the next 25 years...

[Ernest Burden III]

Yesterday I turned 43. Its not much of a number, really. But the usual birthday reflection reminded me of a different number.

 

I have worked full-time as an architectural renderer for 25 years.

 

So I'm wondering about the next 25 years (assuming the best of outcomes). Do I want to stay a renderer? I really do not. I never wanted to be in this field to begin with. My father was a renderer, also an architect (though he hasn't really practiced since before I was born). I watched him work and didn't like what I saw about the business. Yet I ended up in it myself because it was easy and I had some opportunities there and nowhere else at 17. And here I am still. Its still too easy, pays too well. I have a family to support and this is how I do that, so no regrets in that regard. Its the 'life's work', fulfillment area that I'm having regrets for my time in rendering. I want to do my own art. Someday I will, but when?

 

But on the subject of the rendering business, I have a few thoughts. I have worked almost all of my career as a one-man studio. I'm tired of that. I miss the times I work with other people, other artists in particular. The 'feast or famine' nature of freelance work never goes away, and is wearing thin on me. I think there's safety in numbers, especially if one of those numbers is a person who is good at business. I am not.

 

The first 'career crisis' happened at 40. I had planned to be out of rendering by 40. It didn't work out that way and I felt self-defeated. So I decided to give myself a new challenge and make my work all CG. It shook things up and re-energized me in my work. I lost some clients who still wanted painted renderings, but I picked up more than I lost. I've never had lower stress (its still there) or made more money in my life. Digital rendering has been a positive for me. But in the near future I need to find new ways to shake things up professionally. I cannot just quit, but I have to change course.

 

Part of the problem is that I have always tried to use rendering for artistic expression (while denying that I was doing so). Renderings can be artistic, and that remains my goal, but they are not the same as self-expressive art. I want to look at arch-vis more as business and allow myself enough time to paint, draw, design, create outside of my job. If I do that the renderings will probably be better because of it.

 

My plan is to evolve my work so that I work as/for/with a larger studio. I need to be teaching others what I know rather than just doing everything myself. I cannot afford to have myself working for me on production. Its a waste of talent. So I am talking to a number of studios, though nothing concrete has come of it yet, and may not at all. Time will tell. If I stay as a one-man studio I certainly need to learn to work smarter, so even that will be a positive change.

 

How typical is this of our industry? I think very typical. The artist model of rendering--like Tom Schaller--will not go away. There is a place for that, and plenty of money if you find the right clients. Even with digital rendering there is room for small freelancers. But not as much as there used to be. One reason is that digital is particularly suited to large-scale projects. But those can take a small firm a lot of time to complete, where a larger one can handle the complexity. So the market favors them. Large firms offer some stabilty to those who work in them, like any large business. That is real progress for our industry. Digital/CG gets us away from the 'artist's hand' problem, where ONLY the artist who's name is on the door can do the work. A large firm can do work of very high quality without it being so personality-based. hat opens up opportunities for economies of scale that a single practicioner cannot enjoy.

 

So I expect to see a continuing trend towards studio consolidation. We will see some studios grow to become 'super-studios' and that will attract talent that would otherwise be one-person freelancers. We have been warned since the first use of computers for architectural imaging that renderers will be replaced by the 'render button' on our clients' computers. It hasn't happened and I do not believe it ever will. To some degree it already has, but I see rendering firms alive and well in 25 years. Hopefully I will be tool, no matter what I'm doing.

 

 

Any thoughts on the next 25 years of arch-vis, design, the business of doing them?

[Devin Johnston]

Hey Ernest, I've got to ask what you would like to do as a full time job if you’re not doing renderings.

 

I think it's very difficult to predict where we will be in 25 years; we could all be slaves to machine intelligence or still trying to get Windows to run correctly on our 100 Terahertz quantum computers. When I was a little kid 25 years ago computers were impractical and hard to use but were a novelty. Today they are everywhere and that's not going to change, in 25 more years they will most likely be totally integrated into our lives in every way and speed will no longer be a major issue. Renderings and animations will have given way to virtual reality and we will be much more like game creators making our own little virtual worlds for clients to explore. I think this environment may be totally interactive and may even be directly linked to your brain kind of like the Matrix VR except this will be wireless. Well probably be able to do all of this from home and offices as we know them today will have disappeared.

