Today, the wonderful student case that Natural Light shares with you is the study abroad of zero foundation animation major, and won the offers from CCA, Ringling, Otis and other universities. Today's case protagonist Muyang won several offers and scholarships of 72000 US dollars, equivalent to about 510000 yuan in total, from CCA, Ringling, Otis and other schools of the Reglin School of Art and Design in six months. Let's have a look at her creative experience of studying abroad for zero basis animation major!

　　 Muyang's creative experience in studying abroad for zero foundation animation major:

　　PART ONE：

Muyang applied for studying abroad in the animation major with zero basic background in Meigao. Before he came to the natural light, he had almost no art learning experience and background. Although he is a foreign student, he has no specific understanding of the collection of works, school selection, and major determination, nor has he studied systematically.

Therefore, when communicating with Muyang for the first time, the professional teacher did not directly cut into specific topics such as school selection and specialty determination, but first had a preliminary communication with Muyang to understand the professional direction that Muyang was interested in; Understand his views on the field of art design; And why I want to choose art to study abroad.

In the process of communication, we found that Muyang was very independent in character and thought because he had studied in the United States since he was in high school. Although he did not know enough about his major and colleges, he had a clear understanding and self planning of why he chose to study art and design as his undergraduate study direction.

Muyang didn't choose to study in the arts because he thought the major was interesting or interesting on the spur of the moment, but he did some basic research and decided to choose this path. Before coming to the natural light, he had gone to the official websites of some colleges and universities to have a general understanding of the courses and professional directions, and made clear the differences between several similar majors, before finally deciding to choose animation as the application intention.

Tutor said:

We have met many students who are similar to Muyang. They didn't know much about art study abroad before, and they applied for zero foundation. One of the most common "situations" for such students is that they think that art majors are eager to learn because they do not understand them, or they consider going abroad to study art with a very ideal attitude. When asked why you want to learn art design, the answer is "It's fun, learn to have a look first". (After all, sometimes we see on TV that art students are all free to travel around the world and live freely. It is enough to write sketches and turn around galleries every day.)

But the truth? To study art design, you need to go to the library, do field research, write essay, or even stay up all night. Therefore, whenever I meet students who have good ideas in the field of art and design, I would like to suggest that before considering choosing an art and design major, we should first get to know the colleges and majors, or we can learn more about the learning status and basic situation of this major with teachers before making a decision.

As we mentioned today, Muyang, a student studying in the zero foundation animation major, did some simple understanding and research on "what major to choose", "what kind of learning state of the major", "future development direction of the major" and other issues before coming to the natural light, although she did not have such an accurate understanding of art study.

The teacher of Natural Light will help Muyang to understand the application of various colleges and majors and his current status after he clearly communicates with Muyang and knows his intention, and then do more specific and targeted work Portfolio training Curriculum planning.

　　PART TWO：

After understanding the basic situation of Muyang, we further communicated with the specific curriculum plan and jointly determined the curriculum arrangement. First of all, for Muyang, the advantages are obvious, but the shortcomings of the professional dimension are also clear:

1. Zero foundation. There is a certain gap between the ability of hand drawing and the foundation required by animation specialty;

2. Professional knowledge and basic aesthetic cognition need to be supplemented;

3. When looking at problems and themes, Muyang lacks the ability to dig and think deeply;

4. The ability to integrate and extend creative thinking needs to be supplemented

Based on these four points, the professional teacher combed the curriculum arrangement for Muyang. First of all, there is no need to add hand painting courses. For students majoring in animation, hand painting ability is the foundation. Although software can help you realize your ideas well or make them "cool", if you don't even have the foundation for basic hand painting ability, then don't talk about application. To lay a solid foundation of hand painting is a necessary condition for zero foundation animation majors to apply for undergraduate studies.

Therefore, in this part, the teacher arranged a series of courses for Muyang in the skill gas station, so that Muyang can "get started" animation through basic art courses such as sketch, sketch, color, etc. During these courses, the promotion of creative thinking and the accumulation of basic aesthetic awareness are supplemented. Take Muyang to read some basic aesthetic books and art history books, so that he can obtain knowledge and nutrients more comprehensively.

Secondly, the teacher also specially arranged "speculative design", "Design Thinking" and other divergent interactive experience courses for Muyang. It is hoped that Muyang can gain creative thinking with concepts and aesthetic systems in these classes, so that he can view the world and observe things around him with critical artistic thinking, so as to obtain more abundant three-dimensional inspiration.

Muyang's feedback to us also exceeded each teacher's initial goal. He quickly adapted to the learning rhythm and atmosphere and quickly entered the learning state. Therefore, the teacher also began to gradually supplement the professional foundation of animation in the course, such as the motion law of animation, the fate of the camera and how to tell stories. Through the study of basic courses, Muyang has also accumulated good hand drawing and animation skills at this stage, laying a solid foundation for the collection of works.

Tutor said:

The situation of each student is different. Muyang, for example, has been studying abroad since high school, so he has a relatively independent self drive and can independently carry out practice planning.

At the same time, Muyang is also a student with very clear thinking and high degree of cooperation. During the whole course cycle, he has been in the state of "I know I have shortcomings here and need to make up as soon as possible". Therefore, every time the teacher gives suggestions and modification opinions, he will quickly enter the learning state and give feedback and response to the teacher at the first time.

