Hi. I'm currently a junior in high school and I am interested in a career in animation. The only problem is, I don't know much about animation. Does anybody know what might be some good courses to take if I want to pursue this career? Do I have to be a great artist in order to be a great 3D animator? How much artistic skill do I need? Any help will be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

I would start out with some web development courses. So you can learn some of the programing languages then go on from there. Right now I'm taking Info Tech and web development. I have no real art skills but It is fun for me. It takes a lot of work and quite a lot of money. But I think it is worth the time and money. I only have 12 months left to go. Wayne

I'm sitting here... and I can't for the life of me figure what web development courses have to do with 3D animation?! Anyway... there are a lot of books that you can read to get some information regarding the animation industry and a career. 'The Art of 3D Computer Animation and Effects' Isaac V. kerlow Wiley Publishing www.wiley.com '3D Graphics and Animation' Mark Giambruno '[digital] Character Animation (Volumes 1)' & '[digital] Character Animation (Volumes 2)' George Maestri '[digital] Lighting & Rendering' Jeremy Birn '[digital] Texturing & Painting' Owen Demers New Riders Publishing www.newriders.com There is also a great series by the former animators at Disney that goes into the art of animation at reat length. It's writen from the perspective of 2D, but the same principles apply with different tools for 3D. Sorry, I can't remember the name of that one. Most large cities have a University with a course of study in computer art, with 3D being a big part of that. Mostly, read up on the subject, download free programs, and dig in! :> If you find that days could go by while your at the computer working on a project, and you don't care, then do EVERYTHING you can to make it part of your life! Attend seminars and conferences. Inquire at TV stations if you can watch what they do. Be creative... that's what it's ALL about. And NEVER... forget... have fun!

A Career in animation... What sort of animation do you want to get in to...? There's classical animation, hand drawn, which requires drawing skills and knowledge of anatomy. (It seems to be a dying trade, though; most major American studios are closing down their traditional departments in favour of 3D) There's 3D animation that requires knowledge of computer software (and, if you're into modeling, again knowledge of anatomy) Besides: there's 3D animation for games, for movies, realistic (Gollum, Hulk etc), cartoony (Finding Nemo); 3D animation done entirely by hand, 3D animation based on motion capturing. And there is stop motion (as in Wallace and Gromit, Chicken Run), where you have to manipulate plasticine models. If you want to go into the industry, there are some schools that have a good reputation, such as CalArts in Los Angeles, Sheridan in Vancouver and Gobelin in Paris, France, but schools of that quality are few and between and expensive. A large number of professionals is self-thaught. When applying for a job, what you really need is a good portfolio, displaying your artistic skills; nobody will be interested wether you have a degree or not. Books of general interest, dealing with motion and acting, are: The Animator's Survival Kit - by Richard Williams Disney Animation: The Illusion Of Life - by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston Animation - by Preston Blair. All of these books were written by traditional Disney style animators, but the principles apply to 3D and stop motion as well. There are free evaluation and training versions of industry standard software such as Maya and XSI, and books dealing with how to operatre the software (Mostly quite expensive), for self study Issue 44 of 3D World, a British computer magazine, specialized on 3D animation, has an in-depth report on 3D training coarses; this issue is probably still on sale, or can otherwise be back-ordered; this might be helpful as well. As I have been a professional traditional animator since 1986, there is one thing I would advise you; animation is a demanding - if rewarding - job, that cannot be done half-hartedly, and the industry is quite tough; only persue a carreer in this field if you really, REALLY want to become an animator. Good luck (and lots of fun)!

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There's a good book called "inspired 3d character animation". Nevertheless I'd advice you to know as much about the field as you can. A lot of people begin studying animation just to realize that's not the right job for them... Regardless of what you've heard, "formal education" is not necessary on some cases. At the end what matters is how good is the job you can produce, not where you attended to school. If you go to places such as www.3drender.com or www.cgnetworks. you will know what I am talking about. At the end, getting into the industry can be boiled down to one thing: "be good". <---signature---> Free your Maya

Good choice of carreer. Nemirc is right on. To be good- you gotta be pretty much obsessed. There is SO much reading, problemsolving, time, & multitude of aspects of 3d you never considered, it takes a real love of it to get over the hump. If you have a good demo reel, any shortcoming in formal training can/will be overlooked. Conversely, a crappy demoreel & you are doomed, no matter your credentials. To get started, be prepared to read alot. I suggest try a still image project. Do the tutorials on your software of choice. Adding animation should be postponed til later, it adds more than double the work required. I love Poser, but you should not expect much respect for work if all you know is Poser. You need to get started with one of the big 3d programs, like Max, Maya, Lightwave. I believe Max & Maya are the biggest. good luck, Pack

It's funny, but I was wondering how to do 3D animation WITHOUT extensive programming knowledge.

Sheridan is in toronto and not vancouver :)