CGMA Courses questions, worth it ?

**Remo11** · March 16th, 2013, 08:44 AM

Hey guys,

Has anyone done a course at CGMA ? I am thinking of doing Perspective/Sci fi vehicles but I found the site a bit confusing.

For example, they sell "previous" recorded courses but I am wondering if the "new" courses are actually "newly recorded" material.. It would be pretty weird if the 500-600 dollar courses are the same material you could get for 30 bucks just without the Q&A.

http://www.cgma2dacademy.com/

**Whirly** · March 16th, 2013, 02:31 PM

Hey Remo,

They don't sell previous courses they sell separate workshops. A bit like how schools can do one day workshops with artists. So the Instructor does a demo of some sort and is available at the end for questions if you pay for the ones with Q n As.

The 600 dollars are for actual classes that are around 8 weeks long (like an actual module at at school) with home work and instructor crits and Q n As each week. I have done both the Perspective and Dynamic Sketching Classes and my experience with them was very positive. You get a a new video each week which are good but not ground breaking or anything super special just the sort of things you get from a training dvd (but broken down over the eight weeks) exactly what you would expect.

The magic happens when you do the homework and then in then get personalized videos of the instructor critiquing what you have done and you get Q n A sessions with the class where the instructor will demo and go over anything you are having trouble with and on top of that they have done personalized vids explaining things if you cant make the Q n A and are all really genuinely interested in teaching you and care whether or not you are grasping things.

Needless to say what you get out of them is precisely what you put in.

Feel free to ask any questions about it.

**TutMatt3** · April 2nd, 2013, 04:00 PM

Hi Remo,

I agree with Whirly with what he said. I've taken the Dynamic Sketching class as well, and it was pretty amazing. Just like with any demo you might have seen, the magic really does happen when you do the work, and receive feedback on them.
The workshops are usually just demo's of the topic the artist handles, but the classes are actual classroom settings, that follow a structure that builds one week to another.
The difference I've seen with workshops vs classes, is that the curriculum a class covers dives deeper into the subject (obviously because its longer), but follows a good path from beginning to end. In dynamic sketching, we were given a structure for the exercises, that would build from week to week, and develop into something much more advanced. Re-Watching the instructor do the demo while doing your homework helps a lot too as well.
I haven't taken the perspective course, but they just re-recorded the material with Derek Kosol I heard, so he's fully taking over the class. I'm sure its the same material, just from another instructors point of view.
That was my 2cents on the school, but I definitely recommend them to anyone, since I have gained so much just from that 1 class!

Hope that helps!

Cheers

**creeptool** · April 2nd, 2013, 07:40 PM

Originally Posted by Whirly

Hey Remo,

They don't sell previous courses they sell separate workshops. A bit like how schools can do one day workshops with artists. So the Instructor does a demo of some sort and is available at the end for questions if you pay for the ones with Q n As.

The 600 dollars are for actual classes that are around 8 weeks long (like an actual module at at school) with home work and instructor crits and Q n As each week. I have done both the Perspective and Dynamic Sketching Classes and my experience with them was very positive. You get a a new video each week which are good but not ground breaking or anything super special just the sort of things you get from a training dvd (but broken down over the eight weeks) exactly what you would expect.

The magic happens when you do the homework and then in then get personalized videos of the instructor critiquing what you have done and you get Q n A sessions with the class where the instructor will demo and go over anything you are having trouble with and on top of that they have done personalized vids explaining things if you cant make the Q n A and are all really genuinely interested in teaching you and care whether or not you are grasping things.

Needless to say what you get out of them is precisely what you put in.

Feel free to ask any questions about it.

i have a question..combineding all 8 weeks of course together how many hours of content do we get?

**Whirly** · April 3rd, 2013, 08:33 AM

Originally Posted by creeptool

i have a question..combineding all 8 weeks of course together how many hours of content do we get?

Hey creeptool. At a very very rough estimate the weekly vids are about half an hour long and the Q and As are about an hour I think. You get access to the previous terms Q and A as well so thats 2 and a half hours each week very very roughly I think.

**Andrew Sonea** · April 3rd, 2013, 02:22 PM

Glad to hear that people enjoyed Dynamic Sketching 1. I was too slow at signing up for the one with Peter Han, but I'll be taking the one with Patrick Ballesteros. I've never done any online courses before so I'm pretty excited. Hopefully this will help brush up on my drawing/construction skills and help build my visual library and design skills.