Here are a few tips to help you pick a school that will get you more than just an empty diploma or degree. We expect you to hold us to these same standards while researching. Go on. We can take it.
Critique in a 3d animation school or visual effects school should be the same as it is in a professional environment, so let’s talk about a good professional approach to critique. It is a skill like any other that takes practice and thoughtful consideration without which it will fail.
These rules are for crew submitting to VFX dailies, not for the people running them. The people running dailies already know better and don’t need a lecture about it. Unfortunately junior artists are almost never given a talk about how/what/when/where to submit work to dailies and it takes them years to figure out on their own. This is not only sad, but expensive.
Nicholas Boughen is possibly the most experienced and capable visual effects instructor in the world. His career in the entertainment industry spans 33 years, the most recent 15 years in visual effects production creating work for 27 films, four T.V. series and countless commercials.
“You only get out of school what you put in.”
This statement has always perplexed me. It puts 100% of the education responsibility on the student and none on the school. If you were to express this in math it would look something like this:
“How do I get into Feature Film Visual Effects?” This is one of the questions I hear most often from potential students. Why wouldn’t they ask that question? Without a doubt feature: film vfx is the coolest, most glamorous and most challenging of all the digital arts….
How Do I Make A Great Demo Reel?
That is probably the top question I get asked by students. It’s not easy, that’s for sure. It takes mainly perseverance, but a great eye is most helpful. When I get asked this question I usually give the following answer. It’s pretty much word-for-word since I have recited it about a thousand times: