[userage]

(Original post by moid)
Hertfordshire is quite fabulous if I say so myself (I might be slightly biased ). We cater more towards the art side of 3D rather than programming, so you should come and have a look at what we do, but if you really want to do coding you might enjoy Bournemouth more. One tip about asking questions on here - the staff of Bournemouth also read this thread, so it's not a good idea to mention being very lazy - it tends to make either of us somewhat reticent towards offering a place... 3D is really not a place to go to if you don't like working every hour of the day or night. If you apply to Hertfordshire we will want to see life drawing as well - it's the most important part of a portfolio.

Thanks for a reply , I'm going to be at the Hertfordshire open day as well so I'll ask some stuff when there. I have no problem with working hours on end with 2D/3D content, I have done so many times in the past, I usually have to wait several hours for my renders to finish anyway haha. Thanks for the heads up though :P

[Harry_Smith64]

(Original post by moid)
No problem, I'm glad you didn't take it too badly. Thanks for the compliments I am indeed one of the lecturers (and interviewing staff). I'm happy to hear that you are starting to draw. Seeing as you are considering Games Art as a possible future direction I have some suggestions for you:

Buy, read and do the exercises from:

Vanishing Point - Jason Cheeseman-Meyer - a good book on perspective and how to draw it, once you can handle that, get:

The Skillful Huntsman - Mike Yamada et al - a great book on creative design for characters and environments that has a distinctly games art slant to it.

And at the same time get hold of Photoshop and watch the videos of Feng Zhu on Youtube - hundreds of very impressive concept art painting tutorials by one of the most famous concept artists in the world.

Once you feel your traditional / 2D Digital skills are coming on well, then get Maya http://students.autodesk.com/?nd=download_center from Autodesk for free, and start learning how to use it, and then get a game engine like Unreal Development Kit and start making 3D objects in Maya and exporting them to a game level / environment.

If you zip through that lot, let me know and I'll recommend a longer list.


Do you get to make films as part of film studies, or is it purely a theoretical course? Try to use Product Design as an excuse to make stuff in 3D in Maya Geoegraphy... hmmm not sure how to spin that towards games, just use it to acquire knowledge about the world. Good luck!

Thanks for the advice Moid!
At the moment I only have a laptop that I've been using since 2009. It struggles to even play the most simple 2D flash games, so I'll have to wait until I save up for an iMac from my job before I can start doing work in Maya (I'm only about £200 away! ). But I have looked at a few tutorials online already and I really can't wait to start playing around with it!

I've been sketching a fair bit recently, so far I've only been focusing on heads and faces and I'm going to move onto full bodies soon. I'll upload some drawings to here if you wouldn't mind looking at them once I've got a few more under my belt.

For film studies we spend about 3/4 of the year studying theory and looking at several films for examples of the theory, and 1/4 of the year planning, writing and producing our own 5 minute short film. For my year 13 product design project (Next years) I've chosen to design an "all in one" lightbox that allows beginners easy access to 2D traditional animation! So not only can I model that in Maya, but I can also use it myself once the project is complete

Finally, I'm going to the open day on saturday (16th) and was just wondering if you're going to be there? Is there anything in particular I should bring with me that would help?

Thank you so much

[moid]

Personally I'd spend the money you have on a PC - much cheaper, and Maya on a Mac is even less stable than Maya is in Windows... or if you must buy a Mac, stick Windows on it so you can run Maya. It's not the Mac's fault, it's the software itself - Autodesk don't make the greatest Mac software. Make sure you buy something with plenty of RAM and a decent graphics card (NVidia) or you'll just be buying a PC later on... 3D game development is all PC based.

Regarding the film studies, try to learn as much as possible about editing - go and shoot any of your own footage (not just related to the film you've got to make) and try different editing techniques if discussed in class. The composition of each shot is an excellent skill to learn if they teach this.

Sorry I'm not going to be at the Open Day this Saturday, Neil drew the short straw for that one He's head of Games Art, so I think he would be a good person to see. You could bring some artwork (just your best drawings) if you want, and if there's time, ask Neil what he thinks of them - you'll get some advice on what to improve.

