Ringling College - year one in review

I finally made it to Ringling, and I brought with me a lot of credits. The first question was if I would be a second year student or not. Ringling had just had there curriculum changed that year so students did foundation classes that were relevant to their majors. It came down to the department head, Ed, saying that he didn’t think I understood the principles of animation enough, needed to take this one course only offered in the spring, so he put me as a first year.

Because of my credits my first semester had only two 100 level courses. I took 200, 300, and 400 level courses to fill up my schedule. One class that I took was Intro to Sculpture class since I wanted to get a Fine Arts-Sculpture minor. (One of my back-up plans is to become a 3D modeler so sculpture will help me.)

One out of 5 casted dogs I made for sculpture. This one had a stone spray layered on to make it seem he was always made from stone.

One out of 5 casted dogs I made for sculpture. 

The wood project in sculpture. We could make anything and I cam up with this.

The classes were manageable since it didn’t turn out to be too many studio classes. The problem was that I had classes all over the place (levels wise) so didn’t make too many friends, hardly any for a while. I got a bit depressed with no one with me and started to even question if it was right for me to have left Moore, if I should have listened to Moe and stayed then gotten animation as a masters. 

Thankfully I started to become friends with a junior named Dee who was in my sculpture class and well as the Ministry of Magic club. She really helped me out that first term.

Spring came and I was in all 100 level classes, taking them with others in my major. I had meet a few the semester before but along with many others in the design family of majors. With having classes with the same group of people every time I got to make a lot of friends and got much closer to everyone on my dorm floor.

A male doll biased on the Leo horoscope sign for a project where we had to create our own product.

A box made as a final exam piece for 3D class I had to take.

The box not only open on top but had a secret door on the side with a hidden compartment for the book it was designed with.

But it was spring time, which ment that it was time to take this class that was the reason for me being back a year. Only guess what. The teacher was horrible! He had no idea how to use the programs, we didn’t have lectures, any examples he showed us related very little to what we were doing as well! I had to do every assignment with knowledge I already had about the subject. We didn’t learn squat! Finally Ed realized how far behind our class was and started teaching us instead (teacher was already scheduled for a different job in the summer.) 

We started to learn things finally, but the damage had been done. I’m not talking about knowledge, I mean trust. I no longer trust Ed as everyone else does. Not only did he hold me back for a class I learned nothing it, there was a sophomore in the class as well! She had apparently failed that class before and was taking it again but still was a 2nd year student. So I ask, how was that fair?

First year at Ringling, not that impressive. If it wasn’t for the people and classes I knew I would be taking later, I would regret coming.

Video I made of everyone in my hall, what we did and how we went from being a people that live next to each other to a family.

Moore College of Art and Design

My college career started with me going to Moore College of Art and Design. An all girls art college in Philadelphia, the only one in the country. I got accepted with a scholarship biased on my grades and self-taught art. I had only applied to attend the foundation year in order to better my portfolio and re-apply to Ringling College for their animation program which I had been rejected from biased on my lack of art skills.

Pencil drawing from my high school portfolio.

Pencil drawing from my high school portfolio.

So I attended Moore, and I learned a lot. My roommate was from Hong Kong and our best friend there was from Beijing (I got really use to them speaking Cantonese around me and could understand the idea of what they were saying after a few weeks.) 

3D ‘building’ form Design class.

Final piece from color theory class. I had no idea who to use paint before that.

Pattern design form 2D classes. Made to look simple in its complexity. 

Charcoal drawing. I learned I really hate the material.

It was weird having actual art classes for once, especially when I didn’t think I would ever go to an art school until recently.

My favorite class were my Design classes (both 2D and 3D.) My dad is a set designer so I understood basics of design and going from a 2D blueprint to a 3D object. That and the fact that my brain just got it mad the class a bit easier, but I still loved it. Everyone would do little contests every week to see who the teacher like the most out of the assignments and that made it a lot more fun. On top of that Moe (the teacher) realized that I got design easily so he always pushed me to do even better. 

My little Leo. Made for 2D in one night after working on the first one for 2 weeks to come back from dinner seeing it as horrible.

The year passed and I re-applied to Ringling for animation but again I got denied. I was once again offered a spot in motion design (combination of film, drawing, photo, 2D and 3D animation all in one) I had been offered a spot last year as well. This time though I accept. I didn’t want to be any further behind in graduating and I had come to realize just how much I loved design.

So I went to Florida leaving my new friends behind, putting a distance between me and my parents that couldn’t be gone after an hour train ride. I got thrown into the Freshman class again and into Motion Design, but I can honestly say that if it wasn’t for Moe and his classes I would not be nearly as content as I am.