Which animation school is right for you? (Ringling vs. CalArts continued)

A few years ago when I was trying to decide on which animation to go to, I blogged a few posts about Ringling vs. CalArts (around March/April 2007 in this blog). I was accepted into both and was having a hard time deciding on which to go to. Now a couple of years after I graduated from Ringling, I'm still being contacted by prospective students and concerned parents as to what Ringling is like, what the animation industry is like, and more specifically why did I decide on Ringling instead of CalArts.

Since it's that season again and I've been getting a lot of emails with the same concerns, I thought I'd post some questions I've answered.


What was Ringling Like?
I really loved my experience at Ringling. I've learned a lot and was exposed to many opportunities.

Ringling is a great generalist school. You learn the whole animation pipeline from 2d to 3d. People I graduated with have become storyboarders, animators, vis dev artists, lighters, modelers, fx artists, generalists. Some found their niche and explored that while keeping up with all aspects of 3d while others were able to focus their job applications towards what is in demand at the time. So in my opinion, Ringling gives you a wider range of opportunities and flexibility. I always loved drawing and visual development so sometimes I wonder if I went to CalArts I'd have developed those skills more. But I've had an internship at Pixar, worked on an oscar winning short at Moonbot, and currently work at Sony all because what I've learned at Ringling. I'm currently working as a lighter but am also interested in visual development, so although I'm still discovering which area I am most passionate about within the industry, I feel like I have a good starting point all thanks to the skills I've gained from Ringling.

Why I personally chose Ringling instead of CalArts:
For me, I chose Ringling over CalArts because for a few reasons.

For one, at the time of my application, Ringling was $10,000 cheaper per year (might still be, not sure the tuition at both schools right now). I was also able to skip the first year at Ringling since I already had a degree. I don't think you can skip a whole year anymore, although you can go part time first year if you are a transfer student.

Two, the right school for you really depends on your work habits and what kind of artist you are. I visited both schools and I was really impressed by Ringling's state of the art facilities and the professional atmosphere. CalArts to me seemed like a free-spirit school where you are mostly left to your own devices; which could be great to explore your creativity. For me, I knew if I didn't go to a structured and demanding school, I may procrastinate and improve at a slower pace. Also, if I didn't go to a cg generalist school, I may only focus on what interested me the most instead of learning the whole pipeline. I wanted to be well-rounded. It seemed like Ringling is a school with a lot of discipline, which is what I needed. I was almost 100% sure I wanted to go to CalArts until I visited Ringling's campus. So if you have the opportunity to visit before making a decision, definitely do it. You can speculate on and on about which school is better for you, but nothing beats actually being there and feeling the vibe of the school for yourself.

Three, I think in today's animation industry, it's good to have 3d training to expand your employment opportunities. Unless you know exactly that you want to do animation, vis dev, or storyboarding, maybe it's better to learn the whole pipeline of the animation industry so you can explore your interests and be a generalist if needed.


Can you tell me about the courses at Ringling? Is it busy?
Ringling is a very demanding school. The curriculum is also updated every year depending on advancements in the industry. Major studios like Dreamworks, Pixar, Disney, Sony, R & H all come to review student work and to recruit. You also learn a lot about professionalism. It also has some extremely talented students. I think I learned as much from my classmates as from the instructors.

You will have to spend most of your times in the labs to keep up with the course work. Maybe the first year will be fairly relaxing. As you get into the CG party of the major starting your 2nd year, you will have to be comfortable with time management. The teachers expect a lot out of you and everyone does try their hardest to prove themselves, which in turn motivates you to be the best you can be as well. Overall, be prepared to work at Ringling. Though you should have a balanced life, you will need the discipline to manage your time and assignments well.


Does the school actually teach(train) techniques and software or do you have to teach yourself?
Most people that start Ringling has no prior animation or maya experience. In the first couple of years it's very hands-on. The teachers will be very attentive and help you out with any questions. Later on as students find their niche and start working on their theses, it's a little more individual driven where the teachers will be more like moral support as you have to start solving more specific problems geared towards your own film. But this a this point, you can also go to your fellow students for solutions in addition to the teachers.

Overall you definitely leave Ringling with skills needed in the industry. You will learn how to do things the right way before you start doing things your way. It's not a fluff degree.


What are critiques like?
At Ringling a lot of the coursework is critique sessions. When you start working on your film, Ringling invites industry professionals from major studios like Dreamworks, Pixar, Disney, r &h, Sony, etc...to critique your work in progress. This is also a great way for these studios to scout out any potential new hires. Ringling will give you a lot of opportunities for exposure to these studios.


