CG Spectrum Reviews 

Utterly brilliant! If you really want to learn how to properly make concept art and illustration or just improve your art, then this is one of the best courses that you could do. The amount that you learn from the tutor and the assignents is huge, would take many years of self led practice to learn what is taught here. Fantastic experience!

Prior to going into the 12 month 3D Modeling Certification program at CG Spectrum, I had very minimal experience or understanding surrounding what the expectations of the industry were. I had a background as a 2d artist which definitely helped lend to some of the more creative tasks, but there were so many things I didn't initially understand producing game ready / film ready assets.

The program content and instructor (Christopher Flynn from Dekogon) were exceptional in breaking down the larger issues at hand into solutions, artistic direction, as well as full on technical critique that made for a huge boost in my abilities at making 3D assets and models. I recommend that if you take this course, you give it everything you have, put in the extra work, be very communicative during zoom sessions about what you're looking to improve or what is unclear because they're a really amazing support structure. That structure is not only provided by your assigned mentor, but the community of CG Spectrum on their slack channel, the career services, and fellow classmates who kept the fire lit the entire time.

The career services and post certification support from classmates, mentor and the career development manager, Maxine Shnepf, were really helpful. It can be scary once you wrap up a certification program, or education, which I know from experience at other institutions. This was made so much easier by realistic planning of resume, portfolio, and easy access to career staff via chats / meetings, which ultimately ended up helping me land my own job at a VFX studio!
If you were ever curious to get into this industry, you should consider checking CG Spectrum out. I would also like to say this with a bit of honest advice as well: This program will help you 100% to understand industry standards/ expectations as well as necessary pipeline techniques, but you absolutely must put in the effort. I don't want this review to be taken as "CG Spectrum did it for me!" no no, in fact this is a program that requires a lot of self-determination, creativity, and wanting to be in the industry. If you put all of those pieces together then this program will help you so so much more, and the sense of satisfaction you have with both your work, and your portfolio will be that much greater.
Thanks again so much to CG Spectrum for all of the advice, and encouragement to get myself out there!

~J.R.

The interaction with the mentors is the best thing at CG Spectrum, their support and flexibility to adapt and support you with specific, practical tasks is great to help you improve in the areas you're interested in.
The huge Slack community is also great way to connect with and learn from peers, it's a constant source of info from various areas of the industry.

My experience at CG Spectrum was second to none, and taught me so much more than I initially anticipated. I stumbled across CG Spectrum while trying to find any way I could to leave the construction industry and get into the gaming/film industry, and I’m so glad I did. They offered a month free trial which really helped in my decision making to see if the course was right for me. I chose to sign up for the 1-1 course and was lucky enough to get Mark Pullyblank as my tutor, an absolute industry veteran. He took me from being barely computer literate to an animator working at a studio in only a year and a half. The information and level of teaching at CG Spectrum will absolutely not be found anywhere else and I would recommend them to anyone looking to learn a form of digital art.

Wish I could do this course all over again!! I came across CG Spectrum when looking for online art courses as due to the pandemic I wasn't satisfied with my uni experience and wanted to learn more. As soon as I was on their website I knew I wanted to apply for a course as I loved the fact you got to become part of the CG community and be apart of a small group with a mentor. I was mentored by Humza who guided me from day one until the end and I have nothing but praise for him. The quality of my artwork was improved by more than I ever imagined due to his guidance and feedback. I loved that we were shown how to take our illustrations to the next level and then given time to get more feedback on our improvements. The assignments and video tutorials taught me all the principles of art that were never mentioned during my three years at University and I am so glad I know them now because that is another reason for my art progression. Overall, I had the best time being part of CG Spectrum and already miss studying with my mentor and people in my course group. An experience I will never forget!

Compositing student here, and I will say its great experience!!!

Great school overall, the fact of being online school allows for so much adaptivity, they really care what level you are and adapt so good to fit the needs to help you find an opportunity.