 

I enjoy the work I do, being apart of a large firm has benefits. I don't have to worry about where the next job is going to come from or how much I should charge my client. Resources are plentiful and most people are grateful for the job I do so there is that since of accomplishment and the feeling that you are needed. I tried doing my own solo thing for a while and found that without a client base it was very hard to make it and very hard to handle all the business aspects by my self.

[cube101]

I’m just about to hit 30 and have been feeling the same sort of feelings.

I studied graphic design and stumbled into this work after finishing my degree never expecting to keep doing it for so long... 9 years on and still here.

I keep wondering about what future there is in Arch Vis, will I still be doing it in 10 years, will there indeed still be a market or will architects do it all themselves?

 

I know what you mean about the 'feast or famine' nature of the business and also with deadlines being squeezed constantly it does make for a stressful career.

 

The economy will obviously play a major part in the future of the industry. We have all been very fortunate that we have had around 10 to 15 years of growth (talking of the UK) Unemployment has been falling for a good 10 years and all these people need buildings to work in, whether new or referbed this by default means plenty of money for the property market which trickles its way into our industry. Not to mention the amount of public sector investment in schools, hospitals etc…

So we have a service economy built on the consumerism and ultimately debt, but what happens when every one starts to stops spending money because they have amassed too much debt and all those service jobs based on people consuming start to disappear… and so we have an excesses of commercial property? Not to mention the residential housing market. Maybe im just being too gloomy… springs coming and all will be well!

[Christopher Nichols]

Ernest as you imply, the evolution that you forced yourself to do was not only a good business choice, but also a good psychological one.

 

In my work, VFX, a career of 10 years is equivalent to a career of 50 years in architecture. At my age of 35, I am on the down slope of the bell curve at work. We were sitting in a big room at DD one day and there must have been 300 people in that room. I would say 30 of them where over 40, and of those 30, maybe 10 where artists. Even more shocking is that only 2 were over 50. That was Scott Ross (the owner of the company) and Joel Hynek (an old time VFX supervisor from the days of Predator).

 

My friend and I always laughed about it: "Where do VFX artists go to die?" The answer is, they haven't yet... We have not gone through a generation yet. We are on the maiden voyage.

 

The same may be true with this new generation of arch-viz illustrators. You know very well that it is a very different world... sort of what I was trying to imply yesterday about the siggraph thing is that old rule should not apply anymore... This is something completely different...

 

Little side note... Reminds me of the story of when Disney tried to retrain many of their traditional animators to work on computers in 3D. They had a hard time getting them to change their ways... For example, when they wanted to have a character move towards the camera, instead of making them walk towards the camera, they would scale them up... while that sounds insane, that is what they did when it was cell animation. It is the same way I feel about perspective correction.

 

In any case... I can recommend one thing to you. Teach... or do a DVD... Just trying to structure and put in perspective all that you know is a HUGE mental cathartic exercise.

[Sawyer]

I fell into this as a sort of back up to dropping out of college. I was told my family would help me out with money I went to an expensive school and learned acting. When it came down to it my father didn't have the money to pay for school he didn't have a cent and he had legal problems that I still have no real clue about. I was told he may be facing jail time and I left school. I know there are people who would borrowed the money but I would not borrow money for something I could not pay out.

I got married moved to cali and I had no career. I went to community college to study drafting because my father was a designer and I knew a crap load about design. More than almost anything else. I liked drafting hated architecture and ultimatly thought I had no future in an office. I thought 3d was more fun but what was cool was I was in charge and 3d seemed infinate. I never got into autocad I was really good at it but I could not sit at it and play with it. It wasn't fun. Max was fun.

Now I think many people fall into 3d from an archi view point like this: from cad to 3d. This may be a large percent of "current generation" illustrators. More students may be looking into this now as an option as opposed to many of us who chose it because we were disillusioned with the day job.

Right now I work for myself. I work my hours and its my stress. I have a few clients but honestly I am not sure I could ever find a spot where I would feel as "comfortable" as I did at a 9-5 office setting. That stress is real.