Is it hard to be accepted or do they accept everyone?
You have to have a certain level of traditional ability. Your portfolio has to show potential in your understanding of movement and animation, which means you should have gesture drawings of people or animals in motion. You have to show that you have a solid foundation in traditional arts so that you can take enhance those visual ideas in 3d. Computer animation is one of the hardest majors to get into and also one of the hardest for people to stay in. A large portion of students switch majors or fail out due to either workload or financial reasons.

How old is the student body in the program? Am I too old if I'm 24?
In terms of age, Ringling is mostly traditional aged (18-22) but there is also some transfer students. I was a transfer student and in my class were 40+ year olds, 27 yr olds, etc. In my graduating class the major had around 56 people, and I'd say there were probably 10 people that were over 24 by graduation. I started Ringling at 22. I wouldn't be afraid of the age thing.


Did you get scholarship? I read you're chinese but maybe you were established in America from before.
Ringling does not offer many scholarships. I am Chinese but I've lived in the US for over 10 years. I have the American greencard so employment was easier for me. I was able to get the Trustee scholarship my last year (given to one student in each major) and a scholarship from Sony Pictures. Both of those combined pretty much covered my senior year. I also worked at a resident assistant on campus so I was able to get free housing and food at Ringling.


Is Florida good?
Sarasota is beautiful!! I felt like I was on vacation every time I went off campus. It's a small tourist/retirement town though so it's not as exciting as a big city. It's got some amazing white sand beaches though. I think Siesta Key was ranked one of the top five beaches in North America? However, you probably wouldn't have much time to leave campus with all the work you'll be getting.

What is the industry like?
I am still new to the animation industry (I graduated two years ago). I'm still learning more about the industry myself so these are only my initial impressions.

The cg industry pays well but is fairly unstable. More and more studios (major movie studios included) are hiring based on project. Most cg artists are used to bouncing from studio to studio. A lot of my coworkers have worked at Disney, Dreamworks, Bluesky, and R & H (as in, one person has worked at all of these studios). As a cg artist you make a good living, but don't expect the traditional "Alright! I have a job, now I'm set for years!" mentality.


Hopefully this is helpful. Feel free to leave a comment if you have something to add or want to ask a specific question. Please note these opinions are based on my experience and impression only. Ringling isn't for everyone. Ringling and CalArts are also not the only schools. I work with a bunch of talented and amazing artists from SCAD, SVA, Texas A & M, The Academy of Art University, and more I don't even know about. Some artists are also self-taught. It's a small industry. Everyone knows one another what matters is your work and not where you went to school.

Thanks!

Premiering Tonight!

Finally after a year and of hard work our films will be premiering tonight at the annual Ringling Computer Animation Show. Every year it's a tradition that seniors make movie posters from already existing movies. I almost didn't do one but after many hate mails and much physical abuse I decided it was the right thing to do.

More updates later!

Sketches About Town

Here are some sketches I did during SketchCrawl and my landscape painting class. SketchCrawl was so much fun! I'll have to post pictures later.

Thesis is entering overdrive thus I haven't been posting much.

In other new, John Lasseter was on campus last week and Steve Hickner from Dreamworks did critiques for three full days. We also got to see clips from How to Train Your Dragon and a Q & A with the production designer and alumni that worked on the film...how cool is Ringling?

Yetis in a Zoo

Here is an image I painted for the homepage of my website. The photoshop profiles on the lab monitors are messed up so this image came out very saturated :( So if you are painting in the labs, make sure in photoshop go to Edit-->Color Settings--> Change the RGB to Monitor RGB to get the exact colors being displayed.

Oh well, happy Thanksgiving!

More Things

Some Sketches

Drawing is fun!
Our layout crit is in a week and a half. Scary! Thesis is really underway.
In other news, Ash Brannon, director and Writer of Surf's Up is giving us a rundown on his film making process next week. Yay, presentations like these excite me...plus it makes us go outside the labs. Woo!

Pictures at an Exhibition

The Ringling trustee scholars and nominees were invited to participate in a commission for the Sarasota Orchestra. We were to create artwork based Pictures at an Exhibition, a suite of ten movements composed by Modest Mussorgsky in 1874. Me and the fine arts trustee scholar, Jenny Vu were assigned the five Promenade pieces. Anyway, this is one of them.

