Savannah College (SCAD) Feedback

#1 Hi Kevin,

I graduated with my B.F.A. in game desgin at SCAD. Out of my four years there was only one professor I did not like and that was a English composition one. I will say the professors definately know what they are talking about and they do help the students on a one on one basis. The best professors though are the ones that see what you can do and push you to do the best work you possibly can. One of my professors I actually took four classes with because he was very good in this manor, in fact if you tried to pass off half done work he would flat out tell you it sucks O.o

The only bad thing I can say about SCAD is I feel they are overpriced but, what can you expect from a private art college. I do feel though the online program should be cheaper that the on campus one because you do not have access to all the hardware and software the college has. However, at last check it was the same Tuition price.

Over all it is a great school that if you can afford to go to I would suggest doing so but, I can only speak from an on campus point of view not an online one. If you want suggestions on professors for certain classes let me know at admin(at)cartoon-combat.com

#2 Honestly Kev, my experience was rather blah. I graduated with a BFA in Coumputer Art there and for the time I was there I had 50/50 good/bad teachers. I graduated in 2000, so I don't know what it's like now, but I was dissapointed at how many of them basicly passed students through. They didn't seem to really challange or teach you.. Some, like Randy Akers where phenominal. Some (whom I will not name) were a waste of time & money. and yes, SCAD was expensive. If my Father could not have paid for me, I would be in MUCHO debt...

I think SCAD's biggest strength is it's resources.. The Computers, Software, and other equpment are wonderful. It must be crazy now.. This is great if you are ambitious because all the stuff is there for you to teach yourself. But I'm hesitant to Suggest SCAD for fine art. So for online courses.. hmmm..

#3 Yeah, I'm graduating from scad at christmas, one more quarter. getting a bfa in Interactive Design. Anthony's right, Scad is overpriced, and half of the classes and teachers are a waste of time and money. And the city is not a good place to live. won't get into what I think of the city, if your taking online classes doesn't matter.

Their resources are great, I think its hard to compete with them, but again online classes makes resources not an issue. I do think their interective design program is really good for the most part, it doesn't just focus on games. Youll learn a lot about interactive theory, which put a lot of stuff in games into a good perspective for me.

Taking online classes cuts out a lot of the benefits from scad, one on one teaching, resources, all that. The program itself is fairly new so things are still getting worked out, but honestly they don't know any secrets that other schools or programs don't. They all will be teaching the same stuff. A major problem at the school, I'm sure it's with others too, is that a ton of people graduate no where near an employable level, by their own work habits. The school isn't any better at getting students to industry levels than others.

One thing you might want to know is that the only game engine they teach is Unreal. They might have plans to do others, but I don't see em.

#4 Daniel nailed it. (Personally I liked the city, but it has disproportionately high crime issues!)
I'm sure there is a MUCH cheaper school you can find to learn from. Also, staying active in something like the polycount/Modding/online gamer community can teach you a lot. If you need foundational skills (which are nessicary for every artist) look at something like RISD. But you may be wasting $$ on online SCAD courses.

#5 Thanks for the feedback all, it's very helpful. I have one issue I'm trying to figure out. Why is unreal being used in courses, but Torque is never mentioned? I know that SCAD is listed under the education page on this site as a school using Torque technology.

#6 I graduated from SCAD in 2003. There were 2 teachers whose (game/computer related) classes I felt were worth the time and money. Greg Lemon (no longer teaching there) for Maya/3D character animation, and Ton (Photoshop).

There was a man who "taught" a class called "modeling for games" who said things like:

"Don't worry about polygon counts. By the time you guys gradutate it won't matter anyway."
"Oh - no, I just make the syllibus because the administration says I have to" (In response to a student wondering why there was no lecture on "Modeling Animal Forms" that day, as outlined in the syllibus.)

We were taught nothing to do with exporting for ANY game engine, or any of the limitations of game models, textures, etc.

If I ever turned psycho-killer, this man would be at the top of my list.

I would concur with Anthony, that you could learn a lot more (as long as you have the self-motivation), by participating in the polycount/CGTalk/CGChat/GamingArtist message boards and contests. There are actually some professional game artists that frequent these places, which is more than I can say for SCAD.

#7 Unreal is beaing used because for level desgin the editor is very easy compared to something like quark. I will say the every since i did my senior project in torque the school bought several copies and they are working on getting a professor to teach a few classes in it.

I will say that the game design degree is very new it only started my 2nd year and as such the classes have changed quite a bit. There was no "game design" degree before it was instead an offshoot of the 3d animation degree. A focus of study if you will.

