2013 - Sheridan College (Animation and Illustration) Hopefuls

[xKotu]

I tried to keep my momentum going from when I submitted my portfolio so I've been sort of drawing. Not 24/7 but I'm doing studies per week. The Skype group kamikazel33t mentioned is what I'm using, their past posts help me outline what studies I should do. :d

[OfficialLamp]

The month is half over, guys. Anyone start refreshing like a mad man yet?

[Dunnstar]

Not quite yet. I probably will just wait for the mail. the f5 every hour, every day is just too nerve wracking and stressful. Though we can start some sort of countdown just to make everyone even more nervous.



8 more days!!!!!

[kamikazel33t]

I am pretty nervous but still did not really start to refresh, heck, I will probably be the last to know since they would have submitted the answer while I am asleep(crazy timezone difference).

[paperpencil]

Hey guys,

Have you looked at the breadth courses available? I'm looking for courses that would perhaps serve animation as well. Is anyone else interested in taking Anatomy? I figure that it would be good for life drawing!

http://www.sheridancollege.ca/progra...h-courses.aspx

These look really interesting to me too.

HUMN21518GD – MYTHOLOGY IN LITERATURE, ART & FILM
LITT23344GD – STUDIES OF CHARACTER & CULTURE
LITT24310GD- INTRODUCTION TO CHILDREN'S LITERATURE
HIST10101GD – HISTORY OF FILM
PHIL10000GD – PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE
CULT17370GD - INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL STUDIES
CULT10025GD – INTRODUCTION TO POPULAR CULTURE
CULT16048GD – ITALIAN ART AND CULTURE
MEDA12129GD – WORLD CINEMAS

What would you guys be interested in taking?

[CrimsonRook51]

I went there last year when I needed to do life drawings! they dont always do nude life drawings though. Some days they have clothed models but its only $10 and the room is small but can get congested at times. Its a small place, I missed it the first time I looked for it but then I looked up and saw the tiny sign on the glass haha.

haha awesome! I definitely want to check it out. Its like 10mins away from my house, so there really is no excuse .

[kawaiixdesu]

Hey guys,

Have you looked at the breadth courses available? I'm looking for courses that would perhaps serve animation as well. Is anyone else interested in taking Anatomy? I figure that it would be good for life drawing!

What would you guys be interested in taking?

I'd be interested in these:

CULT10025GD – INTRODUCTION TO POPULAR CULTURE

CULT16048GD – ITALIAN ART AND CULTURE

CULT18263GD – JAPANESE LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

MEDA12129GD – WORLD CINEMAS

HUMN21518GD – MYTHOLOGY IN LITERATURE, ART & FILM

LITT23344GD – STUDIES OF CHARACTER & CULTURE

LITT24310GD- INTRODUCTION TO CHILDREN'S LITERATURE




@CrimsonRook51
Yeah! its definitely worth going I take the 502 down there xD

[Uptown]

don't keep refreshing lol its gonna make you go madd loool. Atleast wait till it hits the 25th loool

[xKotu]

@paperpencil Definitely interested in Anatomy. Following were interesting to me too:

HIST18653GD – ART IN A SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT

CULT18263GD – JAPANESE LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

MEDA13672GD - CINEMA OF HORROR

BTW, will they still offer acceptances if you don't have your transcripts as completed? >:I Stupid slow school.

[OfficialLamp]

I'm not finding anything on that list particularly exciting. Some of the film courses seem neat I guess. I just really hope I can transfer some of the credits I got a couple of years back. It would be nice to not have to pay for another science or art history course.

[Dunnstar]

courses, I'd love to take.

ANAT14178 – ANATOMY
LITT14895GD - INTRODUCTION TO THE SHORT STORY (Formerly LITT25993GD)
PHIL10000GD – PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE

@paperpencil Definitely interested in Anatomy. Following were interesting to me too:

HIST18653GD – ART IN A SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT

CULT18263GD – JAPANESE LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

MEDA13672GD - CINEMA OF HORROR

BTW, will they still offer acceptances if you don't have your transcripts as completed? >:I Stupid slow school.