My feelign is that this field is so young and so untested. But we have made it important. Just in the last 2 years I have seen what we do go from a "Gee thats nice maybe some job we can afford to have pretty picts like that" attitide to home owners calling me up asking for my help (not an architects) in communicating their remodel. I have had archi's show the builder my work because it was clearer than the cd that the office had drawn. The more and more I do this the more important I think it is. So much so I think our work will soon take the place of cd's as the primary output of an archi office. Cds will still be used as the legal description of the work to be done but the work we do is so much more descriptive.

So 25 years what will an illustrator be doing? I think much of that is what we tell people we will be doing in 25 years. WE are setting this trend and if it is to be important it will be because we have made it so. Every piece that we make that is good, fun and inspiring brings more support.

Ultimatly I see this work being done by larger houses with larger budgets. Green screen animations, mo cap dynamics all this is where I see as the next step in quality. There will come a time when RPC's and standard shot people with poorly matched shadows will just not cut it.

[RAYMOND]

i am almost 62...

 

you guys are worring too much about everything:D :D

[exception]

Ernest,

Although we are almost 20 years apart, I feel mostly the same as you, although I have noone I need to provide for, except myself.

I started my company 7 years ago, with graphic design and the obligatory web design. I was very good using 3D programs and had a keen sense of light and material, and a passion for architecture. I started making Arch Viz drawings, and it took off. I've never made so much money in such a short period of time doing things that were easy and most of the time fun to do. At the same time I never felt so bored with myself and I felt that I looked down upon my clients, who gave me bad drawings of bad architecture. I worked alone, I made money alone, I laughed and cried alone. I am a loner, but that was getting too much. The work was getting less and less satisfying, and I argued that either I needed to commit to becomming the best Arch. Viz guy out there, or go and do something else. I didn't particularly feel there was enough substance to arch. viz. alone to make it a life's endeavour. I therefore wanted to do something else. Fortunately I had the luxury of doing so, but I can tell you how it feels now.

I got into one of the best architecture schools in the world, where I am now, looking back on my decision then. My feelings are mixed. About everything. I feel really bad here, and I am not learning anything of value that I did not know before. Arch. Viz is a swift teacher of architecture. I am getting the feeling that every field is restrictive. Architecture certainly is. Unless you're Norman Foster or Zaha Hadid, you will not make what you really want to make. You will make what your client tells you, because work is hard to come by, and you're even paid less than Arch. Viz. Sure you can steer your carreer by working hard and putting in personal effort, but I am starting to realise, that is not so different from how it is in Arch. Viz. What does architecture do, as in, the ones we'll be likely to make when we're not world famous (which is really a factor of luck and sucking up in society)? Architecture then becomes the craft of transforming the client's brief and demands into something else, the materialisation of that. That is not different from Arch. Viz. at all. We take building descriptions and convert it into something else, tangible, 3d, graphic, and so on. Being world famous in Arch. Viz gives you more freedom too, you can do as your heart wishes. But we're not. And we'll probably never be, as I assume that none of is is vicious and manipulative enough to be that way, or, alternatively, is so smart in business management to pull it off through the other, harder, route.

So, I changed fields, only to realise that it's the same at the other side of the fence. It's not in the subject, its in the way we look at our own world that I think is the problem...

 

For the last 3 years I have been wanting to set up a collaborative studio. Not just Arch. Viz., not just architecture, not just product design, music making, programming, theatre, photography... no, all of it. People from different backgrounds, demographics, skills, interestes, sharing one common goal: to work, live and be happy about that, and be succesfull in creating an environment in which all of that can happen. The word really doesn't cover it, and is all political nowadays, but we can call it a 'community'.

Do we really want to be rich? I suppose not, we want to be comfortable. We want to be able to provide for the ones who depend upon us, and so on, but what are we to them if not an example? What good are we to them if we are unhappy in our life? I'd rather not drive a car, and go to the movies less often and have a happy life than drive a fancy car and feel uneasy about so many things (so to speak).

The problem is, I cannot do it by myself. I am too young, have too little business experience and too little margin with banks and other institutions necessary for such an endeavor. So what does one do? Study architecture, and become a work slave for X years until I can float on my own? Work in Arch Viz to build up a large company? But as you say, arch viz is mostly a freelance endeavor...

Perhaps... it is time to think different.

We don't know each other at all, but we're still confessing all this seminal information to one another. I havn't seen you, Ernest, in my life, but still feel somewhat connected to you. How does that work? Is there something there? Does an office need to be a place, a material thing?