#8 Class of '92 here. We were the class that boycotted its own graduation :). Partly because the admins were driving out good teachers, and partly because they were intent on taking away stuff that had been promised to us when we were prospective students (like undergraduate painting studios). But I hear it's much better now :). In fact, I heard SCAD recently made the top of some magazine's best colleges list.

Obviously, since I was going to school there in the prehistory of 3D graphics (I learned 3D on a program where I literally had to build each polygon from scratch), I can't speak for what they're like these days. That's why I've been staying out of the conversation until now. But these comments got me thinking.

When I think about what I got out of my time there, it's mostly things you'd only get on-site: contact with good teachers, great students working on similar stuff as me, great facilities (like the computer labs, and the painting studios they tried to take away, and some very cool historical buildings). Also, I just thought it was a cool city, even if it was the most crime-ridden, roach infested, sweltering place I've ever lived.

I can't imagine what an on-line course would offer. I have trouble imagining it would be worth the money.

Also, I get the feeling a lot of what Jeff Gran says above ("Don't worry about polygon counts. By the time you guys graduate it won't matter anyway.") is rampant in college game development courses. I've seen that attitude in other academic situations.

Sadly, the people who have a real feel for what goes into game development are employable enough that they're not easily lured into life as an underpaid art teacher. There are experienced game devs teaching, but I don't think there's many.

Then there's the fact that a lot of companies aren't necessarily impressed by a game dev degree. And then there's the fact that it's hard enough to get companies to give enough respect to the idea of Game Designer as a real job. For better or worse, what buys respect in game dev is experience.

Jeez.... I hate to sound so negative. But I also hate the thought of people paying top dollar for less than usable degrees. But look at me, I got a degree in painting :). Luckily I hung out in the computer labs a lot.

There could very well be some good places to learn game dev out there. Digipen might not be bad, and Guildhall has produced some interesting demos. I have no idea though, and that's why I hate to cast a blanket of negativity over the whole idea of game dev courses.

Advice if you want it: if I was to do the whole college career over again, I would focus on people as a deciding factor for where to go (as opposed to my deciding factors at the time: Savannah was warmer than Vermont, near a beach, and I could get a degree without having to do math). Research the hell out of the teachers, and if they don't have anything to offer in terms of a good professional background, skip it. Same goes for students - you can learn sooo much from your fellow students. That's why, in your case, Kevin, I would suggest you seek out a game dev course you can attend in person, even if it doesn't have the big name and prestige.

If you're looking for employment, I'd say employers look for practical skills with existing tools, ability to work in a team, proven ability to finish a project, and a decent background in traditional skills. The latter, for an artist, would be drawing skills, and for a designer, writing skills.

[edit: graduated in '92 not '93. gosh, it *has* been a long time, hasn't it?]

#9 I had a scholarship to go to scad many many years ago. I was interested in computer art, and they had it going on as much as anyone. To make a long story short, I ended up not going. I ended up more or less teaching myself the techie side of things, and I apprenticed with two professional traditional artists to get that side of things. It worked.

If you want to do the computer graphic side of things-- learn to draw, paint, animate (in 2D) and sculpt first. You can then apply this to whatever advanced digi art tool that exist or comes along. If you're trying to learn now, you're lucky in that you have a great amount of info and groups available.

If I were you, I would purchase Torque, crank out something cool with a small group, make a portfolio site/reel and start a great number of employment inquiries. You could be employed in 10 months. I don't know. Remember: results may vary. I wish I could say it's easy; but it isn't-- it's challenging.

#10 Oh yeah, I forgot about the roaches.. you'd be missing out on the roaches!

I would have to agree, a game dev degree is pretty useless. Focus you energy on what SPECIFIC JOB you want, not "games". If you want to do textures, use your time & resources on making the best damn textures for all types of games, objects, & formats you can. Do everything you need to do to turn yourself into the ultimate texture artist. You can learn other stuff, but make sure you nail that one position you want to get.

#11 Roaches? Anthony I have no idea what you are talking about but every building at scad I have been in has been extremely clean.

#12 I was mentioned the roaches too, but not in reference to SCAD's buildings. In general, the school buildings are super nice. But the city is crawling with roaches. You see the big ones (the ones they call "Palmetto Bugs" in that nice southern way :)) skittering around the street, and every apartment I stayed in had both the big ones and the little ones.

It's not entirely a matter of cleanliness either. Bugs are just a given in a sub-tropical climate like that.

Actually though, I do remember one building at SCAD that was notorious for roaches. It was the big modern building - a dorm - across from the Hilton, I think it was called Dayton Towers. Lots of air vents there for roaches, and it was nick-named the "Roach Motel". It was a very un-SCAD-like building (modern and ugly) though, and I don't know if it's still part of the school. Now that I think of it, there was the occasional roach at my dorm too (the one across from the old cemetery, I forget the name).

