov
http://www.nathanjseitz.com
NOTE: This site hasn’t been updated in a long time (working for the last 2+ years) so this pretty much represents where I was – animation wise – a little after leaving Think Tank.
http://www.artschoolreviews.ca/reviews/think-tank-training-centre/3d-modeling-animation/the-real-deal
BY NATHAN S. WHO GRADUATED IN 2008
I initially came across Think Tank Training Centre as I was searching for post-grad training in 3D animation. I had been accepted to Gnomon School of Visual Effects in Hollywood, CA but I was looking for some alternatives because of the price and location of that school.
Obviously because the school was so new at the time it was a bit of a gamble, but it was a gamble that paid off immensely.
After reviewing some of the instructor and student work (though there wasn’t much student work at the time as I was part of only the 2nd or 3rd term of students to ever go through the program) and talking with the staff, I felt like Think Tank was the place for me. Obviously because the school was so new at the time it was a bit of a gamble, but it was a gamble that paid off immensely.
Though I had some prior 3D self-instruction as well as rudimentary formal instruction, the training I received during my time at Think Tank is the primary reason I am in the 3D animation field today.
Your Typical Year…
The program is 1 year long broken up into three terms. The first term is very broad in subject matter. The idea is to give students a taste of every discipline to see where their strengths lie. With each successive term the curriculum becomes more tailored around that student’s focus. Eventually the student chooses a specific path (i.e. Modeler, Animator, Compositor, etc) and from then on you spend almost all of your time on your focus path.
I had high expectations for this school before I started as I had been burned by promises of “industry level training” before from another school. But I can honestly say that Think Tank lived up to its end of the bargain.
Not to say that it doesn’t take hard work, if you want to succeed in games or VFX a strong work ethic is an absolute must. This is no place for someone who thinks they can just show up and the school will make all their dreams come true. But what Think Tank will be is a strong guiding hand to help shape you into a true professional if you have ambition and a willingness to put in the hours.
The number one priority is to get you into the industry, and 20 minute epic short films aren’t usually the best way to go about it.
As for the pluses of this school (of which there are many) I would say class size is a huge one. My graduating class was me along with seven others. With only eight people in my class you can be sure we never felt like a number. Your instructors aren’t off in an office somewhere, they are in the room working with you directly. There is always help at hand even after class. And you never need to fight for computer time as you have a machine assigned to you that is yours alone. Every teacher we had was currently working in games, television, or film.
Another great plus is that the school is always open to student input. It’s your education and nothing is completely written in stone. But they will use their wisdom and infinite experience in the field to steer you away from a bad idea or two. We all want to make our opus, but your instructors will be very frank with you about time constraints and how feasible your ideas are. The number one priority is to get you into the industry, and 20 minute epic short films aren’t usually the best way to go about it.
In your final term you are assigned a direct mentor – a working professional whose job is to help you get your work where it needs to be and produce an employable demo reel or portfolio, so that when you leave Think Tank, you have not only the tools to succeed in this competitive field, but the means to get a job as well.
Honestly, I felt that the worst part of the program was that it was only a year. Which was more than enough to get me a job, but I sometimes wonder how good I could have become if it were a TWO year program. In actuality though I chose this school in-part because it was a one year program. I had been through a traditional art program already and didn’t want to waste my time on the very basics. But what’s great about Think Tank is that it can accommodate people of any skill in 3D from beginner to advanced.
If you are ahead of the curve they make sure you don’t feel like you’re being held back by other students. The education is highly individual. I had a fellow animator who came into our year with almost no 3D experience. But what he had was true dedication. I’m happy to say that thanks to Think Tank’s guidance and his hard work he is now a feature film animator.
The Verdict
I give this school my absolute highest recommendation. It is a wonderful alternative to some other expensive schools of lower immersion. For the money you aren’t likely to find another school that can compare. I feel very fortunate to have had the chance to study there. It is absolutely a cut above. The bottom line, if you are willing to put in the work—and it IS hard work—you will never regret your decision to attend Think Tank Training Centre.
If you are willing to put in the work—and it IS hard work—you will never regret your decision to attend Think Tank Training Centre.
You can see some of my work from Think Tank here (animations):
http://www.nathanjseitz.com/nSeitz_reel_08.mov
http://www.nathanjseitz.com
NOTE: This site hasn’t been updated in a long time (working for the last 2+ years) so this pretty much represents where I was – animation wise – a little after leaving Think Tank.
http://www.artschoolreviews.ca/reviews/think-tank-training-centre/3d-modeling-animation/the-real-deal
VFS - Its what you make of it.
When I was in VFS, I noticed there were 3 kinds of students. Ones who just didn’t have the eye and didn’t really give it the effort needed to succeed. Students who literally worked non-stop till there bodies shut down not allowing them to learn in a healthy way. And the smart ones who dedicated there lives to this one year goal on getting a good demo reel to send them into a great career. I knew Remo, and I believe him to be a great guy, very talented. But i remember he had some stressful times at VFS, no sleep, late nights, which lead him to see this negative atmosphere he described. Most of us have been through all this aswell, but its up to us on how we deal with it.
VFS was one of the best years of my life, thanks to VFS and most of its staff, I am doing what I love today! VFS is like most other schools in that it is not perfect, and yes it was very expensive. But these days, money can only do so much, even if it is $50,000. Software licenses, hardware, staff payroll… It all adds up! I am glad they were able to provide us with all of this. And to be honest, the building was like being in a comfortable office. Describing the building as run down and dilapidated is a bit much. But taking into consideration all the other schools, I am happy with the choice I made. VFS is like life, its what you make of it.
Adam Vorous
11.21.09
http://www.artschoolreviews.ca/reviews/vancouver-film-school/3d-animation-visual-effects/a-risky-investment
VFS was one of the best years of my life, thanks to VFS and most of its staff, I am doing what I love today! VFS is like most other schools in that it is not perfect, and yes it was very expensive. But these days, money can only do so much, even if it is $50,000. Software licenses, hardware, staff payroll… It all adds up! I am glad they were able to provide us with all of this. And to be honest, the building was like being in a comfortable office. Describing the building as run down and dilapidated is a bit much. But taking into consideration all the other schools, I am happy with the choice I made. VFS is like life, its what you make of it.
Adam Vorous
11.21.09
http://www.artschoolreviews.ca/reviews/vancouver-film-school/3d-animation-visual-effects/a-risky-investment
VFS - Try to be real honest and realistic to yourself
I was in Remo’s class, thanks to VFS he is one of the people that I became really good friends with and highly respect as an individual and as an artist. Everything Remo has said in his review is great advice. If you are considering VFS pay close attention to this review and try to be real honest and realistic to yourself.
Of course every student’s experience is going to vary from one person to another. Remo is by no means the worst, and his experience is by no means exaggerated. In fact due to his dedication and hard work I think his outcome was one of the more positive experiences out of VFS. As for myself, I took the 3d animation stream. Started off with an amazing teacher, by the time we were graduating to the ant farm, we got introduced to our new teacher and that was the end of the useful input I was getting from that school. To keep my comments short I will say this.
The experience at VFS for me at least was a good one but not because of the school itself and it was not worth my $50k investment (20K for living expense for one year). In my opinion VFS provided an environment where ambitious students with common passion would unit under one roof. Without my fellow classmates the experience at VFS would have been garbage. When half your class is paying $30k and the other half $50K(international students) in tuition fees, as a learning institution you owe them a few things.
You owe them nice facilities, you owe them descent computers and monitors, but most of all you owe them good teachers that love their job and are committed to you and can give you better advice then “look at more reference”. VFS had a few good teachers, don’t get me wrong but that’s just not good enough. So the harsh reality is this: VFS is a business that is making 30 to 50k *30 students every 2 months, for one program. By the time you are ready to graduate you will have met 5 classes that were ahead of you and 5 others that came after you, and each one of those classes is generating about 30 demo reels that wants to find their place in the industry.
Samer S.
2.23.09
http://www.artschoolreviews.ca/reviews/vancouver-film-school/3d-animation-visual-effects/a-risky-investment
Of course every student’s experience is going to vary from one person to another. Remo is by no means the worst, and his experience is by no means exaggerated. In fact due to his dedication and hard work I think his outcome was one of the more positive experiences out of VFS. As for myself, I took the 3d animation stream. Started off with an amazing teacher, by the time we were graduating to the ant farm, we got introduced to our new teacher and that was the end of the useful input I was getting from that school. To keep my comments short I will say this.
The experience at VFS for me at least was a good one but not because of the school itself and it was not worth my $50k investment (20K for living expense for one year). In my opinion VFS provided an environment where ambitious students with common passion would unit under one roof. Without my fellow classmates the experience at VFS would have been garbage. When half your class is paying $30k and the other half $50K(international students) in tuition fees, as a learning institution you owe them a few things.
You owe them nice facilities, you owe them descent computers and monitors, but most of all you owe them good teachers that love their job and are committed to you and can give you better advice then “look at more reference”. VFS had a few good teachers, don’t get me wrong but that’s just not good enough. So the harsh reality is this: VFS is a business that is making 30 to 50k *30 students every 2 months, for one program. By the time you are ready to graduate you will have met 5 classes that were ahead of you and 5 others that came after you, and each one of those classes is generating about 30 demo reels that wants to find their place in the industry.
Samer S.
2.23.09
http://www.artschoolreviews.ca/reviews/vancouver-film-school/3d-animation-visual-effects/a-risky-investment
VFS - This “experience” is very subjective
This review could be considered as an important factor while making a decision about vfs,the oodles of money they ask for,and what u get in return.
However,like a lot of other people rightly pointed out,this “experience” is very subjective.
I graduated from the Classical Animation Program in 2006,and being an indian student,and also a fresh beginner in the industry,it was a pointless,futile,and expensive option to get a job in vancouver,or rest of canada. However,id still say whatever that was taught to me,or rather whatever i learnt from the wonderful instructors,still comes handy,even though ive switched my field from classical animation,to doing storyboards for live-action/vfx.
Id agree with goujian,that you really really need to spend like a good month and a half,maybe more,just reviewing whatever program ure coming for,getting in touch with the ex-students,etc etc.
All in all,uve really got to give it ur best,all the time,365 days ure there,however from goujian’s review of the whole “vfs” scene,it looks like nothing has changed since 2006,other than the tuition ! :)
karan awasthi
3.10.11
http://www.artschoolreviews.ca/reviews/vancouver-film-school/3d-animation-visual-effects/a-risky-investment
However,like a lot of other people rightly pointed out,this “experience” is very subjective.
