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Help me study Computer Animation

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Hi! Thank you for taking the time to read this. The purpose of this post is to raise money towards my schooling. 

I am an 18 year old girl who just finished high school. I am very passionate about computer animation and I will do anything to reach my goals. 

I first found out what CA (computer animation) was when I was 14 years old. My older brother who was studying Software Engineering had the opportunity to work with an animation/ modelling/ editing software called Blender. He showed me how he created objects by modifying faces, lines or vertices on a "mesh". I was instantly fascinated and started doing some reasearch on the topic. After lots of research I realized that this is what I wanted to do as my career. I wanted to be a Technical Director at Pixar. I didn't want to just be the person who modelled the character, or rigged it, or made it move, I wanted to work with everything. But I know it's a bit  ambitious to think so far ahead so I settled on going to school for Computer Animation and graduating as an animator to start. I started searching the best schools and my results were mostly in the US, Canada and France. Upon doing research I found that RCAD (Ringling College of Art and Design) had a summer program for High School students. I was so excited at the thought of being able to experience animating in real life with projects, deadlines and lots of guidance from trained professionals who have been in the field for years. I begged my parent to go and I was lucky enough that my parents could afford to send me. That was in 2016. Ever since I have been obsesed with RCAD. It is my dream school. The campus, the students, the professors, and the opportunities are amazing! The educational level and reputaion of the school says it all. 

As you may have noticed I am a very ambitious person. I don't just want to learn how to animate, I want to be the best and work as hard as I can to be as knowledgeable and skilled as possible. I am certain that Ringling will help me in my career and chosen path. 

So, since having visited Ringling, I have been concentrating on my portfolio, and grades as I did my International Baccalaureate Programme. I worked very hard to be prepared for applying. I managed to submit a portfolio of which I am proud of which consisted of observational drawings from urban sketching, anatomy such as hands, feet and bodies, figure drawings, animations and 3D models I had made. After a few months I received my acceptance letter along with a scholarship which cover 15% of tuition. That day I cried of disbelief because as of right now Ringling is ranked as the #2 top school in animation following CalArts (which was founded by Walt Disney). I was happy and excited and proud of my work and my effort. I knew that if I got this far I could do anything!

but then upon speaking with my parents they told me that there was no way we could afford it. My parents have been trough a very though time economically. They use to both work in their own company in Venezuela but as the situation with corruption, inflation, and insecurity worsened my family had to leave the country. My parents had to start from scratch in a new country where we knew no one and barely spoke the language. I am the youngest of 4 children which made it even tougher for my parents. I knew that this was going to be an issue and I had been saving up money for 2 years from working as a babysitter part time, occasional, weekends and nights. I had a bit saved up and tried to get a loan but for that I needed a cosigner in the US.. which I don't have... so I asked my parents if they could get a load from a bank or some other source. Unfortunately this was impossible due to their situation right now. 

Having worked as a babysitter I had the opportunity to work with many kids who not only inspired me but taught me so much. I worked with deaf, autistic and other special needs kids. Having attended American Sign Language courses for two years gave me the insight to not only communicate with deaf people and children but gave me knowledge about deaf culture and guidelines on how to properly communicate. This gave me an idea of how I could use animation for the deaf. Not just including close captions on animations but incorporating some of the parameters in the deaf community to accommodate better to deaf children. Also, having worked with a multitude of autistic children I wish to create a source for them to learn in a comforting, comfortable manners instead of watching the same animations used for non-autistic children. 

Being as persistent and motivated as I am I decided to take it upon myself and work with what I had. The money I had saved up was just enough for three months of Ringling. What I would like now is just some help to finish the semester. Anything helps. If I can finish the semester then I can use those credits to transfer to a school in Canada of which tuition would be much lower than in the US. 

I have always been very passionate and motivated, I know my limitations but I also like to work as hard as I can to better my chances at success. I want to follow my passion as many others do and give myself the chance to excel as much as I can with what I have been given.

Thank you very much!!!
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Donations 

  • Anonymous
    • $80 
    • 5 yrs
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Organizer

Gabriela Soto
Organizer
Dearborn Heights, MI

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