#13 No Drayton Towers is not part of the school and I did not realize it ever was. It is one building that from just the outside I would never want to live in.

As far as the cleanliness issue I am from Florida so I agree the weather affects them being there but, cleanliness affects wether they stay outside or not. Well that and decent weather stripping.

#14 Oh there where roaches.. In Savannah it didn't matter how clean your place was, they found ways in, weather it was to crawl into your boxes of cereal or to stay warm, they knew where to go. Spencer is right, they tended to just be out in the city, but We had quite a few in the dorms and other SCAD buildings.. If you didn't see them consider yourself lucky, or look into glasses. Savannah was the only place i've seen roaches acctually run AT people.

Drayton was just plain nasty.. in every way.

#15 I do wear glasses even though that was ment to be a stab and as I said I do live in the south so I know they are around everywhere but, I very much disagree with the fact the cleaness does not make a difference. It makes a huge difference. Drayton Towers is not part of Scad and as I said I would not want to live there even if it was. It does look just plain nasty from the outside and I would hate to see the inside.

But, now I'm going to bow out of theis thread because it is quickly working its way to a flame war about scad which does not even apply to the original poster's question because he was looking into online classes. I will just say that don't assume Scad is the same place you went to. I started the year after you graduated and it has expanded and changed in so many ways just in the time I've have been there you would have to see for yourself to belive.

#16 @Anthony:

"Savannah was the only place i've seen roaches acctually run AT people."

I had a theory about this. They'd get startled, and head for whatever low, dark space they detected - including the gap under the toe of your shoe! These are the creatures that are going to out-survive us all?

For me, any reminiscing about SCAD always includes roaches :). That, and scary cops. Like the time my roommate got chased down on his bike and got mugged, and the cop who responded didn't bother to try to find the muggers, he just had some advice: buy a gun. Better yet (he said), buy a knife, because in close quarters a guy with a knife could draw his weapon and make a kill faster. Then he went on a rambling monologue about how, when he was a boy, he'd bring a .22 pistol to school everyday for protection. And somehow it came around to how he could blow up the car across the street from as far away as California - just by attaching a beeper to a bomb, attaching the bomb to the car and calling the beeper... Yikes.

Then there was the time we got lined up and frisked by cops - for playing soccer in the street late, after we'd been warned to stop (OK, we were being obnoxious - but we needed to be frisked?). Or when it was revealed in the news a bunch of cops were involved in one of the biggest crack dealing rings in the city.

Kevin, see what you'd be missing by taking an on-line course? :)

But I'll reiterate - such a beautiful city. If you've even seen "Forrest Gump," the opening scene - with the feather falling - features two of the school's buildings in the background, two of the prettiest buildings in town.

#17 Jeez Arland, takin it a bit seriously. You may be right the SCAD buildings were clean, reguardless I did see roaches in them. They were all over the city... I think the roaches were funny. Anyways, it's fun to talk about school days.

Anyways, Spencer, the 'charging incident' when like this: I was walking with this girl down to River Street, she went to sit down on the ground (layed brick) and several roaches acctually ran AT her butt, just as she was thouching the ground. I just went: "Uh... you might... there.. umm. the roaches."

wow man, I never got mugged there (though I know people who were). I did however get the "fix a flat" scam.. the best part was.. I acctually HAD fixa flat in my trunk.. I took it out, handed it to him and went on my way... tee hee

#18 Quite the history interesting stories :)

#19 Interesting BLOG. One thing what college should teach is how to learn or teach yourself. Sense art world and digital world is always changing from technical to theory.

If a professor teaches only how to use specific game engine, poly count, export models and doesn't teach concept/theory and only teach technical stuff he or she is not doing there job. Professor, should challenge a student in there comfortable area of interesting taking that art subject.

I have heard Savannah Arts is good school for some students and bad. They are showing there work in Siggraph and I think they had booth at GDC in the past.

I myself did not go there as a student. Also, I have heard that Savannah lost there credit ion from NASAD (which is they are part art college education system in USA) which is really bad. They are always hiring new professors at CAA (College art Association). This good and bad. Shows the lack of comment and on the positive side professors will show different views on art side.

They have just hired a new game design professor who has been in game industry for 15 years. Brenda. Can't remember her last name. She has book out on Sex in Video Games. Probably, a controversial topic in the south. Hahaha.

My advice for game design schools or art school in general. Can an art school grow you as an artist/professional and will it be able to find resources how to build myself as artist/designer. This could be a job or beinging an artist which in general is beinging your own business.