I will spare you the “ever since I was a kid…” awkward childhood history, because that was not really true in my case (i.e. “I always wanted to be a CG artist”). I will bore you some other time if you get me drunk enough.
The Various Choices
At the time, it was a choice between Lost Boys Learning (LBL) and another school in China. While the school in China offered some lovely hard-core-high-resolution-complex modeling stills, for some reason I had the feeling that LBL could offer something better. I kind of knew what I was signing up for when I enrolled, but I was not expecting a rollercoaster-ride (ok, that might be a bit dramatic).
Gillian and Mark
The school staff is very friendly and knowledgeable in their own professional fields. Gillian, our LBL administrator was very helpful from the beginning. She carefully and clearly answered all my trivial, annoying, and rhetorical questions with detail. From housing, travel-expenses to school curriculum, she had it all organized and sent to us no problem. Mark, our LBL mentor had years of experience in the field of Visual Effects and Computer Graphics. He started the Lost Boys Studios and worked on shows such as Stargate and The Outer Limits to name a few; so, most of the techniques we learned were straight from the industry.
The Studio Environment
The studio environment was very relaxing and enjoyable. The class population averaged from 4 to 9. A fairly decent size for learning. Mark actually had time to sit with each of us and explain/solve our problems – as opposed to only a brief amount of time per student. And because of the class sizes, we were able to get to know each other fairly well, often helping one another after-hours. If all else failed, we would ask George (you’ll eventually get this if you decide to go there).
Essentially, LBL had already created a working environment for us.
Essentially, LBL had already created a working environment for us. There were hardly any lectures – with the exception of the first few weeks or if there were ever general questions that could be addressed to the class. We would just go in and start working! This threw me off for a while because, personally, I was expecting a class environment. I wanted to be instructed or given a task when I first started there. But, I finally figured out that this is the way most companies work in the field. We were expected to work on our own and ask questions when we were stuck.
Each project was assigned to us with specifications and a deadline. These projects are related to the industry (eg: product placement, still-life objects, 2D/3D compositing, etc.) Thus, aside from the tutorials, these projects helped us to learn the usage of the tools we were given. The workflow was spaced out from concept planning to the weekly screening, comments and critique.
Apart from the assignments, there were also organized field trips to various studios as well as guest speakers from various people in the film industry. They were really amazing!
Our final semester, we got to work on our own personal projects at our own pace. It could mean one big project, or many small ones. We were to brainstorm many ideas, but were still reminded that we were not making the next Star Wars. Mark and Gill were always there to let us know about the practicality of our epic films. We listened some times. They know their stuff and were able to help us tone our ideas down and let us know what was possible and what was not.
The Verdict
Overall, I found that there was a steep learning curve having to learn a lot of the software from their giant archive of tutorials. Lost boys offered a lot of expertise for only a 10 month course. I am still in touch with Mark and Gill as well our class03 on a regular basis exchanging and sharing ideas. I love the place and wouldn’t have chosen anywhere else to go if I were to do things again.
After graduation, I got a 3 month contract at Technicolor in Vancouver. I am now working as a freelance modeler.
http://www.floatingrunner.net/
(2 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)
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