Full Sail

[pudge532]

Anyone know anything about full sail's animation program, is it a reputable one?
-pudge532

[DSB]

I know they advertise a lot...

[Animated Ape]

And they make good beer... oh wait.

[Rob T Miller]

I actually work with 6 guys that all came from full sail...ironic eh? Anyways they all seemed to like it. One of the other animators on staff just finished up there a few months ago and came out with some pretty strong stuff.

I cannot speak for any of them but they all said the same thing to me when we were discussing the places we went to study. Bottom line they all said (which is VERY true). You get what you put into school. If you want to be a character animator and have that passion and drive then you will be the one in the labs when everyone else is sleeping or slacking off! :)

If you want my two cents look for a place that will teach you the fundamentals...ie pencil and paper then gradually let you touch the computer. Find a place that values drawing and traditional art as these go hand in hand with animation. Yes that means drawing is VERY important EVEN if you are a computer animator. Do not go to school and spend your life savings just to learn some cool software. Remember a computer is merely a 3000 dollar pencil and software constantly changes but the pencil and founding principles do not.

Just some things to keep in mind and consider with whatever institution you consider. Good luck with the hunt. PM me if you want me to forward some contact info of another animator I work with who went to full sail

[Larry L.]

Not my favorite place - the classes are very segmented. I know several folks who did not have a optimal expereince....

Really look at the curriculum...

Thanks.

[pudge532]

thanks for the useful stuff guys, the overall opinion i have been getting is a positive one, and i am planning on visiting the campus in the spring. anyone else that can give me info please feel free

[Rob T Miller]

you can always go to SCAD...(shameless plug)

[pudge532]

how do u like scad, i have been thinking of applying

[hett15]

Just because you seem to be looking at it with the same rose colored glasses I once did I thought i should at least give you another view of the place. Vistit the campus, walk around in awe at the cool hallways and rooms, but then really do your research on the place and compare it to 4 year Traditional/Computer animation school. If you want an eduction the hard way (learning that flashy designs, cool staircases, and a big truck aren't really what you want to be spending your $50K on) by all means go there. Know that once you pay tuition getting it back is a very hard thing to do. I went there (took the tour) thinking it was the greatest place on earth, but then I researched it, compared it, wieghed the quality of education vs. cost and in the end it was not worth it (in my opinion). Some of the other programs there such as sound tech, and film have more merit to them because they are much more technical and equipment based fields which you might get a good education from at a school like this. Animation was just a tacked on curriculum to draw in more money and make the school look better. Of course
"You get out what you put in" is true...but don't be fooled. Do you want to spend $50k teaching yourself animation out of a book or do you want a trained professional to teach you the "art of animation"...

If you do want to pay $50K to learn from a book, pay me and I'll get you some great books from Barnes and Noble.


This is from a post by "exposed1", and I thought it is worth looking at...

"Fullsail does NOT teach the art of animation. They gloss over the principles of animation, and since I completed the program they have added another animation class (totalling 3). Fullsail's methodology of teaching focuses on learning the software (in their case, Maya). It's a button-pressing school.

I go into this phenomenon in my articles. You should seriously consider what I have written before you commit to take the plunge into $50,000 worth of debt. Everything you need to know is there. If you still have questions after that, email me."

http://www.geocities.com/fullsailexposed/

[manji312]

I work right down the road from Full Sail and I've worked with a few graduates. I just didn't feel like they had any knowledge of creating art or design. I'm talking the underlying theories here, color theory, drawing, and design. Some of them didn't even know the software all that well, and I'm talking the basic software like Photoshop. If I had a say in who the company I work for hires, and I do, a Full Sail graduate would be coming in with marks against them. I firmly believe that if you want to be an artist or an animator, put in the four years and learn the basics of drawing and design, it makes a world of difference.

[pudge532]

I am getting totally mixed reviews between this forum and another one i posted on. So what people are saying is Full Sail is expensive, ok I know that, after all i do have a catalog, it doesnt take 4 years to get a degree, ok i know that too. You guys are saying they dont teach you the art of animation, rather they just gloss over it and teach you how to use the interface. So what are the good schools(besides ringling and digipen) because i have heard from pretty reliable sources that full sail is a great program? keep the hits comin'
-PuDGe

[Rob T Miller]

I will be bluntly honest dude....if you want to be a character animator (and this is my opinion) places like full sail and digipen are not the way to go. These are "teach you software" schools that do not go into the traditional skills or foundations that make up the art of animation. Rather they teach you how to set a keyframe and make a character move.

Yes I didnt go there but I looked into it and quickly realized that if I were to suceed as an animator one day I would need a crazy strong foundation under my belt that could only be obtained by getting proper instruction at a four year program to earn a BFA.

If you want some great schools look into SCAD (where I went/go) Ringling, Cal Arts, and Academy Arts. These places understand how important foundations are and boy oh boy...if you have the passion and desire to one day be an animator and you live and breathe it every moment of your life then you owe it to yoruself to develp a proper foundation. You will not learn how to draw at a place like fullsail or digipen...rather you will learn how to use software and get a job fast....if thats possible.