Students have always been in such a self supervised learning mood to ensure that the overall course is very fast, which is why teachers gradually increase the animation professional learning in the middle stage of basic courses.

　　PART THREE：

With a good foundation as the foundation, Muyang and the teacher began to officially enter Animation Design Study Abroad Portfolio course stage. Before the beginning of the course at this stage, the teacher also communicated with Muyang again to guide him to find his own ideas and creativity to extend his ideas, and use this as a starting point to expand his ideas.

And his ideas and professional abilities are all reflected in his works - two storyboards, a set of character designs, some observational paintings, and some static picture works.

　　Project 1：Tree in the Dream

The girl's parents were busy with their work and had no time to accompany her. Every day, only a chicken doll accompanied her alone. When the night comes, the girl will always dream of all kinds of scenes. In her dream, she can become whatever she wants to be and where she wants to go. One day in her dream, she found a strange and huge tree. The girl was curious about what she would see when standing at the top of the tree, so she tried to climb up. Until she found that it was a magic tree, an adventure began

The twisted giant tree represents the current situation of the girl's life. The dream of herself is what she expected, brave and adventurous. The doll chicken represents a partner. When they walk out of the tree hole, they find that the chicken is bigger and has life, so that she is not alone. The top of the tree represents the future that the girl is looking forward to. She bravely advances with an optimistic heart and constantly explores. Every process is a treasure she has gained.

In the storyboard part of the work collection, Muyang produced two different themes to reflect students' animation ability, lens application ability, etc. Both themes are very interesting and creative.

　　Project 2：Headphone

The idea of the second project comes from Muyang's life. This kind of story about his own experience can be more integrated into the real feelings of students. Muyang bought a headset two years ago, and he often wears it to school and other places.

During his life with earphones, Muyang seldom interacted with people around him. After a period of time, he found that he gradually began to go further with people close to him. That period of time not only did not make him very happy, but also made him feel more lonely and painful. It took him a long time to find the friendship and happiness he had.

In this project, Muyang tried to tell people with his own story: nowadays technology is becoming more and more interesting, we can have more fun online than in real life, and more and more people have begun to shut themselves in their own world, lose contact, and stay away from people.

Many times they seem to have fun and live a normal life. However, slowly, they will begin to lose their ability and interest to interact with people, and unconsciously lose many other things. In this state of "loss of connection" and "isolation", we may be able to obtain temporary happiness and happiness, but we often lose more than these fictions.

　　Project 3：15 Things After 70 Years Old

The theme of this project also comes from life, inspired by Muyang's grandfather. With the growth of age, Muyang's grandfather's physical function has also declined, and his life has become more limited, losing many of his original ways of life and activities.

Muyang spent more than ten years with his grandfather when they were young, until they left China to go to school in the United States. While in the United States, Muyang missed his grandfather very much. This work is also created in memory of grandpa.

During the four years of grandpa, Muyang fused his memory and more imagination of grandpa, and also tried to express his view on "loss". Many people may think that people will lose a lot of fun when they get old and become poor, which is very unfortunate in the eyes of outsiders. But in Muyang's opinion, these are not sad things. Life, old age, illness and death are determined by nature. It is better to face them calmly than to be sad. Lose what you have to lose, and at the same time, you can get the happiness you can get.

The tone of the whole animation is not sad, but relaxed and cheerful, because Muyang wants to express that aging is not necessarily a bad thing for people, but a new and interesting experience.

The remaining projects mainly focus on hand painting and observational painting, demonstrating Muyang's good hand painting ability. As a result of the final application, Muyang was admitted to several schools and won a scholarship.

Tutor said:

Muyang's inspiration source for each project may seem very "simple", but Muyang has also given it deep themes and ideas for each project. For example, in the two story version projects, Muyang's starting point is the life details that he feels, but it is these details that inspired Muyang to think deeply and see the opposite of life.

We often meet some students who think about a very grand theme. It seems that there is a lot of room to play and there are many realizable points. But when we talk about how to "settle" and how to sort out the "main line logic", we often get "simple" and "unreliable" feedback.

It should be clear that any theme, no matter whether its core is large or small, needs a process of sinking, settling, and implementing. Any project needs to start from the beginning and finish, and achieve a balance between the beginning and the end.

In Muyang's case of studying abroad in the zero foundation animation major, we clearly saw the tremendous growth and change of students. At the beginning, Muyang did not know how to conduct animation and how to learn animation. There is no clear and definite positioning for art study abroad and works collection. However, Muyang first made his own research to clarify his goals and ideas, which is an advantage for him to pave his own way in the early stage. Secondly, Muyang also has a strong sense of self promotion for the reason that senior high school students study abroad, and can carry out independent planning and urging to a certain extent, which improves the efficiency of the overall curriculum progress. But correspondingly, we can also see that Muyang's entire application process also needs the help of teachers. Under the guidance of the teacher, he began to consciously think about the meaning and connotation of animation, and combine his own experience and understanding to create.

Natural light shares more topics for you:

CalArts Animation, course/application requirements/tuition fees/portfolio requirements

Reglin College of Art and Design [Animation_Game] Introduction to Reglin Game Animation Design Application

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