Animation schools in Sydney?

[Alpha Moth]

Hi! First post, long time lurker.

Ok,so here is the deal. I didn't finish my HSC (I moved to Germany..I am coming home in a few months though), but I have a TAFE certificate so the schools will consider my application, I just need to submit a portfolio, and have an interview. First question, is there any reputable schools in Sydney that anyone can recommend? Second, what should my portfolio look like? It doesn't have to be just an animation, it can be anything artistic, to show that I am creative. I have 6 months to draw my ass off, so would be nice to have something to impress the people who want to consider me to be able to attend their school.
I want to get into either 3D animation, 3D modeling, concept art, special effects, gaming industry, whatever job i can land from this, I would probably go on to do my bachelor degree when I finished the diploma, is this this the right course for me to do? And haha, I don't see anyone would hire me over the guys here, I just looked in IT'S FINALLY FINISHED forum, better than anything I can do. Well, I don't really know how to use computer drawings programs either.

Thank you, and I am not sure if this is the right section.

[Elissimo]

I'm in the same boat, so I would be interested to see an answer. Thanks for posting the question, I hope we get some responses soon.

I have found two so far: Quantm College: http://www.qantm.com.au/home/index.cfm
and Sydney Institure: http://www.sit.nsw.edu.au/3danimation/enmore/

Oh and I have a feeling Melbourne is a much better place for studying these kinds of things and finding work, can anyone confirm?

[Muz]

I am almost done with my bachelor of animation at qantm and im friends with alot of other students around brisbane so i think i have a good perspective on australian teaching.

One thing you guys will find out quick is how little basis australian digital art courses put on learning the traditional skills. This is what i have seen from pretty much every college up in brisbane and id imagine its similar elsewhere in aus.

Qantm is good for learning 3d fast, and that is pretty much thier claim to fame. Thier game design units and project managment units of study are also pretty good. But i only know what the one in brisbane is like, and the others could be vastly different because they have only been open for about a year to 2 years.

Perhaps send a pm to briggsy@ashtons, as he is one of the lecturers i think at billyblue down at sydney, and hell with the amount of knoledge that briggsy has on colour he seems like he would be one hell of a lecturer. I know bareley anything about those guys as all i know is from what ive seen on thier site.
http://www.billyblue.com.au/

In melbourne the big one is apparrently aie, but again i dont know much about them.

http://www.aie.edu.au/

I think no matter where you go the main thing is how much work you put in outside of college.
And to be honest the skill level of 3d artists in the games industry here is pretty bad, as in, you can model anatomically correct without model sheets with proper deformations and you have a job. So do your studies and try fucking hard and you have a pretty good chance of making it. One more thing to keep in mind is that australian art students are fucking lazy, they suck the life out of doing studies around them, as they tend to all suck so bad at everything that i can still tend to get better marks than them if i leave my assesments till the night before hand.... So make sure you keep tabs on the international standard you should be reaching and not the local standard in your college.

Ill probably write out a more indepth responce in the morning for you guys.

[Elissimo]

I guess I am not quite in the same boat as Alpha as I've already completed a multimedia design degree at Curtin Uni in Perth. I know what you mean when you talk about the standards for work and effort being lower... I was actually hoping it would be different over that side of Aus and I was hoping to surround myself with people who have really awesome skills and passion for the work they do. The chances don't sound good : /

We did cover a bit of the traditional stuff and a fair bit of theory at Curtin. The course was pretty much a bit of everything (illustration, graphic design, technical drawing, photography, 3D, web/html etc) but that is where I find my problem is. I don't have enough examples in any specific field so I'd really like to go back and study 3D to refresh my knowledge and work hard to polish off my projects to get a specialised portfolio together.

Actually while our Uni degree covered a lot of areas, TAFE students seemed in general, to have more examples of more polished work (comparing their exhibitions to ours). I don't mean to start a whole uni vs tafe here but do you think that TAFEs are better for people who really want to specialise in something and do a lot of projects in that area? I just worried that Quantm will cover everything I did (theory/ etc) all over again as the units look similar.

Thanks for your reply Muz, I would love to hear anything else you have to say on the topic

PS: your sketch group sounds awesome. I've been thinking about starting something similar in Perth.. other drawing activities are too far or too expensive. When I went to Sydney I saw a group of people sketching together near the opera house.. its part of what made me excited about studying there. The people looked dedicated to their art.

[Muz]

hmm, to be honest i have no idea about tafe, i never really looked at it and it could be a very good option. I do have 2 friends that went through a tafe games design course and they still have been learning a lot at qantm.

But hell, if you already have a degree id say its almost worth finding a short course to start off with on 3d and learn the basics, then going from there by yourself. With 3d ive found that its the starting off bit that is hard, as soon as you understand that it becomes easy to research and learn about it yourself. I guess the whole reason why i havent left qantm is because i want that degree just incase i ever want to work overseas, and that it does give you decent chance for networking. Also seems to have a bigger more established sketchgroup than brisbane has.

As far as employment afterwards, melbourne and brisbane are pretty much the places to be.
http://www.gamedevmap.com/index.php?...uery=Melbourne
http://www.gamedevmap.com/index.php?...query=Brisbane

Hope im helpful .