Nerd Armada

Thanks for the kind words! I’m not really up on which schools have the best animation programs, but if anyone else out there has some opinions, please feel free to help out. From my experience, where a person went to school has little bearing on hiring. There are good reasons to go to certain schools, but in the end it’s all about your work. Make that your focus. I went to a state school and studied advertising. In four years, I took only one life drawing class and the teacher wasn’t terribly helpful. All my lessons were from drawing cartoons every day, and then later learning on the job. Pick a school where you can be happy. Those years should be exciting and fun.

Draw frequently and with passion. Learn the basics - Know your shit. Be able to draw anything well. If you want to have a long career, you’re going to need to work on a variety of shows in wildly different styles. You’re going to be competing for jobs against people who are insanely talented and professional. Don’t let that deter you. Use it as motivation to always be better.

Figure out what part of the process interests you most: story, design, painting, animating. You can be good at all of them but productions are very compartmentalized, so you’ll need to be especially good at at least one of them. That will probably affect what kind of school you go to.

In the end, just make sure you come out of there with a great portfolio or short and make lots of good friends. Get that stuff online and get it seen.

I hope this helps. Good luck!