Feng Zhu School of Design

[phats]

Wilson what kind of work are they making you do??? I would like to know so i can practice. are you working on backgrounds, characters, creatures? thank you. please stay in contact with us and tell us your experience.

Design school .. start trying to solve problems on paper.. like exsample find a product around your house and see how you can make improvements to the design .. not cosmetics ..
Start drawing perspective..
Wouldn't stress about painting they show you ...
Just start drawing man .. every thing
Read a lot too ..

[Deadlyhazard]

@ Deadlyhazard and @ Rabi

I don't think student portfolios pre-FZD are available anywhere unless they give it to you themselves. I've posted my Deviantart gallery earlier so I guess that was my level before FZD.

As for working time for schoolwork - it really depends, but mostly on Design Subjects, here's the deal. There's 18 of you in class submitting pages homework each week and getting critiqued, the critiques aren't one on one. Sometimes you have to present (and defend) your work in front of the class. The reason is to get you used to presentations. Sometimes your not allowed to work on your homework while your classmates are presenting (its just rude). To get through those 18 people eats up a chunk of time plus Art Directors lectures (which you might be able to work on your stuff but you might miss out on the lesson) at the most extreme lectures plus presentations end after lunch or 4pm at the most, but that's for Design subjects. That's why we stay beyond the 5PM up to the 10PM limit. The real basis IMHO is - the population of your class. Previous batch's had only 10 or less students mine's the biggest 18!

But I've seen time management solve this a lot (which you should really have). As for me staying up until 6AM and being in school at 10AM its either, I mismanaged my time or I'm trying to submit my work on a higher finish level. The school is meant to be intense for a reason.

Hope that helps

Wow, 18 students O_O.

The school must be extremely selective of portfolios, haha.

And Phats, really liked your portfolio. Especially the guy with the drill, very well painted.

[saprissa9]

thanks for that reply phats. im gonna start practice right away. i appreciate it. because i really see myself in singapore studying in that school.

[ShehZ]

Thanks a lot peeps! That was very informative..
Even im planning to join in soon...hopefully the feb batch

[JawadAyub]

I love FZD but the fees is too expensive not to mention the living expense like food and living, like i said i wuld love to join you guys the total cost it's too much. If you guys are staying in singapore and can give some advice how to manage will be grateful.

[Wilsondf]

@ JawadAyub

As for the cost - I live 20 minutes away from school and I pay 1/5 the amount of what others nearer the school pays each month. That's one thing to consider. What's 20 minutes away and a few blocks walk if it saves you a fortune (literally) that could go on to other expenses?

for food - if its "I just need something in my stomach" thing then a 10 to 12 SG a day might sound the best option. There are other cheaper foods. Student discount the cheapest I've had is 3 SG for a meal.

my estimate is alot at least another 12-20k SG total allowance besides the school tuition to be at least safe on the financial side. That's based on how I handled it. Pricey

[Deadlyhazard]

Aye, Jawad. You probably will have to take out a mega loan. If you do make sure its subsidized :X.

[saprissa9]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFn6hYRKIVQ

[daverocho]

Thank you for the free youyube videos.

[Eldritch]

The videos are great

The guy who did the shot setup has a nifty accent lol

[Maledict]

Just to let you guys know, I'm gonna have a phone interview with the art directors tomorrow (15th December), as part of the application process, at 5:00pm Singaporean time / +8 GMT.

Wish me luck!

[Maledict]

good luck man. i would be scare as hell. but thats just me, scare of things like that.

Just finished the interview - everything went better than I expected .

I'm not sure if it's verboten to share what the interviewer's questions, but I'll do so here in anycase. If not, I'll take them down.

To be quite honest, I don't remember the order of what the interviewer was asking, because I was so caught up with describing and talking, that I didn't notice it.

But the questions (In no particular order, and some paraphrased) were something as follows:

"What were your favourite games/movies and the designs in them?"
"Who are your favourite painters/designers/artists?"
"Do you think you'll be able to handle the pressure?" (Goes on to talk about the heavy workload).
"How dedicated are you to succeeding in this field? That said, where do you see yourself in 5 years time down the road?"

If I remember more, I'll post them. Hope this helps you saprissa.

[Wilsondf]

"Do you think you could handle the pressure?" - I didn't get that question during my.
interview.

My interview was fun. The art director just pointed out my influences by just looking at my art (even obscure ones).

I was surprised they never ask about health problems, etc. Since its a major thing to be extremely resilient and healthy. For us Internationals if we get really sick and not be able to handle the workload well it would be such a waste.