I think, in the end, it needs to be. One needs to see people, see their smiles and hear them curse when their computer stalls. Without people, no matter what we do we will wither in some form or other.

 

This is all pretty random...

Perhaps, perhaps we should try to find other people most and foremost. just get together with another Arch. Viz guy. Get an office together. What will come out of that? Do you remember those hundreds, thousands of ideas of projects you wanted to do? What ever became of them? Nothing? I'm not surprised, mine havn't materialised ever either. And they never will, until I share them with someone. There is so much power in a collective effort, that is so much greater than the collection of people. Perhaps we should, ernest, get together with someone else, likeminded. Start something. Do something. Shift the balance... I don't know.

Perhaps someone does.

 

I can say for example, KDlab (http://www.kdlab.net/), which was once one of the most promising and exciting new offices in the field, they came in about 3 years. There were two guys, Dean di Simone and Joseph Kosinski. I'm sure they had a lot of fun. Then they split up, I suppose 3 years ago already. What happened to them individually after that? Nothing. Dean's website is still a placeholder, it's empty. Kosinski's website hasn;t changed one bit since it was started either. The work on it is almost exclusively from the time they worked together, there's no more impetus, I suspect.

[ihabkal]

maybe you should go out more and enjoy the local park.

 

m story is deeper, stranger, and more exciting than anyone of you. If you want to hear it I will share it...

 

But I'll give you the morale:

1- you don't know the value of things until you lose them

2- you will always think the grass is greener on the other side

3- being an employee for greedy businessmen and working 16 hours a day for $3 an hour without overtime pay sucks

4- you had it easy you were born in the US. In the last 5 years I went from Lebanon, to Egypt, to Ohio, then Denver, and now I'm back where I started in Lebanon, with no trees, birds, squirrels, with a lot of pollution, noise, no clean nature or parks...and no greencard becasue my employers did 't want me to open my own business in the US. At least you didn't spend your childhood till 20 years in bomb shelters. At least you have some grass in front of your house to sit on on the weekend.

5- Bad work memories haunt you for life, good work memories make you sad you don't have that job or meet these people anymore...it's a sad situation everytime

6- some people and some clients will always want to ride you, or control you, or make you feel bad about yourself so that they can pay you less and make you work all the time for them, especially in large arch. firms. A bunch of a**ho**s.

7- when I change carreers I will open a cheese market or something where I don't have to think or worry about deadlines anymore.

8- you'll never be fully happy with anything in your carrer.

[thinice]

I started about 10 yrs ago from working in an architects's office to setting up a department for a large company, to working on my own on a single computer to having a 4 persons team and back to one person setup with a network of freelancers.

 

It was a hell of a ride and still far from settling down.

 

I foresee a lot of scope for technical aspects of visualisation in the future. The artist will always be there but if you are into technical visualisation, I think it is difficult for a freelancer to survive. Just imagine that you may have one person whose only job is to convert drawings and models from different formats.

 

As for myself, I am glad that this career took me out of architecture. Architects tend to be the most annoying of my clients but on the other hand, I pity them.

 

My future plan is make enough money, retire to tropical island (I am already in the tropics) and spend the rest of my time thinking about unsolved mathematical problems or chaos theory. Hope to achieve this before 40 (4 yrs time).

[IHAB]

Yesterday , I turned 23,what a chance, ..... The next 25 years,hmmm. let me think.

lets go the digicity by then,more further,2100 maybe..

computer taking control of everything,living in space,,,the structure of buildings might be a magnitic flux..plasmaskyscrapers are everywhere ,they are anticollapsing.(trust me)

I wonder how we are supposed to dive?,anyway,the master computer unit controlling digicity may tell us bythen

 

well I guess Im back,being now an architect since graduation, 4 years,not so huge but Im sure my life someday is going to change or change peoples' life

I beleave it is the architecture not anything else is gonna make it

when you visit a forgin county ,places ,buildings & steets look do keep in your mind,never a person himself.

 

anyway......happybithday everybody

[Iain Denby]

Ernest's reasons for the future consolidation of studios and being able to attract the bigger jobs are valid, but it also means they have a lot of mouths to feed, and that means a lot of continuous work coming through the door and having to charge top dollor. The minute there's a slow down, employees' job security goes out the window. So they have their own stresses.

