zs★ says:
Hey
hilscreate says:
sup
zs★ says:
I ask you ah
Are employers very discerning about like
hiring people who have proper training
like people who have proper design and art training
as compared to software monkeys who can churn stuff out?
I`m thinking, would a company pay, say 2.5k or 3k to hire a uni grad in animation[like me, if I graduate], compared to a software monkey who learned how to animate
and can do all sorts of tricks, and is only asking like 2k?
hilscreate says:
u say leh ?
hilscreate.blogspot.com
March 4, 2011
Dealing with failure.
I was going to write about this but i recalled an awesome post written by another local 3D artist know as "The Hand" a few years back that was working as a part time lecturer as well.
And I could not write it better then him so I would refer you to his post HERE.
Some excerpts
"And then there are the unlucky few who struggles for everything- people with so little innate talent that everything seems like a herculean task to them. Simple concepts which most students can grasp quite easily are usually next to incomprehensible to them. Its not that they are not trying hard enough, but sometimes even the best efforts may result in nothing. I can understand exactly how they feel."
"I suppose it might be a good thing for me to simply advise them to drop out- after all the fees are really expensive and the their chances never did look good. Some had hardly picked up a pencil to draw since they were a toddler.
But I don’t. I never did and I never will- because sometimes you just never know. Some may be late bloomers who just need a little more time. I guess it might be a fool’s dream, but I think everyone deserves a chance, even a fool’s chance.
So I just teach them like I would any student. By advising them to drop out would have been the equivalent of me quitting on them. How could I, if I taught them not to quit on themselves. The only thing I will do is to warn them of the consequences of not working hard and and not putting their heart and soul into what they do. I don’t believe being a CG artist is something that one could do if his heart is not into it. I don’t sugarcoat things for my students but neither do I want to crush their dreams. The only thing I can do is to like them know the truth. Its a hard industry to be in, but the payoff is you get to do something which you have always dreamed about."
And I could not write it better then him so I would refer you to his post HERE.
Some excerpts
"And then there are the unlucky few who struggles for everything- people with so little innate talent that everything seems like a herculean task to them. Simple concepts which most students can grasp quite easily are usually next to incomprehensible to them. Its not that they are not trying hard enough, but sometimes even the best efforts may result in nothing. I can understand exactly how they feel."
"I suppose it might be a good thing for me to simply advise them to drop out- after all the fees are really expensive and the their chances never did look good. Some had hardly picked up a pencil to draw since they were a toddler.
But I don’t. I never did and I never will- because sometimes you just never know. Some may be late bloomers who just need a little more time. I guess it might be a fool’s dream, but I think everyone deserves a chance, even a fool’s chance.
So I just teach them like I would any student. By advising them to drop out would have been the equivalent of me quitting on them. How could I, if I taught them not to quit on themselves. The only thing I will do is to warn them of the consequences of not working hard and and not putting their heart and soul into what they do. I don’t believe being a CG artist is something that one could do if his heart is not into it. I don’t sugarcoat things for my students but neither do I want to crush their dreams. The only thing I can do is to like them know the truth. Its a hard industry to be in, but the payoff is you get to do something which you have always dreamed about."
February 28, 2011
Character Design Links over at Parka Blog.
Over at Parka Blogs, he have a whole list of art blogs on the internet that he compiled. Very useful links for character design references and inspirations for doodling your own stuff.
http://parkablogs.com/content/art-blogs-of-note-2011
Also more importantly, he reviews art books! Lots of them. And most of the ones you want, I bet he have already reviewed!
Also is this really useful one for more character design. If you have any more links, pls post them below. Thanks.
http://characterdesign.blogspot.com/
http://parkablogs.com/content/art-blogs-of-note-2011
Also more importantly, he reviews art books! Lots of them. And most of the ones you want, I bet he have already reviewed!
Also is this really useful one for more character design. If you have any more links, pls post them below. Thanks.
http://characterdesign.blogspot.com/
February 27, 2011
Student's attitude part 1
A student really tested my patience last weekend with a really shitty attitude. Whinging why does she have to come in to school on a Saturday to attend a animation masterclass and why must she have so much work to do.
