life changing or career building?

life changing or career building ? i think both are very important to be a good game artist you need have a vast technical skill and knowledge but the main think is to be able to problem solve with something your stuck on to be able to research and figure things out which is the only way you can learn to do is through practice and curiosity but the industry is always changing and evolving that's why you need to be able to adapt what iv witnessed so far is allot of the skills for new software's are interchangeable already before iv not to even manged to concur current gen "360 , ps3 gen" fully before a new generation and big leap in graphics is on the horizon as i start my second year in November they'll be here and the industry will change and evolve even more, but how much will the skills you need change in order to be successful ? im not sure there will be a huge difference especially not in the foundation skill blocks you will still need to be very technical skilled but creative people will be needed you will have to no what looks right and design interesting environments, characters, vehicles, everything. 

for our university work i  think we should strive to be as new as possible as high gen as we are able because its only going forward the main concern i think  is at the moment most character artist build in 3ds max an zbrush a character and then retapoligse where as now after Cameron guest lecture he showed us  for next gen the tri count is hugely different and massively built in 3d software's rather than sculpting software's for accuracy, one of his main points was that if you know how to sculpt and have those foundation skills you will find it ten times easier so in the other respect maybe we should just concentrate on current demand and keep developing things on and on until were ready to move onto next gen.

highly trained graduates , or creative individuals?  they both have huge merits but personally i think a highly trained graduate should have the edge because you know theve worked hard to get there degree depending on the grade. the projects your set on your degree shouldn't  be your portfolio or tasks that you just accomplish they should try be as creative as possible but i think its massively important still be creative and build a portfolio outside of your degree pursuing the area you wont to be in as-well as doing that in your degree so i think they can both be right in there own merits, but getting a degree helps allot to keep you on schedule and consistently working. 

education is needed for this because task's need to be set and marked and criticed by people who know what there talking about as-well as pushing students to work harder but as you get further and further into education it gets more of own back and less imput because you shouldn't need as much help anymore and to be more original as person and skill but i think that makes education fur filling because it allows you to build yourself till you don't need it anymore.