A companies beginning

[Jeff Palmer]

Greetings all,

A collogue and I will be forth going the ArchVis realm here within the next 6 months. We both have good modeling; texturing, lighting, animation skills but what we don’t know as of yet are some of the most important. Our main concern like many is the seed money and the clients.

I personally own a copy of XSI Fnd and love it, he uses Max and Vray and would like t purchase Max+Vray but I know this is a hefty fee that we could use the money toward computers or even rent to that matter. Has anyone had any experience with a XSI > Max workflow in this field? He has me beat since we both know more about vray then Mentalray but the cost point is something we both cannot ignore. Apart from private investors, and bank loans does anyone know of some type of grants or programs in the United States that will help out some young businessmen?

Now as far as clients, how did you folks go about yours? Meaning where did you get your first ones and what kind of projects did you work on for the first time?

We plan on working our butts off for the next 6 months gearing up to show potential clients what we can do, what are some words of wisdom as to what to show the client you can do for your first gig? What kind of times frames are we to be expecting?

If anyone could answer any of these it would be great, thanks for your time.

Cheers,

Jeff

[lambros]

I own an XSI Fdn license, a VIZ license and Vray/Maxwell. I have only used XSI for experimentation and other 3d stuff. All of my work is done in VIZ and vray/ maxwell. In the past I tried to do some rendering in XSI, and it was kind of difficult to get the model from .3ds to XSI. I used some export plug ins for VIZ, got an .xsi file and importing and cleaning the mesh was kind of a horrid situation. There is a program though, called Polytrans that claims to handle well all translations, just do a google search.

Finally, the biggest problem with XSI is that it support generic units, you cannot set units to meters or inches, so exchanging between max and xsi will need some scaling, and also, it does not support dwg importing, so path tracing the autocad plans is a difficult job. Usually it requires either saving .dwg as .ai and importing .ai in xsi (which is a bit weird to work with), or using Rhino for a cross transfer. There is a video tutorial for XSI archviz from a certain company, I had bought it, and it used that rhino technique. I think it was from 3dquackers or something. Perhaps I am a bit pesimistic about XSI in archviz, but that's because I have VIZ, otherwise I would struggle and use XSI!

[Arnold Sher]

We started our company almost by default. The company that we worked for decided to close so it was either going back to interior design which is our background or take the plunge, so we plunged. As for the clients... hmmm... It is rather funny as all my friends in the industry have been nagging me to go on my own for years and promised that they'd would support me when i do. When it did happen i phoned all of them and they were true to their word. That gave us the initial start up and then it was just by a word of mouth and never saying no to anything. We would take anything and everything on as we did not have the luxury to pick our projects like we do today. Thankfully we never lost clients and just kept on getting new ones. What really worked for us is geting into the large architectural firms who are our bread and butter and who are source of constant work. They do not have slow times and therefore neither do we. We've grown gradually and have been reluctant to grow too big too quickly. If there is one word of advice i can give is to invest into your hardware. Have as many powerful machines as you can afford and keep it growing. That has been our edge, turn around time. We have a kick arse rendering farm that allows to turn out the work extremely fast and clients know that. Therefore we are the only choice when it comes to meeting tight deadlines as we are always up for a challenge.

 

Hope that helps and enjoy it, it is hell of a ride but without a doubt will be the best ride you will ever take... Good luck and let us know how it turns out..

[skala67]

There are many ways to save money in the beginning to start up. First, in the ArchVis industry, you do not necessarily need an office that you rent. I go out to all of my clients offices and meet with them, and/or do all my communications over the internet. (web, email, etc..) I work out of my house. This saves me rent money and can potentially be a tax write off when it comes to utilities and rent/mortgage. Secondly, larger computer companies, dare i say it, such as Dell will allow you to lease computers for a certain amount each month, this lessens your initial cash outlay, and means yet again, another tax write off on the interest. I had just started my company which had no credit history yet, and they were willing to lease as if it happens all the time.

 

Now as far as finding clients...thats about who you know, or what you can show. I graduated with an Arch degree and worked as a project manager at a few firms where i live for 5-6 years. This helped me develop contacts, which have been my saving grace as a starting company, because it does take a while to get projects from firms through marketing. I am finally getting jobs through my marketing, and its been 6 months since I started. I am not sure what your situation is, but it is good to hear that you are taking 6 months to develop your materials and your marketing strategy. One place to get a directory of architects and designers is at your local AIA. for a small fee they will give you a current directory of local firms that are part of the AIA. this amounted to over 100+ contacts, which after sending out mailers to, have started to respond. start leaking out the news about your company through mailers and emails to arch firms. you don't need alot of material in the beginning to look bigger than you are, and you may even land some jobs to pay for some of the start up costs.

 

I wish you the best of luck and feel free to email me directly if you have any specific questions for me. What a strange trip its been.

[Jeff Palmer]

lambros: That’s what im worried about, the scaling and units from XSI to Max. Possibly even the animation transfers for cameras. I’m going to experiment with Mentalray and try to get good renders and the speed up to match that of Vray, other wise there is no way I can convince him that we can just buy another XSI seat and save lots of money.

 

Arnold: I feel our startup will be something like yours, we do have our own machines but would like more of course for the rendering process.

 

skala67: Thanks a bunch for the tips,

 

How do you guys feel about freelancing outside your area? Have you had any conflicts with pay or communications?

[lambros]

to get back on the max-xsi subject, getting an extra XSI seat at under $500 is cheap enough, but mental ray can be tedious to progam, and the turnaround is not that fast. Results can be good, but you need to know, as has been stated many times before, that since max/viz/sketchup rule the archviz market, most 3r d party products are aimed at them. I would consider getting a VIZ license, 2006 is compatible with max 7.x, should not be that expensive in the states (it is rather expensive in Europe). That would get you going really fast and with no worries in your mind to look after. Good luck

[Jeff Palmer]

Well I'm rather comfortable in Max, and would drop for a license of that and Vray most likely. I’m aware of where the field is pointing and what software most are using, it’s just an issue of startup money on my part since AutoDesk VIZ is $2k USD. Most of our modeling will most likely be done in XSI since I cannot touch Max for anything but rendering anymore. It would just be nice to be able to transfer materials and what not from package to package.

 

Maybe by that time the floating Vray will be out and I wont even have to touch AutoDesk’s products. *Crosses fingers*

 

Me and my partner actually have plans down the road to move into more of a 3d Animation house or a Visual Effects house and investing in some software that will suit this need would be a plus. Also we could buy 2-3 extra computers with the cost of Max and vray not in the picture for rendering purposes. As far as the programs go, time will tell I guess.

[John Dollus]

After reading this thread, I sense you need to get a couple things first before considering any software/hardware purchases:

an accountant and a business advisor.

In your area, the regional commerce and growth association could point you to your local SBA office where you can often schedule informal meetings with retired executives who will steer you in the right direction free of charge.

 

http://www.sba.gov/starting_business/index.html

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