I Need Advice; Post-secondary Related
<div class="IPBDescription">Evaluate this plan.</div> I apologize in advance for this lengthy post, and all lengthy posts that have come and will come from me. But this post in particular is something I would extremely appreciate your words of wisdom in…
This is my last year in school. As I’ve previously stated, I'm interested in becoming a multimedia artist; specifically in drawing concept art, animation, and screenwriting. Naturally, I intended to jump right into taking an animation course at college/technical school the second school finished this year. However, I overlooked one huge factor in taking the step necessary in getting there.
<b>I have no portfolio.</b>
<i>GG…</i>
I'm currently taking Drawing and Painting, Multimedia (Lightwave work; previous year was a bit of Photoshop and Flash), and Electronic Design and Publishing; but a quick glance at the competition out there, and I know I don't stand a chance.
I am now trying to come up with an alternate plan, and am struggling as to how to go about it. Here's my "alternative route" as it currently stands:
1. During this summer, I will most likely sign up for military basic training. The benefits of this serving is minimum wage, (it's supposed to improve as you move along, but I'm not sure by exactly how much), and $2000 tuition annually for up to four years.
2. My school marks are very solid right now; +90% on 6/7 marked courses; (4 are academics, so they’re not ALL electives, <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.natural-selection.org/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->) . While I expect things to become harder this coming term, I still believe they should be able to catch some sort of attention from post secondary institutes when I graduate. Since I can't go into animation right away, I'm planning to focus on the other element that I deem to be just as important: storytelling. However, focusing on this alone can be accomplished in a variety of ways… (can’t decide which one to choose yet):
a. The two courses I’m split between English and Creative Writing, and I realize that it will be best to concentrate my resources on only one. A very simple observation someone brought to my attention is that while the university of my choice does not offer animation, it does offer art and film studies. Philosophy is another contender as well…
b. To be thrifty, I can technically go take English in college for the first two years, and then transfer to university. It’s a money saver, although everyone’s been telling me that money won’t be a problem, (I just want to stay on the safe side though). However, this option can be eliminated if I decide and succeed in taking the English advanced placement exam, which costs $100, (but also a dollar saver if I succeed). However, I still haven’t established whether I want to head into English or not…
What freaks me out the most is that this entire process, (assuming I don’t drop out), will take fours years out of my life. The free time I have during this period I intend to dedicate to my portfolio (and hope to God that I will be disciplined enough to actually work on it this time!)… but man alive will I feel old. It is after these four years that I will finally be heading into animation. So in total, I’d be about 26 when all this period of educating comes to an end… 8 years of learning with no promise of making a living… <b>HOLY CRAP!</b> It’s already a morale basher to see so many younger people out there with far superior skills than I do in art and such.
I’m also wondering whether going to university will really be worth its cost in consideration with how much of a role it will have in my career. I mean, I like learning English and writing, but damn, universities are expensive; I can’t be wasting resources on subjects that won’t help me make a living. By that time, the tuition from the military would also have expired; I might try to find a new part-time job, but with only a degree in English, or whatever degree from the above courses, I don’t see many job prospects available, as my animation skills would only be in the fetus stage. <i>/fervently prays not to ever end up as a starving artist, especially one with not art to exhibit whatsoever, and more especially to not prove my dad right (he’s already given up faith in me I’ll make some sort of living when I grow up; but then again, most parents, especially Asian parents, would rarely be proud of their children aspiring to be mere artists…)</i>
Does anyone feel that this plan is too far-fetched? I’ve been having so many struggles on how to go about this, and every attempt to focus blurs things further. Animation is no doubt a competitive field, and I know I can’t rely simply on skills in drawing and animation; I need hybrid-skills, and I hope my knowledge in English and writing will make up for this; (I have a growing notepad file for a huge story I hope to unleash to you all in the future). I’m also thankfully blessed to be a resident of Vancouver, where there are a lot of animation companies around. I will hopefully be job shadowing one this winter break.
