CGTarian (online courses)

[Rodney]

CGTarian is yet another online school that has offered a wide range of courses.

I'm not sure if we've discussed those before.

 

Recently CGTarian launched out on an updated path with new instructors and few newer approaches.

I note that JP Sans (highly active in the Animschool realm is an instructor*) and a focus is said to be that individual courses can be taken without signing on for the longer term.

 

A little about CGTarian (from their website):

Learning from CG industry experts is an efficient and interesting way to study.

The CGTarian online school was founded by Lithuania-based Vadim Besedin.

The official inauguration of CGTarian was September 1st 2010, when it was launched online and made available to the Russian speaking community. A considerable amount of preparatory work was done and multiple researches were conducted before the launch of the school. Vadim had the idea of an online school quite a long time ago. Somewhere in 2001, he dived into CG and from time to time would tutor friends and colleagues. He was not quite thinking of the actual online school back then but those were the first steps towards its emergence.

As he was working in a MOCAP studio, he taught people how to use the equipment, how to work with the MOCAP data and apply the latter to a 3D character before animating and polishing it at a later stage. This was how Vadim began sharing his experience with those around him and subsequently developing his teaching skills. At the same time, he continued delving into various CG fields - modeling, rigging, compositing, photography, tracking and many others. Moreover, he studied from books, watched tutorial DVDs and took various online courses to add to his experience and knowledge. However, these were all different information sources and, at some point, the idea of a school as one source of relevant information became apparent and more and more appealing.

Vadim has always been passionate about learning anything new, so he wanted to find a school or classes that would give him the opportunity to choose a subject, or a CG field, provide him with all the relevant information and answer all the questions that are an inevitable part of the learning process. To his joy, he did find schools and classes offering what he had been looking for; some more affordable, others rather expensive. He was drawn to some of the schools' syllabi, reviews and student work. The classes lasted from 3 to 18 months. It was then that Vadim realized that being tutored by CG industry professionals was the most efficient and rewarding way of learning! The advantages of these classes are the supervision of an instructor who answers all the students' questions (even those not relevant to the class), guides them, reviews their assignments and advises them on how to improve their performance. Generally, this kind of learning is more convenient and effective than independent learning, where students need to tediously collect information from various sources on their own.

Vadim persevered with his studies and pursued his teaching career on the side; he would record video lectures for some of his classes or would simply show his screen through Skype. He considers those to be his first online classes. He spoke to his friends whom he worked and studied with and together they decided that they were ready for their first classes. Opening a school requires a lot of work and effort but Vadim and his friends already had the experience, resources and work ethics required for success. CGTarian Online school was born.

In 2008, during his studies, Vadim met with Jalil Sadool who at the time was working at Weta Digital Ltd in New Zealand and teaching animation online at the same time. They both had that same passion for sharing everything they learn. After the opening of CGTarian Online School in 2010, for the two years that followed, Vadim would often invite Jalil to conduct online master classes. The pair had a lot of respect for each other and Jalil was especially amazed by Vadim’s dedication to the success of his school.

In 2012, after a visit and an animation workshop in Lithuania, Jalil and Vadim decided to join strengths and build a branch of CGTarian Online School that would be accessible to English speaking students. Jalil invited his friends and colleagues from the industry to join the online school and build very unique curriculums. Each course was designed to intertwine and complement each other while keeping the uniqueness of each individual instructor’s sense of appeal. The CGTarian team would get together week after week and brainstorm the best ways to convey their message. The courses were constructed in a way that would favor each instructor’s strengths and passion. They listened to the outcry of the animation community. They built an Online School that would bring the best out of students by showing them the good practices of animation through individuality.

Being successful in animation, it’s 5% talent and 95% hard work. How much do you want it?

 

 

The price of admission is still high for attending online classes but as long as the value is also then taking a course may be well worth the effort.

 

As always, my suggestion would be to sample the lessons available online first before diving in to the paid courses.

This serves several purposes:

- It helps to formulate the right questions you'll need to be asking during the actual courses (such as those related to where you get stuck)

- It helps to learn the lingo that may be a little different from what you already know

- It keeps money in your pocket while learning at a comfortable pace

- It maximizes your experience, return on investment and success when you do finally launch into a paid course.

 

Current instructors include: Mike Safianoff, Jalil Sadool,David Stodolny, Rebecca Perez, Joe Bowers, Juan Pablo Sans (JP Sans)

 

Courses include:

- Animation: Basic

--Animation Bootcamp

- Animation: Intermediate

--Characters in Motion

--Physics of Animation

--Intro to Performance

Animation: Advanced

--Acting in Animation

--A Character Close-up

--A Thinking Character

--Cartoony Animation

-- Creature Animation

- Post Production & VFX

--VFX Production 1

 

From their FAQ I note this interesting element:

 

Do we have a grading system?

We don’t have a conventional grading system (ie. A,B,C). We don’t believe in grades for animation. The major companies do not hire animators based on grades. You are either ready or you are not. But we do have an achievement system that’s unique to our school. Students acquire achievements based on how successful they are with their assignments. You only receive an achievement if your Instructor feels your assignment is of industry standard. If you do not receive an achievement for a particular assignment, you can either redo the assignment until you get the achievement or you can move on to the next assignment and come back later to try and get the achievement. We strive for honesty. Our students know exactly how they are progressing, how to achieve their goal and their chances of getting a job in the industry.

 

In my estimation the best form of grading system is of the go/no go. As stated above you are either ready or you are not. There is an alternative grading system that I've yet to see utilized in any online school... more on that later.

 

Prices: (I assume these may vary and haven't looked extensively at the cost of the courses.)

They are currently running a promo: $1347 USD (or $449 monthly)

 

If nothing else prices allow you to gauge the general value attributed to online animation courses.

In this way should you learn something valuable you have something to measure that value against.

 

If nothing else you an learn a whole lot just by reviewing the courses and course outlines as this may help to bridge the gap and narrow your focus.

 

 

*It's not clear if JP Sans and others are teaching at several online schools or aligned exclusively with those schools. There is some competition for experienced instructors and many do move about from time to time. Some moonlight as well. For instance, while not at CGTarian, as far as I know Victor Navone teaches online at Animation:Mentor and in person at the Animation Collaborative. Similarly, Ken Fountain (also not an instructor at CGTarian) sells instruction video via Spatfrog.com and teaches online courses at iAnimate.