I graduated from the Classical Animation Program in 2006,and being an indian student,and also a fresh beginner in the industry,it was a pointless,futile,and expensive option to get a job in vancouver,or rest of canada. However,id still say whatever that was taught to me,or rather whatever i learnt from the wonderful instructors,still comes handy,even though ive switched my field from classical animation,to doing storyboards for live-action/vfx.
Id agree with goujian,that you really really need to spend like a good month and a half,maybe more,just reviewing whatever program ure coming for,getting in touch with the ex-students,etc etc.
All in all,uve really got to give it ur best,all the time,365 days ure there,however from goujian’s review of the whole “vfs” scene,it looks like nothing has changed since 2006,other than the tuition ! :)
karan awasthi
3.10.11
http://www.artschoolreviews.ca/reviews/vancouver-film-school/3d-animation-visual-effects/a-risky-investment
VFS - DO NOT, AND I mean DO NOT just listen to the VFS “sales people
This is a great review, the reality is as the author describes.
Initially I didn’t want to comment since most of the facts are well described in this review. However, seeing there’s commentators or “self claiming grads” twisting facts on this site, I just had to say something.
I’m currently enrolled in this program (3d/vfx) 2011, will not say what term due to prying eyes, and will not mention names.
Before you hear my ramble, for anyone interested in 3D/vfx and is considering vfs. I must stress to you that 3D as a career is a life long process, it is very “TECHNICAL”, it is very “ARTISTIC”, and not something instantly learnt in 1 year. Before considering this school, “Protect yourself and get past the sales person or suffer!” Make sure to talk to students on campus in “PRIVATE”, especially the teachers on the 4th floor campus of 1380 burrard in “PRIVATE”, because that’s where you’ll be spending 35k + 1 year of your life. Believe me, that kind of investment will burn a hole in your pocket when you’re not getting certain education you should be getting, plus there’s hardworking people that ended up with health issues afterwards, but that’s another story.
DO NOT, AND I mean DO NOT just listen to the VFS “sales people”. In any situation when money is involved, do not just listen to 1 person. It’s one thing to market a product/service on YouTube, but it’s another to ruin someone’s health and time.
“The program”
The program is divided into 6 terms, first 2 terms you learn everything from animation basics to modeling + some compositing. 3rd term you develop your concepts for demo reel. If you’re in the “modeling stream” like me, most likely you’ll be doing at least 1 environment in term 4, 1 character in term5, term 6 for compositing fixes and sound sync “soft lock”.
“What’s learnt/Software”
-maya, xsi, zbrush, photoshop, nuke, aftereffects
“Tuition vs. Quality”
35k since I am Canadian citizen, was it worth it? I’d say yes for terms 1-2 which are intense and learned new things each day, but for rest of the terms, no. Why?
In terms 1-2, you have courses from 9am morning to 10pm at night on certain days of the week. Course content range from animation in the morning 9am-12noon, 3D modeling in the afternoon 1pm-4pm, to Photoshop/compositing at night 7-10pm.
However, term 3 started to fall apart in terms of course layout and quality, you start planning demo reels but only for 1 out of 3 streams. This wasn’t the case years before, 3D/VFX/Animation go hand in hand always, especially when you’re paying 35-50k. I can only see separating the streams as a time saver for the students’ demo reel production, or the school’s way to make more money. Ask yourself this, if you were an employer, would you hire someone only good with modeling? Or hire someone that knows modeling, vfx, and some animation. This is due to vfs’s internal staff/structure change, the school was sold years ago, the owners changed and want more students (especially international ones) for money, hence stressed out teachers, and downhill education quality. My class alone had 30 people, at least 25 of them were all international students. My vfs contract during that time has been “locked” as well, my rights for a legit refund expired, not to mention I paid half of the tuition upfront to them. They’ve recently increased and upgraded alot computers, looks like future terms will be around 32+ students per class/term, imagine that.
During term 3, you’re also constantly bombarded with ideas of students helping each other following the industry’s work flow. That maybe true in the actual industry, but you’re paying 35k (50k) for 4 terms of peer support? I have several friends already in the 3D industry and they’ve told me that in the actual industry, it all cuts down to “know your shit, no bullshit, or get fired.” Simple.
“Time”
- 1 year is not enough for 3D as a whole. Period. It’s a life long career.
- I have friends in the 3D industry at this very moment to justify how “self taught 3D” is 100% possible, you just need dedication.
- Actual work time for demo reel during the school year cuts down to 3-4 months (terms 4-5) Term 6 does not count due to the hassle you’ll go through fighting for computers to render alongside technical gimmicks.
- Youtube Vfs demo reel (the good ones) are by people with prior 3D education, and are used as a marketing tool. Time wise it’s not humanly possible, unless you don’t eat, don’t sleep, and if lucky, get minimum health damage + a few lesser years on this planet.
- We were lucky to have someone from the industry come in and speak to us the truth at one time, she said that some studios are literally like a hospital, with people that just entered the industry already drained and strained. Google “Carpal tunnel syndrome”.
“Industry”
The industry in Canada is very small for 3D/vfx, so you got to know as much as possible and show it in your reel to get in, in the states there’s the economic crisis, you get my drift.
For learning, 3D is worth it if you’re truly passionate during this time, but know that Vancouver housing/renting/food price/monthly bills has risen by 2-3 folds in the past few years, hence the high expense in tuition. If it’s not the tuition that burns a hole in your pocket, the HST + Vancouver downtown apartment rents will.
“Bottom line”
Research the following and you’ll see if 3D or VFS is for you as a life long career:
1. for those interested in animation: gimbal lock, IK, blendshape
2. for modeling: 3D topology, edge loop, passes, Npoles, SSS scatter
3. for VFX: film plates, 1080p, 3D projection, gamma correction
Hopefully my comments above doesn’t appear all that biased and shed more light, I’m just stating my experiences so far and have nothing to gain or lose.
Thanks.
~Goujian
1.12.11
http://www.artschoolreviews.ca/reviews/vancouver-film-school/3d-animation-visual-effects/a-risky-investment
Initially I didn’t want to comment since most of the facts are well described in this review. However, seeing there’s commentators or “self claiming grads” twisting facts on this site, I just had to say something.
I’m currently enrolled in this program (3d/vfx) 2011, will not say what term due to prying eyes, and will not mention names.
Before you hear my ramble, for anyone interested in 3D/vfx and is considering vfs. I must stress to you that 3D as a career is a life long process, it is very “TECHNICAL”, it is very “ARTISTIC”, and not something instantly learnt in 1 year. Before considering this school, “Protect yourself and get past the sales person or suffer!” Make sure to talk to students on campus in “PRIVATE”, especially the teachers on the 4th floor campus of 1380 burrard in “PRIVATE”, because that’s where you’ll be spending 35k + 1 year of your life. Believe me, that kind of investment will burn a hole in your pocket when you’re not getting certain education you should be getting, plus there’s hardworking people that ended up with health issues afterwards, but that’s another story.
DO NOT, AND I mean DO NOT just listen to the VFS “sales people”. In any situation when money is involved, do not just listen to 1 person. It’s one thing to market a product/service on YouTube, but it’s another to ruin someone’s health and time.
“The program”
The program is divided into 6 terms, first 2 terms you learn everything from animation basics to modeling + some compositing. 3rd term you develop your concepts for demo reel. If you’re in the “modeling stream” like me, most likely you’ll be doing at least 1 environment in term 4, 1 character in term5, term 6 for compositing fixes and sound sync “soft lock”.
“What’s learnt/Software”
-maya, xsi, zbrush, photoshop, nuke, aftereffects
“Tuition vs. Quality”
35k since I am Canadian citizen, was it worth it? I’d say yes for terms 1-2 which are intense and learned new things each day, but for rest of the terms, no. Why?
In terms 1-2, you have courses from 9am morning to 10pm at night on certain days of the week. Course content range from animation in the morning 9am-12noon, 3D modeling in the afternoon 1pm-4pm, to Photoshop/compositing at night 7-10pm.
However, term 3 started to fall apart in terms of course layout and quality, you start planning demo reels but only for 1 out of 3 streams. This wasn’t the case years before, 3D/VFX/Animation go hand in hand always, especially when you’re paying 35-50k. I can only see separating the streams as a time saver for the students’ demo reel production, or the school’s way to make more money. Ask yourself this, if you were an employer, would you hire someone only good with modeling? Or hire someone that knows modeling, vfx, and some animation. This is due to vfs’s internal staff/structure change, the school was sold years ago, the owners changed and want more students (especially international ones) for money, hence stressed out teachers, and downhill education quality. My class alone had 30 people, at least 25 of them were all international students. My vfs contract during that time has been “locked” as well, my rights for a legit refund expired, not to mention I paid half of the tuition upfront to them. They’ve recently increased and upgraded alot computers, looks like future terms will be around 32+ students per class/term, imagine that.
During term 3, you’re also constantly bombarded with ideas of students helping each other following the industry’s work flow. That maybe true in the actual industry, but you’re paying 35k (50k) for 4 terms of peer support? I have several friends already in the 3D industry and they’ve told me that in the actual industry, it all cuts down to “know your shit, no bullshit, or get fired.” Simple.
“Time”
- 1 year is not enough for 3D as a whole. Period. It’s a life long career.
- I have friends in the 3D industry at this very moment to justify how “self taught 3D” is 100% possible, you just need dedication.
- Actual work time for demo reel during the school year cuts down to 3-4 months (terms 4-5) Term 6 does not count due to the hassle you’ll go through fighting for computers to render alongside technical gimmicks.
- Youtube Vfs demo reel (the good ones) are by people with prior 3D education, and are used as a marketing tool. Time wise it’s not humanly possible, unless you don’t eat, don’t sleep, and if lucky, get minimum health damage + a few lesser years on this planet.
- We were lucky to have someone from the industry come in and speak to us the truth at one time, she said that some studios are literally like a hospital, with people that just entered the industry already drained and strained. Google “Carpal tunnel syndrome”.
“Industry”
The industry in Canada is very small for 3D/vfx, so you got to know as much as possible and show it in your reel to get in, in the states there’s the economic crisis, you get my drift.
For learning, 3D is worth it if you’re truly passionate during this time, but know that Vancouver housing/renting/food price/monthly bills has risen by 2-3 folds in the past few years, hence the high expense in tuition. If it’s not the tuition that burns a hole in your pocket, the HST + Vancouver downtown apartment rents will.