 

I too re-energized my business when I went digital (not me personally!) about 7 years ago, but am begining to get worn down by the business. It has changed, but then so has every business. My wife used to work in a Building Society when it was about customer care and satisfaction. Now it's about targets.

 

Similar dissatisfaction is going on in all types of business, Photography for example. I have a friend who studied Photography at Art College when I was studying there (late 70s), so he is also of the 'old school'. He feels the same - to quote him, 'There's no money in it anymore...now every twat picks up a digital camera and thinks they're a proffessional photographer!'

 

Even if you do open a cheese market instead, you still have to convince people to come in and buy, and so it all starts over again.

[STRAT]

Happy birthday Ernest

[e-YELLOWCABS.COM]

hi !

i'm a junior member, but I have been working in the business for about 10 years, not totally like you, I am an architect and freelance. I offer my services to other architects as a complete package: design and viz.

I can feel beyond your text that you're brassed of... of the type of work you're doing.

Could it be the nature of the work of a freelance? Working fast on a picture, doing "art" to promote an investment (the client's one) and at the end...doing the same thing again for another investment of another client?

More than anyone else, our "art" is designed to support investments, which is at the oposite side of what art is...

I feel the same trouble as you and i explained it this way. I'm 40 this year and guess what ? I've decided to reorganise my work as to create next year a society with employees, but this is not anymore a freelance life, it's business...

[IC]

Isn't this just an inevitable phenomenon? How do you get a feeling of fulfilment in what you do for a living? Even if you were a full time artist doing the kind of art you want to do, I bet you'd start to feel jaded or selfish after a while. I've come to the conclusion that the only thing that would do it for me would be working as an social worker or carer-something that makes a difference to people's lives. But that's just not me-if it was I'd be doing it already.

My wife is a teacher, however, and she gets an enormous feeling of satisfaction from her job, more from the guidance aspects than anything else.

 

On the other hand, knowing the kind of person I am I think myself lucky to be working in a field where I can be creative/expressive and get paid well to do it.

 

A couple of days without at least sketching or drawing something and I start to walk round in circles knocking things over and shouting "BLAAAAACK-they're making me take pills".

[pipjor]

i'm right there with you Ernest @43.

I've been sitting infront of a monitor for the last 15 or so years (pre-press, Quark, 3DS, etc). Although i still enjoy 3d it seems like after 15 years of staring at a montior for 8 hrs a day i've become zoombie like. I don't think i'm as freindly/outgoing as i used to be in my 20's.. I'd like new carrer that gets me out of infront of a monitor, out of my chair and moving(good for your health).

 

maybe a Walmart greeter is my future...

[cube101]

pipjor I know what you mean.... at busy times I can go days with out really interacting with people and some weeks you can literally not leave the house for days a time trying to get stuff done! it can be a very anti social job particulary when deadlines are to be met.

[Devin Johnston]

Agreed, I think my social skill have sevearley suffored over the last few years. I know especially around deadlines I get pretty snappy and don't want to even talk to people because I'm to busy to BS with them and I'm afraid there going to want to change something for the 5th time.

[William Alexander]

Ernest,

 

What is your 'use'?

 

Some find it from following thier likes and desires. Quite amazing how they are the same as 'use' When you start to find it...all the seemingly disjointed pieces of ones life fall into place... and things start to happen.

 

...my spin, being in a similar life process. Mid life crisis, my arse LOL

 

WDA

[FlytE]

Happy birthday Ernest.

 

Being relatively young in industry terms (optimisticly i'd say 4 years) Im just soaking things up like a sponge right now. Im living breathing 3D - walking down the street looking at objects and virtually figuring out how to modelling them in my head, taking mental snapshots of the way light hits a building so i can render it, and laughing to myself as i try to figure out how many polygons the real world pushes. Its perhaps completely the opposite end of what you are at just now but nevertheless I do feel like I understand where you are coming from.

 

I help but wonder that maybe the leaps in hardware and software technology are partly responsible though. I mean now with a few months of practice, people can knock out some half decent renders using the likes of brazil, vray final render etc. and while this will never compete with years of artistic experience that can be brought to an image, it does server to narrow the gap (to a point). Does this bring a sort of 'devaluation' to the more established and experienced artisits?

