Animation education: general or specific?

Great post, simple and really sums up the best way to approach being employable as an animator as soon as possible.

One thing that comes to my mind having been through 2 generalist courses though, is that they have no interest in producing all rounders. There are two main reasons they pursue generalist curriculum-

1. The courses were not created from scratch to teach 3D or animation. The courses were hybridized from existing film studies courses, with a few 3D subjects shoehorned in where the film subjects used to be. This was a cheap and safe way to ‘create’ 3D courses at existing arts colleges. This started in California after Jurassic park got everyone’s attention and the whole world copied without questioning it. This led to a almost religious belief in the ‘short film’ not because it was the best way to train 3D artists, but because that was the goal of the film courses 3D courses were created from, an no’one in the education sector had the knowledge or experience (or the balls) to see the issues with that.

2. It is far far easier and cheaper to teach a tiny bit of everything than it is to teach specialties of any kind. It allows courses to employ ex-students who cant’ get real jobs and they can teach what is essentially 20 minute tech demos on basic modeling, rigging, setting keys etc (I won’t use the word ‘animation’ here, key setting is more accurate). The rest of class time is then spent ‘problem solving’ the laundry list of basic issues all students face as they try to essentially do 10 different job roles at once on short film projects, usually in the space of a single school term. This lets everyone feel like they are progressing, and learning, and the teacher runs around the room ‘helping’ everyone. Students feel good and believe they are progressing, and they are- but they are on the fast track to unemployment because after 2 or 3 years they know a tiny bit about everything and most of their time has been spent problem solving basic basic 3D issues, as opposed to learning efficiently from someone who knows what they are doing. Actually teaching real skills at any level of depth requires teachers who have those skills, but the problem is anyone who has those skills can usually make much more money in the industry than they can teaching.

Occasionally great teachers do end up teaching at generalist schools, but they usually quit after a few years once they realize that the curriculum it totally stacked against students really excelling at anything, and actively pushes them to epic generalist projects most have no hope of completing. In this environment even great teachers can’t do a whole lot for their students apart from point them in the right direction, because students end up being faced with a choice between doing what’s best for themselves and failing all the BS classes, or towing the line in class and failing to become employable. I can’t tell you how many talented people I studied with who were bullied into doing what the school wanted (short film) at the expense of themselves, only to become unemployable after graduation and end up working some other career because after 3 years of study they couldn’t face signing up for another year or two just to get their first job.

Anyway, great post. I think you hit the nail on the head whilst still being diplomatic and polite. Great stuff.

Hey Phil,

Yeah I agree. Realistically very few employers are looking for junior all-rounders, they want someone with a strong skillset in just one or two things. Then once you are employable as an animator or modeler, it’s much easier to then add say rigging or rendering to your skillset once you are already working as opposed to trying to do it all as a student.

I totally agree too that there is a place for generalist knowledge and education. I think most students really benefit from an overview of the 3D pipeline and the ability to do basic work or troubleshoot issues with any aspect of 3D. My issue is not with generalists (major respect) or educating people about the whole pipeline at the outset of a 3D course, it’s with an approach that forces people into short film production toward the end without educating people about the huge advantages to specialization when getting your first job, and the huge challenges of successfully becoming employed if you spread your time over 10 3D areas at once.

I think training student generalists in 2011 is a great idea that doesn’t work out in real life. As an introduction to 3D- fantastic, go for it. As a whole approach? Only if the student really understands what’s involved, and how hard and risky an approach that is.

Most students who chase a generalist portfolio by attempting a short film end up with a poor quality film showcasing shallow skills in 10 disciplines. This industry is too tough on newbies to encourage that as a standard approach for everyone in my opinion.