Education: Full Sail

School: Full Sail Real World Education, Inc.
Major: Computer Animation
Graduated: May 1st, 2002
Degree: Associates of Science

Full Sail was a fantastic experience for me and where I learned the necessary skills to break into the industry. At the time it was more of a vocational education than a generalized one but that suited me perfectly since I already knew where I wanted to go, I just needed help in getting there. The course load was very heavy with about 40 hours of work in between lectures and labs per week and about as much time out of class studying or working on projects. This accelerated and focused form of education is exactly how I like to learn -- good times!

What I Learned At Full Sail

At no point before or afterwards have a learned so many valuable skills in such a short amount of time. While some of my coursework didn’t apply directly to a career in video games, most of it did in some form or another.

When I entered the CA (Computer Animation) degree program, I had no real 3d experience to speak of. I had a decent amount of experience with 2d applications such as Photoshop due to working on web designs, and that probably helped a little when texturing, but otherwise I was a blank slate.

Animation however is just one facet of what I learned there. We where taught the process from raw conception through modelling and animating and processes even further down the pipe such as compositing and movement matching.

The main 3d tool taught and utilized was Maya 3 and then later 4. Recently I loaded up Maya 2010 after a few years of not using the application and I was happy to see that the basic workflow and concepts are unchanged.

Tooting My Own Horn

I graduated from Full Sail at the top of my class (Valedictorian) with the Advanced Achievement Award and couple course director awards. I’m not sure if that means anything to potential employers these days but it certainly helped a lot when I didn’t have any professional experience. Even though I still had a lot to learn beyond what they taught at Full Sail, I sure didn’t miss any lessons through lack of trying.