MaX courses.

[Ceryni]

Heya all,

Im seriously looking for a course in 3DS MAX and general Autodesk programs. ( mainly max ) Ignoring Prices for now, can ANY of you give me a link or phone number for home courses or courses in london where i can learn MaX and get an official qualification. Like Learn Direct, e.t.c

NEEDS to be based in south UK if it envolves travelling, London and guildford are the furthest i can stretch as i live in kent. i would be VERY thankful for any information any 1 can give as i am thinking of a career in CG

Thanks all

[CU441ES]

look in the articles section, geldslaw wrote and excellent piece about education and gale links to places in the south of England

[Ceryni]

yea checked them out still finding it reall hard . it needs to be a course that can be done from home and at the center. on 3DS preferabbly but any CAD program (Autodesk would be nice) will do. and it needs to be giving me a qualification once ive finished it. oh its too hard to find any.

[Jelmer]

Well.. There are so many options I'm sure, the hardest part isn't finding education, but picking the right option that suits you.

Qualification... to be honest i wouldn't put too much value on that, companies don't select you because you have qualifications but because you're artwork is outstanding and/or special, so in my opinion you shouldn't worry too much about that.

Some well known training studios in the UK:

London:
Escape studios
Royal college of art

Anyway, I have this copy of 3dworld magazine which has a much longer list with details of just about any place in the UK suitable for learning CG, if i were you i would definitely order a copy of that.

[Ceryni]

Oh, Wow Escpae studiops sounds fantastic. the courses for Maya are intense. thankyou Jelmer.£5000 was going to be the cost of a course in Web Design that my parents were paying for me if i wanted it, but ive never been that keen and have asked them to save it til i find a course in CG, so this is a definete possibilty. the Maya specialist course on Games, seems to be a good 1
also so does the foundation course, but im not sure i need to take foundation as it may be just as simple to learn that at home.

[geldslaw]

Here's a link to Vismasters online training,

The VisMasters Online: Creating Architectural Content with 3ds Max 9 training includes 12 hours (4 days) of live online instruction including question and answer sessions with expert instructor Brian Smith from 3DAS.

VisMasters Online: Fundamental?Intermediate 3ds Max 9 for Architectural Visualization
The VisMasters Online: Fundamentals of 3ds Max 9 for Architectural Visualization training includes 12 hours (4 days) of live online instruction including question and answer sessions with expert instructor Brian Smith from 3DAS.

I think you're missing or not asking or telling us the fundamental question. You want training? But what in and why? Where do you want to go? What do you want to do?

As Jelmer said and if you read both my article and the article on Freelancing, qualifications mean 'Jack n Jill', basically nothing. It's like going to drama/dance or mousic school and getting a degree.

You're still not going to be famous or make any money in any of these activities if your work stinks. lol Sorry to be so hardcore but you're making a life long decision. You are not going to get paid for having qualifications, no one gets paid for qualifications.

You get paid on your baility to do the job and nothing else, so let me ask you, what abilities do you want to develop so you can make a living? When you have answered that then make a committment to it and do the donkey otherwise accept that you enjoy it but you need something where you are not taking a risk and you can be paid for turning up and taking up space.

I convinced someone to go to the escape studios/pixar seminar and this is what they told me of their experience. Having only just finished her degree she felt lost and bewildered as to what was next.

Parveen Kaur - Graphics Illustrator -
I found the people to be 'down to earth'; Pixar care about you as an individual. It's not all about the paperwork at the end of the day its about your talent your creativity..."you cant rush art". People get hired because of their demo reel and passion not the paper work.
My impressions.

In regards to their lecture, they were going through the process of the intial idea all the way to the finals, the example they used were cars. Slides were shown of their working environment and how it is located away from 'hollywood and its ethics'. A trailer of ratatouille was shown, which was animated wonderfully esp coz the sound did not work so you got san idea through the expressions of the characters. There were talks about how to create the fur.

Prior to this they had a spokesperson for the new rendering software fpr pixar and also massive,. more to do with vx.

I cant go into details coz I dont know the terms and software 'jargon', but hope to one day!

They all met up in the end at the bar. I had to go home and also meet my cousin for dinner so I had to miss it..plus I dont really drink.

Next time, my questions were all answered, the self-doubt removed...and art has come naturally to me once again..

I hope that helps somewhat?

[Fox]

Ceryni you lucky thing. I don't have parent's to pay for my courses :P

But yeah, Escape Studios is very good. But it comes at a price.
I have not done thier courses due to lack of funding, however they did help me. They have great courses!

I wen't to meetup at Tate Modern, where Joe Letteri held an audience (the graphics supervisor for the Movie King Kong, works at Weta Digital) with Escape Studios. I was lucky enough to tag along and learnt a great deal

[Ceryni]

Thanks geldslaw.

Dont worry i know its hard and yea its a dream, the plan for me in general is to go Web Design, Theres a great company who offer training and if you do the training they guarantee you a pass or all your money back. then they place u in a company at a fair salary as a guarantee too.
I will be going for that and hope i get through the training interview its a very good oppurtunity for me. obv i cant tell how long ill be there but during that time i will do a lot of training / online and proper courses and in my own time on max, im extremly passionate at doing it and would like as a future prospect to create a fantastic showreel and get in with the CG group.