“Bottom line”
Research the following and you’ll see if 3D or VFS is for you as a life long career:
1. for those interested in animation: gimbal lock, IK, blendshape
2. for modeling: 3D topology, edge loop, passes, Npoles, SSS scatter
3. for VFX: film plates, 1080p, 3D projection, gamma correction
Hopefully my comments above doesn’t appear all that biased and shed more light, I’m just stating my experiences so far and have nothing to gain or lose.
Thanks.
~Goujian
1.12.11
http://www.artschoolreviews.ca/reviews/vancouver-film-school/3d-animation-visual-effects/a-risky-investment
VFS – From Foundation To Visual Effects
A REVIEW OF THE Vancouver Film School (VFS) - 3D Animation & Visual Effects PROGRAM.
BY PAUL D WHO GRADUATED IN 2006.
Well, I had made the choice to attend both Foundation and 3D successively about a year and a half before I started. I knew that I probably could have jumped into 3D right off, but I just felt like I didn’t want to miss out on the freedom and experimentation that came with taking a Foundation course. Going into Foundation, I knew what I was there to do. It wasn’t about creating my masterpiece; it was about learning as much as possible about as many things as possible. This is what most people don’t get. The majority of my class were sort of pigeon-holed into what they wanted to do. That’s not to say that they wouldn’t try what each class had to offer, but you could definitely tell what people were putting the most effort into. The key to having a successful run through the Foundation course is to put your all into everything, no matter how much you hate it. Your future self will love you for it.
3D Animation & Visual Effects
The 3D Program was where I really got into my specialization. The things I had done in Foundation definitely set me ahead of pack. There was a little redundancy in the first few classes but it quickened up before I knew it and I was already working on my final project. Overall the 3D Program was great. I was still in some sense searching for what I wanted to do. Although I had narrowed down from Foundation and chosen 3D animation (VFX more specifically), there was still a wide scope of projects I could do.
I leaned toward making something that integrated some of the skills I had acquired in Foundation as well. A lot of my fellow classmates were very much into “making a reel with all the technical motions so I can get a job” thing, which I completely respect because a lot of them did get jobs soon after grad, but I was a little more into the artsy side of things and I attributed that to having just come out of a year of a general arts sort of course. It was a little difficult to switch gears into a very technically oriented and challenging field. That made the learning curve a bit steeper for me because instead of just learning the lessons about how to model this or light that, I was always trying to relate it to projects and pieces of art that I could create. I would often get bogged down in the ideas and forget that the rest of the class had already moved on to the next lesson.
The whole experience was a very personal one and everybody takes something different away from the course.
The Verdict
Of course, the biggest determining factor in people making a schooling choice would be the tuition. When I signed up, it was for both courses. At that time (middle of 2004), Foundation was $15,000 and 3D was $22,000. Today, at the beginning of 2009, Foundation runs $30,000 and 3D is $50,000 (U.S citizen tuition prices). So the prices have doubled in only 4 and a half years. If that’s not enough to deter people, I don’t know what is. Personally, I had no money to my name having just come out of high school. My parents never really had the capacity to put money away for my schooling. So I had to take on some fairly large student loans. This was also quite an easy process for me and my advisor at VFS supplied me with everything and took care of any questions I had.
At this point I would almost suggest just taking the 50k and living off of it for 3 years while doing tutorials everyday online.
I’m a fan of the school and what they teach but I just don’t know if I can justify the current prices of the programs. If you went through only the 3D program today, you’d be paying about what I did for both the Foundation and 3D program combined. At this point I would almost suggest just taking the 50k and living off of it for 3 years while doing tutorials everyday online. You’d probably be farther ahead by the end of it.
Since graduating I’ve been working freelance on Short films, Indie features, Music Videos, etc. I get the freedom I want to give my input creatively on set and in post-production and I make enough money from that to support myself which, as long as I get to do what I love, is enough for me.
If you have any questions about either program, I’d be more than happy to answer them at paul.desilva@gmail.com. You can also check out my demo reel at pauldesilvavfx.blogspot.com.
http://www.artschoolreviews.ca/reviews/vancouver-film-school/3d-animation-visual-effects/from-foundation-to-visual-effects
BY PAUL D WHO GRADUATED IN 2006.
Well, I had made the choice to attend both Foundation and 3D successively about a year and a half before I started. I knew that I probably could have jumped into 3D right off, but I just felt like I didn’t want to miss out on the freedom and experimentation that came with taking a Foundation course. Going into Foundation, I knew what I was there to do. It wasn’t about creating my masterpiece; it was about learning as much as possible about as many things as possible. This is what most people don’t get. The majority of my class were sort of pigeon-holed into what they wanted to do. That’s not to say that they wouldn’t try what each class had to offer, but you could definitely tell what people were putting the most effort into. The key to having a successful run through the Foundation course is to put your all into everything, no matter how much you hate it. Your future self will love you for it.
3D Animation & Visual Effects
The 3D Program was where I really got into my specialization. The things I had done in Foundation definitely set me ahead of pack. There was a little redundancy in the first few classes but it quickened up before I knew it and I was already working on my final project. Overall the 3D Program was great. I was still in some sense searching for what I wanted to do. Although I had narrowed down from Foundation and chosen 3D animation (VFX more specifically), there was still a wide scope of projects I could do.
I leaned toward making something that integrated some of the skills I had acquired in Foundation as well. A lot of my fellow classmates were very much into “making a reel with all the technical motions so I can get a job” thing, which I completely respect because a lot of them did get jobs soon after grad, but I was a little more into the artsy side of things and I attributed that to having just come out of a year of a general arts sort of course. It was a little difficult to switch gears into a very technically oriented and challenging field. That made the learning curve a bit steeper for me because instead of just learning the lessons about how to model this or light that, I was always trying to relate it to projects and pieces of art that I could create. I would often get bogged down in the ideas and forget that the rest of the class had already moved on to the next lesson.
The whole experience was a very personal one and everybody takes something different away from the course.
The Verdict
Of course, the biggest determining factor in people making a schooling choice would be the tuition. When I signed up, it was for both courses. At that time (middle of 2004), Foundation was $15,000 and 3D was $22,000. Today, at the beginning of 2009, Foundation runs $30,000 and 3D is $50,000 (U.S citizen tuition prices). So the prices have doubled in only 4 and a half years. If that’s not enough to deter people, I don’t know what is. Personally, I had no money to my name having just come out of high school. My parents never really had the capacity to put money away for my schooling. So I had to take on some fairly large student loans. This was also quite an easy process for me and my advisor at VFS supplied me with everything and took care of any questions I had.
At this point I would almost suggest just taking the 50k and living off of it for 3 years while doing tutorials everyday online.
I’m a fan of the school and what they teach but I just don’t know if I can justify the current prices of the programs. If you went through only the 3D program today, you’d be paying about what I did for both the Foundation and 3D program combined. At this point I would almost suggest just taking the 50k and living off of it for 3 years while doing tutorials everyday online. You’d probably be farther ahead by the end of it.
Since graduating I’ve been working freelance on Short films, Indie features, Music Videos, etc. I get the freedom I want to give my input creatively on set and in post-production and I make enough money from that to support myself which, as long as I get to do what I love, is enough for me.
If you have any questions about either program, I’d be more than happy to answer them at paul.desilva@gmail.com. You can also check out my demo reel at pauldesilvavfx.blogspot.com.
http://www.artschoolreviews.ca/reviews/vancouver-film-school/3d-animation-visual-effects/from-foundation-to-visual-effects
VFS – A Risky Investment
A REVIEW OF THE Vancouver Film School (VFS) - 3D Animation & Visual Effects PROGRAM.
BY REMO W. WHO GRADUATED IN 2007
I enrolled in the Vancouver Film School’s 3D Animation and VFX Program back in 2007. My background was in graphic design for print and web. I always had a passion for art in general and was a total movie junky. I was looking at VFS to help me start a new career in the middle of my life. I was 35 when I enrolled which pretty much made me a senior citizen in the field, but to their credit, nobody ever made me feel awkward about that. We were all there with hope and enthusiasm and the bond of our shared goals more than made up for any age differences. Among my classmates I have come to respect many as the fantastic artists they are, and I count several as great friends to this day.
First Impressions
The insanely high tuition was a hard pill to swallow. At the time of my enrollment it was just under $30,000. I felt that even though this was a lot of money to spend, if it really leads to a new and exciting career, it would be a small price to pay. Going back to University and finishing a 4 or 5 year program would after all be even more expensive if you count in lost wages and living expenses for that time. And ultimately having made such a huge and non-refundable financial commitment was one of the things that drove me to work so hard during my year at VFS. My initial impression based on the work former students continually post on forums like CGtalk, and the very professional appearance of the school based on their promotional materials and orientations made me think they might be worth all that money. My first day in the program was a bit of a rude awakening. The actual location of the 3D program is in a very cramped and dilapidated office building just south of Davie St. It looks like a poor cousin to the facilities of any of the other local schools for 3D animation, and this is the place where you will practically live for the next year if you enrol. But so what? What really matters is the quality of the instruction and the valuable connections you make while you are there.
I have never worked so hard in my life. I spent between 11 – 14 hours a day, 7 days a week in that place for a year.
Now, everyone will tell you that this program is hard, but it’s difficult to imagine what they mean by that. It’s like when you go to a pub and order the “spicy” chicken wings. I mean, they say they are spicy, but you like spicy food, so you should be fine, right? But how spicy is their “spicy”? Well, let me tell you: at VFS the answer is “VERY”. I have never worked so hard in my life. I spent between 11 – 14 hours a day, 7 days a week in that place for a year. Breaks between most terms were a 4 day weekend. In the first 6 months we had 48 hours of instruction per week, and lots and lots of homework on top of that. Every second of my day was accounted for. I had to completely adjust everything about my lifestyle. For example, I stopped making peanut butter sandwiches because the peanut butter is sticky and makes it hard to swallow which wastes time that I could be spending doing my homework or getting a bit of sleep before I have to be in class again. It was that kind of crazy. And no amount of work ever seemed like enough. We kept being told that at most only a quarter of us would get jobs upon graduating, and that we would have to try much harder if we wanted to have a future. With the constant pressure, and us all packed in like sardines in that dingy place I also ended up being sick much of the time. The workload in that place nearly did me in. By the time I graduated I looked 10 years older, I was skinny and pale and trembling as I accepted my diploma, but I had accomplished more in a shorter time than I would have ever dreamed. I had a very original demo reel and felt optimistic about my prospects for the future.
