Hello, I am new to this forum. I am a graduating junior in high school and as of late have been trying to prepare for art school to get into an animation program, 3d, 2d, or both. I know art school is not entirely necessary in this day and age, and I have been worried about being spread thin with academics that aren't industry relevant, but I wanted to get the degree just to have the leverage in the workforce even beyond the entertainment industry, my parents don't feel comfortable with the idea of me self learning and having no degree at all.
However, the issue has been managing my studies with the expectations of an art school, particularly for animation. When trying to learn hand drawn animation for example I've noticed I haven't been doing full drawn illustrations as much compared to sketches and lineart to then move onto animating in an animation software. However many art school portfolios I see, even in the animation section, include many detailed illustrations. Of course this is expected since you shouldn't need to know how to animate to get into the program, but I'm worried whether my amateurish animations will look worse than just giving it up for a few months and making a traditional portfolio.
The second worry has been the opinion of digital art. Due to expenses and the focus on animation, I haven't been doing much traditional work. I worry I am just racking up all the negatives in an art portfolio, but I'm just not sure what to expect.