[AlphaDog0127]

Is the intensive 12 week foundation course and the BA (Hons) 3D Animation & Games any good at Middlesex Uni (Hendon)?

Also I plan to do Art, Computing, German and Sociology at A Level, would they be good choices to study Animation and Games at Uni? I do Art at GCSE and have 100% on the cousework and predicted A*, maths predicted a B and English at a B/A.

Which Uni is good for 3D Animation and Games??

[userage]

Well I messed up and got to the Hertfordshire open day really late. :|

Looks beautiful compared to Bournemouth Uni though

[moid]

(Original post by AlphaDog0127)
Is the intensive 12 week foundation course and the BA (Hons) 3D Animation & Games any good at Middlesex Uni (Hendon)?

Also I plan to do Art, Computing, German and Sociology at A Level, would they be good choices to study Animation and Games at Uni? I do Art at GCSE and have 100% on the cousework and predicted A*, maths predicted a B and English at a B/A.

Which Uni is good for 3D Animation and Games??

I don't know about the intensive foundation course, but that's something you may wish to consider after your A-levels. Find out how much life drawing / perspective drawing it teaches of the practical kind (as opposed to the draw a picture with your shoe dipped in ink and then scattering dry pasta over the top kind).

For your A-levels, the Art is the most important one, computing could be good if they teach actual programming, if it's just learning to use Microsoft Office and making a webpage... well at least it'll be an easy A-level to pass German (any modern language) is always useful, and there are plenty of CG companies in Germany. Sociology... not exactly useful, but do it if it's easy so you get decent UCAS scores. Also you might find it easier to do 3 A levels at a higher quality than 4 A levels at a lower quality, but that will come down to how easy you find them - if you have doubts, drop the Sociology.

I don't think I can answer your question about which universities are best for animation and games without strong bias , but if you have a read back through this thread you'll find the answers you need.

[moid]

(Original post by userage)
Well I messed up and got to the Hertfordshire open day really late. :|

Looks beautiful compared to Bournemouth Uni though

Thanks - we have another one on 13th and 14th October if that helps.

[CyclopsRock]

My experience of computing was very useful - it's very much about the creating of systems, rather than the using of them (that's ICT). A lot of it is database driven which isn't necessarily useful for CG but we also had to learn an OOP Programming Language. I got unlucky and got fed Visual Basic but honestly, it's the concepts and logic that's the trickiest to nail, and that's the same between all OOP languages. It meant that for A2 I could quickly learn PHP which is significantly more useful (though still worth sod all for CG). However, what I learnt in those two years really helped me pick up Maxscript a whole lot quicker, and I'm planning in diving into Python this year too.

Also, moid, please don't knock pasta-shoe-art. To this day it takes up at least 75s of my 90s showreel.

[Harry_Smith64]

(Original post by moid)
Personally I'd spend the money you have on a PC - much cheaper, and Maya on a Mac is even less stable than Maya is in Windows... or if you must buy a Mac, stick Windows on it so you can run Maya. It's not the Mac's fault, it's the software itself - Autodesk don't make the greatest Mac software. Make sure you buy something with plenty of RAM and a decent graphics card (NVidia) or you'll just be buying a PC later on... 3D game development is all PC based.

Regarding the film studies, try to learn as much as possible about editing - go and shoot any of your own footage (not just related to the film you've got to make) and try different editing techniques if discussed in class. The composition of each shot is an excellent skill to learn if they teach this.

Sorry I'm not going to be at the Open Day this Saturday, Neil drew the short straw for that one He's head of Games Art, so I think he would be a good person to see. You could bring some artwork (just your best drawings) if you want, and if there's time, ask Neil what he thinks of them - you'll get some advice on what to improve.

