The word from the school when a relative called this morning is that all of the decisions have -not- been made. They're finishing up this week, and the absolute latest that will take would be Friday. They have already made some decisions about some people getting IN, but they've also made some decisions already about people being REJECTED. I am in "limbo," they said; neither decision has been made about me for the simple reason that they haven't gotten to me yet. Thus, the reason those decisions exist already isn't because they necessarily stood out as awesome or terrible, that's just how far along they've gotten through evaluating. As they progress they make decisions. I'm surprised they're even letting people call (it wasn't my idea, I already said in another post how I feel) but they did say we could call as often as it takes to ease any anxiety that crops up. I am thinking once Thurs and once Fri ought to do it, if they're so generously-inclined. But I think it's brave of the school to do that when most of the applicants probably won't be as reasonable lol :) Good fortune to all
I hope that all goes well and your accepted into the program. I'm not very familar with the school and it's foundation classes, etc. Can you fill me in on it? My fingers are crossed for ya!
Cheers
Cereal And Pajamas New Anthology : August 2007
http://www.comicspace.com/cerealandpajamas/
Wait-listed. Much better than a rejection, but they have no rankings determined as of yet and he said the list was "not long" but described it as near 100 applicants. Considering 45-60 were what was said to be accepted, even if everyone declined their acceptance I still could be halfway back on the waitlist and not get in. I understand that the school isn't in a position timewise to know anything but I almost feel bad for calling to only now be more uncertain than I ever was before =) He also said there's a month deadline for acceptances and waitlisted to get back to them and see if any clearing-out has taken place. Thanks everyone for their support and I'll keep you posted!
Anyone from Ringling know what is normally recommended as (approaching the level of) comparable backups in this situation? I need school to keep my health insurance. I would only have a couple years living with cystic fibrosis without it (some of our meds are at 7 grand a box) and I'd like to stay on track.
S.L., sorry to hear about the news. I wish I can tell you the circumstances about your application but we went through a lot of applications that night; it's all a blur now.
This is the first year we are letting in 90 students; double from what we let in two years ago. We never come close to getting those 90 due to student financial problems or completing schools with lots of scholarship money. So depending on where you fall on the waiting list things can turn of for the better.
As for other schools I know a lot of our applicants apply to SCAD.
ed
Department of Computer Animation
Ringling College of Art and Design
Sarasota Florida
I just heard a story from my neighbor whose son didn't make it to Ringling and went to SCAD for animation. He said he enjoys the program and the price, but he's not finished yet so he doesn't know how it'll benefit him going there instead vs. RSAD. However, he's confident because he's working his tail off and he enjoys what they have to offer as a school academically; his only real problem is the physical school and its surroundings.
Ninety kids? Wow. I have never had an enormous ego about the situation, leaning more on the side of being self-critical, so even though I know on paper (no pun intended) I am a very competent artist I was scared when I thought it was 60 students. Then Amy Fischer told me that wasn't an accurate figure and RSAD generally accepts 45. She also thought my work was very competitive. Now it's 90 and I didn't make that. I am actually happy in that respect, though, because the school carries an enormous reputation, and as I've said before I imagined myself competing amongst some of the best in the world. They must have brought their A games. I've seen work from people that got accepted that if I'm honest I hope they didn't submit, for the sake of confusing me greatly in what would seem like contrary behavior. But every single person had something to offer, and so I respect that the school lives by its creed of seeing potential by whatever definition fits its criteria.
Make no mistake though, I'm reviewing other schools, but I'm holding out. Now is the moment when persistence counts. I've suffered many misfortunes in life and shrugged them off and lived as normally or better as I knew how, and decided paying my dues and earning what I get is my character, and that I'd live that life regardless of what cards were dealt to me. My whole life is targeted for this very purpose of going here (to RSAD) and making of it exactly what I anticipate to, and using it to springboard myself to personal and outwardly-reaching success. There is not an ounce of my energy I won't use toward getting fully accepted and proving on the ground that the decision made was a good one, even if right now it stands as half a decision, and even if the only thing I can do with that energy is wait.