 

Have you ever considered the games industry? The games industry loves people who are architecturally trained, but one of the things about computer games design that I find really attractive is that you can bring out your imagination and ideas in the for of scripting and convoluted triggering etc. With advances in games like HL2, the physical rendering and behaviour of these environments is becoming really really good and I imagine its only a matter of hardware catching up, and we will have real time maxwell quality environments with the physicality of HL2.

[IC]

With advances in games like HL2, the physical rendering and behaviour of these environments is becoming really really good and I imagine its only a matter of hardware catching up, and we will have real time maxwell quality environments with the physicality of HL2.

 

Ah you're a Half Life fan!

I thought the avatar looked familiar

 

The problems I have playing games like those are similar to what you said about taking in the real world-I have to see every single part of the environment and spend hours just admiring the workmanship of it all.

I never get anywhere.

[FlytE]

Im an avid gamer, so its like you will have seen my avatar all over the place lol. Yes i bought halflife2 and was extremely impressed with it. I quickly went on to download and try the xsi mod-tools for HL2 but the project I was involved in collapsed. In terms of playing though im more into Call of Duty2 now...

 

Heres an example of one of my gaming projects I am working on. This is just to reinforce my point that there is so much more to game/level creation than just modelling and rendering and it might satisfy a void that is left by just creating pretty pictures

 

Just so you know, this is a total modification and will eventually be an Alien3 game. The principle behind this mod is to create a first person shooter that has no guns in it, so you have to make traps, build things and survive without weapons long enough to trap the alien. Its a complicated way of doing things because with no weaponry you really have to search the dark corners of your imagination to come up with interesting and well scripted stuff to pack your level with. The following is a cut scene from in game, there is no post editing to it whatsoever.

 

(dont think i can attach a 11MB movie so heres the link to download)

 

http://aliensvspredator2.filefront.com/file/Alien3_SinglePlayer_Campaign_preview_2;48022

[Dan J]

Happy belated birthday Ernest.

 

Doesn't sound like you are having that great of a one though. I'm glad to hear I'm not alone in this. I've been having the same issues over the past few years since turning about 38.

I've come to the point were I just can't sit in front of the computer any longer and have the need to find something else more tangable to fill my time with. I'm even considering going in to the construction side of the building industry, just to feel I've accomplished something with my time and others can touch what I've created. Even becoming a starving artist creating traditional works of art sounds better than creating digital works of art. You know even a career as a real estate broker sounds good lately, but my architectural soul would burn in hell if I went that route.

Maybe this is a new field for psychologist or therapist helping us disinfranchised digital age workers through our mid-career/life issue.

Let me know what you find out and I'll return the favor as well.

Best wishes for the coming year.

[alexandre]

Happy birthday Ernest,

 

Just to cheer you up (having got the CG@38-syndrome myself): remember the last lines from Woody Allen's "Annie Hall" ? It's the old Marx Bros joke about a guy who goes to see a psy- "doctor, I have this relative who's gone completely out of his mind- he thinks he's a chicken, goes around all day flapping his arms, making noises"- and the doctor says: "have you tried to talk him out of it ?"- so Woody replies " What are you nuts? We need the eggs !"

Well I think that pretty sums it up for all of us.

 

Keep it up

 

Cheers,

 

Alexandre

[jsageheart]

I have been in the field of Psychology, and with my "mid-life career crisis" I have now embarked into the world of 3D... Essentially the opposite of most of the posts here. So, based on most of your experiences, I am posturing myself to experience burn out right in time for retirement!

 

I am grateful for all of your words of wisdom and experience. Those of you who have been doing this for years affords newbees like me wonderful perspective.

 

One thing that I do know for sure, especially having run my own businesses for years (since 1990), is that the grass always seems greener on the other side. Running your own business has pros and cons, and so does working for others. Embracing an attitude of gratitude for what I have has been perhaps the single most important skill that I have developed.

 

THE UNIVERSE REARRANGES ITSELF TO ACCOMODATE YOUR PICTURE OF REALITY...

[RAYMOND]

take it from me,

62 in a few months

 

mid life crisis is for those who want to give up...

 

never to late to try new things

and even move to whole new environment

 

I do not regret my move here, it was definiately an upgrade in everything.

it was scary tho. but if you want to have courage you need to be willing to be very scared...

 

Ruts are just a grave with the ends kicked out...

 

Raymond