Need advice from the experienced users

Hi guys,

I almost finished my degree on Multimedia Engineering, i just need to complete my final project (which is a 3D animation). On this degree we studied a lot of web development and we barely touch 3D (I had to study it by myself). Something like 95% programming ( C# & C++ & Java basics // web // videogames) & 5% 3D Design.

After those 4 years of programming i discovered that i really enjoy the 3D design and i want to be good at this and try to get a job as a 3D designer.

The thing is, I saw a Master Degree on 3D Modeling, Character Animation & VFX on my county (Spain), but it costs something like 6000€, which i think is a huge price.

On their web says (Translated by myself, so maybe something its wrong):

            <b>GENERAL 3D MODULE:  MODELING ,SHADING, LIGHTING & 3D ANIMATION. 
  1. 2D Animation basics.
  2. Maya Interface
  3. Basic Modeling
  4. NURBS, subdivision & poligons differences.
  5. Construction history.
  6. NURBS Curves.
  7. Sufaces from curves.
  8. Edit Surface.
  9. Poligons components.
  10. Working with polygons ( Modeling & selection tools).
  11. Materials
  12. IPR.
  13. Shaders & materials on MAYA.
  14. Textures 3D & 2D.
  15. Materials uses.
  16. Differences between Maya & Mental ray materials.
  17. Hypershade introduction.
  18. Organic modeling.
  19. Organic modeling basics
  20. Textures
  21. Texturing Introduction.
  22. Rigging + skinning
    23 Understanding the Skeletron.
    24 Generate & modify bones hierarchy.
    25 Splines uses.
    26 IK & FK differences.
  23. Animation basics
  24. Animation interface, Channel Box, TimeSlider, Graph Editor.
  25. 3D Animation Theory.
  26. 12 principles of the animation.
  27. Body dynamics
  28. Ilumination + Render
  29. Render types on MAYA.
  30. Lights types.
  31. Shadows types.
  32. Mental ray & Maya software.

TECHNICAL DIRECTION & VFX MODULE

Particles

  • Collision
  • Fields
  • Forces
  • Containers
  • Goals

Fluids

  • Collisions
  • Fields
  • Forces
  • Containers
  • Smoke

Maya rigid bodies

  • Active
  • Passive
  • Springs
  • Dynamics Relationship
  • 2D / 3D fractal system

Advandced Rigging/Particles

  • (Inverse Kinematics)
  • Interactive/Smooth Binding Introduction
  • Paint Skin Weights Tool & Component Editor Uses
  • Maya Muscle
  • Muscle deformer
  • Convert Maya skin to Maya Muscle
  • Advanced Maya Fluid Effects
  • Maya Cloth
  • Maya Fur
  • Maya Hair
  • nCloth y Nucleus Solver

Workflow

  • Pipeline
  • Ilumination
  • RGB Channels
  • Alpha Channel
  • Zdepth Channels
  • Renders
  • Compositing introduction

3D Layout

  • Texturing
  • Compositing
  • Vray Render
  • Shading
  • Stereo Setup
  • 3D Poryection

Technical Direction

  • Final asignation
  • RealFlow
  • Taller TD/FX
  • Autodesk Match Mover.
  • Autodesk Composite.

Output

  • Final exercise & Presentation

Do you guys think is worth to pay 6000€ for that?

Should i look for other courses (thearchitectureacademy from BlenderGuru for example) or learn Blender by myself?

I started Blender like 7 months ago and learned by myself, but lately i feel like im not improving.

Here’s an example of what im capable to do right now, WIP (That took me around 10 hours, it’s part of my final project):


Should i focus on web development and keep Blender and 3D as a hobby? :frowning:

Thank you.

A degree on 3D is worthless,
People who hire 3D artists/designers never actually care about your degree,

Same is true for any other art job,
It’s just the portfolio that matters,

That’s why I think going for the 6000 $ course is pointless
You can learn everything online if you are dedicated.

and
Should i focus on web development and keep Blender and 3D as a hobby?
Erm… that’s a question only you can answer,
But I will leave you with this

Which one do you enjoy more?

I know the degree is worthless, same works for web development. The most important thing is a portfolio showing your skills.

But I want a course or something that guides me on the important things to know.
I mean, i want to learn everything i need to know to be good at 3d design,
I don’t care if its a degree, a tutorial, a forum or a guy speeking, i just want to learn.

I know i should always do whatever i enjoy with but its hard for me to judge.

On one hand i like 3D a lot, but i dont have experience and im getting frustrated because i dont see good results and i dont know how to solve things.
On the other hand im really talented for programming, but i dont really enjoy it.

