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should i quit my course

Posted: November 22, 2010
asa.mead
Hi

I've been studying computer animation for about 3 months now, when i was at school i never tried hard and just didn't put any effort in, this was a big mistake on my part and is a big regret. At the moment i am trying to turn my life around and get in to the computer animation industrie. i was able to get in to a university and i'm currently in my 3rd year and my course is 4yrs long, my first 2yrs were foundation years of basic computing and english, maths etc i never touch any kind of animation in these years, now my course is being more directed towards computer animation i am struggling, within the degree i am studying i am doing a lot of programming and there is a lot of high level maths which i am not good at. there is very little work using 3ds max or maya etc, and i'm even struggling with the little bits that we are doing in 3ds max. my questions are how long does it take to full understand a software package like 3dsmax, maya etc, do u need to know the high level maths that i am struggling with cause we are looking at algoritms, dot product etc and this is really confussing to me, and how much is programing used in computer animation will i be expected to be a high level programmer. And does anyone know where i could find some infomation about how a general day is in a job as a computer animator.
thanks
Posted: November 22, 2010
3d artist gallery Andyba
There are various kinds of animators.
One can only animate the character that was rigged for him by a technical director, and another can do everything he is asked to. He can create simulations, crowds, create scripts if he needs to and so on. You can imagine that the salary is different for both of them. The thing is that not every studio has a place for the first kind of animator... In a small studio they usually don't have the budget for both TD and animator. So the animator has to do all the tasks related to animation, some times even the 3d modeling and rendering is done by them.
Posted: November 22, 2010
BlackFear
asa.mead, why do you want to enter the computer animation industry in the first place?

I have never seen a person passioned about animation that asked an advice about quiting or not.
Posted: November 22, 2010
dTb
It is one thing to understand a 3d animation software and it is a totally different thing to be a good animator.