However emotionally charged that might seem I couldn't be of clearer mind when I say that, and I know wherever I go and whatever I do I will excel because that's who I am. I guarantee this entire board I could teach myself in a cardboard box and still come out a working animator. Some of you already know me well enough to see that.
That said, I hope we are able to see each other next fall. Box-life is a hassle even if it's do-able. :)
You touched on the one thing I wish I could've snagged on the phone. It's useful information that he said had yet to be determined. If 90 applicants were accepted and 1/3 of the total is waitlisted, that's virtually half of the entire pool. If I'm 99th on that list that's pretty much telling me to prepare for another place to go. If I'm 10th, then there's a lot more hope than I could hope for.
It's pretty funny. I was coasting for that last week there, pretty oblivious to worry or anxiety and then I got the jitters as info came in on the immediately-accepted students. Then the jitters got the best of me and I called. And now I'm caring just like I did when I found out about the school. And just like I did when I visited the school. And just like I have since the shock broke and I realized an opportunity too great to happen could be true, connecting me with something I thought was surreal, and achievable only through the greatest of fortune, but was in fact accessible on a real and practical level if I'd only just work for it, which I am quite used to doing.
I'm still excited. I'm not down and thanks to the school certainly not out. It's just going to be a matter of handling it and living day to day. This might be ideal, how this worked out so far, as a growth experience...Counting my blessings, because positive thinking is what I have on my side, right? Thanks for the information, and I appreciate your presence here on the board.
Vincent John Florio,
Student of life...student for life...student of animation...
Hey vincent, I'm STILL waiting on my letter telling me if I made the cut or not. I would normally be able to handle the anxiety myself, but my entire family is devouring their collective fingernails wondering what it's going to say. My mom is threatening to call down there, but I told her I wouldn't speak to her again until I get the letter so she wouldn't ruin it for me. I worked my ass off to get my portfolio ready while working a full time job and putting my wife through school and paying the bills. I don't want anyone taking that feeling away from when I get the letter in the mail. Whether it is good or bad, it is MY moment not thiers.
then my wife and I are going to celebrate/console at Outback Steakhouse on whatever day it arrives.
Don't give up. I'm rooting for you. you could still get in. Stranger things have happened.
"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that has been given to us." ---Gandalf
Just wanted to say really quick that the dedication and passion for the art and craft of animation on display by hett and SL is tremendously refreshing. With their obvious love of the art form evident in their posts, the future of our industry has a couple of pros in the making.
Whatever happens with RSAD, keep at it. It's the skills you learn and apply that matter most, not where you learn those skills. I should know - I've been earning my living in animation for over a decade and went to a school I'm sure most of you have never heard of.
Hett's got the right idea - an Outback steak is great for celebrating, and an excellent cure for what ails ya! :D
One of my female friends just got into the nursing program at U of M -- we went to a local barbeque/brewery nearby (I eat, I don't drink lol) and had the prime rib and ribeye.
Nothing says lovin' like cow chunks from the oven.
What the school doesn't know from my application, and what would benefit them as much as it has already benefitted me, is that far from just being creative and artistic and caring for animation, my heart and mind have been active in a very real way with this from as soon as I've had the free time.
What I mean is, someone who wants to grow up to be an actor, REALLY wants it...they're an actor before they get any parts, that kind...would be joining local companies, auditioning for anything their high school drama club puts on the table, etc. They mean it so they go out and do everything they can find at every step of the way to perfect their craft. Well we're drawn actors, right? So it should be no different.
Especially in this past year and a half, I've been reading the books, re-reading them until I actually -get- them, going to the zoo to draw and study motion (I've got a journal of clips from the digital camera), and most importantly hitting my cheap-arsed little lightbox and learning through experience. Animation is now a very real and tangible thing to me. It's important to me. I see why I've been drawn to it, why it's my calling, and even more of why it has its cultural place in history and the so-called "human condition." What I've come to find is that while I can be as interested as I want, when it comes time to actually step up and enter the real world of the art by touching it, the remarkable thing is I am more passionate and more fascinated, more -addicted- you could almost say than I could have previously imagined just exposing myself to it and certainly past the extent of anything I could write about.
