Man I gotta say, you're being a bit harsh here. For a start, all those animations are done by groups of people, we do ours solo. Of course they are gonna look shit in comparison.
Second; that is the best animation college in the country, and one of the best in the world I imagine (as I am too lazy to go look it up). They only get the best of the best because even though thousands and thousands of wannabe animators from EVERYWHERE apply there, only a few get in. So they get the BEST new artists. We get the best of the ones that apply to RMIT that can't afford to go to these places. I don't know if you've noticed, but there are a lot of people in our course who CAN'T draw for shit. Most have the creativity, and some have serious skill in other fields. But a fair few don't have the basics down pat. Which is why they don't lob us into groups; bring down the team, you know?

Now I'm loosing my train of thought; but back to RMIT. If we don't get the good artists to begin with, they can't make us into good animators. You can't teach art skill; it doesn't happen. There are going to be good animators coming out of the course, because they have the skill to pull it off. We can't blame them because our animations don't look pretty because say we didn't take a bit of time to figure out how to draw perspective properly etc.

There is a lot lacking in the course. A hell of a lot. But RMIT won't give us the resources to do anything about it and neither will the government because film and tv means shit to Australian economics.
the course itself - I could do without this design shit. If I wanted to design stuff I would have done a graphics course. But everything else that I've chosen to do right now WILL help with my future career, but you only get out what you put in.
I know I've got a hell of a better chance to get into an animation career because of what I've learned already than if I hadn't done this course.

Right. I'm going to go back to wasting time now
(if all that made no sense its because I'm not going back to read though it )

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There's only us, There's only this, Forget regret, Or life is yours to miss, No other road, No other way, No day but today.

I wouldn't let that get to me If I was you. You said you want to be an awesome animator so just look at it as a goal. Plus some of the animation in the show reel was pretty simple looking.

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Hey, you know what. I absolutely agree with you! You can't imagine how much we think alike. I have been having the same bloody feeling ever since I've started this TAFE course (Dip. of Mulitmeida (Visual Arts) at Swinburne). I've had no one to talk to it about :/

Foundation, god damn it!! No one understands how important it is. I want to do digital illustration right, I need to learn things like anatomy, colour, form, composition, pose, etc. Aall they show us is crap! Nothing at all, nothing that will help me do what I want in the future. What do they teach us? "Contemporary art". What on earth is this contemporary art thing anyway? Geeeez. Do you guys have things like that at RMIT? Like "art outside the gallery" yada yada...

Someone saying "Wow, that's awesome!"? Oh my god, you are reading my mind!
Do you know how I started out wanting to become a digital illustrator? I saw someone's painting on deviantART, and I said "Oh my god, that looks amazing!!! I want to be able to do that!". Yep, believe it or not that's how it started for me. And I'm determined to get there.

Right now, the things I draw and paint on Photoshop at uni, I get really good compliments, people saying wow, awesome, etc. But they're all crap compared to what other people are doing. I want to be able to do it to!!!

You shouldn't feel guilty for wanting the best, because that's the only way you're going to get to the top. And let's face it, we know these institutions won't help us, I gave up on Swinburne ages ago, I'm not sure what RMIT is like.

What we have to do is use the tools and resources provided at uni to develop ourselves and reach our goals ourselves. When they give you a project bend the rules a bit and just make something that you think will develop your skills and help you in the future. Be your own teacher.

And I would really like to meet Simon.

Oh, and Sheridan College is university known worldwide. Yanick Dusseault (aka Dusso: [link]) is also a graduate of Sheridan, he did Illustration there, and you know what titles he's worked on? Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Terminator 3, Pirates of the Caribbean, War of the Worlds to name a few.
Too bad there aren't any big names from RMIT or Swinburne, but why not in the future? You? Me?

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#DigitalMedia - #GameArt}

See, as I said I'm saying what I think which doesn't happen much because I'm one of those conforming types. I don't think what I am saying though is harsh it quite simply fact. Our course is really just a bastardized combination of all different courses. Even one of our own lecturers stated that. What I am saying is that they really don't seem to give a damn about animation as a subject. What they are more worried about is critiquing and analysing as a piece of artwork. If I wanted to do that I would have chosen to study a Bachelor in Vis Arts.

