art/multimedia/animation courses ?

SCRUB

My little brother is thinking of doing some sort of art/multimedia/animation course, but doesnt really know what colleges do what. I dont have the time to check through all the college websites and was hoping most of the people here would know most of them. Im sure there's plenty of courses and I want to hear about them all (if possible ) .... if possiblw as well could you grade them or give me your view aboot them

Im gathering I would like him to do a degree that covers lots of aspects but I understand there isnt many of them aboot.

also I dont understand what goes into a portfolio and if you were to show yours off in an interview what it should entail .. does it change from college to college or what exactly.

thanks

p

Just make sure he doesn't do the multimedia degree in DCU as they've changed it totally from the prospectus.

It now blows quite considerably.

- Kevin

SCRUB

Thats the only course I have experience with and didnt know it was ever good

Rockiemalt

Try the Institute of art, design, technologhy Dun Laoightre or Ballyfermot college of further eduacation.. i wanna do courses like that too so i've been doing alot of research.also theres a film media open day thingy in the IFC on tuesday. u have to book for it though.
hope that helps

Sibeal

right here goes
Waterford Institute of Technology:
the art course is a bit pants to be honest, never saw any good stuff otta there. their course head Peter Jordan is v. good though. Not recommended.
The design course.. well, when I was there the best thing was the puter (14 in the class=1 puter each) & photography facilities hence u got loads of technical expertise (but no web stuff) but now their taking 60-70 ppl in each year so if ya get to stand in the puter room in the 3 years you'll be lucky. (roughly 24 G4's, 2 photo studios, 12 photo enlargers) Good photography lecturers, 1 ok design lecturer, the rest are poo. subjects are: book-binding, calligraphy, computer studies, history of art & design, illustration, Italian, lino & screen printing, marketing, metalwork, photography, sociology & typography.

DIT - Mountjoy Sq: Vis Com
am here now: sucky puters (7 G4's in the studio that work sometimes when they feel like it & bout 20 upstairs that work all the time) loads of opportunities to do extra stuff like stone carving, photo, multimedia, all sorts of printing, illustration, interior/furniture design & loads I cant remember. In my opinion one of the best places to do design - the art facilities aren't great though. V. good lecturers - make u very creative. Subjects: fabric printing, multimedia, landscape photography, law, printmaking, philosophy, professional practices & psychology. The course also covers core design
projects ranging from magazine spreads to interactive websites. (outta my cv)

NCAD: right the first year is very broad & u specialise in 2nd yr. can do fashion, glassmaking, fine art, design, jewellery making etc. I know some ppl there & if ya wanna do fine art or some of the crafty things eg; glassmaking its prolly the best place. not very good for design or photography (this is my area) & the general feeling is that nacders are muppets. basically i was talking to a girl i know who's finishing design this year & she said I was more qualified after 3 yrs @ wit than she is now.

Letterkenny: knew a guy who went there for a year & he thought it was pants - dunno never heard of any1 else going there

Athlone: never heard of anyone going there

Dun Laoighaire: Ask Adnan I think its good for multimedia

Crawford - Cork & Limerick: fine art mostly very good for that.

Portfolios: the main thing they must show is experimentation (in diff. media etc)
& CREATIVITY & THINKING - drawing isn't everything (except in mebbe fine art) & its not about what u can do on the puter - in most colleges u don't get to see a puter till 2/3 yr. first yr always sucks
when he knows what he wants 2 do he should talk 2 some one who's done/doing that course & prospectuses usually lie. the wit one says it does screenprinting & it hasnt for about 5 yrs

havok*

Athlone: Dont know anyone that went here either. But must say when i was down there submitting portfolio i was more impressed with it then any other college i've seen yet.

NCAD: I've known a few ppl from there, but only one that i could get along with. I gather theres more emphasis on self expression here rather then preparing students for working in the industry.

DIT: have heard nothing but good things about this.

Ballyfermot: Personally i did'nd go for the graphic design course here it as it looked completely p4nts. The Multimedia / animation courses here are good and has the only Game dev / Multimedia course in the country (LUDO which fusking rocks btw). Also very good for portfolio prep courses. Handy one for backup this.


On portfolios Sibeal is totally on the ball here. Showing ur thought process (how u went about creating / evolving / incorporating ideas ) is more important then the standard of drawing in ur scetchs.
Unfortunaly I only learned this after submitting my p/f. I'd excluded all my original concept designs because i thought they where to scribbley and wernt in a single scetch pad (most are on random peices of paper, smoke boxes, post-its ect) as a result i'm almost certianly gonna have to wait another year before getting on a proper design course
Most importantly have one or 2 ppl who know there stuff on art and design to have a look at ur portfolio b4 u submit it.
Had i have done this I would have croped and pasted my concept into a scrap book.
One other thing, watch who u take advice from. Only listen to ppl who are actully into art / design. I've had quite alot of bull**** advice thrown my way ("my friend said that...")

Hope this helps.
Hav

p

Originally posted by SCRUB
Thats the only course I have experience with and didnt know it was ever good

Ah its pretty good.
Not nearly enough focus on designing IMO, but still quite good.

Ah well not any more.

- Kevin

lazer

if i was starting again, i would def go to bcfe..

i am currently stuck in degree hell, my best mate is on there multimedia/animation course, they do much more stuff than i do.

3dmax,director,photoshop,dreamweaver,illustrator,photography, art,

FatB

I've copied this from one of our multi media students in tipp inst, lazer found it helpful so...
The course is 6 Subject. 4 hours of each subject a week

Java Programming: Continuous Assessment 50% + End of year Exam 50%
Write a few program and Do a java project.

Software Development: Continuous Assessment 50% + End of year Exam 50%
Assessment has to be on time are will lose mark. This is the only teacher who will take the marks off.
It's the basics of Software. People find it a bit boring. But itsd essential>we have do do it!

Web Development: Continuous Assessment 70% + End of year Exam 30%
Always learning interest stuff. Give us tips of where we can make €€ in computers!Fast moving Class. Always giving us things to do. Good Teacher.
Learn "Web Pages" = Taking Page, Video Page, Pages for Blind viewers, Dreamweaver , HTML etc….

Interpersonal Communication: Continuous Assessment 50%+ Exam 50%
Mostly fun. Two Teacher. One teacher talks about Communication in life.
The other is Communication in Multimedia. Cultural effects on communication.

Writing Skills: Continuous Assessment 70% + Exam 30%
Three teachers for this subject. Watch films like Citizen Kane and Blade Runner write about them. Do Press Release. Learn Writing Skills.

Design and Aesthetics: Continuous Assessment 70% + Exam 30%
Learn Photoshop.
Do mostly drawing.

The class it self, All young student. Age 17-24. All get on. More relax than other classes. Everyone Like or love the class.
Got new equipment. I think the college is planning to build somewhere to put it in.

hope this is what you wanted! p.s. the college discription can be found
here

Sibeal

actually I was in NCAD's library the other day & it's brilliant - if thats any help.
He should really talk to someone who did/is doing the course hes thinking of doing - thats the only way hell really know if thats the course for him (prospectus' usually lie)

SCRUB

Alrighty thanks all for responding, im a bit clearer but all in all this seems like a very sticky situation.

thanks again

JBoxster

BCFE is an excellent place to learn REAL skills...ive done the animation course and LUDO ..and the graphic design course is also highly rated...

sineadw

edit - just realised how OLD this is!