A Few Specific Notes About The Program
Even though VFS is a private career oriented school, their programs are still have quite a few B.S. courses that really won’t help you get a job. My personal grievance was with the Classical Animation classes. We had 6 hours a week of those in the first 2 terms with lots of homework, and for those of us who had no plans to even enter into the animation stream they were really not all that helpful. Those concepts could have been taught really easily and quickly in 3D rather than having us spend hours and hours hand drawing 2d animation exercises with pencil and paper and scanning them. The History of Animation class was also useless, but at least enjoyable for the most part. History of Film was fairly painful, we were forced to watch a never ending stream of scenes from musicals and really only talked about camera angles and moves there. Not a single current movie in the bunch which seems like a major oversight if you are hoping to work in VFX. I could also easily have done without any of the sculpture classes as modeling in 3D just seems basically like the same thing. It sounds nitpicky, but when you are paying so much money, these things really get to you. But let’s be honest, any program is going to be like that. If you were going to a college you’d have a lot more prerequisites even less related to your field. So my advice is this: Pay attention in those classes, do your work, but don’t stress out about them. Focus just on what matters to you. In the middle of your program you have to declare your specialty. Either Modeling, Animation, or VFX. The problem is that by the time you have to make that decision they really have not taught you anything about VFX so it is really hard to know what you should do. You spend so much time on animation and have only one crappy course in After Effects of all things. They do tell you that you will have to learn a bunch of new software if you go into VFX which seems really insane at that point in the program as you are only just barely getting a handle on the software they’ve taught you so far. The VFX stream in general was a disaster as far as I could tell during the time when I had to make my decision. So I went into the modeling stream instead because at least I knew that this was something VFS did really well. But as soon as I made my decision, the mentor of the VFX stream was replaced by Al, an extremely competent and likeable instructor which really made me wish I had gone into that stream after all, but it was too late by then. For the last 3 months you are in the “Ant Farm”; A huge open lab where you have access to a computer of your own 24/7. Your class load is reduced to a minimum, and from that point on you are really learning more from your classmates than any of the mentors, instructors or lab aids. This is not intended as a slight, and it is not as if the instructors or aids are unapproachable, this really just is how things work in the industry. If you are in a good class and get along great with your classmates then this is where you will really begin to shine.
The Ant Farm is really the secret of VFS’s success. The fact that they give you a full 6 months to work on your demo reel is the reason why the work from VFS students always outshines that of almost all other schools. This is of course good for you, though I’m not convinced that it means you learned more than you could have at another school. It is however really good for VFS’s business as the impressive work of their graduates becomes in turn their advertising to attract new students. The other thing you should know is that almost all the most outstanding demo reels come from students who already had a background in 3d BEFORE they came to VFS. Some of them even reuse assets they created before coming to VFS to enhance their reel. Don’t expect your work to look like theirs if you are new to the field as I was. My demo reel is a good example of what you can actually accomplish if you are a fairly good artist, are disciplined and work insanely hard: www.remow.info. Every few weeks during the last 3 terms you have to make a presentation in front of all your classmates and a panel composed of the director of the 3D program and the mentors of the 3 respective streams. These presentations felt just like American Idol, only there were 2 Simon Cowells. Every time we would have to hear how we were never going to finish what we proposed to do, that it wasn’t good enough, that we should just give up and try something easier. The animation mentor’s contributions (ironically the only woman) were a bit like Paula Abdul’s in their eccentricity and uselessness. The fourth panellist was the VFX mentor who is now the head of the whole program and I have nothing but good things to say about him. He really raised the bar.
The Job Search
I didn’t get a job immediately after graduation. Luckily I had my old career to fall back on while I looked for something in the 3d field. My first disappointment was that there are virtually no companies using XSI anymore. I had just spent a whole year getting intimately acquainted with XSI, I knew all its ticklish spots, knew how to behave when it was being moody, and ultimately fell in love with it. But it was looking like it was not meant to be. Other than Nerd Corps in Vancouver, Ubisoft in Montreal, or Hybride in Piedmont Quebec, there are really hardly any XSI shops in Canada. So before you decide to go to VFS, ask what software package they are teaching, and take a look at some job boards to see how many jobs there really are. Currently Maya seems most popular, Max is still doing quite well, but XSI is really hurting.
After about 4 months of going to interviews in the Vancouver area for crappy 3D jobs, I ended up getting the opportunity of a lifetime.
After about 4 months of going to interviews in the Vancouver area for crappy 3D jobs (mostly short term contract work for very little money, none of it XSI), I ended up getting the opportunity of a lifetime: I got a job offer to come work for the elite in-house special effects team of director Robert Rodriguez. He was at the time planning to film a remake of the cult classic “Barbarella”, and I was so excited about it I would have paid them just for the opportunity to be a part of it. The only problem was that the job was in the US and I was a Canadian citizen. Jobs in this industry are generally short term contracts for relatively small companies. They do not have staff lawyers or a department to deal with getting you a visa, and they will never plan ahead. They post a job and want you to start within a week generally. So it fell upon me to quickly become an expert of US immigration policy and here is what I found: As a Canadian, your best bet is a TN work permit. Look up the requirements for it to see if you qualify. If you have the right background you can come into the country that way as a “Graphic Designer” or “Computer Analyst”. The reason I stress this is because there are just so many more jobs in the US than there are in Canada. But beware: there are no guarantees; if you get the wrong border guard you will be denied your permit. And your permit is only temporary, when it runs out you have to leave the country or renew it before it runs out. But it is always going to be scary and stressful. You can’t ever make long-term plans because you can never count on being able to get or renew your permit. On one occasion I was actually kicked out of the country on a technicality while trying to renew my permit and had a very hard time getting back in. You spend your life on standby, always ready to move, never putting down roots. It’s hard and lonely. In general my career has not gone as smoothly as I had hoped. The “Barbarella” movie I worked on died after a few months. The production company failed to inform me that they didn’t even have a green light yet. Always be sure to establish that before you make a big move for a job. After that I worked at Janimation in Dallas for a little while, and then returned to Austin Texas to work on another movie for Robert doing both previs and post-production that time. Now my work permit has run out again, and I am back in Canada looking for new projects, but the economy is bad, there is still a possible actor’s strike which is making it risky to produce new films, and I am finding that I need to retrain myself to use Maya and be willing to relocate again to go-knows-where in the world if I want to get another gig. There are just so few jobs in this field and so many people applying for them. VFS itself puts out 30 new people every 2 months just from their 3d Animation and VFX program, and then there is also their Maya Animation program. And VFS is only one of half a dozen schools like it in Vancouver, and Vancouver is only one of many cities in Canada with schools like that. The end result is that your odds of finding work after graduation are very, very slim. My advice: if you want an exciting new career, audition for Canadian Idol and be a Rockstar. Your odds of achieving that are probably about the same and it’s a lot cheaper.
Final Verdict
But if you have more money than you know what to do with and want to give it to VFS, and are willing to spend the rest of your life in front of a computer, constantly retrain yourself, never see the light of day anymore, constantly look for new work, move a lot, have no job security, make fairly little money, probably end up popping mood stabilizers as if they were M&M’s just to cope with the stress, eventually probably have your girlfriend or wife leave you (that is, if you can even find one. Computer nerd work = not sexy), never work less than 50 hours a week, be out of work every time any one of the innumerable unions of the film world goes on strike, work miracles every day and still have nobody know your name. If that kind of thing appeals to you, then VFS might be a good choice for you. I’m not complaining though. VFS gave me a good kick in the ass at a time in my life when I really needed one. I was lucky enough to be able to afford the tuition, and I had some fantastic adventures since graduation. Sure I spent a lot of money on the tuition, but I’ve lost more money than that in recent months due to the performance of the stock market. That’s life. But if you have to get loans to pay for the tuition, think long and hard about it. I would call that a very risky investment.
http://www.remow.info/
http://www.artschoolreviews.ca/reviews/vancouver-film-school/3d-animation-visual-effects/a-risky-investment
BY REMO W. WHO GRADUATED IN 2007
I enrolled in the Vancouver Film School’s 3D Animation and VFX Program back in 2007. My background was in graphic design for print and web. I always had a passion for art in general and was a total movie junky. I was looking at VFS to help me start a new career in the middle of my life. I was 35 when I enrolled which pretty much made me a senior citizen in the field, but to their credit, nobody ever made me feel awkward about that. We were all there with hope and enthusiasm and the bond of our shared goals more than made up for any age differences. Among my classmates I have come to respect many as the fantastic artists they are, and I count several as great friends to this day.
First Impressions
The insanely high tuition was a hard pill to swallow. At the time of my enrollment it was just under $30,000. I felt that even though this was a lot of money to spend, if it really leads to a new and exciting career, it would be a small price to pay. Going back to University and finishing a 4 or 5 year program would after all be even more expensive if you count in lost wages and living expenses for that time. And ultimately having made such a huge and non-refundable financial commitment was one of the things that drove me to work so hard during my year at VFS. My initial impression based on the work former students continually post on forums like CGtalk, and the very professional appearance of the school based on their promotional materials and orientations made me think they might be worth all that money. My first day in the program was a bit of a rude awakening. The actual location of the 3D program is in a very cramped and dilapidated office building just south of Davie St. It looks like a poor cousin to the facilities of any of the other local schools for 3D animation, and this is the place where you will practically live for the next year if you enrol. But so what? What really matters is the quality of the instruction and the valuable connections you make while you are there.
I have never worked so hard in my life. I spent between 11 – 14 hours a day, 7 days a week in that place for a year.
Now, everyone will tell you that this program is hard, but it’s difficult to imagine what they mean by that. It’s like when you go to a pub and order the “spicy” chicken wings. I mean, they say they are spicy, but you like spicy food, so you should be fine, right? But how spicy is their “spicy”? Well, let me tell you: at VFS the answer is “VERY”. I have never worked so hard in my life. I spent between 11 – 14 hours a day, 7 days a week in that place for a year. Breaks between most terms were a 4 day weekend. In the first 6 months we had 48 hours of instruction per week, and lots and lots of homework on top of that. Every second of my day was accounted for. I had to completely adjust everything about my lifestyle. For example, I stopped making peanut butter sandwiches because the peanut butter is sticky and makes it hard to swallow which wastes time that I could be spending doing my homework or getting a bit of sleep before I have to be in class again. It was that kind of crazy. And no amount of work ever seemed like enough. We kept being told that at most only a quarter of us would get jobs upon graduating, and that we would have to try much harder if we wanted to have a future. With the constant pressure, and us all packed in like sardines in that dingy place I also ended up being sick much of the time. The workload in that place nearly did me in. By the time I graduated I looked 10 years older, I was skinny and pale and trembling as I accepted my diploma, but I had accomplished more in a shorter time than I would have ever dreamed. I had a very original demo reel and felt optimistic about my prospects for the future.