Instead of of focusing on most elements of creating animation they've chosen to focus on concept and story. Meanwhile someone like Simon is left to cram every theory and technique into a measly 3 hour class per week that only really starts in second year. I honestly think that as long as someone's final project had a good concept yet looked like it was animated by a 2 year old they would think it was worthy of the third year show-reel. I'm sorry, for me that doesn't cut it.

I understand what you are saying about letting the best of whoever applies to RMIT in but I don't believe that is true. Just look at the International student to resident student ratio. They pay to get into the course. But this is off topic. I'm not saying I haven't learnt anything, I have. I've learnt a heap that I wouldn't have learnt elsewhere and I'm grateful for that but I'm not paying for this course to get the basics. I can get those off the Internet. I'm studying to become a professional animator and our course shouldn't be altered simply because some are crap at doing it.

I definitely think that there will be some awesome animators that come out of RMIT but I can't help but feel jibbed when we're not even provided proper animation facilities like other Australian universities such as Griffith.

In regard to Sheridan college group assignments, I do think that would have been something really good to do. I feel RMIT are a little focussed on people creating independent work, which is all well and good but there is a lot of work out there where you would have to work in groups in animating something, in which we have no experience. You're exactly right about others bringing others down but those people shouldn't be there to start off with.

As I said, I find it really confusing because I do really like the course and I enjoy what we are doing but I don't feel its enough. Experience makes a good animation and I want more to do with it. I think maybe if we had actually started doing something in first year, I would feel a lot less frustrated by everything.

Blah. I'm a mess of contradictory feelings

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Yeah it really shouldn't get to me like that but if you had of seen our last year's final year student projects compared to that reel you would understand the need for having something to aspire to in this course

Thanks for the encouragement though

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Also, why are you home on a Saturday night? Hmmm...

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I'm always at home on Saturday nights; we go out other nights of the week Saturdays are soooo lame! (also I went on a 10 hour pub crawl on thursday so I'm not quite up to going out yet)

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There's only us, There's only this, Forget regret, Or life is yours to miss, No other road, No other way, No day but today.

Hrm I'm sleepy and fuddled from no food, so I'll try to make sense briefly.

This, and no other animation course will magically make any beginning artist a brilliant artist or a great animator. It's all about skill, practice, and effort.
The fact that, as you mentioned, our course is focusing on concept and story, is a good one. We can be taught that, and then apply our own practiced skill as artists to make good things with what we are taught about the very basis of film making. We can also apply that to all other fields of film and TV; at this point in time I'd like to branch off into editing instead, and Video is teaching me that.

I'm quite sure that the people who are head animators, directors, and artists for Disney, Warner bros., Pixar, and all other fantastic animation studios did NOT take an animation courses, because 20 years ago there practically weren't any. They still seem to be doing bloody good for themselves.

Right. I want noodles.

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There's only us, There's only this, Forget regret, Or life is yours to miss, No other road, No other way, No day but today.

I think you should write your thoughts in a letter to the head of the course. Who that is, I have no idea.
I'm writing one myself at the moment... although it's all in my head and not on paper yet....

What I find crazy is that the way the Austtralian uni system is set out, you go into a degree straight from school, with no chance to start specialising beforehand. In England for you to be accepted into an arts degree, you have to do an art foundation course - which is exactly that - design basics, colour theory, anatomy and all that. Doing that course (which costs like $600 for the year!) means that when uni comes around, people have the basics down pat and they don't have to spend their first year of uni designing brochures.
I'm really not sure if it's an Australia-wide problem of the first year of any course being utterly basic in every respect, or whether it's specific to RMIT.
Either way, I wish I'd known before I applied.

I would absolutely love to have done some kind of collaboration and group animating, but because the course is so huge and the talent is so diluted, I know I would get frustrated with other peoples lack of effort/talent/whatever.

That course has so many problems, the work we saw at the degree show was just horrific. I think that worried a lot of us. And for RMIT to not realise what the staff and the students are saying about the course is so blind and ignorant.

In the end, this all revolves around how much money the university makes, and they do that by putting as many people on the course as they are legally allowed to do. Writing a letter won't change that, but at least I hope that I can get through to somebody who has some kind of influence over what is taught there, or just warn some poor kid who is thinking of going into that course and coming out satisfied.

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