It don't have to get an iMac, it was just that i needed to get a desktop computer that's better than my crummy laptop and I really liked the iMacs! But if they aren't going to be all that useful then I would prefer to get a PC, I've asked a few friends more knowledgable in computing what would be the best one to buy and they've shown me this one: http://www.arbico.co.uk/Arbico-Elite...wer-PC-p-.html . Although it's quite expensive, it seems to be exactly what I need.

In regards to film studies, we've briefly gone over composing shots and such, but not in great detail, but I'm sure my teachers would be able to teach me a bit more if I asked. I'm going to try get my hands on a flip HD camera at some point in the future and shoot loads.

I went to the open day on Saturday and was totally blown away. Everyone there was warm and friendly, especially in the creative arts department. The overall Creative Arts talk was held by a really nice guy named Sol Rogers, who was absolutely hilarious! "Everyone here is alternative, don't worry. Us animators stick together, we wander in packs!". I went to the talk held by Neil as well and he was equally as friendly and amazing as everyone else. I hope he remembers me, He had a look at some of my drawings and said that it would be better if I did take an Art Foundation beforehand. He said that roughly 80% of people who get accepted into the course did Art Foundations, so I would actually be in the minority if I didn't take on one.

He still reccomended that I still apply for the 2013 course, if not to get in then to come and talk to them some more so that they can get to know me better and keep an eye out for me, which is really kind of him to say. The facilities are amazing, all the computers have Bamboo tablets connected to them and the rooms are lined with concept art from Zelda, Scott Pilgrim and other amazing things.. as you come up the stairs there's even Hellboy and Team Fortress models that students have made! So yea, Hertfordshire completely blew me away and the fact that roughly 60% of the students get hired at the end of the course just makes me want to go there even more.

I've done a bit of research into Foundation courses and the one at UCA Farnham seems really great, I sent off an e-mail to them yesterday asking how much focus they place on life drawing skills.

[monkie]

I saw some people asking where to Study animation etc. This of course is a massive question but this article might help: Top 100 Schools for Animation, Gaming, and Design. It is quite interesting! Bournemouth is ranked 19th... 1 above animation mentor, which made me smile.

http://www.animationcareerreview.com...esign?page=0,8

Enjoy!
Monkie

Bournemouth University Animations Arts 2nd year

[Harry_Smith64]

(Original post by monkie)
I saw some people asking where to Study animation etc. This of course is a massive question but this article might help: Top 100 Schools for Animation, Gaming, and Design. It is quite interesting! Bournemouth is ranked 19th... 1 above animation mentor, which made me smile.

http://www.animationcareerreview.com...esign?page=0,8

Enjoy!
Monkie

Bournemouth University Animations Arts 2nd year

Nice find! That list is insanely useful. Also, take a look at the portfolio requirements for the course at #1! Madness! A good guideline for any overall portfolio though

[moid]

(Original post by CyclopsRock)
My experience of computing was very useful - it's very much about the creating of systems, rather than the using of them (that's ICT). A lot of it is database driven which isn't necessarily useful for CG but we also had to learn an OOP Programming Language. I got unlucky and got fed Visual Basic but honestly, it's the concepts and logic that's the trickiest to nail, and that's the same between all OOP languages. It meant that for A2 I could quickly learn PHP which is significantly more useful (though still worth sod all for CG). However, what I learnt in those two years really helped me pick up Maxscript a whole lot quicker, and I'm planning in diving into Python this year too.

Also, moid, please don't knock pasta-shoe-art. To this day it takes up at least 75s of my 90s showreel.

OK as long as the pasta shoe art is perfectly lit and rendered I'm fine with it Hmmm maybe you should never have accepted that organic modelling job at Carluccio's, I'm not sure if it was the best career decision

[moid]

(Original post by Harry_Smith64)
It don't have to get an iMac, it was just that i needed to get a desktop computer that's better than my crummy laptop and I really liked the iMacs! But if they aren't going to be all that useful then I would prefer to get a PC, I've asked a few friends more knowledgable in computing what would be the best one to buy and they've shown me this one: http://www.arbico.co.uk/Arbico-Elite...wer-PC-p-.html . Although it's quite expensive, it seems to be exactly what I need.