I think i would preffer 3D if i knew more about it, that’s why im searching for knowledge.

Well, I wouldn’t be so sure. It can be a good thing to get proper education about some things like animation. Of course you can in theory learn everything by yourself, but… However, 6000$ is quite lot of money, but in my country basic level education is free (or at least something like it) so it may just seem like a big amount of money.

For example, ILM, for some position, ask for a degree.

You don’t need a master’s degree to get a job in 3D Animation/FX (in fact no degree is required at all, only that you are good and can prove it with a solid demo reel.) These schools are for profit business’s that do not care if most of their students don’t end up with a good and stable long term career after graduating (and many if not all of these schools make highly exaggerated claims about alumni job placement statistics and over-estimated endorsements of their staff who they will claim are “working professionals” or “industry veterans”).

The 3D industry is hyper competitive, it doesn’t pay well and it has horrible job security and hours. Most of what you will see posted about high salaries in this industry are outright lies or they are completely disregarding 60+ hour work weeks and sub-par or non-existing benefits.

Blender, while it is very capable and will continue to grow (and I highly recommend it for you), is not currently recognized as a viable tool in the existing commercial industry. So if you insist on this path (which I strongly recommend against) know that you will need to focus on Maya which is a pretty horrible application when you don’t have a Pixar like budget to pay programmers and TD’s to completely customize it over the coarse of two decades to the point where it is unrecognizable to an off the shelf installation.

Don’t be discouraged about doing 3D/Art (go learn it and love it), but if you have 95% education in programming you already have a way better career path than anyone just starting out in 3D and Design. I’m sure it’s still tough in programming, but if you think that’s bad, wait another few years after you graduate with a 3D master’s, are completely in debt, and more of 3D gets automated with motion capture/3D scanning and all the potential jobs remaining are basically exported to the lowest bidder. So while I strongly recommend that you learn and love 3D and I MORE strongly recommend that you avoid at all costs, any idea of doing 3D as a professional career.

My final advice (and I hope it isn’t falling on deaf ears) is to go full force with your C++ skills, refine them, and get an entry level career as a programmer and tough it out (programming work is needed in almost every field of work you can think of, farming, politics, gaming, sports, web, mobile, wall street, engineering, etc. etc.). And in your free time, learn Blender and Unreal Engine 4 together combining your passion for design with your growing programming knowledge to make some cool video games and realtime/VR films. You can learn all of this without school and if you are good at it and passionate, you might just create the next blockbuster product out of your living room. But if that high goal doesn’t pan out as quickly as you might hope, at least you will have a nice career in programming to keep you going while you try again.

Good luck.

I’m glad I’m not the only one with this opinion

but I will reply to one of your points
Blender is now accepted as a genuine professional 3D Application

More and more studios are using blender by the day

only way to learn is to practice a lot !
but you can always ask questions in forums

learning curve is not easy and takes a lot of time and practice !
so many subjects and depends what you want to do

good luck
happy bl

Initialy that was my plan.

Keep going on programming and use Blender on my free time, since (according to my mates) i’m really talented on web development.

I think i will enjoy 3D if i work on my own ideas and not on the ideas that im forced to do on a job. The problem is the lack of knowledge right now. I learned by whatching a few youtube videos (BlenderGuru)

Anyways if i dont get a job i can try luck making a game for mobile.
I already know coding and i could make the graphics with Blender :smiley:

I’ll keep thinking about it, but one thing it’s sure… I’ll keep using Blender.

Thanks to everyone, i appreciate your comments.

Personally i think its worthless if you value money. Since at job interview for 3D deisgn they will ask for 1. Previous experience. And 2. Your portfolio of 3D work/demos. Only if you’re wanting to design things like jet engines, nuclear power plants, bridges etc will they ask for a degree.
If you have money to burn get the degree, because when they choose who gets the job, the one with the portfolio and degree, will get the job! rather than the one with just the portfolio.

What you do have right now, in your translated Master’s Degree curriculum, is a pretty decent road map for learning Blender, if you ignore the parts about NURBS and read “Blender” where ever it says “Maya”.

I’d recommend continue taking courses on-line from Blender Guru and from CG Cookie. In addition, read BlenderArt Magazine. You can waste a lot of time doing tutorials at random. Both Blender Guru and CG Cookie have well thought out progressive tutorial offerings.

Finish your current degree, Now I won’t say a degree is worthless. It is a paper that says you invested X effort to get X degree. And a degree means you were introduced to X concepts in the effort to get it (Although to be fair I know a few engineers who are not worth the paper their degree is printed on, Although most of them work in aviation now.). And those programming chops you have will port to very many career paths.

