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BLAH.
a lot of people HATE cal arts. Like...a lot of people.

Whenever I mentioned cal arts to people, they'd be like "OH, Cal Arts? why aren't you applying to ART CENTER? It's so much better!!!!".

But the truth is that in California, Cal Arts is like...the only GOOD animation school and when you TALK about animation schools, Cal Arts is usually the one people talk about.

Cal Arts is different . While most schools look for long drawn out oil painted master pieces, Cal Arts favors quicker, stronger, motion-oriented pieces. So I think that's where a lot of the upnosery comes from. They look for your imagination and your figure drawings more than your accuracy with a certain medium.

Also, at MOST art schools with an animation program, the students are expected to do a group film, usually in the 3rd or 4th year at the school. However, at Cal Arts, you're required to make a film every single year entirely on your own.

Another thing is that Cal Arts is alot more about developing a film maker's voice, whereas alot of other programs are geared towards producing commercialized products (believe me, I've looked). There's a huge diversity in the films that come out of Cal Arts, as opposed to the films that come out of other schools.

ALSO, Cal Arts is one of the few schools that teaches almost exclusively, Traditional Animation. Most schools now are geared towards 3D animation and training more on the technical side than on the artistic/expressive side. I've often heard that people that graduate Art Center have a stronger technical strength than Cal Artians....but when you look at the fact that you have to take illustration and then in your junior year you're able to actually ANIMATE at the Art center...that point becomes kinda moot.

I'd also like to mention that there isn't anyone that graduates from the program that doesn't end up working for big companies. Whenever I hear people putting down Cal Arts, I KINDA want to slap them. Every school has it's "oh my god, what the hell is that' kinda people, but the 2 or 3 students that would envoke that kinda attitude are outnumbered by the great success of the people that come out of the school.

Cal Arts was the place for me (and it WASN'T easy to get into. about 300 or so people sent in portfolios and only 45 were accepted...which is a TAD more than usual). The school really encourages independence and and finding your artistic voice and doesn't seek to limit you with over analysis. It's not a school for everyone. Specially with the 40k+ tuition.

Not necessarily better, but what I'm saying is that it's better for me, personally.
Cal Arts does have a fine arts program...which apparently is pretty big, but I haven't really heard anything about it which leads me to believe that it's not that great.


And Cal Arts actually DOES value more traditionally driven art processes. The Character animation program is BASED mainly in figure drawings. The longest pose you'll probably ever do at Cal Arts is an hour and that's probably done only once in the 4 years you're there. And as I'm sure you know, figure drawings tend to be done fast. So naturally, they're going to want to see what you can do in a short amount of time....

And also, what's wrong with "expressive slick s**t"? :/ Animation (especially character animation-which is the program I'm in) is all ABOUT expression.

Why do so many people dislike Cal Arts? Seriously. ;/ I mean, I'm not an idiot that just melts over Cal Arts and I do see the value in a lot of other colleges-I do. But Cal Arts is the place for me personally. It's the kind of place that's going to stress the points that I feel are important. And not only that, the CONNECTIONS you can make in that school are crazy. ;/

Like, really....what's wrong with Cal Arts, I don't get it.....

Why are people so uppity when it comes to art schools?

I'm agreeing with mr_smite here. We have a few american students here who wanted to go to calarts, but couldn't afford to, and take every opportunity to express how much better the school is.

I know that they do construction, but the thing is that they focus too much on your style instead of skill. Being able to draw edgy and cool is like what fine artists do (find something different to paint), but when it boils down to it, it's not helping you sell. A school here forces you to take an internship, and the last 2 years are portfolio years, and we spend over 100k on a flipbook that's sent to major studios to showcase art. With 2 pages per student you have to really make it count.

Calarts is just slick s**t to us; It looks good, and sometimes rendered very nicely, but the structure itself lacks so much; Proportions change scene to scene without warning, character design lacks originality and instead focuses too much on "style". The thing about animation is it's supposed to be expression in MOVEMENT, not the way you draw it. That's what illustration is for.

We're uppity when it comes to art schools because people flooding the market and getting hired are pretty much ruining things. Look at the cartooning now, the art, the "famous" styles. Even in the illustration world, it's redundant nobodies who draw the same thing over and over...in the name of style.

Well one thing that I will say does get on my nerves at the moment is that like...a goo majority of the people that I've looked at that go to cal arts draw in a rather simular matter. You know the whole....Cartoon Network...Dexter's Lab/Powerpuff girls "vintage" look that's so hot nowadays...and that kinda does get on my nerves. So i can understand that.

I can tell the Cal Arts is a rather unique school in the way that they teach. I went to CSSSA, a program that's held at Cal Arts over the summer. Luckily, I got a chance to go to one of the very few years that had a lot of the actual faculty working. I got to know a lot of them and their philosophies/approaches to film making/art in general are very much appealing to me. I personally feel like it's the school for me. Not that I have a problem with other schools, but it just seems like the place for me.

I think that Cal Arts is the kinda school that, like you said, works for some people but doesn't for others. I think that a lot of what goes on over there is kinda left up to the individual and that works for some people, but doesn't for others.

I don't want to sound full of it, but I definatley think that I'm a lot different from most of the people that are in Cal Arts. I think that i have a different ways of looking at things, I favor different genres/subjects and I REALLY plan on making different types of films than the ones Iv'e seen at Cal Arts.

lol im goin 2 SAIC if i can get da money together. they gave me a total of $23000 in grants and merit so wooooo but i still need 20k -___________-