Advice, criticisms; I welcome anything intelligible below!
This is my last year in school. As I’ve previously stated, I'm interested in becoming a multimedia artist; specifically in drawing concept art, animation, and screenwriting. Naturally, I intended to jump right into taking an animation course at college/technical school the second school finished this year. However, I overlooked one huge factor in taking the step necessary in getting there.
<b>I have no portfolio.</b>
<i>GG…</i>
I'm currently taking Drawing and Painting, Multimedia (Lightwave work; previous year was a bit of Photoshop and Flash), and Electronic Design and Publishing; but a quick glance at the competition out there, and I know I don't stand a chance.
I am now trying to come up with an alternate plan, and am struggling as to how to go about it. Here's my "alternative route" as it currently stands:
1. During this summer, I will most likely sign up for military basic training. The benefits of this serving is minimum wage, (it's supposed to improve as you move along, but I'm not sure by exactly how much), and $2000 tuition annually for up to four years.
2. My school marks are very solid right now; +90% on 6/7 marked courses; (4 are academics, so they’re not ALL electives, <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.natural-selection.org/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->) . While I expect things to become harder this coming term, I still believe they should be able to catch some sort of attention from post secondary institutes when I graduate. Since I can't go into animation right away, I'm planning to focus on the other element that I deem to be just as important: storytelling. However, focusing on this alone can be accomplished in a variety of ways… (can’t decide which one to choose yet):
a. The two courses I’m split between English and Creative Writing, and I realize that it will be best to concentrate my resources on only one. A very simple observation someone brought to my attention is that while the university of my choice does not offer animation, it does offer art and film studies. Philosophy is another contender as well…
b. To be thrifty, I can technically go take English in college for the first two years, and then transfer to university. It’s a money saver, although everyone’s been telling me that money won’t be a problem, (I just want to stay on the safe side though). However, this option can be eliminated if I decide and succeed in taking the English advanced placement exam, which costs $100, (but also a dollar saver if I succeed). However, I still haven’t established whether I want to head into English or not…
What freaks me out the most is that this entire process, (assuming I don’t drop out), will take fours years out of my life. The free time I have during this period I intend to dedicate to my portfolio (and hope to God that I will be disciplined enough to actually work on it this time!)… but man alive will I feel old. It is after these four years that I will finally be heading into animation. So in total, I’d be about 26 when all this period of educating comes to an end… 8 years of learning with no promise of making a living… <b>HOLY CRAP!</b> It’s already a morale basher to see so many younger people out there with far superior skills than I do in art and such.
I’m also wondering whether going to university will really be worth its cost in consideration with how much of a role it will have in my career. I mean, I like learning English and writing, but damn, universities are expensive; I can’t be wasting resources on subjects that won’t help me make a living. By that time, the tuition from the military would also have expired; I might try to find a new part-time job, but with only a degree in English, or whatever degree from the above courses, I don’t see many job prospects available, as my animation skills would only be in the fetus stage. <i>/fervently prays not to ever end up as a starving artist, especially one with not art to exhibit whatsoever, and more especially to not prove my dad right (he’s already given up faith in me I’ll make some sort of living when I grow up; but then again, most parents, especially Asian parents, would rarely be proud of their children aspiring to be mere artists…)</i>
Does anyone feel that this plan is too far-fetched? I’ve been having so many struggles on how to go about this, and every attempt to focus blurs things further. Animation is no doubt a competitive field, and I know I can’t rely simply on skills in drawing and animation; I need hybrid-skills, and I hope my knowledge in English and writing will make up for this; (I have a growing notepad file for a huge story I hope to unleash to you all in the future). I’m also thankfully blessed to be a resident of Vancouver, where there are a lot of animation companies around. I will hopefully be job shadowing one this winter break.
Advice, criticisms; I welcome anything intelligible below!
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