A Few Specific Notes About The Program
Even though VFS is a private career oriented school, their programs are still have quite a few B.S. courses that really won’t help you get a job. My personal grievance was with the Classical Animation classes. We had 6 hours a week of those in the first 2 terms with lots of homework, and for those of us who had no plans to even enter into the animation stream they were really not all that helpful. Those concepts could have been taught really easily and quickly in 3D rather than having us spend hours and hours hand drawing 2d animation exercises with pencil and paper and scanning them. The History of Animation class was also useless, but at least enjoyable for the most part. History of Film was fairly painful, we were forced to watch a never ending stream of scenes from musicals and really only talked about camera angles and moves there. Not a single current movie in the bunch which seems like a major oversight if you are hoping to work in VFX. I could also easily have done without any of the sculpture classes as modeling in 3D just seems basically like the same thing. It sounds nitpicky, but when you are paying so much money, these things really get to you. But let’s be honest, any program is going to be like that. If you were going to a college you’d have a lot more prerequisites even less related to your field. So my advice is this: Pay attention in those classes, do your work, but don’t stress out about them. Focus just on what matters to you. In the middle of your program you have to declare your specialty. Either Modeling, Animation, or VFX. The problem is that by the time you have to make that decision they really have not taught you anything about VFX so it is really hard to know what you should do. You spend so much time on animation and have only one crappy course in After Effects of all things. They do tell you that you will have to learn a bunch of new software if you go into VFX which seems really insane at that point in the program as you are only just barely getting a handle on the software they’ve taught you so far. The VFX stream in general was a disaster as far as I could tell during the time when I had to make my decision. So I went into the modeling stream instead because at least I knew that this was something VFS did really well. But as soon as I made my decision, the mentor of the VFX stream was replaced by Al, an extremely competent and likeable instructor which really made me wish I had gone into that stream after all, but it was too late by then. For the last 3 months you are in the “Ant Farm”; A huge open lab where you have access to a computer of your own 24/7. Your class load is reduced to a minimum, and from that point on you are really learning more from your classmates than any of the mentors, instructors or lab aids. This is not intended as a slight, and it is not as if the instructors or aids are unapproachable, this really just is how things work in the industry. If you are in a good class and get along great with your classmates then this is where you will really begin to shine.
The Ant Farm is really the secret of VFS’s success. The fact that they give you a full 6 months to work on your demo reel is the reason why the work from VFS students always outshines that of almost all other schools. This is of course good for you, though I’m not convinced that it means you learned more than you could have at another school. It is however really good for VFS’s business as the impressive work of their graduates becomes in turn their advertising to attract new students. The other thing you should know is that almost all the most outstanding demo reels come from students who already had a background in 3d BEFORE they came to VFS. Some of them even reuse assets they created before coming to VFS to enhance their reel. Don’t expect your work to look like theirs if you are new to the field as I was. My demo reel is a good example of what you can actually accomplish if you are a fairly good artist, are disciplined and work insanely hard: www.remow.info. Every few weeks during the last 3 terms you have to make a presentation in front of all your classmates and a panel composed of the director of the 3D program and the mentors of the 3 respective streams. These presentations felt just like American Idol, only there were 2 Simon Cowells. Every time we would have to hear how we were never going to finish what we proposed to do, that it wasn’t good enough, that we should just give up and try something easier. The animation mentor’s contributions (ironically the only woman) were a bit like Paula Abdul’s in their eccentricity and uselessness. The fourth panellist was the VFX mentor who is now the head of the whole program and I have nothing but good things to say about him. He really raised the bar.
The Job Search
I didn’t get a job immediately after graduation. Luckily I had my old career to fall back on while I looked for something in the 3d field. My first disappointment was that there are virtually no companies using XSI anymore. I had just spent a whole year getting intimately acquainted with XSI, I knew all its ticklish spots, knew how to behave when it was being moody, and ultimately fell in love with it. But it was looking like it was not meant to be. Other than Nerd Corps in Vancouver, Ubisoft in Montreal, or Hybride in Piedmont Quebec, there are really hardly any XSI shops in Canada. So before you decide to go to VFS, ask what software package they are teaching, and take a look at some job boards to see how many jobs there really are. Currently Maya seems most popular, Max is still doing quite well, but XSI is really hurting.
After about 4 months of going to interviews in the Vancouver area for crappy 3D jobs, I ended up getting the opportunity of a lifetime.
After about 4 months of going to interviews in the Vancouver area for crappy 3D jobs (mostly short term contract work for very little money, none of it XSI), I ended up getting the opportunity of a lifetime: I got a job offer to come work for the elite in-house special effects team of director Robert Rodriguez. He was at the time planning to film a remake of the cult classic “Barbarella”, and I was so excited about it I would have paid them just for the opportunity to be a part of it. The only problem was that the job was in the US and I was a Canadian citizen. Jobs in this industry are generally short term contracts for relatively small companies. They do not have staff lawyers or a department to deal with getting you a visa, and they will never plan ahead. They post a job and want you to start within a week generally. So it fell upon me to quickly become an expert of US immigration policy and here is what I found: As a Canadian, your best bet is a TN work permit. Look up the requirements for it to see if you qualify. If you have the right background you can come into the country that way as a “Graphic Designer” or “Computer Analyst”. The reason I stress this is because there are just so many more jobs in the US than there are in Canada. But beware: there are no guarantees; if you get the wrong border guard you will be denied your permit. And your permit is only temporary, when it runs out you have to leave the country or renew it before it runs out. But it is always going to be scary and stressful. You can’t ever make long-term plans because you can never count on being able to get or renew your permit. On one occasion I was actually kicked out of the country on a technicality while trying to renew my permit and had a very hard time getting back in. You spend your life on standby, always ready to move, never putting down roots. It’s hard and lonely. In general my career has not gone as smoothly as I had hoped. The “Barbarella” movie I worked on died after a few months. The production company failed to inform me that they didn’t even have a green light yet. Always be sure to establish that before you make a big move for a job. After that I worked at Janimation in Dallas for a little while, and then returned to Austin Texas to work on another movie for Robert doing both previs and post-production that time. Now my work permit has run out again, and I am back in Canada looking for new projects, but the economy is bad, there is still a possible actor’s strike which is making it risky to produce new films, and I am finding that I need to retrain myself to use Maya and be willing to relocate again to go-knows-where in the world if I want to get another gig. There are just so few jobs in this field and so many people applying for them. VFS itself puts out 30 new people every 2 months just from their 3d Animation and VFX program, and then there is also their Maya Animation program. And VFS is only one of half a dozen schools like it in Vancouver, and Vancouver is only one of many cities in Canada with schools like that. The end result is that your odds of finding work after graduation are very, very slim. My advice: if you want an exciting new career, audition for Canadian Idol and be a Rockstar. Your odds of achieving that are probably about the same and it’s a lot cheaper.
Final Verdict
But if you have more money than you know what to do with and want to give it to VFS, and are willing to spend the rest of your life in front of a computer, constantly retrain yourself, never see the light of day anymore, constantly look for new work, move a lot, have no job security, make fairly little money, probably end up popping mood stabilizers as if they were M&M’s just to cope with the stress, eventually probably have your girlfriend or wife leave you (that is, if you can even find one. Computer nerd work = not sexy), never work less than 50 hours a week, be out of work every time any one of the innumerable unions of the film world goes on strike, work miracles every day and still have nobody know your name. If that kind of thing appeals to you, then VFS might be a good choice for you. I’m not complaining though. VFS gave me a good kick in the ass at a time in my life when I really needed one. I was lucky enough to be able to afford the tuition, and I had some fantastic adventures since graduation. Sure I spent a lot of money on the tuition, but I’ve lost more money than that in recent months due to the performance of the stock market. That’s life. But if you have to get loans to pay for the tuition, think long and hard about it. I would call that a very risky investment.
http://www.remow.info/
http://www.artschoolreviews.ca/reviews/vancouver-film-school/3d-animation-visual-effects/a-risky-investment
The Art Institutes: Legitimate Photo Schools or Accessories to Fraud?
by David Walker
A lawsuit against the nation's second largest operator of for-profit colleges has cast a spotlight on the company's recruitment practices and ethics, including those of a chain called The Art Institutes, which offers degree programs in photography and more than 55 other creative fields at more than 45 locations around the country.
Earlier this month, the US Department of Justice sued Pittsburgh-based Education Management Corporation, which is 41 percent owned by investment bank Goldman Sachs. The government has charged the company with fraudulently collecting $11 billion dollars in state and federal student financial aid between July of 2003 to June of 2011. EDMC allegedly collected $2.2 billion of that money in 2010 alone. That amounted to almost 90 percent of the company's 2010 revenues.
The government says EDMC violated federal rules against paying recruiters based on the number of students enrolled. Those rules are designed to prevent colleges from recruiting unqualified students just to collect student aid money.
EDMC operates more than 100 schools under the names Art Institute, Brown Mackie College, South University, and Argosy University. According to former recruiters and photography students contacted by PDN, many Art Institute graduates leave with tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt, and insufficient professional qualifications or job prospects to pay the money back.
Taxpayers are on the hook for the loans that students cannot repay.
EDMC has denied the government's claims. Jacqueline Muller, EDMC's VP of communications/public relations, told PDN in an e-mail, "We are proud of the success earned by many Art Institute alumni in all program areas, including photography." Art Institutes have some noteworthy graduates including Pulitzer Prize-winning photographers Carol Guzy (1980) and Martha Rial (1982).
But according to its critics, EDMC and AI's strategy has been to sell a dream of a lucrative career aggressively--and sometimes deceitfully--to low-income high school students who often lacked the skills and preparation to succeed in college, or the knowledge to explore less expensive educational options.
"They're preying on these [students]," says Suzanne Lawrence, a former recruiter for Argosy University who has turned government witness in the case against the company. "EDMC is not a public service organization. They're not trying to educate people. They're just trying to filter this government [student aid] money to their stockholders."
Muller says, "We offer a pathway to a higher education for many students who are not being served by traditional higher education." She also says that EDMC balances the interests of its students and shareholders. "The best way to meet investor expectations and success is to ensure that our students are successful," Muller says. "The two are not incongruent."