The animation industry is too cut throat man. Wouldnt you want to blow away the competition by proving you can animate in both mediums and draw out your ideas?

[pudge532]

Thanks Rob I can tell you are passionate in what you do, and I will take your advice to heart.

[ScatteredLogical]

That's always the deal. To get a job you'd want, it takes being your best so you can compete with the others who are doing their legitimate best. So every step of the way in your career path, try to make the best decision for yourself. If you choose a 2-yr school that pros frown upon and it is said that their student work isn't exactly admirable, you'd be doing yourself a disservice right from the get. It's a big, important step to already not make the "best" decision about. It's like getting a C+ and trying to be valedictorian. You might get nothing but As from there on out, but somewhere there's someone who got As just like you but also got an A that one time you got a C+. Now who's valedictorian? Of course that's an exaggeration but it's largely the way it works.

[manji312]

Like I said before, I work near Full Sail, and the people I've worked with could barely handle the stuff that was thrown at them, and they took three times as long to get things done. (This is only in my experience, I'm sure there probably are people who are successful coming from there, but I think they'd have to have worked twice as hard.) You really have only a manner of weeks to learn each piece of software, and that is all they teach. None of the people I know who've come out of there can draw or paint. They really have a hard time making believable textures for their 3D models, lighting a scene believably, or composing the shot in an attractive manner. There is more to being an animator or artist than knowing a handful of software programs. I know of several companies in the area that look unfavorably on Full Sail, as a school that doesn't really teach students what they need to know in the industry, EA Sports, located nearby, being one of them. In an industry that is becoming more and more competitive, you really don't want to walk in with a major handicap.

[adblaze]

It looks like someone has brought fullsailsucks.com back

http://www.doesfullsailsuck.com

I found this when doing a google search for the original fullsailsucks.com

By the way, this school is a complete rip-off, unless you are too lazy to read and learn on your own.

[matt2001]

Man, the hell with full sail, ringling, or SCAD! I am going to school at westwood! Videos games a neato!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3505951782174966240&q=westwood&pl=true


Man, that college looks like the SHIT!

[ScatteredLogical]

I can't help but feel like "tighten up the graphics" boy looks familiar...

[Spoooze!]

Just some things to keep in mind and consider with whatever institution you consider. Good luck with the hunt. PM me if you want me to forward some contact info of another animator I work with who went to full sail

I believe the offer traditional animation classes... I know I read that on their site...
I'll look for it!

----

Anyway, it looks pretty good to me and it's VERY close to where I live. Maybe 10 or 15 mins at the most.

I'm considering going there. The work the students produce there looks great.

I'm also considering SCAD.

James :cool:

[tkd_artist89]

I believe the offer traditional animation classes... I know I read that on their site...
I'll look for it!

----

Anyway, it looks pretty good to me and it's VERY close to where I live. Maybe 10 or 15 mins at the most.

I'm considering going there. The work the students produce there looks great.

I'm also considering SCAD.

James :cool:

Hello, I'm new and I'm highly considering Full Sail as my college choice. But someone said something of traditional classes. Here is the course link that lists all the classes for Computer animation.

http://www.fullsail.com/index.cfm/fa/program.ca/computer-animation-courses

Thought maybe it would help some. For the people who are in the industry, could you tell me, once you look at those classes, are these traditional classes that you mentioned?

[Spoooze!]

Hello, I'm new and I'm highly considering Full Sail as my college choice. But someone said something of traditional classes.

That's what I was talking about.
James :cool:

[DSB]

Hello, I'm new and I'm highly considering Full Sail as my college choice. But someone said something of traditional classes. Here is the course link that lists all the classes for Computer animation.

http://www.fullsail.com/index.cfm/fa/program.ca/computer-animation-courses

Thought maybe it would help some. For the people who are in the industry, could you tell me, once you look at those classes, are these traditional classes that you mentioned?
I didn't read through every class description, but from what I saw of the courses listed, it sure looks like the program is oriented more toward a generalist 3D education rather than how to do character animation. There are some "fundamentals" classes in there, but there are also a lot of classes like scripting, scene finishing, etc. The curriculum looks like it gives you a taste of everything, rather than focusing on one aspect of production.

[ScatteredLogical]

That said, with the traditional class, to go from foundations to acting in one course probably isn't the most solid way to absorb real skills, or become any good at them. It's not like there's a school out there that spends a year on each little tiny thing, but from state university to private school I've seen as many as 3 or 4 traditional classes just as a primer before the kids move to 3D.

[DSB]

I've seen as many as 3 or 4 traditional classes just as a primer before the kids move to 3D.
Right you are SL, but I didn't see even that many in the Full Sail listing. To be frank, the course descriptions I read were the ones that looked like they might have a basis in animation fundamentals (not necessarily 2D). The impression I got from the descriptions was that it was more about how to run the app than the technique behind creating a compelling shot. And the traditional class seemed thrown in, in order to be able to say the students get a "grounding" in traditional techniques.

Same caveats as before; didn't read all the course descriptions, etc.