Part-time Animation courses

SWEETCAN2000

Hi all,
I really want to get into animation and I'm looking for a part-time course, evenings or weekends to get me started.
So far they all seem to be full time
Located in Dublin or North Wicklow.

Any help really appreciated,

Thanks

ztoical

Are you looking ti study it for hobby/make your own small shorts or to get work in the industry?

Ballyfermot College has offered some intro evening classes in the past but don't know if they still are - if they are you won't get one at this time of the year. They do a summer course but its geared towards 4th/5th year secondary students. Do you have an art background? Depending on your skill level you may find an evening course too basic as most don't cover very much.

What area of animation are you looking to study [classical, stop motion, computer, flash]? You can do a few short course in flash animation at film base but they are geared towards professionals.

You can study online via animation mentor but it's not cheap.

If your really interested in animation and haven't spent alot of time sketching I would start there, you can take life drawing classes in a number of places in Dublin and there's a sketch group run via this board [check the sticky at the top] that you can join to get your drawing skills up to the level needed for animation.

SWEETCAN2000

Hi there,
Thanks a mil for the prompt reply.

I'll check out BCFE thanks. I'd like to get into the industry. I've always been very good at art, cartooning in particular and have worked in TV Production for a number of years.
I don't have an art portfolio however, so I suppose a course to help me build one would be great. I'm interested in all types of animation really.

ztoical

SWEETCAN2000 wrote: »

Hi there,
Thanks a mil for the prompt reply.

I'll check out BCFE thanks. I'd like to get into the industry. I've always been very good at art, cartooning in particular and have worked in TV Production for a number of years.
I don't have an art portfolio however, so I suppose a course to help me build one would be great. I'm interested in all types of animation really.

if your looking to get into the industry then you would need a full time course, any part time course you find is only going to be an intro. Note there is a difference between animation and cartooning - if your putting a portfolio together for either a course or to get an internship at a studio they don't want to see any "cartoon" work, they want to see strong basic drawing skills. I would take a bunch of life drawing classes and fill a few sketchbooks with observational drawings and look to do the one year foundation course in BCFE further down the line.

O'Coonassa

SWEETCAN2000 wrote: »

I really want to get into animation

You don't need a course really there are shedloads of tutorials on teh interwebs. Pick whatever programs you want to learn and go for it. I'm learning 3DS Max, Poser, Zbrush and Vue at the moment. It's really buzzy lol Everything you need is on Piratebay and Demonoid. I'm only learning for the hell of it but I heard the animation industry isn't bothered about qualifications, what gets you hired is a short (pref. 3 mins) clip of your skills.

ztoical

O'Coonassa wrote: »

You don't need a course really there are shedloads of tutorials on teh interwebs. Pick whatever programs you want to learn and go for it. I'm learning 3DS Max, Poser, Zbrush and Vue at the moment. It's really buzzy lol Everything you need is on Piratebay and Demonoid. I'm only learning for the hell of it but I heard the animation industry isn't bothered about qualifications, what gets you hired is a short (pref. 3 mins) clip of your skills.

not ture, speaking as someone working in the industry, a studio will look for training and or exprience as there's one thing to be able to animate but a totally different kettle of fish being able to work in a studio. Bigger studios might have the time to train people in but the studios in Ireland rely on commercial work for their bread and butter and have very tight turn around times so they don't have time for people who don't know how a studio works. Last production I worked on we had to let people go who while good animators weren't up to speed for a studio, couldn't read or fill in x-sheets correctly, couldn't do proper timing charts, all this delays a production and costs a studio alot of money.

Plus no studio will hire people based just on their show reel, that gets you in the door but you will then be given what is called a style test, where you are given a scene in the current style the studio is working [styles can change alot between projects] and you will be expected to animate the scene not only to a high standard but within a fairly tight time frame. Remember animators are paid per scene [or per foot of film] so you need to be both good and quick.

If you are looking to pick up computer programs Toon Boom and Tv paint are the ones you should look at if you want work, esp Tv paint as it's expected to replace flash for animation work.

ztoical

O'Coonassa wrote: »

Everything you need is on Piratebay and Demonoid. .

Also pretty sure its a board no no to tell people where to download stuff illegally

SWEETCAN2000

ztoical wrote: »

Also pretty sure its a board no no to tell people where to download stuff illegally

Thanks a mil to you both for your information.
That's interesting about TV Paint - where can I get it?

3D_Animator

Hey Sweetcan.
I work for a large uk games company as an animator... and myself and all my colleagues got hired based on our showreels... . We are all paid a salary not per scene/footage. Getting paid by scene/footage is related to classical/2d animation on a freelance basis. Many of my friends from college working for irish studios also get paid a salary and got hired based on their showreels. Drawing skills are very important, but if its a 3D animation job you are aiming for in the future, the quality of your animation is equally important. I am based in the UK, but I do know one of my mates back home in Dublin will be offering one to one part time animation training soon... he mentioned it to me last time I was home. He is also working as an animator.... if thats something you'd be interested in.

mjquinno

Hi all Im just posting here if anyone is interested in doing an Animation course or even get peoples feedback on Animation courses in Dublin. I spent the last few weeks looking for an evening class in animation, I finally found this on

http://www.amiando.com/YBYIEEI.html?page=580829 its run by www.cfcp.ie.

The thing is they don't have enough people at the moment to run the class so they may have to cancel it so I taught I'd spread the word incase anyone else is interested in doing it as there doesn't seem to be much else on offer. They are doing really cool evening courses in animation in Ballyfermot college and have team up with Brown Bag Films but you have to have some level of animation to do them, it's annoying. The contact there said they were hoping to do basic ones next year but I like to do one now so I could move on to the more advance stuff next year.

Has anyone done a good animation course they would recommend? or know of any other ones out there incase this gets canceled and Im back to square one.