Much like I want this school because of the virtually infinite resources, I am into animation because like Greg has said before it's "creating something out of nothing" and it is this -truly- limitless world. The cliche thing we're all told when we're bouncing on our parent's knees is that we can do anything we put our mind too. In animation, we can create anything we put our mind to work on.
My connection with all of this is I was never into the emerging subculture of "art kids" as I was growing up who dress a certain way or frost their hair or hang out at coffee joints or get into drugs or what have you. But art was who I was, even if I didn't wear it (so to speak). But it was also simply something I -did-. So BEFORE, I went into the work because it interested me, and I pumped up my abilities after dedicating myself to said work and observed and learned from the outcomes. But then when I saturated my mind and my time with it, I began to really care about using -my- brain and -my- mind and personality, and doing something with it.
I was at the museum, for example, and saw this lovely painting of a cabin in the snow at night. I thought "I've been there, and I've felt that. Geez if I could only just have a space cleared in my life to express that. Even if it's only for me." And it left a place called school and led to my decision to eventually direct for animation. Soon my mind was not just coming up with but leaking all these great ideas for shots and scenes and even dialogue, sometimes just spontaneously through inspiration, and I began to have such useful and (though I've used the words before) tangible and practical thoughts about what would make a good design, or a good angle, or a good MOVIE even. I got caught up in it. Still am.
I am only recently learning 3D software, coming from an interest in 2D and a limited budget, and I'm sure there are trillions of people from 14-60+ that could out-Lightwave me or what have you from familiarity with the packages alone that I will only see in the near future. But what can't be beat (not even speaking competitively, only for my own goals) is my drive and determination to see it all through so that those shots, those "snow cabin paintings" if you will, get to see the light of day. Everything in my life so far has had the fingerprint of love on it, and to a large degree my intelligence, and even my finite songwriting has influenced many people in ways I never considered (from stories they tell me or that get back to me).
So, I am excited to unleash myself on the world. It could be as simple as being another contribution, but what I will not be is just another guy, another "OH yah, he can animate too." I intend to bring my assets (and they're there) and do something with effect. I don't care for fame; it's highly likely my entire life will be anonymous except to those I immediately know. But for the IMPACT I choose to have I might be the next Disney, resuming where he left off (though if we're being literal I think Lasseter's doing a great job in similar shoes, or even Bluth by extensions)...or maybe even surpass and fulfill all the wishes of those who've come before me by finding a new place to take the medium.
And it all starts here, having busted my ass and devoted myself to actual grindwork to learn this thing. And more exciting than that is that I'm not alone, as DSB pointed out (those words mean a great deal by the way, to come by that recognition instead of being cast off as carbon-copy)...I came into it a good draftsman and I get better all the time. And while I can be a competent actor, I hadn't considered opportunities or real career pursuits because I am here in this field, this line of work. What I can do is bring my acting, and my developing acting skills, to the table (ar ar ar =) and perform the hell out of anything I get my hands on.
See you there,
Vincent John
Making a life...
As an aside, DSB, for motivation... I've read much of what you've had to say on these forums. Sounds like you've busted butt, and here you said you came from a relatively unknown place to do it. What was that transition like, going from student to full industry arrival sans the aid of "career support." How difficult was it, and how do you imagine another school might've benefitted you, if you even feel it would've? I think that's something Hett and I could benefit from hearing, if you'd be so inclined as to share. I'd genuinely appreciate it.
Just think, Michael Jordan didn't make his high school basketball team, and look what he did.
"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that has been given to us." ---Gandalf
Space Jam? haha kidding... occupational humor?
Your damn right he did Space Jam! ha ha ha
The high point of his career!
