petesedlacek

This is the bane of my freelancing career. Juggling projects is rough enough, but when this happens all bets are off. You need to have something in your contract stating that at a certain point, the extra work is billed straight hourly. Then the client can decide if a new revisions is worth is based on X cost (your hourly rate x number of hours needed.) Then, you get to APPROVE this request if it's outside the initial scope. If doing more revisions past the initial number isn't in the contract, you aren't obligated to do them, and if you do you must be able to bill for them. The second thing you need in your contract is an end date. This is so tricky because in reality things happen, but at some point the client must know they are weeks past the "deadline" and you can't be locked up on a project forever. Lastly, it's good to not schedule projects back to back. Give at least a week buffer between them if you can. I enjoy being busy, but coming off a crazy 4 week project right into another one the next day is very rough. You need some time off in between. And if one goes long, at least that buffer is there.

Glad you are thinking of taking the plunge! I got lucky, in that my software and hardware purchases happened organically. I didn't wake up one day thinking "Okay, time to buy everything." I built my computer, which probably saved my 30% of the cost. Bought Max a few years ago to do a little freelance here and there, so I had that (Same with adobe CS.) Bought the student license of Vray to learn it. So when I finally decided to make the leap to Freelance Full-time, all I had to do was upgrade Vray (which is cheaper than buying outright.) I guess if I had any advice for you, it would be to seriously build your own computer. You'll learn a lot, save a bunch of money, and it's not as scary as it sounds. And as for software, my advice is if you're going to use it to make money, then buy a license. I know that's not the easiest answer, but consider that in one or two projects you could recover all the costs, and then it's all profit after that (minus subscription fees.) This is a relatively cheap field to be in, regarding operating expenses. I mean it might cost 5-8k to get up and running, but that's nothing compared to the years and years... thousands of hours required to learn how to do it, right?

Hi David. Great to hear you're thinking about what you want to do and what you are most passionate about. I'm fairly new at this myself, but I'll answer as best I can. 1. Studios can do studio-sized projects, and things that a freelancer might not be able to handle. However, the freelancer is most likely cheaper and can give more personal service. I definitely learned that you need to be careful how much you take on at once. Having 2-3 clients calling and emailing you during the day really hurts productivity. It's tough to say no to projects, but it's better than taking on too much and disappointing all clients. I'm more than happy to just take on small projects right now that fit the "lone wolf" category, and these definitely exist. 2. No idea, but I think you could specialize. I think it depends on the scope. A nice residential exterior or an office interior might be very managable for a freelancer. A huge shopping mall for an interior, or an airport for an exterior might be too large. I think there is a market for both exteriors and interiors, and if your quality is excellent you will be in demand. 3. Again, all I can speak about is what's worked for me. I have a background of almost 10 years in Max, and it really can do everything. I think it's the perfect tool for the freelancer. And you have access to great plugins too. Vray is an absolute must-have if you want to make money off your renderings. The quality and ease of use is so much higher than what I've experienced with Mental Ray. I actually was thinking recently on an interior I was doing, how easy it was to get smooth and correct lighting. I couldn't recall the last time I had to battle noise or blotchiness since switching to Vray. In Mental Ray this was just part of the process, battling the engine for quality. It just simply works, and if I could change anything in my career I would have learned it sooner. I don't know your level of comfort with architecture in particular, but what I did was get a certificate from a community college in architectural drafting. This gave me experience with AutoCAD, Revit, Sketchup and Solidworks. I think it helped to put me in the architects mindset, as opposed to just a Max guy who can render buildings. 4. Depends. I have some clients who just want images, and some who like to open the files and tinker for themselves (they also know Max a bit.) Some others literally just want models in OBJ format. So I would say it all depends. I've had to turn jobs down that ask for Maya experience, and that's okay. I know Maya people who have turned down Max jobs. It's better to be excellent at one major software I think, than to spend time learning them all. That's an impossible chase anyways, not enough time in the day.

I'm new on this forum, but what in the world is causing that MR render to take 30 minutes? There is no way that should take more than 5-10 tops, with no noise at all. Are you trying to brute force the Final Gather? I would love to get my hands on the scene and check it out.

A 3D artist looking to get more exposure to architecture Viz, hopefully I will be browsing and posting here once in a while.