Still the same place, new directions

If I knew the question, I’d have the answer.

Going to GDC gave me a few more options, a few more insight, and only makes me feel only more lost. I’m pretty sure I want to be an animator professionally, but I can’t give up my illustrator/design nature either. I see uses that I would learn from the illustration/design that would be much help in animating (and vice versa).

It’s about trying to find what else attached to “animation” that I need to learn. Currently I would like to add “rigging” to it, and have found more “modeling” (maybe modeling theory more than modeling?) can help with setting up rigging (or at least make it easier to do so?) however, better “rigging” may negate/include the modeling need.

So I also want drawing classes (life, different mediums, drawing 2 or 3, etc) and design classes that go through theory (There was one at the CC I used to go to, I saw the stuff on the wall and gotten really excited. I was so looking forward to taking that class). I’m not very excited about art history, but dates and names never really stuck with me.

Talking to an alumni, he said its better to go to school for art, and find tutorials online for game stuff. He recommended Digital Tutorials. Last time I watched some of their videos, I was bored, and almost put to sleep. The voice on it was terrible. Others have told me not all of them are like it, but it has put such a bad taste in my mouth, I feel too reserved on doing it. However, it is an often referred to place to learn (even industry professionals will use it if they need to learn/re-learn programs). It certainly is much cheaper than any school I could go to. Lynda.com is another one that appears often. Both cost about the same (Lynda slightly cheaper) Going through forums of the various regular places (gameartisans.org, polycount.com, forums.cgsociety.org, 3d-palace.com, conceptart.org, etc) is all nice, but I’m so intimidated by posting there, and it can be so hard to find what you are looking for, simply because you didn’t chose the right category, or the terms you thought were right were never used in the exact thing you wanted.

I think I use school as a push to get work done, because without deadlines, I tend to not do them. Even self imposed ones last a short while. When someone else is depending on the final product at this date, I am 1000x more certain to get it done then. I completely know this, but so painfully aware of how much this sounds like an excuse to not do anything. A live person to help guide you through, or explain something a different way so you can understand is hands-down better than a recorded tutorial. Searching for an explanation can be as fruitless for reasons explained above. It does matter however, how good the teacher is. The downside to school is I can’t take my pace entirely. Some classes to go over what you grasped so readily the first time, or you being the one needing that extra class. I think this is cured by being around other people that have gone, understand, and have time to help explain this. Which is easier to find at a class setting.

So I am at a loss. Do I follow the “school for art, games online?” or start up more debt for a class room setting. Online or in person? No, the question, involves more what questions do I need to get answered, and who is most likely to have those answers. Can I just get a mentor whom I’m free to bug on a semi-daily (or even weekly) basis for help when I run into a snare, and point me into directions when I feel a bit turned around? Is there a program for that?