Is RIT a good school?

[mark-visser]

I live in upstate NY and was wondering if anyone has heard anything about Rochester Institute of Technology. I first heard of their 3d animation program from www.dylan3d.com but when looking for more people who graduated from the program I find very little except for a few dead links. Also their webpage sucks really bad, I find it strange that a school based in computer arts would allow such a crummy page. All the links to their students work are broken. But RIT is on Pixar's list of schools so it must have some merit. I was hoping for a few opinions of it before exploring further or searching elsewhere. Thanks!

Munch

[zaipha]

Hi there Munch,

I too have been browsing Rit... I agree their page sucks. I did what i would call, some good research on them granted I dont live in new york and therefore couldnt ask students. I contacted the head of the dept, and ask him some very in depth questions. He definetely knew his stuff, and in most regards described the program as what i would hope a 3d school to be, except for the fact that it seems to straddle the line as a film/animation program...and seems to have quite a focus on actually shooting of film, documentaries, etc. Just check out the undergraduate course list and you'll see what I mean. For my vision of a good 3d school, you'd definitely have these classes, but not so many, that 3d classess are the minority of the cirriculum. Get what I mean? I dont think you should study 4 years and only take a handful of 3d classes. * but then again, thats what often happens with a traditional bachelor program*...anyway, They did seem to have up to date equiptment and quite a broad range of subjects you are introduced to during the program. Just request a catalog or check throught their website very well. I did request a student reel of the program, and thats when my expectations just flopped. * mind you I have already been to a crappy 2 yr 3d program so I have some sort of radar* The student reel had maybe one good animation, the rest where strange and or just plain bad. It doesnt look any better than the stuff I saw when graduating from aih. Perhaps even a bit worse. Now I think that is most important when considering a program, look at the student work and see what they are producing. For instance, when I browsed the vfs site, I do see some rather good student work. Anyway, I eventually wrote off Rit, because of the reasons listen above, and the fact that they were really really expensive.

Hope this helps

... ps.. If you look again at the link you posted, the guy there graduated from the mfa program. Often times mfa's are way more concentrated in their course content.

Edited by zaipha on 10/29/01 03:09:21 AM.

[mark-visser]

Thanks for the info zaipha.

I may look into it a little further but I was sort of expecting what you decribed. And I'm certainly not going to pick my school based on one guy's work. He could be the exception to the rule. I'm just looking for a little consistency. I actually like the idea of learning some film but not at the expense of my goals.

[zaipha]

I did not make my desicion based on one guy's work. That student reel i mentioned was several * prolly around 7 or 8* student works from their graduating class.

By all means do your own research and know what to look for.

Good luck.

..which reminds me they also sent a brochure of their program with my package. The graphics on the brochure go hand in hand with the webpage.

[oroborus]

I know RIT's animation program well, since I went through it. I definately have to say that there are many better schools you could go to, but the work that has come out of RIT isn't as bad as that reel would suggest. RIT oddly enough attracts alot of talented students. I suggest you search out the works of George Zimmet, Hyunji Kim, or Ray Ng. Georges link on the web page list still works.

http://www.rit.edu/~animate/grads.html

The web page is admittadly horrible, since the person making it is not very talented, and hasn't put alot of work into it. Mostly students are too busy on their projects to make a new web page.

The "head" of the department you were referring to, really knows nothing about animation, or the animation program at RIT, since he does more in film. He also likes to give the impression that the school is a "film" school. None of the students pay him much attention, since if you go to the school for film you hang out with the film people, and if you go for animation you couldn't give a lick about film. Secondly, RIT is far more famous for an animation program than for the film program, which is virtually unheard of on the west coast.

The reel that you were sent, was probably from a few years ago. In the last year or so some of the best work I have ever seen from student work has been from some RIT students.

I admit alot of the student work isn't stellar, but RIT has no portfolio requirements which means artistic skill varies alot. Also the faculty at RIT is small (2 professors who teach 3D, 4 who teach 2D and 1 who has worked in stop motion) Of these 1 of the 2D professors is talented and up to date and the main 3D professor is for all intensive purpouses useless.

Despite this, however, there is a good acting for animation class (trains animators in physical expression very useful) and about half of the 3D classes are taught by thesis graduate students which means you get taught the things you need to know, because they actually are producing work and have relevant asthetic and technical knowledge.

Some of the schools equipment is knew, some is old (Indigo 10000s), but if your serious (and have the money) you own your own computer anyways.

Several recent graduates (4 that I know from the past two years) are working at ILM atm so that is a good I guess.

What I would rate as my top three schools to go to would be.

Ringling School of Art and Design (florida)
Although I am not familiar with their programs, Ringling School of Art and Design, seems to be winning alot of awards, and I always see some of their work at festivals.

Acadamy of Art College in San Francisco (undergraduate program). Although the admission standards are low (meaning varying quality work) The facilities are grear (or so I hear) and the faculty is knowledgable, plus the location is good for getting a job (or was before the economy took a dive).

Sheridon College (toronto)
great facilties (or so I hear), plus a fairly good location, and teaching staff. (again second hand knowledge)

If anyone aggrees or disaggres please say so. I am constantly looking for a good place to to recommend to people instead of RIT or maybe go grad school shrug who knows.

I hope I have been fairly objective and not too bitter, but RIT has strengths and faults. It's understaffed and some of the equipment is old, but on the otherhand I think the cirriculum is fairly solid. You work on a production cycle and are taught all aspects of production. (not just little projects for individual classes, but year long projects).

Sorry for the lecture, but I wanted to give the inside perspective here.