Testament that the school is getting hardcore. Just finished a hardcore 2 day of just a few hours of sleep. We're zombies right now at class. And their upping the level of homeworks.

Congratulations in advance. Hope you get your acceptance letter soon. I'll browse your stuff when I have time and try to point out stuff you could try to work on before school starts.

[Maledict]

I received questions about my ability to handle the workload, and about my (mental) health, because of my slight schizophrenia. The interviewer wanted to make sure that the workload won't trigger any panic attacks whilst I'm attending the school. But in anycase, things are quite good for me at the moment - mental health wise.

I started having panic attacks around early 2008. I didn't realise it was actually "Schizophrenia" until I read the upside down handwriting in my file that my doctor was looking at, and then I asked her, "Hang on....I'm schizophrenic?", and she said, "Yeah, sorry to break it to you," And I was like, "Oh...oh...well ok then!" But it's very slight. I don't literally see or hear things that aren't there. The panic attacks mostly occur at night, around 9pm to 1am.
For the first 2 and a half years (From Feb 08 to July '10), I had panic attacks and paranoid delusions literally every 3 days, like absolute clockwork. It didn't matter what I did, it would happen every 3 days, every 3 days, every 3 days. Then in July, it started to go away. And since the beginning of December (This month), I haven't had any panic attacks that I would classify as mild to severe. I'm in the clear for 16 days now. The previous record was 7 days, so this is more than double. So hopefully I can kick this little shitty mental disorder out of my head for good.

I also used to suffer from a crippling soul crushing depression, from the late 90s to '08. That's long gone, thanks to medication and stuff. That period of my life I'd like to forget, and leave buried for good. "Best years of your life" my ass .

Anyway, I'll get the results sometime mid January (Give or take a few weeks), and I'm super pumped to go. One of the few things now that I have to take into account is my sleep. I have absolutely no problems staying up - The problem is that not even the Salvation Army performing on my street, passing by, is loud enough to wake me out of my slumber. Part of it is the medication I take, which is medium to strong strength, and knocks me out completely.

Physically, I think I'll be able to handle it. I've done all nighters before, several times, and had only a few hours of sleep, and woke up really fresh for some reason. On the flip side, sometimes I sleep for almost 4/5ths of the day, and when I wake up, I feel like I'm shackled to my bed, and that death is just about to claim me (I actually slept for 1 and 1/2 days before, back in 2005 in Las Vegas' Stardust Hotel when going there for a skeptic's conference. I slept at around the time where the sun was going down. And when I woke up, I thought it was only a few hours that had gone by. Turns out, I slept through the night, THE NEXT DAY, and then woke up the day after that in the morning. Now THAT left me completely disorientated).

Anyway, I'll be glad to see you there Wilson .

[Deadlyhazard]

Hey Rabbi, how long did it take to get your artwork up to that level? Did you learn perspective on your own?

I think the better general question to you FZ guys would be, "How the hell do you guys get motivation to work 10 hour + days often?"

[Maledict]

Hey Rabbi, how long did it take to get your artwork up to that level? Did you learn perspective on your own?

Several years, roughly 3, give or take 1 or 2, can't remember exactly. You could peruse my sketchbook thread from the beginning. That should give you a better idea.

As for perspective, I bought (Yes, actually bought, not downloaded from bittorent ) Feng's Gnomon Video (Concept Design 2) and Xia Taptara of idrawgirls.com Environments Concepts. After viewing those two, I just experimented and did some studies, and it just sank in. It became like 2nd nature after that.

[Deadlyhazard]

Several years, roughly 3, give or take 1 or 2, can't remember exactly. You could peruse my sketchbook thread from the beginning. That should give you a better idea.

As for perspective, I bought (Yes, actually bought, not downloaded from bittorent ) Feng's Gnomon Video (Concept Design 2) and Xia Taptara of idrawgirls.com Environments Concepts. After viewing those two, I just experimented and did some studies, and it just sank in. It became like 2nd nature after that.

Thanks! Can't afford the Gnomon one, but I'll probably buy the idrawgirls one. Looks good.

[Wilsondf]

Rabbi is right, several years of drawing mileage counts a lot for stuff like perspective (that is rarely practiced alone by anyone). Although I've seen students who've never drawn before immediately gets it after a few weeks.

There is no magic formula but just sitting down and drawing... a lot.

Good job on actually buying Feng's DVD. Getting it via Bittorent for free doesn't give you that "This cost so much I'd better study the hell out of it"

Knowing more about the fundamentals actually help your work finish a lot faster (then you can get more sleep, more time for rest means your healthier, makes sense?) So invest right now on Perspective and Painting and Freehand Sketching (like in Design Sketching - Erik Olofsson, Klara Sjölén). Although its sometimes unavoidable to do all nighters at least not struggling with basic drawing and painting skills might buy you more time to rest for a bit.

