G'day Aiden,
Thanks for the vote of confidence mate ! ;) Unfortunately, I don't share
your view that architectural previz is necessarily the kettle of gold at
the end of the rainbow - rather I would recommend staying away from the
market segment unless compelled to for a few reasons:
Firstly as stated initially - everyone with a 3d program thinks they are
an expert. Merely having a 3d program does not make one an expert
illustrator, modeller, marketing agent nor compositor. Doing
architectural work is all these things - and a lot of people don't
realise that. We have so many 18 year olds pushing "into the industry"
as everyone sees the architectural segment as an easy one to get into.
Yes - its prolific in its current state in the market, as clients are
realising that its more than just a gimmick, but a valid marketing tool.
But why would a client doing a 10million dollar development spend $500
to get his mates nephew to kick up a corner perspective so he could show
all his mates ? Admittedly this happens at a domestic level all the
time, but the larger jobs are after something that shows their job off
in a good light, and the days of these "fly by night" operators are
becoming less. (thank goodness !) As they also serve to dramatically
devalue our services.
the building market uses 3ds not only as a marketing tool, but as a
design tool. Being an architect myself, I see the value of being able to
previsualise a building, changing, revising, testing colours, looking at
the building in context (within a site photo) etc. Its this malleability
that is a fundamental aspect of 3d. Being able to change a design
dramatically and explore other options is what makes up the bulk of our
work. This not only drives a lot of people insane, but is also heavily
dependent on your 3d application and how it allows these changes. RS in
this regard is excellent.. ;)
You need a semi artistic eye to compose shots and find dramatic views of
buildings, light them accordingly, explore colour options, and more and
more so, include planting schedules and species in the images to give an
accurate representation of the proposed built environment.
Personally, I would target the "inventor" market if I were you (again
its dependent on what you enjoy doing) but these nutters are a breed
unto themselves and come up with some pretty interesting concepts that
simply can't be conveyed very well without some pretty 3d images /
animations.
I had one approach me a number of years back and wanted to develop a
"wave machine" that generated power from the natural surging of the
ocean. Naturally I took it on ;) Its this sort of market I think that is
reasonably untapped. Industrial designers too trying to show off their
latest mobile phone designs or the next generation mouse trap. Bare in
mind that a lot of these ID types have a good background knowledge of 3d
however.
On another note, Portfolio is everything. Without it clients have
nothing to judge you by. Hence I would be focusing 110% on this. A
portfolio could be anything from tron doodles to animations.
While I don't wish to sound negative about the architectural side, I do
find it frustrating when every man and his dog thinks that "they can do
it" when they have no building knowledge, even less cad knowledge
(inevitably all designs are supplied in cad format - so unless you have
autocad, microstation or revit, your behind the 8-ball) and the de rigur
cracked copy of max. As building become more complex and people learn to
appreciate the value of design, so too do the actual acts of making a 3d
building become more complex. Without this background knowledge, it
makes it hard if not impossible to look like you know what your talking
about to a client. Having that background "how things go together"
knowledge is imperative in having that "it looks real" end result.
Otherwise its like trying to assemble a car engine from parts with no
mechanical knowledge. (Architecture is a 6 year course for a reason ;)
I like to think its taken me a good decade to get the building game down
to an artform (although I can say i've been doing it since 1988). and
I've got processes and workflow's in place now so I can knock out a
multi unit development in as little as 1-2 days or so. Your 3d
application is but a single tool in the whole pipeline:
Importing supplied cad data, simplifying as required, exporting elements
to 3d, model building, texture, create landscape, lighting, rendering,
compositing into photoshop, integrating into 2d photos with people,
foreground and background elements, inserting into drawing set and
hardcopies, liasing with signmakers, real estate agents and architects.
Its a big swings and round about ride for each job. (And thats just for
static imagery)
As stated initially - focus on what you enjoy doing, and multi skill
yourself where possible. You never know what might land on your desk ;)
Regards
Bernie
VRgrafix
