Posts tagged “university”.
…and going to Teesside
In the past few weeks I’ve literally spent hours researching what uni to go to through reading different articles, blogs, forums and contacting students and tutors from different places. As the title suggests, I’ve made my decision, and I just got an unconditional offer to study Computer Character Animation from Teesside 
I won’t know for sure if what I’ve been told is true until I go to the uni, but here’s why I chose it:
- Well structured course that’s also improving yearly.
- Plenty of the tutors with passion and teaching ability. Some even came directly from CGI studios.
- Great facilities, including quad core computers with 8 gigs ram, a rendering farm and motion capture facilities.
- A larger number of students – a good pool of people to share my passion with :p
- Animex, a great animation festival that many industry people attend, is held in the uni.
I’m leaving Edge Hill
Three weeks ago I decided to leave Edge Hill’s animation course. Among other reasons, it was because I wanted a good focus on character CGI animation. Edge Hill’s programme was too general and with too few tutors to teach it. They taught/encouraged 2D, 3D, stop motion, live action and script writing. This meant that there could be no true structure to the course – We were given assignments and allowed to deal with it however we wanted. The scope for them to teach and assess us became way too big. Edge Hill doesn’t put the funding into the course; our few teachers are given few hours to teach us, and to be honest I don’t think they used that little time wisely (probably due to everyone being at different skill levels). Having talked to 2nd and 3rd year students, I don’t think the situation gets much better.
Unfortunately this is the case across the UK, and only a few universities do provide the right course for you to learn the things that the industry wants out of us.
Having said all that, Edge Hill has given me a nice starting point. The assignments they’ve set me have given me a basis for how long different things will take me and how my current skills stand against everyone else. Also, Edge Hill is good for traditional animation; it’s just that they’re weaker in CGI.
A 6 Word Story
Three weeks straight I worked on this! All hand drawn, frame by frame.
See and read about it here: http://sebcastilho.com/projects/distraught-teenager-bastard-baby-approaching-train/
And so it begins…
Tonight, for better or for worse, I am starting my blog, until death do me part.
I’m going to call it a journal though. I always thought “blog” sounded very strange – It doesn’t really relate to anything in real life.
This journal will follow my progression through university. I’ll talk about the successes and hardships of doing an animation degree. I’ll try to keep this side of the writing quite intellectual; maybe discuss why my method is simply better than everything else. I jest, I jest.
On the other side, I’ll talk about some things more related to my personal life and also throw in a few reviews about new gadgets, movies or anything else.
How does that sound?