[ShehZ]

Thanks a lot for the feedback Winlsondf! Going to work on my perspective skills before I get in...mostly in June or July is it? Lol Im confused

[Deadlyhazard]

Another thing -- do you guys do much figurative work? I'd think it'd be pretty scary if you just did environments and monster designs without really focusing on the figurative work. One shift in the balance of a pose can really make it look awkward if you don't know how to handle it and in the student gallery I'm not seeing really seeing many figures. I'm guessing they teach you how to paint well, also?

[saprissa9]

hey rabbi thanks for sharing that info of your inteview. sorry im late. i was busy with school finals.

[phats]

Another thing -- do you guys do much figurative work? I'd think it'd be pretty scary if you just did environments and monster designs without really focusing on the figurative work. One shift in the balance of a pose can really make it look awkward if you don't know how to handle it and in the student gallery I'm not seeing really seeing many figures. I'm guessing they teach you how to paint well, also?

yeah we do . they offer life drawing as well as weekly requirements to draw figures on your own time .. heres the thing your always doing work .
i pulled 3 over nighters this week .. my sleep schedule is completely upside down .. me and another classmate averaged out about 25 hours of sleep this week ..lol .. seriously .. just woke up to my back up mac alarm.. debating should i crash out hard for xmas or just work through? sleep when i made it .

[Deadlyhazard]

Thanks Phats! 25 hours of sleep....Dude. I get like 12 hours of sleep A DAY. Holy shit thats intense! AWESOME!

[Deadlyhazard]

So...are there any actual student reviews of the school yet? Like someone who has actually gone there for a full year?

[Deadlyhazard]

I know that; I want to see someone's graduate opinion though, like what they think about their skills gained from the school, and whether or not they can use them to find a professional career at that level.

[saprissa9]

then go to the schools facebook page. you can probably find graduate students there.

[Deadlyhazard]

So uh, Wilson..or Phats...

Either of you graduated yet? I'd like to see your recent work!

[Wilsondf]

in 3 months dude, sorry can't show stuff yet hehe, maybe once grad show get's goin'

back to work...

[phats]

So uh, Wilson..or Phats...

Either of you graduated yet? I'd like to see your recent work!

www.artofsloan.com

Graduating in 3 months...

school was intense.. sum it up .. gf broke up with me 3 times over the year due to long distance issues and me having 0 time ..( were doing ok now)
I manage to put on 22 lbs in one year and go from looking like rambo to hasslehoff.. met some really fucking cool people that like the same shit i do.
watched every arnold movie about a dozen times in the last few months " JAMIE PLEASE!!!" and i have his accent down !! got a FUCKING TON of how to do PSDs and tutorials from the lectures, and i a life time of methods and how to improve notes.
Didn't fucking sleep at all .. still managed to stay awake in class..




as for my site and works..
im building up my site about 2 hours a week on every Saturday night..

i believe 95% of the work is from fzd with only a selected few of OKed professional works. I have somewhere in the ball park of another 10 -20 images i need to touch up resize and post .. site is semi broken so i have no comments if it dont work for you .. when im finished i aim to get the tweaks out .. i never built a site before so bare with.

for every decent image there is countless shitty ones that i will never post. some of these works took several hours to draw and paint.. i don't regard my work as amazing or MB quality .. but im showing those who are interested in
what they can achieve. I feel i have a long fucking road to go .. but i feel
like i made the right choice and its just a matter of mad practice now ..MAD PRACTICE.
i never really understood perspective or painting prior to fzd .. every thing was just till it looks good ...
i learned a ton and need a few months of going back through my notes and lecture psds...

i know ..lame no life .. but whateves!

[Maledict]

Heya phats, thanks for your input for us

I'll probably be there for your graduation show, as I've already been accepted for the June intake, and am making my preparations to go. I'll be heading down there late May.

Would you happen to have any recommendations as to where I could stay? I'm in Hong Kong currently.

I'm just itching to go there and get started. I've got no other obligations atm, like girlfriends or somesuch. So I should be ok. The only problem I can forsee is that I am a very heavy sleeper - and this is compounded by my medication for schizophrenia which is really sleep inducing. Another problem is waking up - I've had my mom tell me my alarm clock woke her up, and not me, even though she was down the freaking corridor.

Anyway, I'll link my entry portfolio, just in case anyone else wants to see:

http://www.crowcroft.net/blog/?p=339