EDMC institutions have few admissions requirements beyond a high school diploma or GED. According to former recruiters who spoke to PDN, almost anyone--ready or not--can get in. "We were recruiting students who had no actual skills," Lawrence says. Muller says EDMC's schools are accredited and licensed by the states in which they operate, and that "interest and desire to attend our schools drives admissions, not demographics."
At the Art Institute of Pittsburgh campus alone, there were reportedly about 600 photography students pursuing a bachelor of arts or associates degree as of last summer, says Kathleen A. Bittel, the whistleblower whose testimony before a US Senate committee last fall helped trigger the federal lawsuit against EDMC. Bittel was a recruiter for Argosy University and then a career counselor for Art Institute's online division.
"Where are 600 photography graduates going to go? You cannot absorb that many in one city. How are they going to make money?" she says.
Bittel says EDMC had plans last summer to increase its photography student enrollment by adding a 12-15 month diploma to the program. The new degree was intended to attract students who wanted a "quick fix" in the form of a degree they could earn faster than an associate's degree with minimal effort, Bittel says. "If the bachelors students can't find jobs, where are the students with [12-month diplomas] going to go?"
EDMC focused recruiting efforts on low-income students not only to take advantage of their eligibility for government loans, but because they were "easy prey," says Bittel. "They don't know how the educational system works. They don't know if the deal they're getting is a good one or a bad one."
"If you didn't grow up with everyone in your family going to college, there's nobody to tell you, 'That's not a real school,' and there's nobody to tell you that you can take your grant money to another school," such as a community college or state school, says Lawrence.
Recruiters were under intense pressure to sign students up. According to Bittel, Lawrence, and Josef Bookert, who was a career services counselor at the Argosy University in Pittsburgh, recruiters were reprimanded and frequently fired for not meeting increasingly demanding enrollment goals, and managers made public examples of them to pressure other recruiters by fear and intimidation. "You got the numbers or you were out," Bittel says.
Bittel says pressure to enroll students increased after EDMC went public in 2009. The caliber of students declined as a result, Bittel says. "The quality of [graduate's] portfolios dropped, and then when the economy it was impossible" to place students in jobs related to their field of study after graduation.
"They would say whatever they had to, to get people in the door [to enroll]," says Bookert, the career counselor, who says he sat among recruiters and overheard their sales pitches. "The managers had culpability. They knew what was happening. I never heard anyone say, 'Lie to the students,' but I heard blatant lies every day."
For instance, recruiters told prospective students they would have no trouble getting high paying jobs in their field of study (whether photography or another program) upon graduating, and that they could easily pay back student loans. (Officially, Art Institute says more than 85 percent of its graduates get jobs within their field of study. Bittel and others say EDMC's method of counting is dishonest and the actual number is much lower. EDMC says on its web site that two investigations it conducted "found a lack of support for Bittel's claims that [EDMC] encouraged career services advisors to improperly report job placements.")
Bittel says that EDMC recruiters are more careful now about what they tell students because "they [management] realized they're being watched. But when I was there, recruiters were telling students all kinds of outrageous things, and that was being encouraged by administrators."
Recruiters also played on the emotional vulnerabilities of prospective students, according to Bittel and Lawrence. Lawrence says she and other recruiters were trained to "dig, dig, dig," for a prospect's so-called "confirmed [psychological] need," and then use it to pressure them to enroll. For instance, if a prospect said something like, "My DAD was never proud of me," the confirmed need was to make his or her father proud, explains Lawrence, who holds a master's degree in psychology. The recruiter was then supposed to try to reel in a wavering prospect by asking, "What about your father? Don't you want to make him proud?"
"I felt like I was using my skills for evil," says Lawrence, who holds a master's degree in psychology. "Those conversations basically turned into therapy sessions. They start to trust you, tell you about their problems, what's going on in their lives, and you use that to get them to enroll. It's very disingenuous."
Another part of the training was to gloss over the high cost of tuition, and the student loan debt that accrues. Bittel says recruiters were trained to tell prospective students the price per credit hour (about $500) and tell them that each class was three credits.
"We were told to let them do the math," she says, adding that they rarely did. "A lot of people saw the price per credit, thought that was the price per class, and didn't add it up."
Muller, the EDMC spokesperson, says total degree program costs is "easily available" on Art Institute's web site.
"You come in, someone at EDMC helps you get loans, and it feels like it's free until six months after you graduate," when the loan payments come due, says Bookert. "A big selling point is that you come to school and get educated, and worry about money later."
The reality hit as students approached graduation with huge debts, and few job prospects after all. "Students would get mad at me and say, 'What am I supposed to do with this degree?'" says Bookert. "[The cost] is very visible to [recent graduates] carrying $90,000 worth of debt they were supposed to start paying off."
"It was soul sucking," says Lawrence, who quit after six months to take another job. "You're really kind of ruining peoples' lives. There's no nicer way to put it."
Several former students interviewed for this story corroborated what former recruiters said about AI's recruiting methods. They also reported a lot of difficulty finding work as photographers and paying their debts.
Sarah Boger, of Austin, Texas, graduated from the Art Institute of Colorado in Denver with $105,000 worth of student loan debt. (One quarter of it was from Brooks Institute, a for-profit photo school not owned by EDMC that she attended prior to enrolling at Art Institute.)
Boger wanted a career in "live event and concert photography," and contacted the school after seeing its ads on TV, she says. "Ideally I wanted to work for Rolling Stone or Spin. They made it sound like if I went [to AI], they would help me find a job. They said 90 percent of their graduates are employed [with]in one year in their field. They said, 'We have contacts at all the major music magazines.'
"I think [the recruiter] was telling me what I wanted to hear, because when I got out, they didn't have anything," Boger says. An AI career counselor gave her just two contacts at small publications in Austin. Boger was unable to reach one because that contact had moved to another job, "and the other said to me, 'You don't have the qualifications you need,'" Boger recounts.
Eventually AI career counselors stopped returning Boger's calls for help, she says. Now she works as a tech support specialist for non-profit web sites--"nothing to do with my degree," she says. At one point she was trying to pay off her student loans by holding down three jobs. Now the loans are deferred, but Boger says she doesn't think she could pay them off even if she had a good job as a photographer. She's planning to pay off the debts instead with money she inherited from her mother, who recently died.
"I loved the teachers [at AI]," says Boger, "But the monetary value wasn't worth what I put in. The results are not going to happen as fast as they say. It's like they're pumping photographers out like little cookie cutters."
Another disillusioned graduate is Don Orkoskey of Pittsburgh. He got an associate's degree in photography from Art Institute of Pittsburgh in 2001 (which pre-dates the period covered by the federal lawsuit), then returned in 2003 for a degree in web design after deciding the photography degree wasn't getting him anywhere.
"I was young and stupid, and didn't understand that I could go to a traditional university and get the degree I wanted until I was in the thick of it," he says.
He now runs his own photography and web design business, but gives little credit to AI for his success. "The degree you get prepares you for an entry level position that you could get with no degree," he says, explaining that he eventually took courses at the University of Pittsburgh to learn the web design skills he needed to succeed.
He says, "I hate to get down on folks who get swept in because I was one of them. I spent five years in high school, smoking pot, looking for the easy way out, not willing to take things seriously or work hard.
"Art Institute sees those students, and latches onto them. They say, 'You'll be a photographer, or a graphic designer, or a chef." Orkoskey says he was receptive because he was hearing from everyone--his mother, his teachers, and politicians--that he'd be a failure without education.
The cost of attending AI didn't hit Orkoskey until after he graduated, and he was told he had to make loan payments amounting to $600 per month to pay off the debt. When he couldn't pay, lenders began pressing his mother--who had co-signed some of his loans--for the money. Orkoskey worked in data entry, retail inventory, and other jobs unrelated to photography for several years, before he got the education he needed to start his own business. But he's still paying off his AI debts, he says.
Others interviewed for this story had mixed views. They had enthusiastic praise for AI instructors, and credit the school with teaching them photography skills they believe will help them succeed. "You can see the people who are going to come out and have significant careers. Then there are those who are there because it's their only option," says Patrick Day, a mid career IT professional who attended Art Institute of Raleigh-Durham (North Carolina) because he lacked a college degree. "The school offered me the opportunity to get a degree while I'm still working;" nearby state and community colleges didn't, he says.
"I don't feel that they're a paper mill. The instructors all have master's degrees and experience in the industry. But it's ungodly expensive for what it is. If you look at a full bachelor's degree, it's in the neighborhood of 60 grand. If I went to North Carolina State, I could probably do it for a quarter of that."
Muller, the EDMC spokesperson, notes that career colleges including the Art Institutes "have long demonstrated success in their ability to meet the educational needs of the non-traditional student who has largely been ignored by traditional colleges and universities."
Photographer Brandon Werth, who graduated from Art Institute of Minneapolis in 2010, says his wedding and editorial business is going well. "I have to attribute a lot of my success to what I learned in school. I feel like they train you and help you get jobs."
Werth says he didn't do well in high school, and didn't realize art school was a college option until his step father mentioned the idea. He checked out the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, "but they have this pompous attitude toward art. I felt it was the wrong crowd for me to be with.
"It felt right at Art Institute," he continues. "My mom thought [the recruiters] were pushy. I could sense that. It was like one of those car salesmen deals....Yeah, there's a dark side. It seems like they didn't care who they brought in. They just wanted money."
But his instructors, he hastens to add, "Were the best thing that ever happened to me in terms of my life as an artist and my growth as a creative person." Students get out of it what they put in, he says.
Werth still has $80,000 in student loan debt. "I sometimes question whether it was worth it," he says. "Pulling myself out of debt to make a living is going to be a struggle but I'm just brushing it off."
His goal is to pay off the debt in about five years, and he's optimistic. "Business is going better than I thought it ever would."
http://www.pdnonline.com/pdn/news/The-Art-Institutes--3531.shtml
A lawsuit against the nation's second largest operator of for-profit colleges has cast a spotlight on the company's recruitment practices and ethics, including those of a chain called The Art Institutes, which offers degree programs in photography and more than 55 other creative fields at more than 45 locations around the country.
Earlier this month, the US Department of Justice sued Pittsburgh-based Education Management Corporation, which is 41 percent owned by investment bank Goldman Sachs. The government has charged the company with fraudulently collecting $11 billion dollars in state and federal student financial aid between July of 2003 to June of 2011. EDMC allegedly collected $2.2 billion of that money in 2010 alone. That amounted to almost 90 percent of the company's 2010 revenues.
