2 answers
Ben
Student
Elk River, Minnesota
2
Questions
Asked
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High school classes for Game Development and Animation?
Are there any classes I should take during high school if I want to get into software/game development and/or animation?
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2 answers
Ryan I
Animation
6
Answers
New York, New York
Updated
Ryan’s Answer
Hi Ben! I can speak to what has helped me in my career as an animator. I’ve been animating professionally for around 7 years with a focus on 2D computer animation.
Any sort of traditional arts class, whether if be figure drawing, still life drawing, etc. is a great place to start! The skills you learn in those class really go a long way when it comes to animating, because they give you a great base skill set of perspective and general form.
If you have access to any sort of traditional animation classes or even a beginners computer animation class, obviously those are great too! My high school didn’t offer any animation classes at the time, so taking photography and video classes were a really helpful alternative. Especially with the aspect of lighting, composition, and storytelling.
If you don’t have access to any of those, Youtube obviously has a plethora of beginner level tutorials on traditional animation if you just want to get started, but I’d also recommend “The Animator’s Survival Kit” by Richard Williams as a guide book. It has a ton of great tips and breaks down the process of animating really well.
Hope you find this helpful and good luck!
Any sort of traditional arts class, whether if be figure drawing, still life drawing, etc. is a great place to start! The skills you learn in those class really go a long way when it comes to animating, because they give you a great base skill set of perspective and general form.
If you have access to any sort of traditional animation classes or even a beginners computer animation class, obviously those are great too! My high school didn’t offer any animation classes at the time, so taking photography and video classes were a really helpful alternative. Especially with the aspect of lighting, composition, and storytelling.
If you don’t have access to any of those, Youtube obviously has a plethora of beginner level tutorials on traditional animation if you just want to get started, but I’d also recommend “The Animator’s Survival Kit” by Richard Williams as a guide book. It has a ton of great tips and breaks down the process of animating really well.
Hope you find this helpful and good luck!
Matt Manuel
VP of Engineering
35
Answers
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Updated
Matt’s Answer
Take a typing course. I think they’re called keyboarding courses now. Seriously, this was one of the courses that I took in high school many, many years ago that is still helping me today. If you can touch type, you can get your thoughts into the computer faster. I may be a bit out of touch, because this might be a mandatory course now in high school, but I’ll give you the advice to concentrate on learning to touch type.
From a computer, software, engineering and programming perspective, math courses are your friend. Anything related to algebra and geometry will be useful in the programming career it’s not just about the math you’ll learn, but the critical thinking that is reinforced by solving math problems. .
From a computer, software, engineering and programming perspective, math courses are your friend. Anything related to algebra and geometry will be useful in the programming career it’s not just about the math you’ll learn, but the critical thinking that is reinforced by solving math problems. .