In regards to film studies, we've briefly gone over composing shots and such, but not in great detail, but I'm sure my teachers would be able to teach me a bit more if I asked. I'm going to try get my hands on a flip HD camera at some point in the future and shoot loads.

I went to the open day on Saturday and was totally blown away. Everyone there was warm and friendly, especially in the creative arts department. The overall Creative Arts talk was held by a really nice guy named Sol Rogers, who was absolutely hilarious! "Everyone here is alternative, don't worry. Us animators stick together, we wander in packs!". I went to the talk held by Neil as well and he was equally as friendly and amazing as everyone else. I hope he remembers me, He had a look at some of my drawings and said that it would be better if I did take an Art Foundation beforehand. He said that roughly 80% of people who get accepted into the course did Art Foundations, so I would actually be in the minority if I didn't take on one.

He still reccomended that I still apply for the 2013 course, if not to get in then to come and talk to them some more so that they can get to know me better and keep an eye out for me, which is really kind of him to say. The facilities are amazing, all the computers have Bamboo tablets connected to them and the rooms are lined with concept art from Zelda, Scott Pilgrim and other amazing things.. as you come up the stairs there's even Hellboy and Team Fortress models that students have made! So yea, Hertfordshire completely blew me away and the fact that roughly 60% of the students get hired at the end of the course just makes me want to go there even more.

I've done a bit of research into Foundation courses and the one at UCA Farnham seems really great, I sent off an e-mail to them yesterday asking how much focus they place on life drawing skills.

That PC looks pretty fast, you might want to see what Dell would do for that cash; they might be cheaper. Regarding filming, just start with your mobile phone! Don't worry about the quality, it's the practice of thinking about how to shoot something and the experience of it not working that will teach you a lot, not just using a decent camera. Make a load of mistakes with a crap camera and when you've got something better you'll really be able to take advantage of it.

I'm glad you enjoyed the open day, Neil said it was the busiest one we've had ever Art Foundation students are almost always a good bet at interview because they have 1 year more art education than all the other applicants so are usually better. We do accept students without foundation, but they need to show high levels of skill. Regarding life drawing, the best option is to take things into your own hands (although good idea about asking Farnham, many foundation courses don't teach life drawing any more) - it might be worth you registering with http://london-life-drawing-society.ning.com/ and finding the nearest class to where you live, and going along yourself. The classes in Central London are a great place to network and meet artists and animators in the VFX/3D/2D/Games industries.

[Iqbal007]

(Original post by Harry_Smith64)
It don't have to get an iMac, it was just that i needed to get a desktop computer that's better than my crummy laptop and I really liked the iMacs! But if they aren't going to be all that useful then I would prefer to get a PC, I've asked a few friends more knowledgable in computing what would be the best one to buy and they've shown me this one: http://www.arbico.co.uk/Arbico-Elite...wer-PC-p-.html . Although it's quite expensive, it seems to be exactly what I need.

In regards to film studies, we've briefly gone over composing shots and such, but not in great detail, but I'm sure my teachers would be able to teach me a bit more if I asked. I'm going to try get my hands on a flip HD camera at some point in the future and shoot loads.

I went to the open day on Saturday and was totally blown away. Everyone there was warm and friendly, especially in the creative arts department. The overall Creative Arts talk was held by a really nice guy named Sol Rogers, who was absolutely hilarious! "Everyone here is alternative, don't worry. Us animators stick together, we wander in packs!". I went to the talk held by Neil as well and he was equally as friendly and amazing as everyone else. I hope he remembers me, He had a look at some of my drawings and said that it would be better if I did take an Art Foundation beforehand. He said that roughly 80% of people who get accepted into the course did Art Foundations, so I would actually be in the minority if I didn't take on one.