Conditional acceptance if they don't see the required marks before its time to mail out acceptance. I keep telling you man, stop freaking out over this, it's for naught. Aslong as you paid the fees intime, there is no way in hell that Sheridan will punish you for the school dragging their behinds. If it's really irritating you, call them, get some confirmation.

[xKotu]

Yeaaah, I just can't help but fret. Especially since I sent it a request for transcripts from the government a full month before I started my portfolio and I got my copy back so.. shmrr. >__< I sent off a question to OntarioColleges though. I'll see what happens. :d

[xDrawnxtoxDeathx]

@paperpencil Definitely interested in Anatomy. Following were interesting to me too:

HIST18653GD – ART IN A SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT

CULT18263GD – JAPANESE LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

MEDA13672GD - CINEMA OF HORROR

BTW, will they still offer acceptances if you don't have your transcripts as completed? >:I Stupid slow school.

They will, you'll be given conditional acceptance.. That's what's happening to me with cambrian right now cause my school missed 2 credits from my transcript so I have to resend them. Also I was contacted about the game design course I don't meet minimum requirements because when I was in high school electives were all general and sheridan only accepts M and U. So I'm not going to get in to that or animation this year unfortunately.
But animation hasn't contacted me yet about my transcripts so im assuming they haven't even started reviewing those yet.

[Linearts]

Hey guys, I know I haven't really posted anything up 'til now, but I've followed the conversation a bit and also took some of the useful advice that you guys left herefor my portfolio!
For the transcripts, I believe they did started reviewing them about a week ago, because I had quite a few problems with mine (international exchange sounded like a good idea at first...). I talked with the admissions department today to solve these problems and may have found a bit of ''hot hot gossip'' for you guys: They're apparently having a meeting on Friday to compile portfolios/grades and make final decisions/cuts for future students. The person I talked to seemed to be saying the results would be available later next week or at the latest in two weeks (because the meeting would be the confirmation of who gets/does not get in.

[Linearts]

About these classes: are they optional ones that you can take with the Animation Bachelor? Or are they ''on the side''?

[kamikazel33t]

I understand there are a bunch of you guys who plan on entering 2D animation as well as planning to make in the industry over at the US so I thought you guys might find this quote from a Canadian animator informative about such things. You can also feel free to ask questions and take a look at her sketchbook over here

Animation in general was really weakened by the tough economy. Arts are the first thing to get cut in the budget, so a lot of subsidies and funding that animation relied on got cut.
It is recovering though, and the demand for jobs in my area is really taking off. (My field is 2D television shows animated in Toonboom Harmony)
Computers are taking over the industry- but I don't feel like there's a shortage of 2D - just traditional animation. Anything hand drawn is done on a cintiq - not paper.

A lot of 2D animation now is cut-out, so there's less demand for high-skill drafts people. It's actually making it easier to get a job in 2D. Many of the people I have worked with cannot draw very well, or not at all.
*random note -- Cut-out is frequently misclassified as "Flash animation" because that's the most common software. Toonboom's Harmony is really starting to gain ground though- and that's what I specialize in. Conveniently there's a big shortage of people with in-depth knowledge of Harmony so I'm finding myself turning down job offers instead of scratching around looking for one.

Anyway- I've wandered away from your questions -

Is 2D disappearing? Nope. The more the echonomy recovers, the more work there's going to be. 3D is hyped up, it's newer and flashy - you can do crazy shit with it -but when the money starts kicking around, and people aren't hand to mouth- they're gonna care about art again. 2D will be back in features for sure.
2D is cheap- tv loves it. I don't think there will be a huge surge in classical hand-drawn animation- but 2D cutout stuff is not going anywhere. Can't do Spongebob in 2D. Plus there's lots of jobs in flash games, and online stuff.

Why learn 2D? It's much easier to tranition from 2D to 3D. You don't have to pick one. If you study 2D they don't lock you out of the 3D clubhouse - but if you learn 3D, you might not have the skill set for 2D.
2D = stronger drawing skills, You've learned to look for silhouette, balance, rhythm and movement. It's very easy to translate that into 3D - you learn the software, and move the puppet.2D forces you to be more economical with movement, each pose is important because you don't get an endless amount of time to do tonnes of crazy things. It makes you work more.