Mentors do know what they talking about, there is definetly experience and current development along with them.

Class content is definetly up to date to current procedures used in the industry, gotta say lots of the teachings from my mentor I see people around using them and me, myself end up using them a lot! definetly your gonna learn what you need to learn!.

In this type of industry community is so important, either for feedback to get better, but also, to find a job out there, and you're definetly gonna find such a nice and receptive community here, from students to mentors and graduates! everyone is there for you to grow up.

Be sure to take advantage of all the tools they give you, assets, community, Q&As, as it is an online school, be sure to push yourself to really take a lot from this and definetly you're gonna do just fine in the industry.

Great experiences all around, a enjoyable community of great hard workers and friends coming together to help you get into the game design field as a whole.

Incredible school. I always known a 4 year college just wasn’t the path for me.

I was suggested CG spectrum, and it’s been such a fun experience and I’m looking forward to the advanced classes.

You will get a mentor who knows what they’re talking about, have YEARS of experience and know what success looks like to get into the industry. PLUS! They really want you to succeed they want you to be portfolio ready even in just the intro class.

My mentor was super duper responsive, answered all my questions even on the weekends, and my special 20 minute questions at the end of live class. (I’m sure he knows who I am now).

Was so much fun each live session was a blast!

CG spectrum sets you up for success, but it’s up to you to do the work they provide, and really listen to the feedback they hand back to you.

The community is strong, and they do feedback Thursdays so you can get some peer reviews. Your mentor will make sure your work is 100% spot on and portfolio ready.

Very fun and supportive community. It doesn't matter what skill level you're at, there are always people there that are willing to help you improve.

I went through the 3D Modeling course which was entirely online. This program was the most reasonably priced online program that i could find and it seemed tailor made for students wanting to get into the industry as it stands today. And I'd say it mostly achieved what I was hoping for - that said I *just* graduated after the 9-10 month program and don't entirely feel ready to start applying for jobs. How long will it take? At least another 3 months I think, probably 6 or more to polish a professional portfolio. So this is basic training here, you're not quite ready to go into the battlefield yet. The more I learn about 3D graphics the more avenues and directions begin to emerge as potential career paths. It's not just about being a 3D artist. Do you want to do characters? Hard surface models? Environments? Game Development? Animation? VFX?

They give you a mentor and a set of video lectures to go through at your own pace. Although you'll quickly be able to gauge if you're moving quickly or slowly depending on your co-students and where they're at. I do like the small class size and the time (once a week zoom meeting) with a current industry professional. The video lectures at the time (they were being updated as I finished) had a few really simple issues that will hopefully get ironed out by the time you're reading this. 1) There is no screencap for keystrokes. There were many times the video lecturer person (this is not your mentor, this is a pre-recorded vid by someone else) would do something and I would have no idea how, or by what hotkey combination they had done it. 2) Sometimes it seemed the lectures were edited after the fact and something feels lost, like the lecturer would say, "we've done this part before so I'm going to skip ahead and show you what i ended up with" but they actually hadn't shown you the thing and that can be a little frustrating. But there were only a couple times I experienced that. Also sometimes the mentor would negate the way the video lecturer was working, but that's probably different studios do things differently, and whether you're in film or games can make a difference in how you approach a model.

Eventually you learn that they can't possibly fit everything in this 9 month course, and you realize maybe 10% of the time you'll have to Google / troubleshoot. But this is a skill you will have to learn anyway. Use their Slack channel. This is one of the biggest things about choosing to go to a school rather than self-educating via Youtube. Social connections are worth the price. Use the time wisely and reach out to, complement, and troubleshoot with as many people as you can while you're there. Cool thing is you still have access to the Slack and discord channels once you graduate (in perpetuity), excepting a few extra free single sesh workshops they do only for current students.

Ideally you have a part time job or don't have a girlfriend/BF, but I had a full time job and a GF and I still made it work, you just have to be diligent with your time management.

