FZD School of Design

[Anonymous No.2729013]

Has anyone here been to the FZD School of Design? They talk highly of their one year cram year where they make you grind out the fundamentals like crazy which is what I'm interested in.

What's their course like? What's the curriculum and how is it taught? While it wouldn't be close to their quality, I'd like to try and replicate their course but for self-taught study. I just want a rough idea about what they do and how they teach it.

Thanks!

[Anonymous No.2729017]

>>2729013
I doubt anybody really knows, and I don't think any graduates would freely reveal what costed them thousands of dollars to obtain.

I don't even know if they make their students read books.

[Anonymous No.2729021]

>>2729017
I don't think a lot of them would really care about sharing what they learnt in school. It's not like some massive secret or something, it's just hard to get the info without knowing someone who went.

[Anonymous No.2729025]

>>2729013
>Has anyone here been to the FZD School of Design?
There's been a few students who have posted here in the past, and they tend to say both good and bad things about the school. Pros: you will improve a ton and quickly, and get a pretty decent foundation of skills. Cons: if you are not one of the top students you will be ignored, you might burn out, it is expensive.

There's also been some controversies over some of the practices Feng has used and some of his morals/legal things, but that's not really relevant to you.

>What's the curriculum and how is it taught?
Mostly from what I have seen they teach perspective and construction. They basically do what Scott Robertson's book covers, and then apply it as well to organic forms like they construct insects and things in the same way as Scott does with ships.

A lot of the focus seems to be on setting up large scale scenes and environments, with a smaller focus on specific design of things like props or characters.

The course seems too short to get into painting properly, so they tend to focus on industry shortcuts like using photos and things. Probably you are better off taking a "slower" route where you genuinely learn how to paint things manually, and then later down the road if you want to photobash or use other shortcuts it comes from a place of knowledge so will have better results and not be done out of lack of knowledge.

Rather than try to follow them exactly and cram everything into one year you are better off designing your own personalized curriculum that reflects what you want to learn and is going to be taking place over a longer time period so you can learn things thoroughly instead of having to just learn things in a superficial way.

[Anonymous No.2729033]

>>2729025
Thanks a ton, I thought their work looked very similar to Scott Robertson's book! Yeah, I agree with that, I'm laying out a plan for myself but I'm not giving myself any hard deadlines, it's only a hobby for me.

[Anonymous No.2729034]

>>2729025
Oh and what's that about the moral/legal things?Just curious.

[Anonymous No.2729042]

>>2729033
It's similar because it all goes back to Art Center, where Scott was a teacher and where Feng was educated. I'm not 100% sure, but I think Feng was in his classes actually. Peter Han's classes of Dynamic Sketching teach basically the same stuff too. It's all going back to a set of courses called VicCom (visual communication) at Art Center, and I forget what it was called before that. It's been around a few decades at least in this current form.

>>2729034
You can search the archives and find the old threads on it if you are super keen, because I don't remember it all exactly. A lot of it was rumors or a "he said she said" situation, but there's enough people who have spoken out against him that it seems very likely to be true. The biggest one was Ben Mauro who was brought in to teach for a bit, and I don't remember the details but Feng really fucked him over by promising certain things and doing a bait and switch and it really screwed Ben over financially and affected his career a bit. He did a big writeup about it. Other things that are rumored involve shady shit like Feng withholding people's passports and things. He's also been criticized for severely overcharging students for the education they receive especially since there is no degree or diploma with it, so many of the students are left stuck in Asia and in a lot of debt.

[Anonymous No.2729119]

>>2729042
>He's also been criticized for severely overcharging students for the education they receive especially since there is no degree or diploma with it
???

[Anonymous No.2729133]

>>2729119
Oh I double checked and apparently you do get a diploma. But it's not a degree program and I've heard of people having issues getting visas to come to the US from there with only it as an education.