The government says EDMC violated federal rules against paying recruiters based on the number of students enrolled. Those rules are designed to prevent colleges from recruiting unqualified students just to collect student aid money.
EDMC operates more than 100 schools under the names Art Institute, Brown Mackie College, South University, and Argosy University. According to former recruiters and photography students contacted by PDN, many Art Institute graduates leave with tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt, and insufficient professional qualifications or job prospects to pay the money back.
Taxpayers are on the hook for the loans that students cannot repay.
EDMC has denied the government's claims. Jacqueline Muller, EDMC's VP of communications/public relations, told PDN in an e-mail, "We are proud of the success earned by many Art Institute alumni in all program areas, including photography." Art Institutes have some noteworthy graduates including Pulitzer Prize-winning photographers Carol Guzy (1980) and Martha Rial (1982).
But according to its critics, EDMC and AI's strategy has been to sell a dream of a lucrative career aggressively--and sometimes deceitfully--to low-income high school students who often lacked the skills and preparation to succeed in college, or the knowledge to explore less expensive educational options.
"They're preying on these [students]," says Suzanne Lawrence, a former recruiter for Argosy University who has turned government witness in the case against the company. "EDMC is not a public service organization. They're not trying to educate people. They're just trying to filter this government [student aid] money to their stockholders."
Muller says, "We offer a pathway to a higher education for many students who are not being served by traditional higher education." She also says that EDMC balances the interests of its students and shareholders. "The best way to meet investor expectations and success is to ensure that our students are successful," Muller says. "The two are not incongruent."
EDMC institutions have few admissions requirements beyond a high school diploma or GED. According to former recruiters who spoke to PDN, almost anyone--ready or not--can get in. "We were recruiting students who had no actual skills," Lawrence says. Muller says EDMC's schools are accredited and licensed by the states in which they operate, and that "interest and desire to attend our schools drives admissions, not demographics."
At the Art Institute of Pittsburgh campus alone, there were reportedly about 600 photography students pursuing a bachelor of arts or associates degree as of last summer, says Kathleen A. Bittel, the whistleblower whose testimony before a US Senate committee last fall helped trigger the federal lawsuit against EDMC. Bittel was a recruiter for Argosy University and then a career counselor for Art Institute's online division.
"Where are 600 photography graduates going to go? You cannot absorb that many in one city. How are they going to make money?" she says.
Bittel says EDMC had plans last summer to increase its photography student enrollment by adding a 12-15 month diploma to the program. The new degree was intended to attract students who wanted a "quick fix" in the form of a degree they could earn faster than an associate's degree with minimal effort, Bittel says. "If the bachelors students can't find jobs, where are the students with [12-month diplomas] going to go?"
EDMC focused recruiting efforts on low-income students not only to take advantage of their eligibility for government loans, but because they were "easy prey," says Bittel. "They don't know how the educational system works. They don't know if the deal they're getting is a good one or a bad one."
"If you didn't grow up with everyone in your family going to college, there's nobody to tell you, 'That's not a real school,' and there's nobody to tell you that you can take your grant money to another school," such as a community college or state school, says Lawrence.
Recruiters were under intense pressure to sign students up. According to Bittel, Lawrence, and Josef Bookert, who was a career services counselor at the Argosy University in Pittsburgh, recruiters were reprimanded and frequently fired for not meeting increasingly demanding enrollment goals, and managers made public examples of them to pressure other recruiters by fear and intimidation. "You got the numbers or you were out," Bittel says.
Bittel says pressure to enroll students increased after EDMC went public in 2009. The caliber of students declined as a result, Bittel says. "The quality of [graduate's] portfolios dropped, and then when the economy it was impossible" to place students in jobs related to their field of study after graduation.
"They would say whatever they had to, to get people in the door [to enroll]," says Bookert, the career counselor, who says he sat among recruiters and overheard their sales pitches. "The managers had culpability. They knew what was happening. I never heard anyone say, 'Lie to the students,' but I heard blatant lies every day."
For instance, recruiters told prospective students they would have no trouble getting high paying jobs in their field of study (whether photography or another program) upon graduating, and that they could easily pay back student loans. (Officially, Art Institute says more than 85 percent of its graduates get jobs within their field of study. Bittel and others say EDMC's method of counting is dishonest and the actual number is much lower. EDMC says on its web site that two investigations it conducted "found a lack of support for Bittel's claims that [EDMC] encouraged career services advisors to improperly report job placements.")
Bittel says that EDMC recruiters are more careful now about what they tell students because "they [management] realized they're being watched. But when I was there, recruiters were telling students all kinds of outrageous things, and that was being encouraged by administrators."
Recruiters also played on the emotional vulnerabilities of prospective students, according to Bittel and Lawrence. Lawrence says she and other recruiters were trained to "dig, dig, dig," for a prospect's so-called "confirmed [psychological] need," and then use it to pressure them to enroll. For instance, if a prospect said something like, "My DAD was never proud of me," the confirmed need was to make his or her father proud, explains Lawrence, who holds a master's degree in psychology. The recruiter was then supposed to try to reel in a wavering prospect by asking, "What about your father? Don't you want to make him proud?"
"I felt like I was using my skills for evil," says Lawrence, who holds a master's degree in psychology. "Those conversations basically turned into therapy sessions. They start to trust you, tell you about their problems, what's going on in their lives, and you use that to get them to enroll. It's very disingenuous."
Another part of the training was to gloss over the high cost of tuition, and the student loan debt that accrues. Bittel says recruiters were trained to tell prospective students the price per credit hour (about $500) and tell them that each class was three credits.
"We were told to let them do the math," she says, adding that they rarely did. "A lot of people saw the price per credit, thought that was the price per class, and didn't add it up."
Muller, the EDMC spokesperson, says total degree program costs is "easily available" on Art Institute's web site.
"You come in, someone at EDMC helps you get loans, and it feels like it's free until six months after you graduate," when the loan payments come due, says Bookert. "A big selling point is that you come to school and get educated, and worry about money later."
The reality hit as students approached graduation with huge debts, and few job prospects after all. "Students would get mad at me and say, 'What am I supposed to do with this degree?'" says Bookert. "[The cost] is very visible to [recent graduates] carrying $90,000 worth of debt they were supposed to start paying off."
"It was soul sucking," says Lawrence, who quit after six months to take another job. "You're really kind of ruining peoples' lives. There's no nicer way to put it."
Several former students interviewed for this story corroborated what former recruiters said about AI's recruiting methods. They also reported a lot of difficulty finding work as photographers and paying their debts.
Sarah Boger, of Austin, Texas, graduated from the Art Institute of Colorado in Denver with $105,000 worth of student loan debt. (One quarter of it was from Brooks Institute, a for-profit photo school not owned by EDMC that she attended prior to enrolling at Art Institute.)
Boger wanted a career in "live event and concert photography," and contacted the school after seeing its ads on TV, she says. "Ideally I wanted to work for Rolling Stone or Spin. They made it sound like if I went [to AI], they would help me find a job. They said 90 percent of their graduates are employed [with]in one year in their field. They said, 'We have contacts at all the major music magazines.'
"I think [the recruiter] was telling me what I wanted to hear, because when I got out, they didn't have anything," Boger says. An AI career counselor gave her just two contacts at small publications in Austin. Boger was unable to reach one because that contact had moved to another job, "and the other said to me, 'You don't have the qualifications you need,'" Boger recounts.
Eventually AI career counselors stopped returning Boger's calls for help, she says. Now she works as a tech support specialist for non-profit web sites--"nothing to do with my degree," she says. At one point she was trying to pay off her student loans by holding down three jobs. Now the loans are deferred, but Boger says she doesn't think she could pay them off even if she had a good job as a photographer. She's planning to pay off the debts instead with money she inherited from her mother, who recently died.
"I loved the teachers [at AI]," says Boger, "But the monetary value wasn't worth what I put in. The results are not going to happen as fast as they say. It's like they're pumping photographers out like little cookie cutters."
Another disillusioned graduate is Don Orkoskey of Pittsburgh. He got an associate's degree in photography from Art Institute of Pittsburgh in 2001 (which pre-dates the period covered by the federal lawsuit), then returned in 2003 for a degree in web design after deciding the photography degree wasn't getting him anywhere.
"I was young and stupid, and didn't understand that I could go to a traditional university and get the degree I wanted until I was in the thick of it," he says.
He now runs his own photography and web design business, but gives little credit to AI for his success. "The degree you get prepares you for an entry level position that you could get with no degree," he says, explaining that he eventually took courses at the University of Pittsburgh to learn the web design skills he needed to succeed.
He says, "I hate to get down on folks who get swept in because I was one of them. I spent five years in high school, smoking pot, looking for the easy way out, not willing to take things seriously or work hard.
"Art Institute sees those students, and latches onto them. They say, 'You'll be a photographer, or a graphic designer, or a chef." Orkoskey says he was receptive because he was hearing from everyone--his mother, his teachers, and politicians--that he'd be a failure without education.
The cost of attending AI didn't hit Orkoskey until after he graduated, and he was told he had to make loan payments amounting to $600 per month to pay off the debt. When he couldn't pay, lenders began pressing his mother--who had co-signed some of his loans--for the money. Orkoskey worked in data entry, retail inventory, and other jobs unrelated to photography for several years, before he got the education he needed to start his own business. But he's still paying off his AI debts, he says.
Others interviewed for this story had mixed views. They had enthusiastic praise for AI instructors, and credit the school with teaching them photography skills they believe will help them succeed. "You can see the people who are going to come out and have significant careers. Then there are those who are there because it's their only option," says Patrick Day, a mid career IT professional who attended Art Institute of Raleigh-Durham (North Carolina) because he lacked a college degree. "The school offered me the opportunity to get a degree while I'm still working;" nearby state and community colleges didn't, he says.
"I don't feel that they're a paper mill. The instructors all have master's degrees and experience in the industry. But it's ungodly expensive for what it is. If you look at a full bachelor's degree, it's in the neighborhood of 60 grand. If I went to North Carolina State, I could probably do it for a quarter of that."
Muller, the EDMC spokesperson, notes that career colleges including the Art Institutes "have long demonstrated success in their ability to meet the educational needs of the non-traditional student who has largely been ignored by traditional colleges and universities."
Photographer Brandon Werth, who graduated from Art Institute of Minneapolis in 2010, says his wedding and editorial business is going well. "I have to attribute a lot of my success to what I learned in school. I feel like they train you and help you get jobs."