If you're a prospective student, find me on Artstation - artstation.com / jacobbruns8 and send me a message if you have any more questions.

Don't waste your money on college courses!

I took the Advanced 3D Animation Course for 10 months at CG Spectrum and it was one of the best decisions I've ever made for my career. I came into this program hoping that this could help me grow and improve my skills as an animator, as well as help me network and learn the skills needed to break into the industry. My mentor has been amazing at teaching and guiding me the ways of how to be a good animator, and she always provided constructive critique for my assignments. I've learned and grown so much throughout this program and I loved that there are many resources in the CG Spectrum slack community, such as finding new job opportunities, meeting other students and mentors, and checking out different courses. It's also great that there's a career advisor to guide students on getting their first jobs. I made sure to take advantage of everything that CG Spectrum had to offer and as a result, I was able to land my dream job at my dream company. Thank you CG Spectrum!

My teacher was fantastic and helped me to improve more than I ever could.

Great guidance and insights from Justin for the noob me :)

TA and the community are very helpful too; shout out to Heinrich and Alexios!!!

I had a great experience with CG Spectrum. If you want to get into the animation, VFX, or video game industry I will always tell you to take classes at CG Spectrum. The classes are easy to understand and the mentors are all friendly and really want to help you understand and get better at your respective craft. I did both intro to Nuke and the Nuke Compositing course with Kasy and she was a great mentor. She helped me with all of my questions and also helped me get ready for my first industry job. I will always sing praises for CG Spectrum with the courses they provide and the help they give to their students.

My experience with CG Spectrum was great. I've learnt a lot from people who really are inside the industry. The first mentor I had wasn't that brilliant but the one I got for the second and third terms... boy he was awesome!

One thing CG Spectrum MUST fix: one hour is NOT enough! Every time at the end of our weekly class we had to hurry to finish in time. Not cool.

I've studied the intro course and i'm now 2/3rds of a way through the advanced course, I study full time and work monday to friday 9 til 6. The one aspect I adore about studying with CG Spectrum is that they make time for you. Your mentors and people who you've never even spoke to are there to help you succeed! Working within the entertainment industry is about who you know, your mentors will know the people you need to in order to help you get your foot in the door. The rest is up to you! I've been studying for almost a year now and have had people reaching out to me for jobs, which I never thought i'd have! I studied animation in university and nothing came from it because making connections was so difficult. CG spectrum make it easy as, the course work itself is challenging but fun! you vibe with your kind of people. So yes. I will always highly recommend this to anybody and everybody.

I want to thank the entire CG Spectrum staff and their teachers/mentors for their unconditional support and for sharing beyond the course syllabus and for always giving 100% in everything.

I have taken the Introduction to Game Design course and have decided to stick with CG Spectrum for the complete Game Design course. They offer exactly what I wanted: part time classes that allowed me to work on personal projects at the same time and also make my own schedule. Being paired with a mentor that has vast field experience and follows my progress every week is simply amazing! And what to say of the incredibly welcoming worldwide community. Witnessing everyone's progress and seeing how everyone is there for one another is completely fulfilling! I would recommend this school without any hesitation.

Initially entered CG Spectrums course to dip my toes into more professional means of art education, without dedicating too much time and money into significantly more intimidating University based courses for Animation.

Came out with so much more than I expected; Through a very fun and relaxed online community - Other Students and Mentors communicate in a refreshingly open way. Personally I participated in both the 'Fundamentals' and 'Adv. Animation' Courses, The Mentors really make these courses a unique experience as they share anecdotes and advice that I will stick with me for many years.

CG Spectrum has pushed me closer to my dream of being a concept artist. The mentors are amazing, which really is their unique selling point! You can't get the same level of experienced mentors and course quality anywhere else in the UK, so for me it was a no brainer. Very glad to have taken both the illustration and concept art course, and the advanced concept art course.