And yes, the costs are enormous. It will cost you around 40k USD to attend there for the year, and that's not including any living costs.

[Anonymous No.2729166]

>>2729133
Jesus Christ.
Feng is an evil bastard, but I got that vibe just from listening to him.

He seems to only be concerned about his own financial well-being, and he'll do whatever he can to get a little better.

[Anonymous No.2729173]

[Anonymous No.2729191]

[Anonymous No.2729193]

[Anonymous No.2729214]

>It's another FZD horror stories episode

Why don't people here ever post the praises the school gets?

[Anonymous No.2729224]

>>2729214
sup feng?

[Anonymous No.2729255]

>>2729224
You fucked up your screencap of that post. It's Long Ouyan and iirc he posted some paintings he had done that weren't online to prove it was really him. Gotta include the proof for the post to have the proper impact.

[Anonymous No.2729338]

>>2729224
>Remember Feng talking about still playing video games
>Thought it was because he enjoyed the ideas he'd see inside of them
>Read this thread
>Realize he stopped drawing a long time ago, and now he's fixated on enjoying his life and flaying the skin off of people that enter his school

I still might go

[Anonymous No.2729342]

>>2729224
>He's racist against Asians, can you believe that?
That's literally every Asian.

[Anonymous No.2729356]

>>2729342
lol. true.

[Anonymous No.2729362]

>>2729342
kek

[Anonymous No.2729367]

>>2729342
I have a feeling this is kind of like that weird European racism.

There's probably really deep African Racism that nobody knows exists.

[Anonymous No.2729371]

my daddo is practically loaded so i could technically go to FZD, but i'd rather build up my discipline first because it seems like a rather intensive program and i've been a lazy fuck my whole life on top of being depressed

if i do actually manage to become more disciplined though then there might not even be any need to go to FZD in the first place

it's really a doggy dog world

[Anonymous No.2729376]

>>2729371
That's the point. FZD is the place you go for direction. You can learn everything that their students do at home for free as long as you have rock-hard discipline. Save your money, my man, or go to like artcenter

>w-wait, if they didn't have direction in the first place how do they know their heart's in concept art?!

[Anonymous No.2729380]

>>2729371
Sounds like you'd drop out.

Concept art is shitty job anyway.

[Anonymous No.2729393]

>>2729376

>or go to like artcenter

I'd be 23 if I went to artcenter. I'd have to drop out of my current really shitty fine arts school. I dunno. it's a bigger investment than FZD and also a bigger risk.

[Anonymous No.2729397]

reminder that FZD has an exchange program with a state school in the US that allows you to attend for a fraction of the cost

[Anonymous No.2729402]

>>2729367
>nobody knows exists
go watch hotel rwanda

[Anonymous No.2729404]

>>2729393
23 is really young.

[Anonymous No.2729405]

>>2729404

my depression is telling me i'm an oldfag

[Anonymous No.2729408]

>>2729393
You'll get way more out of Art Center. Their program is more complete, has more teachers you can learn from, better teachers, better connections, it is a long enough program to develop your own style and direction instead of being a fzd clone, you can learn more from the other students, etc.

Don't worry about age stuff, especially when you are this young. If Art Center is not a financial issue at all then it's the best option for you probably.

[Anonymous No.2729411]

>>2729405
art center students are getting younger as the school becomes more of a meme, but it used to be that the normal age for going there was like 27 through 30.

contrary to what parents and schools say, you don't have to achieve everything before you're 25.

not saying you should wait until you're 30 to go to school, but a relaxed, slow-paced 20s isn't going to fuck your life up.

[Anonymous No.2729413]

>>2729397
purdue, for anyone wondering

https://www.studyabroad.purdue.edu/programs/flyer.cfm?flyer=1136

[Anonymous No.2729417]

>>2729405
You're a little baby, 20 is an absolute young'un.

You've got a warped perspective of age due to overexposure to tiger mom'd artists and like minded depressionists. Take it easy.

