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Originally posted by LizJJury
Well, If you go to college to be a computer engineer then you ahve no problems. You can always change your major later and you never know. maybe you are looking hard enough...... Just because FIRST doesn't have a scholarship for comp. animation doesn't mean that you can't apply for an engineering scholarship. as i said before do comp. engineering and swich majors later. you never know you might like comp. engineering more. that is what i am going to do if i don't like mechanical........(well and i will be double majoring with bio. too.)
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It's interesting that you mention computer engineering. I got my degree in computer engineering in 1994. I went off to college coming from a background of programming on my Commodore 64 in high school. I was into video games and sci-fi and all that stuff and tried to program my own games in the days of converting a bitmap image from hand-drawn on graph paper into binary (or hexadecimal) then back to decimal to input to my BASIC program.
I thought in college that's what I'd be doing - learning to write video games with graphics and sound and everything. Granted, if you go with computer science and specialize in computer graphics, that's pretty close if you want to be the programmer instead of the artist. But I chose computer engineering and found myself swamped with designing amplifiers, analyzing circuits, etc. which was not my "thing". If you like electrical stuff, then go for it, but it wasn't for me at the time.
I did get a job as a programmer (which is what I do now) and I like it. But there's always been this nagging at me as if I'd forgotten something along the way. It's this: before I got a computer in 7th grade, I used to like to draw.
The past few years I've been trying to explore that again through learning more about art and how it relates to computer animation and how to share that with interested high school students through the FIRST program.
In 1999, I took my first formal art course and have now taken classes in drawing, design, sculpture, traditional animation, color theory, etc.
It has allowed me to think more creatively. And creativity can sometimes help with the design process as much as problem-solving.
Computer animation provides a unique blend of creative and problem-solving abilities. Because of that, many larger animation production companies have a technical team and an artistic team. (Almost like being seated at a wedding - Right Brain or Left Brain?)
Pursuing computer science (or possibly engineering) will give you a good chance at the technical team. Pursuing art (and specifically animation) will give you a good chance at the art team. But if you're interested in computer animation because you're an artist, you may not be able to switch out of engineering unless you switch schools as well (to pursue animation specifically I mean.) So if your dream is to animate a character for Toy Story 4, engineering may not get you where you want to be.
Students have to decide for themselves and I like the FIRST program and I think it's great that AutoDesk provides the opportunity for high school students to help themselves decide about their interests.