Are there RL courses for sculpty modeling available?

One thing that I don't think has been really discussed on these forums is the availability of any sculpty training courses that may be available out there for those of us who may be interested.

Can anyone recommend any real life courses dedicated to sculpty modeling/creation. And if possible can you also list a brief summary of information such as school names, pricing, and length of course. Obviously the shorter the course and time commitment, the better. But any information or tips relevant to seeking training or what we should expect in terms of time commitment would be really appreciated. Thank you.

It's very unlikely that any RL institution would be offering courses on sculpties in particular. They're just too small of a subject. They are specific solely to SL, and have only been in existence for a few months.

What I'd suggest is taking a class in 3D modeling in general at any local college or adult education training center. Many schools these days teach Maya and/or Max. Anything you'll learn in them will help you towards making sculpties.

Asking a 3D school to teach you to make sculpties would be like asking a traditional art school to teach you to draw tea cups. They're gonna teach you to DRAW, not just to draw tea cups specifically. By the same token, a course on 3D modeling will teach you to MODEL, not just to model sculpties in particular. You can then choose to apply that knowledge to sculpties as easily as to anything else. Make sense?

Hi Chosen, thank you for the quick response. BTW, Could you recommend any school in particular? Also can you list price estimates and course lengths in keeping with the goal of acquiring enough knowledge to start creating objects of reasonably good quality in SL?

Cheyenne, I could list some schools in my local area, but since there's probably only about a 0.01% chance that you're from Buffalo, NY too, it wouldn't do you much good. To anyone who is interested, I would suggest you look at online catalogs for local colleges and trade schools in your area, and see what they offer in terms of 3D. Also, look into adult education centers.

Cost will be highly variable. Obviously, private institutions will charge more than state run schools. A community college might be just a couple hundred dollars or less for a whole semester class. A private training center might be several hundred dollars for one-week crash course. Full time enrollment in a 3D specialty school could be as much as 40 or 50 thousand dollars for an 18 month program. A four year degree program at a state university could be a few thousand dollars per semester, or at a private university could be 10 times that much. Pick any price you can think of at random, and there will be a school somewhere who charges that amount for something.

If you're looking to put together any sort of comprehensive guide for this, you've got a lot of work ahead of you. Sorry I can't give you more specific answers, but I'm afraid my name is not Barrons or Google.


I'll tell you what. Since you asked, schools in my area (Western NY, Southern Ontario) that I know teach 3D are:

SUNY University at Buffalo (UB)
SUNY College at Buffalo (Buff State)
Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT)
International Academy of Design & Technology (IADT)
Sheridan College

There are probably others, but those are the ones I happen to know about. All of these are schools which offer degree programs in computer art, animation, and/or game art & design. I'd imagine any of them would allow a non-matriculated student to take any class he or she wants as long as there's room. Generally, colleges will grant placement priority first to majors, second to non-majors, and lastly to non-matriculates.

As for cost, UB and Buff State are both pretty cheap, just like all SUNY schools. UB charges $181 per credit hour, which I think is standard for all SUNY schools. If I remember correctly, the 3D classes I took five years ago at UB were 4-credits each. If they're the same now, that would mean about $700 for a semester course.

Right now, UB is probably THE place to be for the sculpty curious, by the way. It happens to be the only school in the country whose 3D teacher is also a full time employee of Electric Sheep Company. And he's not just any employee, but the very guy who did almost all the sculpty work for the CSI: NY project. Those gladiator arena scenes were pretty cool looking, right? Well, he's the man that made all the models for them. Good friend of mine.

RIT is fairly expensive at $400-$800 per credit hour, but it has one of the best 3D programs in the country. Pixar actively recruits from there, if that tells you anything.

IADT is crazy expensive for what you get. When I went up there and toured the place a few years ago, it was something like $25,000 for an 18 month program. From what I could see, their students appeared to be doing good work, but their job placement rate was only 40%, which was why I decided not to go there. For 3 out of 5 students to be unable to get a job in their chosen field after graduation, something has got to be very wrong. That said, if all you want to do is just take one of two classes for your own knowledge, and you're not looking to make a career of it, it might be just fine. I don't know.

Sheridan used to be a steal for Americans, if they could get in. But with exchange rate what it is now, that's not quite true anymore. Still, it's not terribly expensive at $200 per credit hour.


If anyone's wondering, by the way, the answer is no, I don't just magically know all those tuition numbers off the top of my head. I Googled them quickly as I was writing this. I would suggest that anyone interested in finding out similar information for schools in your area do the same thing. If you want to know if a school in your area teaches 3D, either call them and ask, or just Google for their course catalog, and when it comes up, just hit ctrl-F and serach within it for the word "3D".

Thank you for the information Chosen