[shashclp]

Hi. I wouldn't be a good person without telling you the answer to that question; RIT is not a good school. I went there, for the computer animation MFA program. They don't know what they are doing and I ended up the same way when I finally graduated.

For example, the curriculum. They have you take 2 whole years worth of varied classes before you are allowed to work on your thesis movie. I ended up wasting money on so many classes I wasn't interested in. They also have required classes in those two years, and have it set up so that you can only take them in that time frame.

The people who make it from RIT would do so no matter what. The ONLY person I know from RIT who works at ILM did it on his own, getting the gig 3 years after school. He struggled to figure out what a demo reel for the industry was supposed to look like, meanwhile working like a dog to pay his accumulated RIT bills. Me too. I now am struggling to pay off $60,000.00 worth of loans and am not intersted in 3D anymore at all. Which is really too bad.

Face it, if you want to work at the special effects houses, go to school in their towns. That doesn't mean you can't move, it just means you will get an education from people who are or were in the industry. CalArts is full of Disney animators--most of their animation classes are held at night. If RIT was in San Francisco it would probably be the best school in the world. But it is in the middle of upstate New York and is being run by people who were in the film industry 10-20 years ago.

Practical advice? Look at the teacher's resumes. You should be able to find their bios on the school pages. RIT's teachers all have film experience. But 3D? Traditional animation? Industry experience? Hmmmm...

[oroborus]

I have to aggree with you on many parts. The varied classes, and the out-of-date or die hard "independant" film makers makes it hard for the students since oh say 1% of them aren't intending to go into the studio or gaming industry. I have to say, though, I am not sure when you graduated but things have been getting better lately (slowly). RIT offers more relevant classes, and has been lowering it's H&A (history and aesthetics) requirements, mainly by the solidarity of the animation student body and hard work on their part to get the administration to listen to them.

Yes I also agree that only one person I know of who went there "walked" into ILM upon graduation, and it wasn't based on his skill, or what he learned at RIT, it's because he knew somebody who knew somebody. As far as I can tell, skill isn't nearly as important as connections.

[shashclp]

And I agree with you. You can make those connections if you are in the same town as the company you want to work for. Why struggle at RIT and pay all that money to go there, when you could be going to a school in San Francisco? You could meet lots of people and have a better shot at getting your dream job.

Why put up with RIT at all?

[geoffrey-fulton]

Unfortunately, I find myself in your situation as well. As a current student at RIT, I have grown very disenchanted with the program and the faculty. I remained in the program because of the debt I had already accrued and decided to finish the degree - which isn't worth the money. If I could do it all again, I would have moved to the west coast and made connections with real professionals. The program offers no networking options for any of its students - so if I make it to ILM one day - it won't because I went to RIT - it will because of the connections I made after I left.
I advice people interested in RIT to avoid it.

And I agree with you. You can make those connections if you are in the same town as the company you want to work for. Why struggle at RIT and pay all that money to go there, when you could be going to a school in San Francisco? You could meet lots of people and have a better shot at getting your dream job.

Why put up with RIT at all?

[dieselich]

I have been in the film & animation dept at RIT for 4 years now. From what I can tell you is that the school's major concern is story, everything you make must have a story and a conflict. Even the great minds at Pixar, said story is important in an article. The facilities for the film students is well equipped and they have available for them a variety of expensive hardware to play around with. On the other hand, the animators, either 2D or 3D have the bad end of the stick. The Animation Lab that was just upgraded from old power Macs to dual monitor G4's is great for the 2D Artists. The lab also contains 2 Linux SGI machines that have been sitting there for more than 1 year collecting dust until someone decided to install Maya on them, an O2 and an Indigo2. The main SGI lab consists of 24 Indigo2 workstations with 256MB of ram.
The tour guides for the college pride themselves on how powerful these SGI's are and how the same computers are used at Pixar and ILM. Id admit that when I got the tour I was very impressed in their purple color and general coolness, but when I visited Kodak for a class, these same machines were stacked in the corner of the Render room collecting dust. We have been promised time and time again, that the lab will get upgraded, but as always the students have been let down.
If you want to come to RIT for film, I would recommend it. For Animation, I would come visit first and weigh out against other schools. If you coming for 3D, be advised that the classes are not taught by the professors, they are taught by graduate students who know more than the teachers themselves When the school prides itself on having great faculty, they aren't referring to the countless number of grad students who have taught the classes better than the actual faculty. The faculty is very one sided, and if someone doesn't like what you proposing for a film/animation the rest will join them. Most students after their 2 year, realize that maybe they shouldn't of invested their money in the Film/Animation school, and perhaps gone to a much better one that focused on more animation than film. RIT prides itself on having a high job placement for its graduates, from what I have seen and tried, there's lots of opportunities for other students, but none for the film & animation students. Im happy that I learned the aspects of film, and they have come through with my animations. But I should of gone to SCAD or sheridan for computer animation studies.

Pros: Learning Film and applying it to animation
Students share the knowledge between them
Good for 2D animators

Cons: Old high end equipment
Unskilled teachers in specific areas
No help finding job placement after graduation
No updated software for SGI hardware (Maya, Houdini, Shake, etc)
Prides itself on being a film school rather than film & animation

[shashclp]

I have to tell you, I went to RIT and wanted to learn 2D animaton. There is one teacher who knows some about it. I think he worked for a small company that output CDROMs. That's about it.
So please, please, please don't be fooled! They are NOT good for 2D animators.

If you are a film student who is interested in animation, RIT is the school for you. Unless you want to get a job, then the film schools in Southern California is where you want to be.

[gpexport]

This post is really old so I should say that RIT updated it's computers since then and is really getting its act together. The quality of the work coming out of RIT seems to double every year. It's not ideal but it's getting much better!