Game Art courses and Schools

[swartsz]

and Utrecht is a great place!! studied there myself. but sadly i can not comment on the quality of the HKU or the school in Breda. i would recommend you go and see both schools for yourself and talk to the people there before you make a final decision.

[Schuey]

Originally Posted by Xadeko

ey schuey,

are you taking place the 1st school year of breda?
i hopefully do the 2th..

but if you do i would like to know more

yeah im starting in september, cant wait
you were almost right with the numbers. They allowed 120 people. That number as you said is divided by 2, 60 per study. They ought to loose 50% of the participants in the first year, atleast, thats what their goal is :X
You might say, oh cool, they'll just kick the guys who read the part of the name where it said 'game' and thought they could 'design their own game' ( ). But unfortunately, those guys didn't even made it through the first round of selection, and there were 3 rounds of selection, ending with a modelling or programming assignment.
So the point is, ive got to give 200% here, cause youre there with 59 other guys, who know their stuff, and i definately dont want to be part of the 50% that drops out.

Just for showing that these guys want to have 5 uber modellers and 5 uber programmers at the end of year 4 :P But i expect it to be very cool, and to learn alot, since the teachers are actual gamedevs themselves. For example, the take-in procedure involved a presentation of yourself, and a chat with 2 teachers. One was an actual concept artist working at a company i cant recall, and he's going to teach drawing classes. If you only see the books list, its amazing, everything you expect to be is there, even a human anatomical reference book.

Did i forget to say the majority of the classes is given in English, since its an International school? That is a great addition to your cv!

Plus in the end, if you cant find yourself a job in the gaming industrie, go with entertainment, or architectural bureaus, or animations for commercials on tv, whatsoever.

[doylle]

Originally Posted by dummy

PIH in Kortrijk, Belgium starts with a new education program, Digital Arts and Entertainment

www.digitalartsandentertainment.be (sorry, dutch site)

Good to mention this one... Same education i'll be following next year.
Next year is the opening year btw (like in Breda, conspiracy ). I alreayd followed another education in tha same school this year, and i realy had a great time. So, I'm realy looking forward to this.

[eagle4]

The Academy of IT in Sydney (AIT) say they are focusing on game development, but they have no idea what they are on about. during my 1 year there they didnt even cover corect UV layouts, texture painting, or even low poly modeling. straight into meshsmooth to fix problems. If anyone is thinking of going there DO NOT GO THERE!!!! if you're wanting to learn 3D go to www.3d-palace.com and get the free tutorials you will learn more!!!!


eagle4

[Xadeko]

Originally Posted by Schuey

and i definately dont want to be part of the 50% that drops out.

you mean they get rid of 50% of the students?! din't know that...

and if you can tell me more about the selection and how your school year go's, i would be thankful.

i've seen the books at the openday they thought to be useing, there where some great books, and i saw the book of anatomy, nice books, the one that hit me the most was "the animation servival kit." think im going to buy that any way this year, it looked great.

damn if that selection is going to be such a battle i fear that i wont be part of it since i dont have a real diploma ( long story, ill tell the short one: i have dyslexia, so i failt the 3rd VWO class, so i did it again, and instead of going to the 4th Havo, where i could drop one language, i went to multimedia design in utrecht, it both would take me 2 years, but i probebly need to finish this one first because i cant jump over, this one is a Mbo education.., and Breda is a Hbo education, = f!cked. a dumb ass discission)

[Schuey]

yep, they expect to loose those 50% :P

but dont be afraid, the selection course isnt that hard, as long as you have the basic knowledge of a 3d program and take that a bit further, and have something to show, your cool. Its just that they want to filter out the persons who think they can make a game completely on their own, you know, just those kinds of people.

The selection is divided into several parts, The first part is easy, just write down your cv. The second part is a small interest test, how much are you involved into gaming etc. The third test is writing a letter to head of the study, where you describe why you are great and why they should pick you as a student. Last, you have to make an assignment. Mine was, there was a van gogh painting, called the chair. We had to visualise the painting in 3d. I chose to just take the things that were most important, and model those. They thought it was great, which it actually wasnt though. But again, if you just have good knowledge of 3dsmax, and can talk proper english (your presentation at the end of the selection is in English), you're in. If your only knowledge about 3dsmax or maya for example is its name, forget it all :P

[Xadeko]

ya i know what you mean

well then ill give it the best i've got soon, and also ask at the openday, if they have more information about this thing with haveing no diploma.

[phantom]

Any schools in the US?

[Xadeko]

ey schuey, do you already have your schoolbooks for this year?, if so can you give me some titles and can you tell me if they are any good? then ill go and order some of those books,

thanks.

[Schuey]

i can see if i can get the order confirmation list, the company didnt deliver yet though.

here it is

1 THE ULTIMATE HISTORY OF VIDEO GAMES KENT, S.L.
2 GAME ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN ROLLINGS, A. MORRIS, D.
3 GAME DESIGN WORKSHOP: DESIGNING, PROTOTYPING AND PLAYTESTING FULLERTON, T.
4 RULES OF PLAY : GAME DESIGN FUNDAMENTALS SALEN
5 COMPUTER GRAPHICS: PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE IN C - (INTERNATIONAL EDITION) FOLEY, J.
6 ART AND ILLUSION GOMBRICH, E.H.

i guess more books (like the anatomical and animations ones) are for the second year, these are just basic books