He still reccomended that I still apply for the 2013 course, if not to get in then to come and talk to them some more so that they can get to know me better and keep an eye out for me, which is really kind of him to say. The facilities are amazing, all the computers have Bamboo tablets connected to them and the rooms are lined with concept art from Zelda, Scott Pilgrim and other amazing things.. as you come up the stairs there's even Hellboy and Team Fortress models that students have made! So yea, Hertfordshire completely blew me away and the fact that roughly 60% of the students get hired at the end of the course just makes me want to go there even more.

I've done a bit of research into Foundation courses and the one at UCA Farnham seems really great, I sent off an e-mail to them yesterday asking how much focus they place on life drawing skills.

You should really build a pc, specs will be better or try elsewhere, cos around the same price you can much newer spec like at novatech

[Harry_Smith64]

(Original post by Iqbal007)
You should really build a pc, specs will be better or try elsewhere, cos around the same price you can much newer spec like at novatech

Everyone I ask about PC's says that it's much better and cheaper to build one!
I have absolutely no idea on where to even start though... Any tips?

[Iqbal007]

(Original post by Harry_Smith64)
Everyone I ask about PC's says that it's much better and cheaper to build one!
I have absolutely no idea on where to even start though... Any tips?

Well you should head over to this bit of TSR http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=37

The first bit is to set a budget and the aim of what your pc is for.
Once you've figured it out, then it's just going after the right components which are compatible and meet your needs.
Then's it simply just sticking everything together and putting in Operating software...........after which update all the drivers.....then go on from there

[Harry_Smith64]

(Original post by moid)
That PC looks pretty fast, you might want to see what Dell would do for that cash; they might be cheaper. Regarding filming, just start with your mobile phone! Don't worry about the quality, it's the practice of thinking about how to shoot something and the experience of it not working that will teach you a lot, not just using a decent camera. Make a load of mistakes with a crap camera and when you've got something better you'll really be able to take advantage of it.

I'm glad you enjoyed the open day, Neil said it was the busiest one we've had ever Art Foundation students are almost always a good bet at interview because they have 1 year more art education than all the other applicants so are usually better. We do accept students without foundation, but they need to show high levels of skill. Regarding life drawing, the best option is to take things into your own hands (although good idea about asking Farnham, many foundation courses don't teach life drawing any more) - it might be worth you registering with http://london-life-drawing-society.ning.com/ and finding the nearest class to where you live, and going along yourself. The classes in Central London are a great place to network and meet artists and animators in the VFX/3D/2D/Games industries.

Yea, I really need to just invest a whole day into researching the best computer.. Most of this quad core RAM stuff goes straight over my head..
Thanks for the advice about filming though, I have a bog-standard digital camera that can record video so I'll have a play around with that this weekend.

It was insanely busy! We had to change rooms for the Animation talk as we ran out of chairs! I'm actually pretty happy about doing an Art Foundation year, as it'll be a whole year dedicated to just getting better at drawing which is going to be super helpful and really good fun! I'll probably be able to meet some more like minded people too I registered on the Life Drawing Society site, It seems like a really useful way of finding some classes! I live about a 45 minute train journey outside of London though, so if I do attend a class I'll have to properly plan ahead and get in touch with the people running the sessions.. Do you literally just show up? It would be great if I could meet some people in the industry though!

[Harry_Smith64]

(Original post by Iqbal007)
Well you should head over to this bit of TSR http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=37

The first bit is to set a budget and the aim of what your pc is for.
Once you've figured it out, then it's just going after the right components which are compatible and meet your needs.
Then's it simply just sticking everything together and putting in Operating software...........after which update all the drivers.....then go on from there

Cool, thanks a lot! It would be pretty selfish of me to clog up this thread with my computer related woes

[Iqbal007]

(Original post by Harry_Smith64)
Cool, thanks a lot! It would be pretty selfish of me to clog up this thread with my computer related woes

Plus all us computer builders are normally in that section

[Sofronis]

Hi Everyone,

Some exciting things happening at Bournemouth. Check out the new VFX Hub; a partnership between BU and AUCB; as well a whole ton of industry folk. Keep your eyes peeled for some very cool news very soon...

http://www.internationalvfxhub.com/