I know how hard it is to do this, but its a dream and i can only try ey

Thanks all will be doing more work in maya too to, will post a more recent model shortly

[geldslaw]

whoah, don't mean to crash and burn your dreams, but back up there. I shouldn't say this but I will. Don't fall for such promises, there are no guarantees in life.

In a sense I can see what you're doing and I totally understand it. Listen if you want something get it from working for it, don't fall for sales talk. There are many organisations offering dreams if you give them your money.

You need to see the parallel between what they offer and what everyone else is doing. Everyone who wants to succeeds, seeks out training, then go for interviews and if they sell themselves well, their services will be oaid for, thus they get the job.

Both approaches are the same, the private organisation trains you and you still have to be interviewed. If your saying you should be GIVEN a job because you've done the training for it, then (you'll not like this bit) yo're being naive?

The only way to guarantee yourself a job is through hardwork, whether through private or public training. There are lots of people out there doing jobs, and guess what? No one cares where they got the training from. It's all about how you as a person interoperate with other people and how you apply the knowledge you have learnt in your training and the continouously self paced training you will have to go through to keep your skills uptodate to maintain your employers option to keep you in that job because YOU HAVE THE ABILITY to do it.

You've a bridge to cross, the same bridge we've all crossed, it crosses over a pit of burning fire which leads to a burning hell of our worst fears and nightmares - am I good enough to get a job -

I think - this is straight talk now- you should stop pussy footing around and going for options which sound like a safe bet and chase your dreams because if you don't you will have found you didn't cross that bridge but took the suicide leap to give up your dreams and live a life of hell because you didn't give your dreams a chance.

Talk t more people about what you want or make an investment in 'Feal the fear and do it anyway' it's a personal development book and you'll find that you'll read it and think they wrote it about you. I know, cos the person who recommended it to me said the same thing and I felt the same thing when I read it as so have many others.

There are millions of people graduating from schools, colleges and universities this year, all them filled with hopes and dreams about getting a job, worried that there are no jobs out there and that they'll never get employed. hahahahahaha I think a lot of people will tell you - we've all been through that - It's only a fear and there are loads of jobs, may be not the ones you want at first, but you have to start somewhere and work towards your dreams because they'll never be handed to you on a plate.

There are no free meals in life - You may have noticed that there are many of us on this site doing the Evermotion architectural visualization competition? I haven't entered because fo my committment to completeing my final project. But back a coupleof months I did do some architectural visualization projects of my own back and guess what? It has paid off unexpectedly.

Although I am on a course doing 3D Modelling & animation, because I did the architectural visualization models of my own back, this has happened Architectural Visualization Placement, a company through sher luck approached the college asking for two students who coudl work on architectural visulization projects over in Dublin. Building models and making small cinematic walkthroughd of potential client building projects.

The course tutor has created this website as a means of demonstrating our work, the company is fully aware we are not trained architectural visualization students in training but our own efforts has peaked their interests enough to warrant a trip to come over and tell us about working for them in Dublin over in Ireland.

Had I not come on a course to do 3D Modelling to visualize my poetry, I would never have found a new love for CG, this site, new friends, new career, an offer to go to university to do a degree in animation, learn to life drawings, 2D traditional animation or have been able to take advantage of this new opportunity.

Had I played it safe and stayed in my apartment bemoaing the fact that I had a heart condition and no job prospects, I would be vegitating as a couch potatoe.

So chase and hunt down that dream and make it your trophy, life is no fun if you play it safe.

sorry for the long speech but I think others would agree with me the decision you're about to make as to which path you take will affect how happy your are in life. Read the interviews with featured CG Artists and you'll find they were all scared but they were more scard of not chasing or living their dreams.

nuff said, peace out

[Ceryni]

.....wow. that was long thanks that was a great speech . 3 cheers

Um, thing is, id be happy doing Web Design too for a bit, i wasnt saying because i did training i will get a job and all that. the company who are offering training are called UK,IT, they offer an interview to see if your suitable for the training, if you pass the interview they train you in 2 courses in web design, from "master certified webmaster" to "microsoft certified web solutions developer" they say they have a 100% track record within the 14 years theyve been around they havnt failed anybody as they have top designers on the training and plenty of help, you do the course in your own time and if you DO happen to fail they guarantee your full money back. Now if you Do get through then they also guarantee you a job with a minimum salary of £20k a year and place you in a company where you'll start your real job. now i see this as a win-win situation, parents have checked out and all and it appears to be totally legit. if this is the case, id say a number of years working in web design would be fanastic as i enjoy this also, but with 20k a year coming in i could also afford to take those courses i wanted in CG and spend the years working as a web designer learning CG in my own time, plus it will give me a number of years work experience within an office environment, working to deadlines and other skills that may be suitable at a later date

I wouldnt wanna go do a course straight out in CG as the chances of passing and with the guarantee of a job are slim, the competition for CG companies is high and i will need a lot more experience to produce an outstanding piece of work to add to my portfolio.

Id say for some 1 whos 18, if i get through the interview stage for web design then 20k a year is a very good salary for some 1 my age, and a good starting point, not to mention i will enjoy my job, for once

Fantastic feed back thanks geldslaw