tyleramato

Thank you! I've been busy doing art for Disney so I've been neglecting my deviantART for a little while now...

Hi! I went to Florida State University and I absolutely do NOT recommend it. Many students and professors were strictly into the fine art side of things and there were hardly any classes geared towards commercial or entertainment career paths.

The good news is that, as a junior, you have loads of time! Start working on your portfolio right away, draw every single day! Study from life more than anything, you can never do too many figure drawings. There are many wonderful art colleges out there (and some that offer scholarships) that have fantastic ways to connect with animators and art directors at movie studios.  Some of these include CalArts, Ringling, SCAD, and a whole bunch of others.

Apply to animation internships every single summer while you are in university! Even if you don't get it, you can ask recruiters which areas of your portfolio need improvement which is crazy valuable information. The best thing you can do is to be honest with yourself and choose what you want to do. You can't do everything so if you really feel you could do character animations for the rest of your life, practice expressions and gestures! If you feel like storyboarding is more your thing, focus on that! Don't spread yourself thin or people looking at your portfolio won't know what job you're interested in.

I hope this helped, good luck with everything!