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Since I know a lot of young animators/animation students/high school students follow me, I think It's time I just made a thread about Ringling College. So, in my opinion, is Ringling College a good place to go to learn animation?
No. In my opinion, absolutely not.
I hope my experience can help explain why. I was a young artist who drew like crazy in high school, and I knew I wanted to animate since about age 15. I did research, Ringling College came up often as the "best" school for animation.
I hope my experience can help explain why. I was a young artist who drew like crazy in high school, and I knew I wanted to animate since about age 15. I did research, Ringling College came up often as the "best" school for animation.
I set my sights there and I wouldn't let myself think about the insanely high tuition (200k!), or the rumors floating around even then that the workload was almost insurmountable, even dangerous. I was SO driven and ambitious. I was not worried about having to bust my ass.
Every year the rising juniors sit down with the rising sophomores to mentally prepare them for what the next year will be. I was prepared for it, but just like everyone else, I got my ass kicked. The prevailing mindset is "just get through your sophomore year."
The workload is insane. INSANE. Maybe it's improved since I've been there, but christ, kids skipped meals, couldn't get their laundry done, broke down in class, NEVER slept a full night, and I mean NEVER. I think at my best time management I was averaging 4/5 hours a night?
I had SO much passion for animation. Finals week my sophomore year I stayed awake for five days in a row (it's true, ask my friends, I was a fucking machine). I didn't like any of my work. I couldn't focus on making any one assignment shine. My time was so divided.
I ended the year in a delirium and thought "ok fine, well that was sophomore year, now I know the software, junior year I can finally make an animation reel and get off the ground."
LOL no. I thought junior year would be about honing in what I wanted to be, sharpening my skills.
LOL no. I thought junior year would be about honing in what I wanted to be, sharpening my skills.
Instead, my entire four years at the "best" animation school, I got a grand total of TWO animation demos. TWO. You get lots of crit and stuff- but I wasn't given a workflow. I had to set up private meetings with teachers to be told how to actually... like fucking do the animating
Here's a general list of really bad stuff that I slowly grew to hate about their approach to teaching-
1. you have to learn HOW to do something at the same time you're expected to do it WELL. There is no room for growth and mistakes. Every assignment feels like do or die.
1. you have to learn HOW to do something at the same time you're expected to do it WELL. There is no room for growth and mistakes. Every assignment feels like do or die.
2. There is no time allotted in the curriculum to learn and perform at the same time. Usually students had to make time from their already insanely cramped schedules to go back and fix their work if they wanted nice reels. Just not enough time to learn.
3. I have a BFA, and boy do I not feel like it. The college knows the workloads for the majors are ridiculous, so any gen ed courses you take (AND PAY FOR BTW) have to be really watered down and light on studying and work. So they don't really... adequately teach you stuff :(
4. Senior thesis, which you are required to do, is a monster that swallows your growth. You have to do EVERY part of pipeline. Your senior year will not be spent honing your reel and portfolios for what YOU want to be, you will be wasting it doing things you don't care about
Want to be an animator? TOO BAD you will still have to storyboard your thesis, model, texture, light, and composite it. Do you know how much time that sucks away from you? Literal months and months. Learning to do that stuff takes hours and hours away from your passion.
Because of senior thesis, I worked myself to the absolute bone and graduated with great grades and literally NO ANIMATION REEL whatsoever because I had NO time to polish any animation that I did for my film. It was all first/second pass anim at BEST.
this is the "best" animation school??? I got TWO animation demos and graduated with honors but no portfolio for what I wanted to be? Do they really make their students industry ready? Or do the students bust ass above and beyond to make reels DESPITE the curriculum? hmmmm
Some of the most successful grads got pretty bad grades at school and weren't well thought of by teachers because they went "fuck this I'll just make side projects for me, and do the bare minimum for school assignments." GOD I WISH I HAD THAT MINDSET
Oh i should mention senior thesis is such a hungry beast and takes so much work to make that you have to start it in your junior year, yknow, when youre still supposed to be developing skills. It eats your growth. It will steal hundreds of hours from your life.
Some general knowledge is an asset, very useful, but it shouldn't trump artistic growth. I couldn't learn to animate because they were too busy teaching me everything else you need to learn, all for the holy grail of thesis, which was so much work I couldn't polish my anim!
5. The teachers are needlessly restrictive. For instance you HAVE to animate in stepped keys, not spline (this is stupid, the best animator I know has a spline workflow, it's fine). Designed a cute character with button eyes? NOPE we "can't empathize" (Winnie the Pooh??)
6. Poisonous culture rewards sacrificing health. In fact, it requires it. You CANNOT deliver high quality in all of your classes without restricting yourself from human necessities (sleep, hygiene, literally food). Why do you think I was crazy enough to stay awake for 120 hrs?
Faculty often claim students create this culture, not the curriculum, but that's absolute bull. You could do the bare minimum for all of your classes and still feel totally exhausted and swamped. Might as well push hard to get anything remotely decent out your suffering lol.
Not to mention critiques are often delivered with callous disregard for the strain students are under. For instance, I once had a story teacher dislike changes I stayed up all night to make to my boards, so he implied in front of the whole class that I was lazy. That shit hurted.
7. Some faculty can be downright dehumanizing. I heard students get told some of the most disrespectful things about their work. Professionals crit my work all the time- they don't struggle to be kind about it. Ringling faculty DOES. (small disclaimer some are very nice)
8. Tuition, and subsequent debt, IS NOT WORTH ALL THIS.
There's the pragmatic look- I paid 200k for two animation demos, the most miserably unhealthy work environment I've ever been in, a bunch of knowledge I never wanted and never used, gen ed courses I couldnt recall if forced
There's the pragmatic look- I paid 200k for two animation demos, the most miserably unhealthy work environment I've ever been in, a bunch of knowledge I never wanted and never used, gen ed courses I couldnt recall if forced
I basically re-taught myself how to animate in a workflow that works for me after graduation. What did I pay all that money for? I just re-taught myself how to do things with video tutorials and a wayyyy cheaper online class. I remade my entire reel.
But then there's the other cost.
I have a hand tremor that still isn't gone. I don't remember huge swaths of time from those four years of my life. I worked harder than anyone I know, and I don't know how to explain the effect endless, consistent sleep deprivation had on me.
I have a hand tremor that still isn't gone. I don't remember huge swaths of time from those four years of my life. I worked harder than anyone I know, and I don't know how to explain the effect endless, consistent sleep deprivation had on me.
The worst it ever got was those 120 hours. But I recovered from that. I couldn't recover from weeks, months, of only sleeping 3 hours, 4, 5, 2, none, per night. Working all available hours of your weekend. Feeling physically unable to hold your eyes open, for day and days
It fucked me up, guys. I'm not sure if I want to get any more specific. I am no longer capable of things that other people can still do. I'm not a machine anymore. I cannot summon willpower like I used to. I don't know where the passion went. After i graduated I was just.. a husk
I am two years out from graduation now, and I was JUST starting to feel recovered from burnout before covid 19 hit, and US politics turned ugly, and sent me back to square one. I keep trying but I did damage myself because of that school. I still can't shake it.
It sounds overdramatic, but the best word I'd use to describe my time at Ringling College would be "suffering." Like truly, I am not the same person I was before. I wouldn't wish it on anybody. As long as this thread is, please know it barely scratches the surface.
The last thing I will say is that I did have some truly incredible teachers. Unfortunately I think the curriculum is so fundamentally flawed that individual teachers couldn't turn my experience around. This just isn't a program that works for a lot of people :(
