not really. any uni course involving computers requires you to do 1 or 2 years of absolute basics, regardless of whether or not you already know your shit.

that's 1-2 years of not doing anything even remotely interesting. you don't even have time to do anything remotely interesting, because you get time-consuming mundane tasks.

by the time i finished my first year i had pretty much lost interest in animating

Quote from Scarecrow

not really. any uni course involving computers requires you to do 1 or 2 years of absolute basics, regardless of whether or not you already know your shit.

that's 1-2 years of not doing anything even remotely interesting. you don't even have time to do anything remotely interesting, because you get time-consuming mundane tasks.

by the time i finished my first year i had pretty much lost interest in animating

That sucks man, but not everyone is going to have the same experience. Different schools are going to operate differently from each other, and some are going to approach multimedia and animation more intuitively than other universities. Yeah, you're going to have to deal with the basics and the bullshit for the first year or so, but so does pretty much every computer-related major - doesn't mean you shouldn't pursue a degree in what you like to do.

A more realistic reason for not going to an art school is that they're goddamn expensive and you really have to know what you want to do with the degree. If you've got no target market or additional skills besides "I know how to draw", good luck with that bachelor's in illustration that you spent $50,000 to get.

People are amazing tutorial added. I wish the animation school But, I learned animation to one teacher. So I Choice Self taught animator.

Quote from Scarecrow

not really. any uni course involving computers requires you to do 1 or 2 years of absolute basics, regardless of whether or not you already know your shit.

that's 1-2 years of not doing anything even remotely interesting. you don't even have time to do anything remotely interesting, because you get time-consuming mundane tasks.

by the time i finished my first year i had pretty much lost interest in animating

That really does suck big time :( . Even in our country down here 90 percent of the universities don't do any justice to the courses they teach, and that's what turns people to either be self taught, or look for universities abroad. While in a frenzy of searching for those colleges, i came across the CalArts' character animation course(4 yrs) and its frikkin beast!!
But hey, we don't need no teaching, i thought and glanced along to their final year students' projects, just as Miccool mentioned.

Quote from Miccool

they just teach you essentials usually and they usually have like a big final project where they let you do whatever you want =S.

here's that link.. http://filmvideo.calarts.edu/programs/character-animation

And i realised even after less than a year of animating my anims are CRAWLING near these lol. [all 50 ish of them :p ] Anyway then i went for its fees O.o Being a chemical engg. student who works part time, it would take me like 64 years to earn that tution fee xD [like that's gonna happen] ,just as pointed out by Miccool and Skyshark,they're godamn expensive,and you got to have an eye catching portfolio beforehand .

However the bright side is that we do have examples of great self taught animators like hyun, tekoiz, miccool, oxob...[list goes on] and stuff who didn't specifically go to an animation school yet whose anims are awesome and original.I really do wonder though if really everyone can do it or are they exceptionally talented? Lets assume anyone can :)
It seems, overall being self taught is then not just a matter of choice, but convenience and circumstances. And knowing the number of great artists and animators[ and experiences like screcrow's :p ],its certainly not a bad choice!

Quote from Apex93

I started as self taught because we had to make an animation for some unit in computer science so I made a stickman maze and then after that I started going onto youtube specifically Flyingpanda & Terkoiz and it just spiraled up from there, oh joined stickpage shortly after

Hey that's more or less what happened with me! or most of us on stickpage i guess lol

Meh, selftaught works pretty good actually for people who can't afford it. DanmarK is getting a job now, through being self taught.
Although studying would give better learning of the subject. It also teaches a lot of things that are not specifically related to animation, but help make your work much more efficient and organized.
For example I saw a few "trial" videos from Matt Kohr's digital painting tutorials, the premium ones. I learned so many simple little tricks that have really improved my workflow.

i say self taught because you get more a feel for it first hand where as, it would feel as if you are simply copying the instructor

Well that really depends what your ultimate goal is. If its a hobby, than self-taught could be more beneficial as you can go in your own pace without rushing yourself.

If you're serious about it, than animation school is the better choice. Self-teaching can only take you so far, and the effectiveness of it really depends on the person. Schools are a lot more beneficial as they pretty much cover everything that self-teaching does for you and more. In truth, the only two benefits that self-teaching has on school, and this applies to every self-teaching vs school scenario, is that you can go in any pace that you're comfortable with and (depending on your method) you don't have to pay for it.

Honestly, anybody who thinks they're better off being self-taught is either a genius or a prideful idiot. Unless all the possible programs you can apply to suck.