And here's the music, uh except for picture the orchestral version:


Now to catch up with regular work!

A Looong Post of Characters

In portfolio class today we took a look at the work of the seniors before us. I was surprised by how much some of the work still affected me even though I have seen them so many times. At Ringling, I have been so privileged in the sense that I am surrounded by some very talented young artists. Most of students are a few years younger and nonetheless their maturity, imagination, and work ethic put me to shame. Some of the thesis from last year are so innovative, moving, and just beautiful. In my eyes those seniors have made it but to think it is only the beginning of their artistic career. Just think about the possibilities!

I have grown so much since I arrived here; artistically and as a person. I think about the people that have supported me and those that helped me grow. I'm not sure what I want to take away from this year but I know I want to be proud of what I have achieved.

Mainwhile, some characters:

Senior Year

Well Senior has entered full swing. This week we just had our first full faculty crit with Steve Hickner, director from Dreamworks. We talked about our animatics and models. The next crit is in five weeks on layout and rig.

It's exciting and also intimidating to be working on thesis but I think it'll be a fun and memorable year.

Nilah is the first transfer student I contacted before coming to Ringling and we've pretty much had all of our classes together until now. This year we are roommates instead. Well Nilah's mom took a photo of us when we first met and it's become a tradition ever since. This year we just hit the ground running so we haven't had time to go out for a meal together until today. We are already three weeks into the semester, this year is going to go by so fast!


Sophomore Year,

Junior Yr,


and finally Senior Yr!

More Character Explorations

Some Thesis Stuff

I need to start modeling but I still can't settle on a design! Anyway, any crits or preferences are more than welcome!

The Transformation of 3D Yezi!

3D Yezi was once a courageous and confident little character...

whom enjoyed joking around with strangers during meal times,

...until her heart was torn to pieces by somebody she truly loved.

Now bitter with sorrow, she has resorted to a life of violence.

Special thanks to my talented classmates for using my model in their animations. You guys are awesome!

Thesis Time!

I can't believe I'm a senior already! Time flies! I made a production schedule for thesis and all the other stuff I want to accomplish over the summer and it sure seems like busy times ahead!

It's so nice to be back at home visiting old friends and chilling with the parents though. I'll have to make sure to balance out my time so that I'm productive and also having tons of fun. After all, it's this is the last summer!

Soooo! I figure it's time for a thesis dump. These here are initial designs for my story. I'm in the process of exploring with new designs this week. I want my thesis to be a bit more stylized and unique looking. We'll see where I end up. I'd love to hear feedback or any opinions!

Octopi in the Sky!

Digital painting for drawing for animators class.

As a RA, I work for a man who loves cake...

Happy birthday Chris!

"Oh no! I pooped!"

It's a Beautiful Saturday!

We had our first full faculty crit yesterday and it went pretty well. The faculty sat in a long roll at the front of the classroom. It was like the American Idol panel of judges: you give a run through of your boards then they pick it apart. I brought Robert's recorder to record my critique but being nervous I couldn't get it to work before I went up. I noticed the timer wasn't changing so I thought it wasn't recording but in actuality I was just too nervous to wait for even a second. It was working fine the whole time. I'm just dumb. I used it to record Don, Nilah, and Jess's pitches instead.... yay me.

But anyway, lots of work to do but nothing unexpected. Here are some rough designs. The monster is still under construction. Also, here's a great song with a great music video. It makes me think about what a beautiful day today is! Enjoy everyone!

Prepro Fun

Meet the man that inspired Dongjin's thesis story. Don't you just wanna watch her animation after seeing this guy?

After meeting with Nilah, Greg, and Dongjin for vidRef today I think we all decided that we have no idea what we are doing with our stories. Now some video reference quotes:

"NO! NO! You guys are doing this all wrong. This is how a sumo wrestler stumps his feet!"

"Just find your inner monster. Lets do that again, take it from...from..."
"Take it from the 'Urrrrrggghhhhh'?"

Good O' Times

The freshman had their first History of Animation test today. I miss the study sessions we used to have on Tuesday nights--talk about hard to keep on task!

Calm Before the Storm?

This weekend has been relatively mellow. UVs, Blendshapes, develop thesis more....I think that this is just a false sense of security before we are thrown into the deep end. I even had time for movies!

Calm before the storm or not, we'll soon find out. One week before full faculty crit! I'll post some thesis stuff once I have some visuals.

Meanwhile, some sketches over winterbreak. I was in the Albertville Outlet Mall. Mmm....shopping!