Animation colleges

[Evilagram]

Didn't think this fit in any of the subforums.


Long story short, I want to be the next Adam Phillips, which colleges should I look at?


So far I have a short list from various sources:

Ringling
Digipen
Disney institute
Massachusetts institute of the arts

I like 2d better than 3d, so 2d is preferable.


Also, any tips for what I should put in my portfolio?

[Esn]

The advice I seem to hear most often from professionals in animation these days is to avoid animation colleges entirely, and instead to spend a year or two developing your own skills full-time.  There are a lot of good animation books. "The Animator's Survival Kit" by Richard Williams is a great one (also available as a series of DVDs).  The only really important thing in animation is how good you are, not which college you went to, and that will be determined by your portfolio.  But of course, the self-education method requires a lot of self-discipline and confidence, so it is rarely followed.

If you are sure that you want to go to an animation college, try to pick one that has instructors whose work you respect and who you would want to study under.  Actually, if you choose the self-study route, the advice is the same; you need to decide who you want to follow, and once you make the choice, find out as much about them and their methods as you can.  Maybe even try to contact them if they're still alive. There are very many different ways to do animation. John Kricfalusi has one approach, Aleksandr Petrov has another, Bruce Bickford has a third.  And although some (i.e. John K) imply that there's only one right way to do things, that isn't true at all.  There isn't one right way to animate (or direct) any more than there's one right way to write. There are many styles and many languages, even though they often (but not always) have common elements. Find what you like and aim to become really good at it.

[Markham]

To get in any of those animation schools, or university animation programs, you pretty much have to be able to draw to even get accepted.    If possible, take classes at a local community college or see if any local art museums have drawing-related classes or events going on.  Take some figure-drawing classes.  Draw in a sketchbook, and not with a pencil - use a marker or non-ballpoint pen.  Pencils are the Devil.  Draw a lot.  Art colleges aren't there to make you draw good.  You have to learn that out of your own will.

As for portfolios, focus mainly on sketchbook (focus a lot on quick gesture drawings of people doing things in real life) and figure-drawings (20mins to 2-3 hour drawings).  100 drawings in a sketchbook shows more of your skill as an artist than does 100 frames of animation.

[Tophatwonder]

not with a pencil - use a marker or non-ballpoint pen.  Pencils are the Devil.

why are they bad? is it because you can do light sketchings then erase and shape them?  ( hopefully you can understand what i'm talking about..)

[Zwickel]

Disney Institute or CalArts?

[Esn]

why are they bad? is it because you can do light sketchings then erase and shape them?  ( hopefully you can understand what i'm talking about..)

I'd like to know that too.  I almost always draw with a pencil if I'm not using a tablet.

[Markham]

Pencils tend to breed bad habits when sketching, such as having many short, sketchy lines (aka 'hairy lines'), and relying on the eraser.  Using a pen is supposed to help you learn to draw more precise and confident lines.

[boundless]

such as having many short, sketchy lines (aka 'hairy lines')

I always hated when people drew like that. I use a pencil and draw correctly. And my drawing teacher LOVED erasing. She would stop us in the middle of class and tell us to erase everything. Hilariously frustrating.

[Esn]

Pencils tend to breed bad habits when sketching, such as having many short, sketchy lines (aka 'hairy lines'), and relying on the eraser.  Using a pen is supposed to help you learn to draw more precise and confident lines.

Huh? You do the rough drawing in light pencil strokes. Then you go over it either with pen, or with the pencil pressing harder, and that becomes your "good copy".  Don't most animators make roughs before making good copies? For that matter, most comic artists do that too.  Not all of them, sure, but I must've missed the memo about when that became a faux pas. And anyway, you can do "hairy lines" almost as well with a pen.

Personally, I have the opposite viewpoint... I've seen people use the "single confident line" technique that you're advocating and get horribly amateurish results. It can be a very bad habit, also (or, who knows, maybe I just have different tastes). Sure, Al Hirschfeld was good at it.

[boundless]

And anyway, you can do "hairy lines" almost as well with a pen.

Oh yeah I hated that even more than when people did it with pencils. I'm thinking back to middle school when more people used to draw. Too many of them made that quick back and forth movement like they were shading, but it was with lines. Ugh.

[Esn]

Just to be sure, can anyone show an example of what exactly they mean by "hairy lines"? I just want to make certain that we're talking about the same thing...

[Pieter]

I'm also very much against hairy lines, it's just a terribly inefficient way to draw.
On the other side of the spectrum you have the single. Esn said that some people also get bad results with this, I agree with that to an extend. I don't think the problem in that case is usually the line itself but more the way the form gets defined. If you focus on a single continuous line people often get a little obsessed by following contours and losing track of the insides of the form, I suffered from this myself a while back when I started to approach everything too 2 dimensional.
But there's more to line, you can have thick/thin lines, uniform lines, concave/convex lines, scrachy lines, bigger outlines/smaller inside lines, parallel strokes/ single strokes, straight vs curved lines, etc etc...
There are many good combinations, I think it's up to the person to decide whatever he feels best with.

Using a pen is a good way to build op confident strokes. And I disagree that pencils are evil, pencils are great. You don't even need to erase, just start with drawing lightly and end by drawing stronger lines. The problem is that many beginners erase way too much instead of just starting over. And erasing isn't always bad, I have a video by Ian McCaig (starwars concept artist) and that guy erased and erased! Kill you darlings was his motto, and he always ended up with a great drawing that looked like it was drawn correctly from the first time.

*edit* Just want to clarify some things but don't feel like derailing the thread any further. I agree that the explanation with the lines comes off rather arrogant, It's from a book I have and the author is very opiniated. I just wanted to give the three archetypes of line. I also agree with that pen drawings might show off construction and underlaying toughts better, I don't want to advocate one for the other. I think they both have their pro's and cons, I wouldn't write of pencils or pens or cigarette buds or whatever you use. I also agree that you CAN use hairy lines in a good way, but for most people it's just a crutch purely because no one ever told them to draw differently. In the end I think art does have rules. They're derived from nature and centuries of studying and research. BUT you can in some cases break the rules. The rules are easy to follow, breaking them and making it work at the same time is the hard part(I'm probably contradicting myself by making such a statement).
I've been drawing for a while now and it's one of the few things I actually think I know what I'm talking about, so I naturally want to have my say in it ^^'

[Esn]

You know, the concepts in the picture that you posted seems very alien to me. I mean, I understand what it's driving at, I think. But it's so simplistic. And what's more, it is arrogant. It's just what I was talking about in my first reply. It's good for certain kinds of art, but not for everything.

The thing is, I've seen wonderful, professional animation done with the equivalent of the "hairy line". For example, I Can Hear You.

You don't always want a clear, forceful line. It depends on what kind of art you're creating. On what kind of mood you're aiming at.  (on a related note, I've found that my drawing style, more than anything, depends on my mood at the time when I'm drawing it. That's also something that you have to master...)

[Markham]

Using a pen is a good way to build op confident strokes. And I disagree that pencils are evil, pencils are great.

I was speaking as far as portfolio sketchbooks are concerned.  They want to see how you construct your drawings, and penciled drawings tend to get messy and hard to read.  There is also the tendency to render your drawings when your sketchbooks should just be for sketches.

[crumb]

plymouth college of art