[Anonymous No.2729442]

>>2729417
>>2729411
>>2729408

t-thanks guys

I guess I just wish I were younger so I wouldn't be that much older than my peers, as I would like to make some friends wherever I end up going.

I was also considering going to Sheridan, but I don't know much about its quality and fuck cold climates.

[Anonymous No.2729459]

>>2729224
>>2729193
>>2729191
>>2729173

>all those horror stories
>Ben Mauro

Heh, I actually checked his youtube account, 2 weeks ago he posted a long video about freelance, bussiness and art etc. from his life experiences.

Check out 52:25

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Im8Yhvz7jBY#t=52m25s

He doesn't say it outright and name the guy, but basically confirms the story about free housing being offered and Feng being a sociopath scamming people.

[Anonymous No.2729481]

>>2729442
>I was also considering going to Sheridan, but I don't know much about its quality and fuck cold climates.
If your goal is being a concept artist then I don't recommend it. I went to their illustration program and it was shit so I dropped out. Their animation program is better but if you don't want to be an animator your will "waste" a lot of time doing things that are only relevant for animators.

[Anonymous No.2729486]

FZD grad here.

>>2729017
There are no secrets lol. We basically just had a lot of homework with the first third of the year focusing solely on fundamentals.

>>2729025
This dude is basically correct. Scott robertsons book will explain all you need to know and the rest is just how well you can spit out work in a short period of time.

Depending on your funds and how serious you are about the school, I think it's a great place to go. I know a lot of people who bitched about whatever they could because they thought FZD would give them magic drawing powers. You will only tend to hear negative things from people who didnt take the course as serious as you should.

I went into the school with little to no drawing experience. Like fuckin real beginner thread level shit. I ended up being ok towards the end of the year and after a good half year of job searching, I was able to learn my first job at an indie studio. That is the only thing I'd prepare for if you decide to go; the after school job hunt search is harder than you imagine. They say you will get hired asap but odds are only a couple students will get scooped up by any worthy studio. The rest are left to find any type of work they can. The majority of my batch still dont have jobs but the majority of them seemed to not care too much for doing the school work too.

The hours they try to make you do also end up hurting you more than anything. For the first 2 terms I basically was getting 4 hours of sleep or less a night. I didnt slow down until the 3rd term and my work instantly starting getting better the more I was able to sleep. Although some kids are able to stay up and keep up the quality level, id suggest finding a good balance before making terrible choices that will effect your health and mindset.

You could self teach yourself, but nothing will come close to the atmosphere that the school provides unless you are really driven.

[Anonymous No.2729490]

>>2729486
Post your work. Let us see the fruit of your educational experience.

[Anonymous No.2729498]

>>2729486
Are there any other books/resources besides Robertson's that the instructors use that are available elsewhere? I would like to self-teach as close as I can to their curriculum.

[Anonymous No.2729517]

>>2729486

What kind of homework did you get? Was it just copying Scott's exercises, or was it more in-depth?

[Anonymous No.2729531]

>>2729486
>Nothing will come close to the atmosphere that school provides

I don't really think that atmosphere is an absolute necessity. There's a reason people take 3 years to get great, not 1.

[Anonymous No.2729533]

>>2729531
He never said it was a necessity. In any case, a good atmosphere can lead to faster growth.

[Anonymous No.2729537]

>>2729533
That's all it'll lead to.
There's nothing wrong with taking your time to achieve the same end.