"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that has been given to us." ---Gandalf
SL, I'm truly flattered that you'd consider anything I have to say of value. In my mind, my career is so incredibly average that I have a hard time imagining that anyone besides me would find it interesting. I forget that it does represent real-life experience that someone coming up might find valuable. So here goes... :D
I don't know how relevant my experience is, because I started at a different time, and got some lucky breaks early on. When I got started, animation was at it's mid-80's low point. We had to have friends and relatives sign up for the animation classes at the school I attended so the college wouldn't cancel them for the year. Then these saints would drop the classes just in time to get a refund of their fees, leaving the same 5-8 people in the program that were there the previous year. There weren't people clamoring to get in to the animation curriculum - quite the opposite.
The lucky breaks came in the form of getting a film into Spike and Mike and doing some professional work while still in school. Having credits, however meager, was a big help when I started looking for opportunities in the business.
Then the animation and game industries started booming in the late 80's, and I found my skills in demand. My first full-time job was as the *lead* 3D animator at a game company, and they hired me based on my 2D work and a willingness to learn the software.
Since then, I've applied my animation skills to all sorts of different projects: TV, film, location-based entertainment, web, games, video, etc.
Like all career summaries, it's high-level and makes each transition sound effortless and natural. Not always the case (but sometimes it was...). When I look back, it was frequently a lot of hard work and determination that carried the day, along with a bit of naivete. When I look at some of my old reels, I marvel that anyone saw anything in them worth hiring! :D
But as corny as it sounds, the results you get are directly proportional to the effort you put in. The cliche is true - the hardest job to get is the first one. The second hardest job to get is your next one...
As for whether a different school would have helped - maybe. The college I went to was more independent film oriented, and while I now prefert that (having spent time in big studios and finding them not at all to my liking...), it wasn't what I thought I wanted back then. Back then, the goal was Disney, and the school didn't spend as much time on some of the fundamentals as a CalArts or Sheridan might, focusing instead on personal expression in the medium. So I had to pick up a lot of that missing knowledge on my own. I did eventually work for the Mouse for a time, so I guess I learned enough to make the cut, but learning it in a more structured environment would have made the process quicker. These days, unless you're in a "learn the buttons to push" school, that's not as much of an issue as it was then.
The thing about school back then was access to equipment and information, as well as the classes. Schools had the equipment (camera stand, Steenbeck, mag machine) and the three books that existed at the time on animation. Today, it's a totally different story with digital tools and the web, which is why (I think) there's more interest in the field, as well as a proliferation of less-than-stellar work. It's technique, not tools, and some people never get that.
While there's more competition to get that first job today, I think that those who truly care about the business and can't imagine doing anything else will be the ones who ultimately make the cut. The ones who aren't 100% committed will be distracted by something else and move on, which thins the herd, eventually.
However, that's not the same as keeping your eyes open and looking for opportunities outside "mainstream" animation. You can't imagine how appreciated you can be doing work for a corporation, for example, using basic animation principles rather than letting Flash do all the inbetweens. I did a Flash bit for an e-learning company 6 months ago that took less than 3 hours to complete. Every time I go back there, the company president says hi and mentions that clip. I guess what I'm saying is have a goal (Disney, Pixar, ILM, Blue Sky, etc.), but don't let that goal get in the way of having a fulfilling career. Lots of people have great careers without ever working in their "goal" studio.
And in the same way, you can get a first-rate education at a school other than your first choice if you put in the effort. After all, Glen Keane and some guy you never heard of sat in the same classes at CalArts, and my little school turned out the creator of "Rocko's Modern Life".
Hope that helped, and sorry for the rambling. You should have seen it before I edited it...:eek:
My good fortune wishes have worked well for others. Based on confirmations from other accepted students, only 4/5 of the seats remain with two days to go. I came home to hear that one of my relatives called on my behalf and said I was declared unreviewed and thus in a "limbo" state, and that I should try again once each day to find out what my fate is. My nerves were doing awesome until all these acceptances started cropping up. I love that these kids are getting in, but it is limited space, so you're happy to a point and then going "Ooch" immediately after.
I'd use the word bittersweet but bitter is a bit harsh. How about nervousweet.