3D, you get used to the computer translating the movement for you. The endless possibility for camera angles takes away the emphasis on silhouette. The puppet can do anything - gymnasitc flips- foreshortened poses, upshots, down-shots. Most of my time in 3D is spend in the graph editior - tweaking curves.

I can work in 3D - but I don't enjoy it. There's no artistry left for me. Here's a puppet move it around. meh.

Animation rant continued lol:

Cut-out and a lot of traditional animation is done in vector now.
Cut out is basically when a character is pre-drawn by the designer and then a "breaker" takes that character and creates a 2D puppet for it. I've done quite a bit of work as a breaker
Depending on the production, either the Designer or breaker will do the mouth charts, blinks, and things of that sort- it's all done by the time it gets to the animator.
Wildkratts , a show I did special FX on, is entirely cut-out. The animators don't draw anything. Each character has about 50 hands to choose from- and 10-12 feet. The blinks and mouths are done by designers.

Most television shows are hybrids. The animators work with cut-out puppets and redraw what they need. If a character is just standing or sitting there is very little drawing. In the action shots they probably have to redraw the whole thing. They usually get a bunch of stock hands and a dialogue mouth chart. But to avoid that really stiff look like 6teen has they have to draw quite a bit. It's just not the old-school way of re-drawing the whole thing every time. Now they can just draw arms, legs, or whatever the movement needs. Really heavy action scenes will need a tonne of drawing and coffee.

The two big software giants right now are:
Adobe Flash:
Ugly Americans- heavy drawing in Flash
Motor City (on Disney XD) is also heavy drawing in flash.
Wak-fu only-in french, another hybred- and in my opinion the best looking flash work I have ever seen.
Jacob tu-tu
Almost Naked Animals
I think My little pony... not 100% sure

Toonboom Harmony
WildKratts
Detentionare
Ruby Gloom (pretty sure all cut-out)
Sidekick
And Practically any of the recent Nevlana shows, 6teen, Total Drama Island - These are often falsely labeled as flash because they are cutout.
Harmony was also used in parts of The Princess and the Frog - I think Inking, colour and maybe FX - but I'm not 100% sure.

graph editor and curves: don't you deal w/ the same things for Flash / ToonBoom?
They exist, but I don't use them much. They're not nearly as refined and I like to do my ease ins-outs by hand. I tend to draw more than I need to, because I'm a fast drawer and I wont fall behind doing that. Most TV shows want 40-50 seconds of animation a week, so you have to balance what you want to do with what you can get done in the time given.
That's why cut-out is so prolific. It's fast and fast means cheap.


Is toon boom vector based? Yes, but the drawing tools are a million times better than flash - that's why I cling to it. When I animate in it I'll use a 30% opacity brush with 0 smooth, and it's just like drawing in photoshop with the round brush. It's definitely worth picking up the trial version to play with. I'm a Harmony fan-girl for sure.

Back to 2D vs 3D

The amount of work for each depends on geography. In Canada, Vancouver has most of the 3D work. Toronto - Hamilton area and Halifax have most of the 2D work, Montreal has a bunch of both. I can't vouch for other countries.
In general you need to live in a city to be an animator. There are exceptions to the rule, but you should never count on being the exception.

Learning both just means you can apply to more jobs. I can't emphasize enough- You don't have to pick a job and stick to that. You are not an animator- or a modeler. Your not 2D OR 3D.

I'm kind of the "Rover" at work. My main job currently is a breaker, but when I got way ahead of schedule they let me work on other shows, take on animation, make mouth charts.Whoever is falling behind they send me that way. It's a lot of fun.
Having worked in so many different parts of the pipeline I also get thrown in the teacher roll a lot. I've gotten sent as far as Colombia to train people there.

Don't box yourself into a roll. When the contract is up they kick you out. If you can do layout, animation, breaking, FX, composting, and you make a damned good pot of coffee, they'll be stupid to lay you off .