Werth says he didn't do well in high school, and didn't realize art school was a college option until his step father mentioned the idea. He checked out the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, "but they have this pompous attitude toward art. I felt it was the wrong crowd for me to be with.
"It felt right at Art Institute," he continues. "My mom thought [the recruiters] were pushy. I could sense that. It was like one of those car salesmen deals....Yeah, there's a dark side. It seems like they didn't care who they brought in. They just wanted money."
But his instructors, he hastens to add, "Were the best thing that ever happened to me in terms of my life as an artist and my growth as a creative person." Students get out of it what they put in, he says.
Werth still has $80,000 in student loan debt. "I sometimes question whether it was worth it," he says. "Pulling myself out of debt to make a living is going to be a struggle but I'm just brushing it off."
His goal is to pay off the debt in about five years, and he's optimistic. "Business is going better than I thought it ever would."
http://www.pdnonline.com/pdn/news/The-Art-Institutes--3531.shtml
The Price Of Education In The VFX Industry
It’s no surprise that education beats them all. In other words, there is a huge bubble in the price of education and there have been a few articles recently challenging the notion of getting a higher education.
In the vfx, games, and animation industry, there have been many for-profit institutions that offer a curriculum that will help you start a career in the industry, but is the return on such a huge investment really worth it?
Games Student Grad Becomes A Stripper
I came across a cringe-inducing story of a young woman who attended Art Institute in Florida for a career in the games industry. She graduated with $73,000+ in student loan debt and couldn’t get a job at any games studio. In order to pay off her student loan debt, she became a stripper.
After realizing how much of a rip-off her education was, she started a website and a series of youtube videos warning other students about these schools. Does she bear responsibility for her poor choice in education? Absolutely, but give her credit for coming out and speaking about the issue.
Regardless of whether a school is for-profit or not, at the end of the day, money is needed to keep things running. When money is involved, someone is bound to be taken advantage of. There needs to be two fundamental questions that need to be answered for potential vfx students:
- What is the return on investment on a vfx education?
- Does a vfx education give you a competitive advantage in the vfx industry?
They have an excellent website that helps estimate how much debt you should take on. Best of all, it also suggests what kind of income you will need to pay off such debt. I ran some numbers through the site of some popular vfx schools. Sallie Mae suggests that the monthly student loan debt payment be 10% of the monthly income after graduation. As you can see, it’s not pretty.
2 years at Academy of Art College
Tuition: $85,278 (Tuition & fees, Room & board, Books & supplies, Other fees)
Monthly loan payment after graduation: $987
Total paid after 15 years: $177,746
Estimated annual income needed: $118,440
Gnomon Digital Production 2 Year Program
Tuition: $66,075 (Does not include Room & board, books & supplies)
Monthly loan payment after graduation: $765
Total paid after 15 years: $137,700
Estimated annual income needed: $91800
2 years at Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale
Tuition: $67,982 (Tuition & fees, Room & board, Books & supplies, Other fees)
Monthly loan payment after graduation: $787
Total paid after 15 years: $141,660
Estimated annual income needed: $94,440
Higher Education Demands Higher Compensation
You can see that with such high costs of education why vfx artists command such high wages. The problem is that it’s very rare for a graduate to be making a six figure income and in an industry that looks at recent graduates as a cheap form of labor.
One vfx facility hired animators out of school at $12.50 an hour. While the work they did wasn’t on par with what senior animators could do, the logic was that if any of them could final at least one shot, it would be worth the savings. The problem is none of them could finish their shots and eventually a senior animator would have to finish the job.
When you see how high a vfx education is and that the best companies like Pixar pay the lowest in the industry at about $60,000 a year, you realize that it’s a bad investment.
Does A VFX Education Give You A Competitive Advantage?
Even if you did have the money, can a vfx education give you the competitive advantage to get a job in the industry? Not really. Most vfx facilities have stacks and stacks of applicants with demo reels. The supervisors have very little time to review reels so they go by referrals or a list of experienced artists. Even if a student reel is exceptional, it’s up to a recruiter who probably doesn’t know much about vfx to put it up for review.
The VFX industry isn’t about what school you went to or even how good your demo reel is. It’s all about leverage. If you have the ability and are able to get companies to compete for your services, you have the ability to quickly raise your rate. In some cases, paying for a VFX education can hurt you. Having a mountain of student loan debt can put you in a desperate situation where you have to take on whatever a company offers to pay off student loan bills.
So what is my advice for aspiring vfx artists who want to get into the industry?
Instead of paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for a vfx education, spend a few thousand on a good computer and a bunch of training DVDs. You can save a lot of money by learning vfx on your own. It’s those moments where you discover answers to common problems that you become a self learner which is a very important characteristic to have in the vfx industry. While tutorials and DVDs will show you how to use certain tools and do some cool vfx procedures, it’s knowing when to use a tool or a procedure that is key.
Attend Junior College
Critical thinking skills help bring maturity and a level head that can be the difference in communication with others. Higher education can help develop that and is still a valuable thing, it’s just way overpriced. Local community colleges provide excellent courses at very reasonable prices. You should consider getting your general education done at a junior college while supplementing your studies at home in vfx.
Don’t Just Be An Artist
The VFX industry doesn’t require a specific major or any education at all. In fact, it might be worth majoring in finance, computer science or something else to hedge your bets while you train yourself in vfx on your own. The goal should be to get a job in vfx. If that means being a wrangler, coordinator, finance assistant, do it. Get your foot in the door and start making connections with working artists. People will get to know how you work, they will see that you indeed have a demo reel that shows your interest and capabilities, and eventually you will get your chance.
My Personal Education Story
I attended junior college and later a public university. I studied computer art and quickly realized that the education I was getting was inadequate for getting a job in the industry. I continued with my education but supplemented it with courses in Computer Science and training myself on Saturdays with VFX dvds. My computer programming skills quickly landed me a job as a Technical Assistant at a VFX company where I eventually made some solid relationships with many artists who noticed my vfx skills. They ultimately were the ones and still the ones today that help me get my jobs. Your best employer isn’t the company you work for, it’s the people you work with.
The nation is beginning to notice the problems with the education system and there are calls for reform. People can’t continue running themselves into debt and not being paid appropriately. I’ve heard some mention reforming the student loan system so the amount you pay is a percentage of the income you make which seems like a good idea.
In the meantime, Soldier On.
http://vfxsoldier.wordpress.com/2010/09/20/the-price-of-education-in-the-vfx-industry/
Price of Visual Effects Education - Scott Squires
VFXSoldier has a good posting about VFX education.
As VFXSoldier points out all of these VFX schools are in it for profit, which is fine, but be aware of what the true costs are, especially to what they're selling and that you actually end up with at the end of the day. This is like all the books, DVDs, classes and other items related to screenwriting where there are a very limited number of actual script sold. There's a whole business of selling to those with dreams in a limited market.
It's good to have dreams but don't go into early and costly debt, especially if you don't have to.
I recently replied to a comment in another posting and through email to someone asking about education:
Degree course - I don't know of any vfx company that requires a degree in vfx or a specific software package. I suppose some type of 'degree' shows you've taken a class but the thing that will get you hired is your reel, list of credits and your list of software you know and the level you know it. (be honest on your resume)
If you want to get a university/college degree then best to check out the colleges near you or well know ones. However very few colleges offer real vfx classes.
You can learn quite a bit of the basics of any software with books, DVDs or online. Good books and the better online classes cover the material at a professional level. obviously you have to push yourself because it's self-education but this allows you to learn at your own pace and location without a lot of expense. I'm self taught in electronics, computer programming, photography, vfx and many other things.
Many in person classes only run through the process of learning the software unless the teacher actually has hands on experience in production and the class is structured to cover those issues as well.
Many of the vendors of software have learning additions and tutorials. As with most software read the manual first.
Check out the School Post if you haven't already.
http://effectscorner.blogspot.com/2007/06/visual-effects-schools.html
Lynda.com has classes on Maya, Nuke and others. Steve Write does the Nuke tutorial. Relatively cheap.
fxphd.com and escapestudios.co.uk are some of the ones that offer more in-depth online tutorials. Please see the school links for the others.
The only classes I've actually seen have seen the ones at Lynda.com so I can't provide any pros/cons.
The downside to all/most of the online classes is they are English only.
Obviously the online classes require a reasonable computer and internet access.
The advantages of an actual course is it's likely to be in your language, hopefully the teacher will offer critiques and have you do various exercises.
If you do need to take a clas I would recommend trying to find websites/forums that cover those schools to see what other opinions are. You can contact many companies and see if they have recommended schools. (i.e. these would be high on their list of likely candidates)
Nuke and Maya - Those tend to be the most popular for high end work. After Effects is also used extensively.
However you might want to check the local vfx companies to see what their job listings include. It may be that Max or Lightwave are more popular where you are and that After Effects is the most popular compositing software. So keep in mind what your marketable skills are. If you know a software product that's not in use at most of the places that would hire you then it may not be much value so be sure to consider that first.
The other key thing as mentioned in my blog is to make sure you understand the actual process of what's happening. If you understand the basics concepts of compositing, pulling keys, dealing with color then it's much easier to switch to another software package and learn the specific functions. It also much easier to problem solve and adapt. If you only know which button to push then it's going to be difficult to deal with anything out of the ordinary.
VFS
VFS has a bad reputation because some people who go there had problems with it. Kevin Smith, of Clerks fame, dropped out of VFS because he thought it was a waste of time.
That was a long time ago, even before I took one course at VFS in 1996.
But I know people who went there more recently and have complaints about it. I'll collect some of their thoughts and post them for you.
One problem I know of - they take a lot of foreign students just for their money, just push them through the system and don't bother with them much. So you get these guys from Hong Kong who do nothing but talk on their cell phones all day supposedly "making deals" and end up being dead weight in a learning environment.
You still might want to go to VFS. I'm not gonna trash it outright. But you want to get as much info as you can on a place before you enroll.
http://www.kult-rpg.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=3859
That was a long time ago, even before I took one course at VFS in 1996.
But I know people who went there more recently and have complaints about it. I'll collect some of their thoughts and post them for you.
One problem I know of - they take a lot of foreign students just for their money, just push them through the system and don't bother with them much. So you get these guys from Hong Kong who do nothing but talk on their cell phones all day supposedly "making deals" and end up being dead weight in a learning environment.
You still might want to go to VFS. I'm not gonna trash it outright. But you want to get as much info as you can on a place before you enroll.
http://www.kult-rpg.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=3859
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