I have until next semester to figure out what kind of degree in the arts I want to apply for this will determine my future career. So my question is if Hand drawn animation is a bad idea it seems like everything is 3D now I just dont want to graduate and not have any options for jobs.. Any help from people with experience or advice that would be great! Thank you in advance.
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antique wheel
Not everything is 3D. Plenty of indie and mainstream games use hand-drawn sprites. And plenty of TV series use Flash or Toon Boom or other 2D computer-aided animation.
WayForward does hand drawn sprites, and one of the Wario games (if not all of them) uses hand drawn animation, and it looks much different from flash or 3D models. I dunno, I don't think hand drawn animation is obsolete, nor is it going away.
Based on my experience I would recommend getting to know what kind of campus it is, and how everything involved will develop you as a person rather then how it would land you a job. I would especially learn first what kind of work each of the professors do, and match up your classes from that.
Additionally if you go for 3D, do not forgo basic 2D composition lessons such as shape, color, and balance.
If you do well enough, the professors might take the effort to find you artistic job opportunity (at least mine tried). Otherwise be content with whatever you can do for money, and if you truly are an artist you'll never stop doing art even with a ordinary minimum wage job.
side note: If the content of your post is a question, don't make the title of it a statement.
Hmm, this is probably not the greatest place to get information about an animation career. There might be a few professional animators here, but I think you'd have better luck with a forum dedicated to that topic.
That said, through my career in video games I've known many people who do animation as part of their work, drawn or otherwise. I will say:
1. To be successful, you will probably need to have many more skills than just hand drawn animation. In video games, the same person that does hand drawn animation might also have to do: concept art, 3D modelling, 3D animation, lighting, map editing, scripting...
2. If you are considering a school, research it well and see where its graduates end up. There are a lot of schools, especially in this field, that are happy to train people for careers that just aren't available, or otherwise provide poor training. Some fields of absolutely require licensed technical training to enter (e.g. medicine), but this is not true of pretty much any job in video games. A good degree program can certainly be an asset, and may be a great way to develop the skills you need, but it is not a requirement.
3. The main thing you need to do to find a job is demonstrate that you're capable of doing it. Find things to work on now, don't wait for school. Build up a portfolio of things to show you can do the job. This is more important than a degree. Go to school as well, if it looks like the right thing to do, but make sure you've got some real work to show at the end of it.
Drag wrote:
WayForward does hand drawn sprites, and one of the Wario games (if not all of them)
The one you're probably thinking of is the wii title Wario Land:Shake It!