Breaking into the industry is a bit of a tough cookie- it takes 2 years of experience for people to take you seriously - so getting those first jobs is tough. Basically just keep throwing yourself out there, taking jobs that aren't particularly fun - like scene set up. Once you have 2 years it gets easier. Have a nice demo reel- do okay in a job interview and you should find work.

Breaking into the US field is a bit of a different story. The people I know who have done it are really solid. If your good at what you do you can find work anywhere. A company probably wont think Average Joe is worth the effort of sponsoring a work Visa. There are lots of Local Joes to fill those rolls- and local workers usually get government subsidies or tax advantages for the company.

[xKotu]

They will, you'll be given conditional acceptance.. That's what's happening to me with cambrian right now cause my school missed 2 credits from my transcript so I have to resend them. Also I was contacted about the game design course I don't meet minimum requirements because when I was in high school electives were all general and sheridan only accepts M and U. So I'm not going to get in to that or animation this year unfortunately.
But animation hasn't contacted me yet about my transcripts so im assuming they haven't even started reviewing those yet.

Hmm, ok. I thought they also accept equivalents to the M and U? When I decided to apply for Sheridan, I had to do all of my art courses in a one semester shot. Yowch. .-.

Aghhh, this anticipation is draining my soul. ;n; Has anyone else been browsing the Accepted Portfolios thread? The caliber of their artwork is making me even more anxious. :s

[xDrawnxtoxDeathx]

Hmm, ok. I thought they also accept equivalents to the M and U? When I decided to apply for Sheridan, I had to do all of my art courses in a one semester shot. Yowch. .-.

Aghhh, this anticipation is draining my soul. ;n; Has anyone else been browsing the Accepted Portfolios thread? The caliber of their artwork is making me even more anxious. :s

Yeah the equivalent of M and U in the old curriculum is advanced and very few electives when I was in gr 12 were advanced... I have photography and that's it... I think the other option was philosophy lol... I'm still excited to get my portfolio marked even if I know I'm not getting in

[Uptown]

What other schools did people apply to other than sheridan???

[OfficialLamp]

may have found a bit of ''hot hot gossip'' for you guys: They're apparently having a meeting on Friday to compile portfolios/grades and make final decisions/cuts for future students. The person I talked to seemed to be saying the results would be available later next week or at the latest in two weeks (because the meeting would be the confirmation of who gets/does not get in.

Interesting, I have no reason to doubt it being true. But remember that they seem to send out confirmations in waves. Last year, I had to wait until mid April to find out, and even longer for my score to be mailed.

[kawaiixdesu]

What other schools did people apply to other than sheridan???

No other schools, just sheridan :3

[Uptown]

No other schools, just sheridan :3

so if u dont get in whats your back up??

[yahualli]

What other schools did people apply to other than sheridan???

Concordia - Film Animation major with an Anthropology minor
Centre NAD - 3D Animation movie effects

Welp.

[Uptown]

Concordia - Film Animation major with an Anthropology minor
Centre NAD - 3D Animation movie effects

Welp.

nice. both sound like fun

[kamikazel33t]

so if u dont get in whats your back up??

That is the same thing I am doing so I guess it is " Try, Try, Again!" but now with hearing the issue of Sheridan becoming a University and the seat increase, I was considering Seneca as another feasible option so I might apply for the winter semester.

[Uptown]

That is the same thing I am doing so I guess it is " Try, Try, Again!" but now with hearing the issue of Sheridan becoming a University and the seat increase, I was considering Seneca as another feasible option so I might apply for the winter semester.

nice. its good to look for other options if all doesnt go as planned

[kawaiixdesu]

so if u dont get in whats your back up??

I will either work and try again or wait and see how game design works out I recently applied to that as well~

[paperpencil]

Seneca and Capilano.

Capilano has a really good animation program that has strong ties with Vancouver's animation industry.

Do you guys know much about Seneca?

[xDrawnxtoxDeathx]

Cambrians animation course is designed according to sheridans course but it's 3 years but it's a great backup cause you can use that to reapply for sheridan next year

[Uptown]

Seneca and Capilano.

Capilano has a really good animation program that has strong ties with Vancouver's animation industry.

Do you guys know much about Seneca?

you already got into capilano??