Hi Matthew,
Pick a room in your House and pre viz it. Jump in - set up a mock portfolio
- showing what you can do. Build it, texture it, render it, upload to
webspace. Go down town - look at buildings in your area - photograph it
from all angles. Grab some textures, come home, model it, texture it,
render it, upload to webspace [ if worried about copyright - use the
building as a template and change it in 3D beyond recognition. You get my
idea? Nothing stopping you building up such a portfolio. I am sure their is
construction of housing estates and / or industrial estates some where
around you? Because you can do this stuff remotely, is their accessible
cities / towns around where you could get business. Building developers,
real estate agents [ 2nd hand property walk throughs ]
Aidan
At 14:11 19/07/2006, you wrote:
Aidan,
Thanks for the suggestions, they do make good sense. I'm not really sure
what the attitude around here (Marshall Michigan) is, but I do know that
the 8000 or so people who make up the "official population" (inside city
limits) are very adverse to change. I like to joke that Marshall is
technology proof. But there is really not much big business here either
or people who would pay for pre vis, so I'd be looking for clients other
than local ones; which is the case for my programming as well. What I
need to do is move, but the real-estate here is almost impossible right
now as well, so I'm just trying to make the best of it my situation.
As for wiz-bang stuff, I'm not sure I could do any right now at my level
of proficiency.
I think the arc vis stuff could be cool, and Bernie is certainly "the man"
in that department. Maybe he could send me a simple file that a client
would typically provide and I could see what I could do with it?
What do you think Bernie, got anything laying around that I could cut my
teeth on (just for practice of course, nothing legit.) I find I do best
by jumping in and trying something rather than talking about it too much.
Matthew
Aidan O Driscoll wrote:
Hi Matthew,
A recurring thing going through your mails is "I am technically and
mechanically minded though". To me this suggests something similar to
what Bernie is involved in - Architectural Previz. Not too much organics
in that area [ as in character stuff ] . I notice an upsurge in this over
here in Ireland due to the massive building boom going on for the last
few years. Massive tax breaks on apartment construction and rental etc. I
find most of the pre viz stuff is done in England for the Irish market
for example, so a niche in my case straight away.
3D in Ireland is very conservative. To most it is "Mechanical Drawing" on
a computer. Autocad and Cad is what most people will trip off their lips.
The concept of 3D / CG movies and creative 3D is - well - not taken
seriously. This because you are dealing with a conservative business
environment here.
The most creative aspect then is pre viz for new building projects. At
least one can use a bit of creativity with texturing etc. AND the
conservative business model can see some use in this area of 3D.
Not alone would I restrict it to pre viz stills, but also walk throughs.
I have one of these walk throughs on CD by a company in Dublin for a
property here in Cork for example. [ too big to upload + copyright ].
From above a big consideration to get into the 3D business OR any
business is the demographic makeup, size and attitude. For most
businesses here, conservatism rules the roost. Trying to sell them all
bells and whistles CG is useless. They cannot see the potential. It
sounds like a waste of money. So either arc pre viz OR product pre viz
is as close to something they can see makes sense. Why not also - web
3d. www.realviz.com are following this route with a new app on the
market called VTour. Once this app is up a few versions it could be
interesting for Auctioneer animated pre viz of new properties or any property.
I hope you see where I am coming from. Its all fine to be great at the
technicalities of 3D and being able to do whiz bang stuff, but down in
the trenches its got to make sense and have purpose for the perspective
client. The previz area is one of these "purpose" areas of CG that makes
sense, so maybe you could look at this area in your neck of the woods.
Also what is business attitude like in your area? Conservative? OR Yip we
will give that a go type thing? Or is nepotism [ who you know ] and
insular viewpoints [ inward looking and local ] the order of the day?
These things will restrict or open out perspective biz areas in CG.
I have no doubt Bernie is your man for a further comment here and to
expand on requirements, he is on the ground with this type of stuff.
[ PS bernie, now you know why my interest is in that LWCad toolset :) ]
Cheers
Aidan
At 06:11 19/07/2006, you wrote:
Wow, that's a lot of time doing graphics! I certainly don't have a
degree in anything (I a self learner), and only 12 years of hobby
experience with Realsoft. I technically and mechanically minded though,
and understand spacial relationships really well, so I think I'd do okay
with non-organic kinds of models and such.
I wonder if computer graphics are suffering the same attitude that
programming gets, i.e. they are considered more a commodity and should
be able to be created by any 18-year old with a cracked copy of Max (as
Bernie pointed out), and bought for next to nothing? I wonder where I
might find a niche?
Oh, and I'll definitely wear my spacesuit! :-)
Matthew
Neil Cooke wrote:
Beware ... it's one thing to have fun with 3D graphics and it's quite
another thing to require it to pay your mortgage. Usually it's not all that
much fun until you've put more than a few years in the sweat shops and have
gained a bit of seniority. You're probably best advised to simply scale
back
your other job so that you can have more time for fun.
In my case, an Honours Degree in Fine Arts, ten years in agencies and
twenty
years freelance ... and I'm only now beginning to scale back the non-fun
parts of graphics in favour of the fun (but not paying) parts.
However, if your fun turns into a decent skill level, you'll know it and
you'll know if you can take on strange requests from friends and who knows
where things lead.
Don't bother with the starving artist thing, it's been done before and
seems
to end the fun sooner than need be. Maybe just to tend towards a certain
direction at any chance, have fun, stay healthy, don't wander about outside
the ship without your spacesuit on, things like that ...
Neil Cooke
----- Original Message -----
From: "Matthew Hagerty" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Realsoft Mailing List" <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, July 19, 2006 3:30 PM
Subject: OT: graphics for a living?
I would really like to try and do a career change and get into computer
graphics instead of database programming and such. Any advice from
those of you who make a living with your work would be greatly
appreciated. How does one go about cutting their teeth and earning a
living? Also, what do you think of sites like this?
http://www.ifreelance.com/Freelance-Jobs/3D-Graphic-Design-Freelance-Jobs/
Thanks,
Matthew
