Where did everyone go to school?

[Vincent Veidt]

When it comes to learning to animate, there are various schools each offering something individual. I've seen a lot of my peers attend VFS, SVA, and CalArts just to name a few, but I want to know how the majority trains and learns. To start off the topic, I've been teaching myself since I was fourteen using books, videos, manuals, guides, advice, and mostly just taking classic animated films and breaking them down by frame. How did YOU learn the trade?

[Adam Levine]

I too went to SCAD. Personally, I loved it. I went there for my MFA in animation not for a higher degree but because I didn't feel like I got enough (or much of anything) out of my undergrad. My undergrad was spent at UMBC and I didn't want to finish my education knowing I didn't even come close to learning what I wanted to. Much like any school though, you get out what you put in...

[Patrick Mallek]

All I know is that one day I was walking along, minding my own business, and then the next thing I know I wake up in the Mojave desert with cotton mouth and 300 pages worth of walk loops stapled to my T-shirt. I stumbled blindly to the nearest town with running water and the rest is history...

[Clinton Racine]

I went to the art institute in fort lauderdale (blah). But I learned animation with the preston blair book, illusion of life, and the animator's survival kit. I've mostly taught myself in all this and sought help on the internet in social networks like this one.

[Joanie Michelle Rich]

I love Preston Blair's book - his page on hands is so helpful. :)

[Clinton Racine]

That book gave me that "Eureka!" moment I needed to understand animation. I would recommend that book to anyone interested in animation.

[Vince Mascoli]

I'm currently at the University of the Arts in Philly. There's kinks in the program, but overall i love this place, just based on the animators i love here. we're definitely skewed more towards the independent animator rather than working in the industry. which is what i want to do anyways.

[Tim Farrell]

I went to SCAD for grad school and "learned" animation. My animation undergrad at University of Maryland, Baltimore County wasn't too helpful, but looking back I actually learned several personal and software skills there that gave me an advantage later.

I liked SCAD. I just wish I didn't have to pay back the loans. I was just a grad student. I can't imagine paying back 4~ years of undergrad loans from them at an animators on-again/off-again salary.

[Temris]

Before I went to animation school I used books from the library, "behind the making of" features on DVD's, teachers at college who also liked animation (but no classes were available...), etc. etc. After college, I finnally went to VFS, which I graduated from last august. The best thing about their classical program is that you really feel like you're in a studio since you're in the same classroom with the same peeps all year. And making your own classical film from start to finish, the big goal of the whole program, is an amazing process. There's also some great teachers there who really listen and are available for you. There's lots of drama and a lot of late nights and sometimes even sleepless nights, but the experience overall is damn cool. The program does feel really rushed, but that's the cost of being in school for just one year instead of 4. I dont think I would prefer having gone somewhere else except maybe Calarts, but that's a bit beyond me.

Oh, and Preston Blair's book was provided in the program and was very useful. I wish I had it before I'd started school!

[TempleDog]

Algonquin college, class o' '95. Learned everything else (flash, photoshop, illustrator, 3d max) on-the-job.

[Eric]

I have already given this information on another thread about 2D schools but thought I should place it in this discussion as well.

There is a school in Paris, France called Gobelins, l'école de l'image (full disclosure : I work there) that has a well-known animation department with a three year course that is strongly based on drawing and 2D animation skills before approaching 3D animation at the end of the second year. The focus here is on the performance art of animation, not on the specific 2D or 3D tool, although both are learned and used in the school films (see examples in the gallery at www.gobelins.fr). The problem for many people, of course - aside from the diffculty of passing the entrance exam which attracts more than 500 applicants - is that the courses are in French. However Gobelins does offer a two week summer school course in English offering master classes in 2D and 3D animation with workshops for experienced animators from other schools or studios. You can get details at www.gobelins.fr/summerschool-animation.

[TempleDog]

Like we don't know Gobelins! Cocotte Minute, Fertilizer Soup, Le Building...your grads produce some truly worthy stuff. Just keep submitting that goodness to the Channel Frederator podcast!

[Temris]

My thoughts exactly! I think anyone who's gone to animation school knows about Gobelins. And it's got such a cool name...

...I wish I could speak french. *sigh*