[Mythix]

I just feel like I really can't stress it enough... "Good artis w degree vs good artist without, artist with degree gets job" <- this is pretty much wrong. I mean, theoretically, yes.

But two persons are never on the exact same skill levels, and all the greatest animators, modellers and so on rarely have a degree of any type, and those with decades in the business knows how to seperate talent from mainstreamers. School is just a push in the correct direction, after that it's pure skill, talent and mentality, your papers won't really be noticed.

"Oh this portfolio sucks, the modelling is bad and the animation is mediocre. Did he make this in windows movi- OH BUT HE HAS 3 YEARS OF SCHOOL!! HIRE HIM!" doesn't happen, ever.

But "Man that kid had one sick portfolio, so clean and organized. No school? He sure has talent, lets grab him!" is way WAY more probable.

What exactly -is- school? They won't show exactly how to solve your problems, only link tutorials. You don't learn anything from them just showing you the solution.
Sure, if you encounter that exact same problem again. But every model and scene are of such complexity you will run into so many problems, you must know how to approach them to solve them on your own.

If you can't force yourself to sit infront of your computer, work 5 hours a day for a week on a project, having to go to schoon 9 in the morning doesn't make it funnier, easier or more worthwhile, and you'll be one of those 60% that simply never make it in the business. I went to school, and none of the people in my class are truly talented. We have three people who are extraterrestical in skill; but they had worked 3 years before they even thought about school. Using thousands of hours because they had a notch for it, willing to work on the same project for months to make sure they knew exactly how to do it.

The rest of the class just pay the school and fill space, every tenth minute they have to ask how to do something, then just copy what they saw. Sure, teacher explains why but it's in one ear, and out the other, unless they go home, try hundreds of different solutions until they realize how it works, or start over and do -everything- again (easily 100 hours spent on that on my car) for days. Which you don't need a school desk to do or understand.

I feel like this thread shouldn't die, because people don't know how bad their portfolios are, or useless. Sure, lots of cool text effects and fast camera blinking, but unless it's an editing portfolio, all they want to see is well-angled 3D related work.