As for the majority of the points you have listed, You can go to youtube directly and wiki and farm out educational material for a year. You already have one degree that will port nicely to many fields. And it is not uncommon for people to get a degree in one thing and work in a field that only tangentially uses their degree. ((Actually one of the best electronics technicians I knew has a degree in chemistry, Figure that one out)) Its not to say they wasted their time. It takes dedication to get a degree, Not everyone can show up everyday and do enough to get by. While they put up with whatever drama the system sends their way.
And I do not say that with sarcasm. Many people simply lack that ability. And often you will find them drifting though life going to one job after another as they always dream and say that the next job is going to be wonderful and vilify their current job.

Not particularly commenting on the value of having a masters or any degree in 3D being helpful in getting a job (everything I’ve ever heard says it’s not), but if I had the same opportunity that you have I would seriously consider it for similar reasons as you (guidance, structure, feedback). From where I stand (USA, where education can be seriously expensive), good lord, that looks like a very affordable degree to me. It’s currently equivalent to US$6500.

Over here, your basic Master of Arts degree at a run of the mill state university will cost you at least $10,000 or more. A private one would cost you generally at least $30,000 or more. For example, Gnomon’s longer program (which I imagine is equivalent to a Master’s, but it doesn’t give an official degree) is something like $45,000. Animation Mentor (shorter, online, more specialized) is like $15,000. If you want to get fancy and get an MFA (Master of Fine Arts) degree from a top university you are sometimes looking at anywhere from $100,000 to over $200,000. I know, it’s outrageous and mind-boggling. So just consider that for perspective. Also remember that (from what I understand) sometimes a masters degree makes it easier for you to get a visa in another country.

By the way, I would love to know more details about the school and the program. Do they by any chance offer it online and/or in English? I would love to find something like this that would be accessible to me.

Oh, and one more thing - yes, the majority of jobs are still in Maya, then probably 3DS Max, then probably a toss up between Houdini, C4D, Modo, Lightwave, and perhaps Blender, but very few jobs for all these anyway. Blender jobs I would imagine are probably still at the end of the list in number of jobs.

In my mind, a 3D degree is just a vastly overpriced piece of paper that confirms the acquisition of knowledge that you can now get online or from books at a much lower price.

There are many experienced artists here who have never taken an involved university course on 3D design and animation for instance. Though the reality is that a lot of companies are still looking for that overpriced piece of paper.

learning is free in the support section :slight_smile:

Oh and don’t limit yourself to blender tutorials only
Even 3DS max or Bryce 3d tutorials will be useful in some way

The bullet point presented in your post is basic generalistic knowledge that you can obtain online within weeks( max months) by subscribing to either Digital Tutors, Gnomon, CMIfx, Cgcooke etc (for 60eur vs 6k // a lot of it even free ).

For optimal employment chance the school program needs to emphasize arming you with specialist specific knowledge and also allocate significant time to guide you through creation of best possible demoreel/portfolio material - the main thing that will determine your employment. Degree and internship can also be a plus.

There are some great schools that are worth the money by kickstarting your career however the only thing you can be certain off is the debt (x2) that you will accumulate. Evaluate wisely.

Are you planning to enter a national CGI studio, or emigrate? I really don’t know how the studios in Spain work nowadays but, if they work as many other Spaniard workplaces, “titulitis” is a thing to consider…

Dseva,

As a everybody says, keep with your programming skills and web programming (mucho dinero en programación web $$$)
and continue 3d as a hobbie…:smiley: 23us dollar per month for cg cookie, and you will have tutorials, a lot, very good quality, to learn 3d, but the job market money is in programming…if you know C++ you will get good money :wink:

I understand the need for structured learning. I´m having a real hard time motivating myself to focus on learning sometimes.
That said, there´s a sh*tload of learning material on-line. Blenderguru is great, but a new resource that has helped me find videos I´d never have found otherwise is http://blenderhub.com/

I like learning a certain subject from more than one teacher, as I think it makes me more versatile, so I´ll watch several videos on basic rigging, for instance.

At this rate, I´ll probably be a Blender expert in 2 years, whereas it might take someone else 6 months, but having a full time job does eat a lot of the available time (does put food on the table though :slight_smile:

If you want things more structured, I´ve heard a lot good about CGacademy´s Master It Vol. 1 & 2 – Fundamentals
and CGcookie has recently restructured their learning material to follow a more structured approach