[Anonymous No.2729543]

>>2729537
>There's nothing wrong with taking your time to achieve the same end.
There's plenty of reasons to not want to take the slow route:
-it is mentally much much tougher
-it may mean you don't develop as far in your career since you lost valuable time
-financial burdens from not having a high paying skillset sooner
-it may mean you reach career milestones at inopportune life milestones (eg needing to put in long hours at shitty pay when you also need to raise a family)
-many of history's greatest artists underwent intense young training then produced many of their best works at a young age, and afterwards produced competent but not groundbreaking work
-did I mention it's tougher mentally? It's tougher mentally. People are not good at delayed gratification, and dealing with societal pressures, as well as having things like self esteem linked to skill level
-being improving quicker and being younger is advantageous for getting visibility online, which is related heavily to connections and success in careers
-being old and not having experience is a red flag when applying for positions

[Anonymous No.2729554]

>>2729543
>Not managing your life milestones and your own life so you can progress at an easy pace and get to where you want to be

I'm good at life, so I don't have those problems.
Suck it, fag.

[Anonymous No.2729555]

>>2729554
Good for you. I wish you a successful and happy life.

[Anonymous No.2729561]

>>2729555
EE eee ee ee

That's the sound of my dick in your butthole!

[Anonymous No.2729563]

>>2729405
>tfw depression makes me feel the same way
People who say that's "young" don't know what they're talking about when you feel like you could die at any moment.

[Anonymous No.2729566]

>>2729411
>contrary to what parents and schools say, you don't have to achieve everything before you're 25.
>not saying you should wait until you're 30 to go to school, but a relaxed, slow-paced 20s isn't going to fuck your life up.
>have no friends and can only talk about art with /ic/
Life feels pretty fucked up, please prove to me how life gets better, anon. I want to live.

[Anonymous No.2729567]

>>2729563
I'm sure your feefees trump all.

[Anonymous No.2729570]

>>2729567
But they do

[Anonymous No.2729573]

Still no postings of the works
HmmmmmmmmmmmmmkkkkkE

[Anonymous No.2729581]

>>2729563
What? I know I can die any moment, I feel like I am getting older and my youth is slipping from me, and I often think of death and suicide. I'm 23 and I still know I am objectively young even with all that. Actually as you get older your definition of young will still change too, like my parents call people who are 40 young.

[Anonymous No.2729589]

>>2729567
LOOK MAN, HE MAY HAVE A BAD FEE-FEE, BUT CHECK THIS FOO-FOO

[Anonymous No.2729619]

What is this talk about a problem with drawcrowd and Feng Zhu?

[Anonymous No.2729627]

>>2729619
When CGHub died pretty much overnight Feng wanted to step in and make DrawCrowd the replacement so that he would have more power in the industry and make a lot of money. He was pushing it really hard and that's when people came out of the woodwork to talk about what kind of a person he really is and how they were boycotting the site and recommending others do too.

I don't think much really came of that though, because Artstation became CGHub's successor and it would have happened anyways because it is designed and run much better than DrawCrowd, and actually it is better than CGHub ever was too.

[Anonymous No.2729631]

>>2729627
Interesting, the more you know

[Anonymous No.2729636]

>>2729627
So there's some sort of underlying TOS/rights problem when trying to join up on Drawcrowd's seasonal themed contests or something?

[Anonymous No.2729641]

>>2729636
I'm seeing drawcrowd pages now having Patreon functions, something else that's off?

[Anonymous No.2729643]

>>2729627
>and that's when people came out of the woodwork to talk about what kind of a person he really is
sauce? I don't really know anything about Feng aside from his youtube videos and he always seemed like a decent dude. Although it's hard to gauge someones character based off of art tutorials.

[Anonymous No.2729731]

>>2729498
They don't really teach anything from books. They follow the same steps as robertson but we arent flipping through any pages. After fundamentals are learned, each teacher just teaches their own style. They just go from experience. All you need is to learn robertsons book and then you will be comfortable enough to experiment and learn things on your own without following a set book.

>>2729517
At first it was very similar to scotts book but we would do things like 5-10 pages (A3) of lines and perspective cubes and basic scenes for fundamentals. After the second half of the year, you start getting more fun exercises where you create super heroes and vehicle design and things like that. Its been a bit since ive been there so i could be wrong if they changed things.

