I'm here to talk about my experiences attending an online game development college, majoring in Game Art & Animation. I won't name it here, because I plan on saying a few choice things about it, but I will say this: The college costs $25,000 a year, and I spent roughly 7 months there. I went for an associates, a 2 year degree.
The class had something like a forum where users commented on ideas and got grades for it for some assignments. They also had a normal forum that was unrelated. During my time there, I learned to make a Planning Chart for commercial games, but I didn't master any art. On one assignment, my teacher said I misspelled a word and took points off, on a paper about technology. Well I couldn't find a misspelled word, so I disputed it and got some points back. For one of the assignments, I was to draw on a paper sheet and was given special pencils. On the packaging of the pencils, the pencils said they contain hazardous materials that may cause cancer. Like what?
On a whim, the class would make you buy special, expensive computer programs out of your own pocket to participate in a class. Almost no warning whatsoever. The programs were $80-$800. I was given the subject of algebra and it was a special kind of Game Algebra with little instruction and pre existing Algebra books like you buy from the store didn't help. I flunked.
The Art teacher would tell you you did things wrong, but not explain how until you flunked twice. I think if you flunked 3 times, you were out of class.
So that's what I learned and my experiences. I still can't draw worth garbage. I learned more from hands on experience and talking to the right people.
The class had something like a forum where users commented on ideas and got grades for it for some assignments. They also had a normal forum that was unrelated. During my time there, I learned to make a Planning Chart for commercial games, but I didn't master any art. On one assignment, my teacher said I misspelled a word and took points off, on a paper about technology. Well I couldn't find a misspelled word, so I disputed it and got some points back. For one of the assignments, I was to draw on a paper sheet and was given special pencils. On the packaging of the pencils, the pencils said they contain hazardous materials that may cause cancer. Like what?
On a whim, the class would make you buy special, expensive computer programs out of your own pocket to participate in a class. Almost no warning whatsoever. The programs were $80-$800. I was given the subject of algebra and it was a special kind of Game Algebra with little instruction and pre existing Algebra books like you buy from the store didn't help. I flunked.
The Art teacher would tell you you did things wrong, but not explain how until you flunked twice. I think if you flunked 3 times, you were out of class.
So that's what I learned and my experiences. I still can't draw worth garbage. I learned more from hands on experience and talking to the right people.