My 1st reaction was "How ungrateful is that? We arranged for a senior animator from a huge
animation studio to come in and give a master class in animation. Do you know how impossible it was during my time for that to happen?"
She sulked through the whole masterclass falling asleep dozen of time before taking her bag and walked off deliberating showing us that she is going off. She is not the only one, some other students sneaked off or didn't even bother showing up. I even have students not showing up the while semester and not even producing any work at all. I even caught them torrenting on school comps.
I love students like this. I really do.
My 1st reaction was "How ungrateful is that? We arranged for a senior animator from a huge
animation studio to come in and give a master class in animation. Do you know how impossible it was during my time for that to happen?"
She sulked through the whole masterclass falling asleep dozen of time before taking her bag and walked off deliberating showing us that she is going off. She is not the only one, some other students sneaked off or didn't even bother showing up. I even have students not showing up the while semester and not even producing any work at all. I even caught them torrenting on school comps.
I love students like this. I really do.
Choosing a local animation school and the problems. part 1
DISCLAIMER (not the movie) : Most of these thoughts are gathered from my personal working/teaching experiences as well as talking to students, ex students, friends who run studios as well as friends who work in small and big studios as well as friends who have lectured. It is not based on published facts or figures. All comments are my own. No names of schools or companies are mentioned because I do not want a lawsuit and frankly I cannot be arsed to be sued.
How to choose an animation school if you are interested in going for animation? (Can I convince you to pick up accounting/banking/law/property development instead?)
How to choose an animation school if you are interested in going for animation? (Can I convince you to pick up accounting/banking/law/property development instead?)
February 24, 2011
Thoughts on the local animation industry in Singapore - Short courses
Previously on this post, I talked about the problems with the education model for animation in Singapore.
"The most critical flaw with the current model of having specialised courses just so that the students can get into Lucasfilm, D Neg is heavily flawed. Because all you are churning out students who are one trick pony following tutorials and step by step in doing a prescribed way of working. They are severely limited by the skillsets that they have. "
I want to add that the problems actually go down deeper.
vished posted a link from the online citizen website last year.
The part that stood out was "An individual whom I know on a professional basis recently graduated from a private animation school in Singapore under a government-funded diploma program. He was scathing of the standard of teaching (by a former graduate of the same course). It’s easy for me to criticize competitors but a specific claim this school makes is its faculties are current industry professionals. Clearly this is not the case but who’s going to complain?
The person I know said everyone passed their course and received a diploma when some clearly deserved not to. One of the reasons I believe what I have heard from this individual is because I know how the scheme providing the grants works. If the student doesn’t pass the course, the school doesn’t receive their fees from the government. If that happens, it’s bad for business."
Incidentally, this was a post written by the boss of another animated school in Singapore who also happens to run their own production studio. (loads of animation schools in Singapore eh?)
"The most critical flaw with the current model of having specialised courses just so that the students can get into Lucasfilm, D Neg is heavily flawed. Because all you are churning out students who are one trick pony following tutorials and step by step in doing a prescribed way of working. They are severely limited by the skillsets that they have. "
I want to add that the problems actually go down deeper.
vished posted a link from the online citizen website last year.
The part that stood out was "An individual whom I know on a professional basis recently graduated from a private animation school in Singapore under a government-funded diploma program. He was scathing of the standard of teaching (by a former graduate of the same course). It’s easy for me to criticize competitors but a specific claim this school makes is its faculties are current industry professionals. Clearly this is not the case but who’s going to complain?
The person I know said everyone passed their course and received a diploma when some clearly deserved not to. One of the reasons I believe what I have heard from this individual is because I know how the scheme providing the grants works. If the student doesn’t pass the course, the school doesn’t receive their fees from the government. If that happens, it’s bad for business."
Incidentally, this was a post written by the boss of another animated school in Singapore who also happens to run their own production studio. (loads of animation schools in Singapore eh?)
February 21, 2011
Cost of living and salary in Animation in Singapore.
DISCLAIMER : Most of these notes are gathered from my personal experiences as well as observation and talking to students, ex students and friends. It is not based on published facts or figures. All comments are my own rough gauge. I will not be responsible for you do not land a job here or you end up giving up a comfy job overseas because overquote or underquote a starting pay because of what I posted here.