>>2729531
yea everyone needs to go at their own speed. its not healthy to force yourself to do too much

I do wish I would have at least known my fundamentals before starting the program. You will be able to make a stronger portfolio in the end if you have to go through fundamental training twice.

[Anonymous No.2729732]

>>2729731
Do you also start just visualizing in the second half of the year instead of plotting? Or do you still plot?

[Anonymous No.2729815]

>>2729636
No. I think initially the stuff like hte Ben rant that was posted earlier in the thread was not fully public and was just shared among pros. People came up with some TOS bullshit to try to get people to not join DrawCrowd but there never was a real issue with it at all.

>>2729643
Read the whole thread, some people posted some screenshots of things said by Ben Mauro and Long Ouyang (they are legitimately said by them), and some students who went to FZD. I believe there were even more students saying things that haven't been posted here.

[Anonymous No.2729815,1]

For those considering fzd in Singapore, have u considered learning under Artgerm, kunkka and ukitakumuki at 3dsense media school?

I've heard that people who attended fzd first and then 3dsense later, found 3dsense to be better in terms of everything. The Imaginary Friends trio have a better sense of design, are really smart and down to earth but most important of all, everyone learns there because the staff there guide and help all. Even for "weaker" students, they gained and improved much more after 1 year as compared to the "weaker" category in fzd who gets bullied and ignored and ending up with much lesser than they deserved after having paid 40k!

I believe 3dsense is a safe choice if u aren't sure that u can fit in the fzd personality type to succeed. It's easy to say u can work really hard and make do with 4 hrs of sleep a night but when the real deal comes, some people end up breaking down after awhile. You have to make sure that your body and mind is Military ready for fzd, prepared for 1 yr's worth of non stop physical and psychological torture!

[Anonymous No.2729981]

>>2729815

I don't know about Ben, but wasn't Long accused of slandering FZD in an attempt to get revenge after he was outed as wanting to fuck a student?

[Anonymous No.2730083]

>>2729981
He was fired for cock-blocking FZD from fucking students

[Anonymous No.2730158]

>>2729732
I mean, you still have to plot things out but not as intense as earlier. Early on you would have to draw a very simple shape with all the lines and points plotted perfectly. Feng would look super close at your work to see points intersecting and see if you were careful enough. But later on, you are just expected to have learned the fundamentals so you can get to the end result any way you want. You will probably have to plot some things but it would be as simple as just throwing down some perspective lines just so your work doesnt look like trash.

[Anonymous No.2730225]

>>2729173

This is some real assassination classroom type shit.

[Anonymous No.2730236]

>>2729981
so what if he did?

[Anonymous No.2730349]

>>2730236
oh, right. we live in the age where having a penis and wanting to reproduce makes you an "evil chauvanist"

[Anonymous No.2730414]

>>2730236
>>2730349

In this context "wanting to fuck a student" means "harassing female students" and "trying to use his position to coerce them into having sex with him". Feng had every right to fire him.

Say what you will about FZD, Long is a shitty person whose opinions shouldn't be trusted. Ben Mauro's opinions are much more relevant to my interests, yet ultimately unrelated to the educational value of FZD.

[Anonymous No.2730423]

>>2730414
>In this context "wanting to fuck a student" means "harassing female students" and "trying to use his position to coerce them into having sex with him". Feng had every right to fire him.
I mean, we really don't know one way or another. Long could have been doing that, or it could have been something blown out of proportion and context as an excuse to fire him. Nobody here was there, and probably outside of Feng and Long, no one knows the reality of it and is just making guesses based on rumors.

>Ben Mauro's opinions are much more relevant to my interests, yet ultimately unrelated to the educational value of FZD
It's relevant to the way that Feng thinks and acts, which affects how the education is. Someone who is manipulative/psychopathic/financially driven will probably not create the ideal learning space for growth. Listening to reports from ex- or current students of the school this is made more clear.