In recent months I saw a rise in the number of people from Malaysia, Indonesia and the States on the blog looking at this post.
I bet this is a interesting topic for some people who are thinking of working in Singapore. Especially students from nearby countries who want to consider working in Singapore after graduation.
Also I have talked to some guys who came over from the States and also UK to work locally. And the most shocking aspect of it was how expensive it was to live in Singapore compared to the States or UK.
In recent months I saw a rise in the number of people from Malaysia, Indonesia and the States on the blog looking at this post.
I bet this is a interesting topic for some people who are thinking of working in Singapore. Especially students from nearby countries who want to consider working in Singapore after graduation.
Also I have talked to some guys who came over from the States and also UK to work locally. And the most shocking aspect of it was how expensive it was to live in Singapore compared to the States or UK.
February 17, 2011
Children transform relative to their parents in Maya.
Simple but Awesome revelation from Malcom Gustave from www.ikfk.com who gave a masterclass in rigging.
It completely makes me see things in Maya so much simpler and helps understand offset groups and zeroing out groups so much easier to explain.
When an object in Maya is created, you can consider it to be parented to the world because it is taking its transformation relative to world coordinates 0,0,0.
So when a child is parented, its transformation values will be then relative to the parent and no longer the world.
THIS is the key to offset or zeroed out groups.
sweet.
It completely makes me see things in Maya so much simpler and helps understand offset groups and zeroing out groups so much easier to explain.
When an object in Maya is created, you can consider it to be parented to the world because it is taking its transformation relative to world coordinates 0,0,0.
So when a child is parented, its transformation values will be then relative to the parent and no longer the world.
THIS is the key to offset or zeroed out groups.
sweet.
February 16, 2011
Parent vs Constraint Differences in Maya
From CG talk.
http://forums.cgsociety.org/archive/index.php/t-739070.html
parent object
An object or other item that controls the attributes of one or more child objects. A parent can also be the child of another parent.
parent constraint
A constraint relating the position (translation and rotation) of one object to another object, so that they behave as if part of a parent-child relationship.
The parent constraint allows you to keep elements within their own hierarchy and not have them contained within a larger and hard to understand hierarchy.
http://forums.cgsociety.org/archive/index.php/t-739070.html
parent object
An object or other item that controls the attributes of one or more child objects. A parent can also be the child of another parent.
parent constraint
A constraint relating the position (translation and rotation) of one object to another object, so that they behave as if part of a parent-child relationship.
The parent constraint allows you to keep elements within their own hierarchy and not have them contained within a larger and hard to understand hierarchy.
January 18, 2011
Closure.. for now.
Its been a while since the last flurry of posts. A lot of contemplating the last few weeks and taking a short break while adding the finishing touches to the animation short.
Honestly it was getting a bit depressing writing those posts and listening to replies and comments. I got suck a little into feeling aggrieved with the situation.My primary motivation to write was a selfish one. Initially it was an outlet for venting my frustrations as well as putting down my thoughts so that I can hope to find a answer to various questions. And that I can appease some guilt I have when some talented and hardworking graduates are having difficulty finding stable jobs while more schools are churning out graduates by the bucket load seemingly caring only about how much cash they can get from the students and government.
Initially I thought this was my way to help potential students understand what the industry is like. To examine themselves to see if they are good enough or have the initial ability to be polished or taught to be able to compete for a job.
If I was a supervisor reviewing reels of potential people to hire, I have to make an informed choice of who who be a good fit of the department and will work within the confine of the system. And everyone else essientially was " not good enough or too expensive or pain in the butt to work with, better luck next time".
I thought my responsibility as a educator was to train they to be at a level to be able to get that job. Or that 1st step in the industry. And not be the ones not selected.
And also questioning if I can continue my path into education and away from production work with a clear conscience.
It took an extremely enlightening talk by my ex-lecturer/now-boss to make me realise how arrogant it was of me to feel that way and how narrow my vision is. It is not just constrained or restrained to animation/vfx. I have become so small and less confidence at at the future of the industry in my own eyes that I could not move away from this and become angry or frustrated at the situation. Saying stuff like if you are not good or talented enough do not bother with animation. What does to all do?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)